Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
A Bahaman athlete, shot through the flame and heat haze in the Olympics Stadium in the 4 x 100m Mens Relay - London Olympics 2012.
Nikon D4, Nikon 300mm F2.8, 1/500 sec F4 ISO 800. Photograph by Mark Pain
The Nikon D5 has impressed us with its speed and reliability, and earned a gold award when we reviewed it recently. But we don't pretend to represent the camera's core market of sports professionals and photojournalists. That's why we turned to Mark Pain, a UK-based sports photographer and Nikon shooter, to get his opinion on the D5. Click through this article to learn how Mark got started, what makes a good camera for his needs, and how the D5 is measuring up.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
Zara Tindall (Phillips) jumps the lake At Badminton, on her horse High Kingdom.
Nikon D5, Nikon 400mm F2.8, 1/3200 sec F3.5. ISO 320. Shot using AF-C in D25 area AF mode. Photograph by Mark Pain
Mark Pain:
The first thing you notice when you use a D5 is the blisteringly fast and accurate autofocus. Many cameras feel quick and responsive the first time you pick them up, but very few continue to fill you with more and more confidence every time you use them. But the D5 does just that. It takes everything the D4s did well and improves on it. But most importantly Nikon seemed to have listened to photographers’ feedback on what wasn’t so good about the D4s and transformed those areas of performance with a total redesign.
The new AF system is nothing short of sensational. If you set the camera up properly the D5 doesn’t miss a beat. User error is far more likely to be the reason for a missed shot than the camera letting you down, even for the best of photographers.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
David Weir celebrates winning his third gold medal in the 1500m - London Paralympics 2012.
Nikon D4, Nikon 300mm F2.8, 1/1250 sec at F2.8. ISO 2000. Photograph by Mark Pain
I’ve been shooting sport professionally for over 25 years now, since I was 22. But I got the bug for photography and especially for photographing movement just after I was given my first SLR for my 13th birthday. I loved my fully manual Fujica STX-1 when I was asked to shoot some pictures of my school Sportsday for the school magazine, I was hooked.
The Fujica STX-1 was a superb camera for a young photographer to learn with, fully Manual and extremely well built. It made me concentrate on and master all the fundamentals of photography, fundamentals that remain the backbone of my photography today.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
Mark's kit-bag. Nikon D5, Nikon D4s, Nikon 70-200mm F2.8, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8, Nikon 14-24mm F2.8, Nikon TC14 1.4x converter MkIII, Nikon 16mm F2.8, Nikon SB-800 Flashgun inside a Think Tank Airport International rolling case.
There have been two huge developments in photography since I started out; the coming of autofocus and the move from film to digital. As a professional there have been times when these changes have caused major headaches. AF systems take time to get right and professional sports photographers tend to be on the receiving end of their failings or quirks. Often the technical ability of the cameras in the field (even the top end Pro SLRs/DSLRs ) has lagged behind what the manufacturers claim to have achieved on paper. Especially when it comes to autofocus.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
The British Mens Team Pursuit team on their way to breaking the world record at the Beijing Olympics 2008.
Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm F2.8, 1/15th sec at F8, ISO 200. Photograph by Mark Pain
A camera’s success is dependent on three crucial aspects of its design and spec coming together in harmony; sensor performance, the processor used in the camera and the firmware. For me, the first digital camera that married all these important factors together was the Nikon D3. The D3 changed my world and I switched from Canon to Nikon in the January of 2008 because of it, and I took the D3 to the Beijing Olympics later that year. To my mind the D3 was the best balanced professional sports camera. Until the D5.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
Zara Tindall (Phillips) jumps the lake At Badminton, on her horse High Kingdom.
Nikon D5, Nikon 400mm F2.8, 1/3200 sec F3.5. ISO 320. Shot using AF-C in D25 area AF mode. Photograph by Mark Pain
The D5 seems to have that same balance, ease of performance and feeling of class that the D3 had. It’s the camera the D4 and D4s so nearly were. Of course it’s early days and I’ve only been shooting with it for a month or so. A camera’s abilities can only be fairly judged over a much longer period of time in a far wider variety of conditions than I have used the D5 in so far. How the camera performs at a rain soaked night match at a dark non-league football ground in the early rounds of FA Cup at 8000 ISO is just as important as how it performs at 200 ISO in bright sunshine at the Final at Wembley.
But the Olympics is the ultimate test of any camera claiming to have a sports pedigree and I’m seriously excited to be heading to Rio in a couple of months time with a couple of D5s at my side. The huge variety of sports both indoors and outdoors and the technical challenges they present will push the camera to its limits.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
Jesse Lingard celebrating his winning goal in the FA Cup Final.
Nikon D5, Nikon 70-200mm F2.8, 1/2000th sec at F2.8, ISO 2000, Shot using AF-C in D25 area AF mode. Photograph by Mark Pain
The sequence of 28 consecutive Raw frames I recently took of Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard celebrating his winning goal at the FA Cup Final confirmed the true AF performance of the D5. Every frame was sharp and in focus. Every frame. Camera manufacturers show sequences of sprinters running towards the camera in their brochures to try and sell the AF tracking performance of their new equipment. But that kind of movement has been easy for cameras to track for a long time.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
The next day's papers!
In the real world of top professional and dynamic team sport with lots of random movement, AF systems inherently struggle. But the D5 has proved to be extremely capable and with a Nikon 70-200mm F2.8 the Lingard celebration was technically faultless.
Nikon D5: a pro photographer's opinion
 |
Saracens v Harlequins at Wembley Stadium in the Aviva Premiership Championship.
Nikon D5, Nikon 400mm F2.8, 1/2000 sec F2.8 ISO 1100. Shot using AF-C in D25 area AF mode. Photograph by Mark Pain
Even at ISO 2000 the files look sharp with a complete lack of noise or signs of in camera over-processing. Now that the D5 has 20.8 megapixels a shutter speed of at least 1/2000th is needed to freeze most fast moving sport. What many people don’t realise is that the more megapixels you have the faster shutter speeds necessary to freeze the same action. In real camera terms, six years ago I would have been shooting the whole of this year’s FA Cup Final on a D3s on a shutter speed of 1/800th sec. This year I was shooting the match at 1/2000th sec on a D5 - to freeze the very same type of images.
Mark Pain is a multi-award winning UK-based sports photographer who covers major events worldwide from the Olympic Games to the Ryder Cup. Mark was the Chief Sports Photographer for The Mail On Sunday for more than 20 years, and was named Sports Photographer of the Year in 2005 and 2011 at the British Press Awards. Mark launched the first ever Sports Photography School in 2011, and was named the British Airways Olympic Photographer Of The Year 2012 at the prestigious UK Guild Of Picture Editors Awards.
from Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) http://ift.tt/1UqBMYw
via IFTTT
0 kommenttia:
Lähetä kommentti