nikon d700….
I took some portraits of Ali during dinner with my brand-spankin’ new Nikon D700. Let me tell you that I haven’t been this excited about a camera since I bought Nikon’s film camera, the F4s back when I was working for the newspaper here in Marco Island.
The D700 is absolutely everything they are saying it is and more! This camera, along with the D3, is revolutionizing how professional photographers shoot. How you ask? High ISO performance. It’s really incredible! I’m not a techy-type photographer, but having gone to college for photography, I do know my stuff well. The biggest problem with high ISO performance has been film grain with film cameras and digital noise with digital cameras. But that’s slowly changing for digital cameras as I’ve seen some FANTASTIC images coming out of the D3 at super high ISOs (like 6400+) and now with the D700.
What’s fantastic about the D700 is that it’s a full-frame camera as well. So my lenses rock now! Here’s a portrait I shot of Ali at the dinner table. We have a huge spread of sliding glass doors that lead out to the pool and the natural light that comes in through here is nothing short of AWESOME. This image was shot in low light, with a blend of natural light coming in (the coolish light to the left of her face) and warm tungsten lights (the warmer lights on the right). The light wasn’t very bright and it was already around 7:15 when I shot this. I did absolutely NO post production on this image other than sharpening and cropping.
- ISO1600
- 1/80th of a second
- f1.8
1600 isn’t too high, but look at that! No noise whatsoever and look at the clarity of my lens, even at this low Web resolution. I did experiment a bit with low-light portraits at 3200 and 6400 but haven’t had time to post here, but they too, look fantastic. Wow….I’m so excited at the prospect of being given a bit more wiggle room to work with less flash and more natural light. I LOVE my new camera!!! 
Astrid,
What lens did you use for the photo in your August 2, 2008 post? I will be purchasing a D700 soon and would love to take photos like this of our grandkids.
George
Hi George!
If you mean the image above illustrating the 1600ISO, this portrait was shot with a 50mm 1.8, using all natural light (the bluish light comes from the sliding glass doors and the warmer light to the right comes from an overhead lamp).
You won’t be disappointed with the D700. It’s a FABULOUS camera! The 50mm is also very affordable and it’s a great lens for portraits!
Astrid