CX DX FX

[Matthew Currie]

From my own relatively unscientific point of view, I'd say it depends a bit on what lenses you already have, and what you find most important,  where you're goinge, and a bit on budget.  I like the idea of easier cheaper access to wide angles on FX, but DX is cheaper to start with, and I like the size of DX cameras better.   My first digital SLR, a D3200, is very nice for traveling, compact and capable, and its cheap lenses perform decently.  My current one, a D7100, is still fairly compact and provides fine images for my taste.

In theory, at least,  FX will give you better low light performance, but newer DX cameras have become so good that this may not be a factor in ordinary use, even though the relative advantage will always be there.

Since one of my favorite photo occupations is chasing bugs, I find the DX format nice, allowing pseudo-macro shots with relatively longer lenses (and yes, I know it's just cropping, not really "reach," but on a high-pixel DX sensor it stands in for reach rather nicely).  A cheap D3200 with a cheap 55-300 telephoto can nearly fill the frame with a butterfly from four feet away.

One of the greatest drawbacks, I think, to the DX format is the small viewfinder image, especially in the lower end cameras.  The D7100 and its ilk are pretty good, but the D3x00 and D5x00 are pretty much stinkers when it comes to manual focusing, unless you use a magnifying eyepiece, and though live view helps, it is often very inconvenient.  If you do macros, or use manual focusing lenses a lot, it would be a good idea to try various models to see what viewfinders are acceptable.  The cheesy viewfinder is one of the main reasons I forsook the D3200.

If you expect to travel a lot, a smaller camera is very nice to have.  I've been all over the world with a D3200, and just got back from Africa with the D7100, and they're easy to pack and easy to carry.  The lenses are relatively smaller and lighter too usually.  Though part of me would have loved a Dx for this, the smaller DX cameras also have the advantage of being less of a disaster to lose or break.  I bought the D3200 initially partly because I figured if it dropped in the ocean or got stolen or eaten by wild animals, it would not be quite the same sort of disaster. 

[Daniel Bliss]

KenP, one suggestion I have is to simply push your boundaries a little and stick that 10/2.8 on the camera, and go out with nothing else, and see what you can do with it.  Then do the same with your 18.5.  Or, if you feel more comfortable with the 18.5 out of the gate, just use that for a while, but then make yourself use the wide angle exclusively for half a day and see what happens.  The two lenses serve quite different purposes, and in CX you rarely get a chance to exploit depth of field subject isolation with the 10, so it becomes more of an exercise in seeing what you can do to manipulate the subject with perspective and composition, while subject isolation becomes more of a thing with the 18.5.  Based on 30 years of personal experience.....I really would push that idea of trying to make yourself use a particular lens for a day or two, and then switch, and really try to immerse yourself and see what you can do with that. 

The other trick is to get as close to your subject as possible, no matter what lens.  If I literally find myself being forced to take a step back or significantly alter framing in order to fit everything, I know I've done something right.

If you're doing any street photography I'd add a third suggestion...using the wide-angle sometimes makes you less noticeable than the standard, as you can immerse yourself in a crowd. 

And one final suggestion, for the sake of controlling depth of field, use the camera in A mode--in CX cameras you don't have to worry much about running out of shutter speeds--and experiment, particularly with the 18.5, in leaving the aperture set to f1.8, and then what happens as you stop down.  It's a subtler effect than with FX/35mm cameras but it's definitely a tool.

[KenP]

Daniel, thank you for your thoughtful reply. Part of my quandary is figuring a strategy to learn again. Since this endeavor is strictly a hobby for when time allows, I am having some difficulty coming up with a good methodology. Thus the reason I picked up a cheap antiquated Nikon D2h. The most opportunity I get with a camera is my kids sports when I can get there. The V1 and the two primes are not going to help on the soccer and lacrosse fields. Yes digital is ideal to learn photography but.....pointing and shooting without a "plan" or knowledge necessary to produce a desired result. These days and with the current technology it seems most anyone can buy a modern camera, point, shoot and get lucky. I would like to take my photography far beyond that level. Just figuring out how to do so with some sort of daily practice I have yet to come up with. I then need to learn what to do with the pictures once taken. How to process and evaluate a decent capture. I do have Nikon NXD and View NX2 but have yet to mess with either.

Ken

[David H. Hartman]

Ken,

One of the major pitfalls of a dSLR is all the possible settings. When you pick up a Nikon F of F2 with a standard prism there is nothing to set except shutter speed, aperture and focus. With a Nikon F3 or FE2 if you don't use the exposure compensation dial the you add Aperture Preferred or Manual exposure modes and ISO. With a modern dSLR there are many more options.

To deal with the D2H experiment, find the options you need or want and then stick with then. This way you can pick up your camera and it will be in a known state. The last thing you want is unexpected behavior from your camera when an opportunity is there for a second or less.

I'll recommend setting your D2H to AF-ON only focus and AF-C or continuous focus. You can then press to focus and release to lock. If a second later you need the camera to track a moving subject you press and hold the AF-ON button and the camera will track your subject. There are no controls to set or and no menu diving. The change happens at the speed of your reflexes.

Anyway experiment when getting results is less important. Learn the settings you want and need. Change them as infrequently as possible. Always set the camera back to your defaults before putting it away.

Hope this helps,

Dave Hartman

[KenP]

David,

Do I shoot raw or jpeg fine? Same question for my V1. The V1 seems to have many more in camera adjustments such as Neutral, Standard, BW and so on. The last camera I remember using was a Nikon FM. The only adjustments made were shutter speed and aperture. That was in another lifetime.

Ken

[David H. Hartman]

Ken,

I suggest shooting NEF + JPG fine and large with the D2H. I'd shoot kind of neutal or a little flat in contrast and saturation. I'd use moderate sharpening. All of this is baked into a JPG but with an NEF you can change your mind. In particular the white balance in a JPG is pretty much what you are stuck with. The D2H wasn't nearly as good as modern dSLR(s) in WB so being able to change the WB in post is very important.

Anyway I recommend NEF + JPG to start with.

Best,

Dave

---

The V1 has Pictures Controls which are groups of setting. It's a more modern system. I think PC(s) can be used in CNX-D with the D2H. I'll check when I get home.

[Matthew Currie]

With regard to Raw versus JPG, my preference has always been for Raw alone.  This is simply because the programs I use (including the Nikon ones you mention having) use the JPG settings of the camera as the default anyway. So when you read a Raw file, you see the JPG on the screen, but you get the option of modifying it in a reversible way (e.g. try monochrome, don't like it, or try a stop under or over, switch back and no loss), but when ready to save, you just save as a JPG.  Having a JPG file is not really much of a benefit here.  I don't do a lot of post processing, and no doubt my pictures suffer from my laziness, so others may well have a different perspective, but most of what I do when I do anything at all is pretty basic resizing and a bit of cropping and the like, and for that a save is required anyway, so there's little up side to starting with a JPG.

There are a lot of options on a digital SLR, but you don't really have to use them all.  Once you settle on a few things you can leave them alone and basically go back to the choices you're familiar with.  I think perhaps the nicest feature of digital cameras is the ability to change ISO with a switch.  I used to routinely carry a couple of film SLR's around, so I could switch between 100 and 400 ISO, and a reasonably clean high ISO was a dream. Now when it gets dark I twiddle a dial.

[Akira]

I also use RAW only.  But the problem of the RAW-only mode is that you cannot check the focus at 100% size.  If you don't save a JPEG file in addition to RAW, the camera uses the JPEG file embedded in the RAW (NEF) file which is too small  (2MP, if I remember correctly) to be magnified to 100%, and its image quality is terrible.

You can see this terrible JPEG easily by removing all the cards from the camera.  The camera is automatically switched to the demo mode and you can only see the embedded JPEG when you review the image.

So, I set the camera to RAW+Basic JPEG mode and set the JPEG size to L(arge).  The JPEG file is only used for the 100% magnification to check the focus and the blur both on the camera and in the computer.

[Hugh_3170]

Card space is much less expensive these days than it was in the past, so why not record both RAW(NEF) and JPG at its maximum resolution and minimum compression? 

Yes it does takes longer to write both files to the card, but in many instances if the light and white balance is OK, the JPG will suffice without having to process the RAW file.  That said the RAW file is invaluable when these conditions are not good. 

This is how I operate - YMMV.

[Michael Erlewine]

I also use RAW only.  But the problem of the RAW-only mode is that you cannot check the focus at 100% size.  If you don't save a JPEG file in addition to RAW, the camera uses the JPEG file embedded in the RAW (NEF) file which is too small  (2MP, if I remember correctly) to be magnified to 100%, and its image quality is terrible.

You can see this terrible JPEG easily by removing all the cards from the camera.  The camera is automatically switched to the demo mode and you can only see the embedded JPEG when you review the image.

So, I set the camera to RAW+Basic JPEG mode and set the JPEG size to L(arge).  The JPEG file is only used for the 100% magnification to check the focus and the blur both on the camera and in the computer.

Akira: So, you are saying that if we do NOT have the RAW+FINE JPG, we review a lousy version of the image. Did not know that. I will switch. Please confirm that what I just reiterated is the fact that you are sharing, please.

[Akira]

Akira: So, you are saying that if we do NOT have the RAW+FINE JPG, we review a lousy version of the image. Did not know that. I will switch. Please confirm that what I just reiterated is the fact that you are sharing, please.

Michael and all, I'm sorry.  I took it granted that the JPEG embedded into NEF and the JPEG yielded in the demo mode were the same.  I just confirmed I was wrong.   

I switched my D750 to RAW only mode, and the review image could be magnified to 100% correctly.  The demo mode gave the image whose size is much smaller.

Sorry to confuse you!


Then I wonder how and where the image file is yielded for the demo mode?  At least I noticed that the image file transferred to the smartphone using "Wireless Mobile Utility" app is as lousy as the one viewed in the demo mode.  So, it is not the same one as that embedded into NEF?

Sorry to be off-topic.  If necessary, I would start a new thread for this particular topic.

[MFloyd]

And please switch off the "demo" mode.  How many disasters of people taking 1000 pictures and then realize there was no card in the camera. Nikon should set this option OFF as default.

[Akira]

And please switch off the "demo" mode.  How many disasters of people taking 1000 pictures and then realize there was no card in the camera. Nikon should set this option OFF as default.

Christian, you can simply make sure that the demo mode is switched offswitch off (by setting Slot empty release lock to "LOCK").  When you set up the camera, as you know...

[CS]

David,

Do I shoot raw or jpeg fine? Same question for my V1. The V1 seems to have many more in camera adjustments such as Neutral, Standard, BW and so on. The last camera I remember using was a Nikon FM. The only adjustments made were shutter speed and aperture. That was in another lifetime.

Ken

Shooting jpegs is akin to sending your film off to be developed and printed. Shooting raw is akin to you developing the film and printing the results yourself. That is a bit simplistic, but close enough to reality.

[Matthew Currie]

Shooting jpegs is akin to sending your film off to be developed and printed. Shooting raw is akin to you developing the film and printing the results yourself. That is a bit simplistic, but close enough to reality.

I would modify that somewhat, because some software uses the JPG information when it opens the Raw file anyway,  so you don't have to develop and print yourself.  You can treat it as sending your film off but keeping the negatives.