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took the plunge 7100  Rating:  Rating
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Posted by blackfox: Tue Jul 23rd, 2013 16:57 1st Post
after a couple of weeks of faffing about trying to decide what to do ,and very nearly changing back to canon i finally bit the bullet today and bought a D7100 ,so far very impressed with the machine low noise levels up to iso6400 .got it to late in the day to really run it through its paces tonight .but it looks good .

got fed up waiting for a d400 so they will probably announce it next week now >:(>:( and changing back to canon for my criteria the lens choice is to limited and i would have lost to much on the deals.now got a new camera with a two year warranty



Posted by blackfox: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 08:35 2nd Post
got up this morning and took a few test shots of garden birds ,this baby is sweet as a nut ,the only let down being the small buffer but i managed o.k with the 7000 till i got the 300s .both of those cameras are now up for sale .the only addition i will make to this camera is a generic battery grip as its a bit small for my big mutt hands .all i can really add is it feels right

fence life by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



Posted by jk: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 09:28 3rd Post
Looks fine Jeff.
I feel tempted by the D7100 as well but I will wait for a few more months to see if there is a D400 released as I want to use all the same 10pin accessories pn all my cameras.
The buffer maky also prove an issue for me for my flamenco shooting.



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Posted by blackfox: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 11:10 4th Post
the more i use it jonathan the better it feels ,it shoots up to iso 6400 with acceptable noise thats easily controlled. for a long time now i have been forced to use the 1.7 tc with my 300 lens to get the range ,now its just a simple fctn button back dial to switch from full dx to 1.3 crop mode and the birds leap out at you .bit of a optical delusion as its just done the cropping for you but it looks like one of those gimmicks thats going to be loveable .actually got the 1.4 coupled up at the moment with all the benefits that brings .

its similar to the d7000 but a very definite camera in its own right ,everything seems to function slightly better right down to the 100% viewfinder and the LED display ,and of course a much upgraded a/f system .and so far i have only sat in the garden with it .



Posted by Eric: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 12:10 5th Post
Oh dear, was trying to avoid upgrading the D7000 at the moment as cash is haemorrhaging from my bank account in the wake of a long holiday, new boiler and big weekly mileages visiting ailing father.



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Posted by blackfox: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 13:28 6th Post
the price has dropped sharply as well eric body only ,u.k models i.e currys ,j.lewis is £844 with a two year warranty



Posted by richw: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 16:01 7th Post
That's a nice shot. Sounds like you are enjoying the camera.



Posted by Eric: Wed Jul 24th, 2013 16:28 8th Post
blackfox wrote:
the price has dropped sharply as well eric body only ,u.k models i.e currys ,j.lewis is £844 with a two year warranty
True, the price isn't prohibitive...just life chucking sterling bombs my way at the moment.

Luck is also deserting me. Neighbour rings me yesterday evening....
"did you know you have a young tawny owl on your aerial?"


Of course...it couldn't sit on HIS aerial so I could photograph it!!

Soon as I crept out...it crept away back into the adjacent tree.

I had heard the blackbirds pinking the last few days so I knew there was an owl resting up in the trees....just hadn't had him break cover till then.

He clearly is watching my colony of field mice that live under the garden storage cupboard...which houses the bird food!!!



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Posted by Graham Whistler: Sun Jul 28th, 2013 15:19 9th Post
It's got the bird OK!



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Posted by blackfox: Sun Jul 28th, 2013 16:15 10th Post
few days further down the line and its proving itself a extremely good .the sharpness when you get it right is incredible ,and the 1.3 crop mode for wildlife is the deciding factor but putting my head together with other owners we have deduced that as it multiplies the crop factor by two times ,where i was shooting at 500mm its now 1000mm and keeping the focus point spot on is absolutely necessary .i will invest in a battery hand grip shortly to move the centre of gravity back and it looks like a monopod or tripod for the longer stuff .

a lot of fuss has been made about the burst rate and as yet i have not found it a problem as it rights to the card very quickly after a burst .not really enough around to practise on at the moment but heres a few


wearing the purple by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



impressed by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



bug hunter by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr

all shots taken hand held in various conditions and ways ,not settled on anything that suits yet



Posted by Graham Whistler: Sun Jul 28th, 2013 17:36 11th Post
More super pictures!



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Posted by blackfox: Mon Jul 29th, 2013 13:50 12th Post
the one complaint i have heard from other d7100 users and i found myself is the camera straight out of the box under exposes ,meaning positive exposure compensation needed and leading with long lenses to slower shutter speeds and/or higher iso .this also has tended to induce noise .
i sat down with the manual this morning and found out that the exposure for each metering type can be manually adjusted in the menu system ,so i dialed in 2 bars minus compensation as my zero marker and hi-ho its now running like a finely tuned nikon ,happy daze .
heres a house martin in fly past mode after tuning up the camera


LEARNING THE GAME by

blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr


and a swallow popped in to say hello to ,both shots 500mm hand held the swallow using the handy 1.3 crop mode .


i think this is my best side jeff by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



Posted by jk: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 03:02 13th Post
How much crop on that swallow and at what distance from camera?.

I cant get an image like that from 20feet away where they sit on the telephone line.
I guess you are only 6-8feet away.



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Posted by blackfox: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 04:54 14th Post
nope your a bit out jk original image was 24mp cropped down to 4 mp distance to subject 39 feet or 12mtrs ,both shots hand held 300mm lens plus 1.7tc giving focal length of 500mm

and for the house martin same sized crop and distance to subject was 98ft or 30metres .

both figures taken from exif info and looking at the exif i didn't use the 1.3 camera crop mode as i initially though



Posted by Eric: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 15:17 15th Post
Still marvel at your handholding Jeff.

I photographed a tawny owl in my garden yesterday. It sat perfectly still looking straight at me. My handheld 450mm shots looked like it was doing a Salsa in a hurricane.

Not going to be displayed!



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Posted by jk: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 16:44 16th Post
I cant see the distance information on my EXIF even using the latest lenses on my D3S.

Which software are you using to get the Distance information ?



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Posted by blackfox: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 16:58 17th Post
its on apeture 3 jonathan ,you have the choice of various amounts/types of exif on there one of them gives distance to target .IT SHOULD BE YOU TEACHING ME not the other way round :lol::lol:



Posted by Robert: Tue Jul 30th, 2013 19:34 18th Post
JK, It's available in Photoshop, EXIF> Advanced, SubjectDistance: in Centimetres.

Attachment: Screen Shot 2013-07-31 at 01.30.43.jpg (Downloaded 30 times)



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Posted by jk: Wed Jul 31st, 2013 06:48 19th Post
Well you see I dont use Aperture and I do my cataloguing in Lightroom which doesnt show it either as I have it set up.
I always forget that Photoshop has all the bells and whistles.

I know that it shows in Nikon CNX2 but that is so slow compared to Bibble5/Aftershot Pro that I never use it.
Since I moved from Windows to Mac in 2007 the only thing I miss is iMatch which had really fast and good for cataloguing and getting image EXIF data.

Like I always say there is no perfect software!



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Posted by blackfox: Wed Jul 31st, 2013 07:58 20th Post
Eric wrote:
Still marvel at your handholding Jeff.

I photographed a tawny owl in my garden yesterday. It sat perfectly still looking straight at me. My handheld 450mm shots looked like it was doing a Salsa in a hurricane.

Not going to be displayed!

basically eric its that 300mm f4 lens ,nice and light even with t.c's fitted .i also have a manfrotto tripod plate attached permanently and this provides a good grip for my hands .i am finding that focus point wanders a bit with the new camera as its lighter and i think a battery grip will change the centre of gravity in my favour again ,probably half the trouble with nikons lenses they are front heavy .o.O



Posted by blackfox: Fri Aug 2nd, 2013 17:06 21st Post
another shot for jonathon from this evening ,still not quiet got this camera behaving as i expected ,perhaps the better sensor shows up my own errors that i could mask before .it does seem to like nice sunny days ,quiet disappointed with some shots from earlier when it was cloudy .even though the histogram shows them as perfect ,weird


stretch armstrong by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



Posted by Robert: Fri Aug 2nd, 2013 18:14 22nd Post
Jeff, does the 7100 have facility to dial in the actual lens used, I don't have an X2 so no experience of them but the camera needs to know what is is dealing with lens wise. That may explain the wayward exposures perhaps?

On the D200 and presumably the D300 you can tell the camera what lens is being used, you select from a menu of focal length and max aperture.

How it deals with some lenses where there are several quite different versions of a focal length and aperture combo I don't know, perhaps that doesn't matter...



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Posted by jk: Fri Aug 2nd, 2013 18:41 23rd Post
I dont think that exposure is that off!
If it is more than 1/3-1/2 underexposed then I would be surprised. I actually think that for the swallow's shadow detail in the wings that it has nailed it. The eye is well differentiated.



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Posted by Robert: Sat Aug 3rd, 2013 03:15 24th Post
Jeff was referring to other images taken in cloudy conditions and not the one he posted here I think?

Perhaps the lack of contrast from the cloudy conditions was the issue.



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Posted by blackfox: Sat Aug 3rd, 2013 06:08 25th Post
yep you got it rob ,i,m not totally sure that matrix metering is the one to use for birding contrary to what i have used before ,been out this morning and been playing with partial and spot metering to see if that helps ,my mates saying the same thing something not quite right ,heard it from other users to keeper rates down but when its right it knocks you over .we will get it right no doubt



Posted by jk: Sat Aug 3rd, 2013 07:05 26th Post
OK iI understand.
Under cloudy conditions the light is less contrasty so the images seem softer (lower contrast). Maybe since the histogram seems to be OK that all you need to do is mess with the mid point slider a bit to bring back some extra contrast.



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Posted by blackfox: Sat Aug 3rd, 2013 10:08 27th Post
not sure jk ,have now found the bit where you register your lens and t.c setup so done that ,also got a lot of pics taken with each exposure metering type ,will hopefully get to the bottom of it soon .i don't like things that don't work properly .
a battery grip turned up for it today as well that helps with keeping the focus point steadier ,more to grip and a improved c of g with the longer lens


well downloaded that last lot ,it seems that spot exposure comes out as best ,partial comes in a good second best ,whilst matrix would probably be o.k for landscape pics etc .this camera is turning out to be quiet complex but i like a good challenge nearly as much as a good fantasy .
:devil: still really hard to pin it down to this works best etc and even harder to tell on camera ,getting a lot of decent results then some that really deflate you when viewed on computer .and some that jump out and bite you in the face like this one .


thats why they call it the blues by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr



Posted by jk: Sun Aug 4th, 2013 03:24 28th Post
Another great find and picture Jeff.


Dont forget that on D7100/7000 there are the two U banks (U1, U2) so you can customise them.  One for spot and another for partial and leave the default as matrix.
Also the U1/U2 dial allows for very rapid changing unlike on my D3s and D800 where I have to go into the menu.
I'm sure you knew that anyway.
:-)



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Posted by blackfox: Sun Aug 4th, 2013 08:52 29th Post
ts probably easier to just flick from one to the other jonathon , you have the possibility of confusing yourself quiet easily as it is with this camera /lens set up .wildlife is by its very nature slow 80% of the time and frantic for the rest of it .i now have the options of bare lens or +1.4 tc or +1.7 tc full focus or 3mtr focus ,then on the camera its full dx mode or 1.3 crop mode and now a choice of 3 different metering modes and not forgetting exposure compensation



now wheres my knitting needles :banghead::banghead: when i need them



Posted by Squarerigger: Sun Aug 4th, 2013 09:23 30th Post
Very nice Jeff. Great photographs and the new setup seems to suit you well. Looking forward to seeing more bird photos since I don't seem to be able to get shots like you do even if I super glue the damn camera to a brick building. :-)



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Posted by blackfox: Tue Aug 6th, 2013 11:37 31st Post
another one for the collection today ,been after this shot for a long time ,these microscopic blue butterflies are extremely hard to get right ,probably even harder to spot in the long grass ,you can judge the actual size by the blade of grass its on ..the definition this d7100 makes it a super camera .can't wait to get some decent bird shots at close range with it .


singing the blues by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr


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