D200 on Full-Frame Nikkor lenses; follow-up

So for those interested, I had asked this January on this NG about loss
of resolution when using a full-frame lens on a smaller detector
(essentially you are cropping out resolution). Anyway, I bit the dust
and ended up getting a D200 with SB800. Very satisfied. No banding
problems. The portrait setting produces color which most approaches
what I was used to with my F4s SB24 and Fuji NPS. I had a D50 for 10
days (still delaying and praying on a full-frame Nikon digital camera)
but wasn`t happy with the color so swapped it in for the D200. I have
tried my 20-35 f2.8 and 105 f2.8 so far and have not noticed
appreciable loss of resolution although I am sure there must be some
loss. It is just not noticeable so far. At the same price as my old
F4s, and from what I can see on these 2 lenses, and considering
adjustments for inflation, it is worth the purchase. It has
rejuvinated my interest in photography. If there are any sitting on
the fence on this camera, I would like to encourage you to take the
risk. I can`t wait to try it on my 600 f4. Will keep you posted.

Tien

 

Would not the perceived performance of full frame lenses in most instances
seem to improve with the small dSLR sensor which is concentrated more in the
sweet spot of the image circle?
Rather than using settings like "portrait" and, I presume, jpeg image
processing I would recommend, if you have not already done so, learning
about RAW images and post camera processing. You can gain far more control
over the final image and learn to imitate any film emulsion characteristic
you admire. In fact there are plug-ins for Photoshop that promise to
recreate the look of particular films.

 

In message <ZtEeg.35903$>,

Not necessarily. Since you are using a smaller crop of the focal plane,
in order to get your full image, you have to spread everything 1.5x or
1.6x as wide, which means resolution decreases, CA gets wider, etc,
relative to image size. It really depends on how fast the quality falls
off in the 35mm corners, compared to the APS corners. In the center,
you will always get the spread and loss with the crop (although, if the
refcording medium is the main limit of resolution, you may not see the
loss).
--

 

I don't think that's quite what you meant...

 

Yah, biting the bullet may have been better, but it is a reflection of my
emotional resignation and acceptance of the sub-full-frame sensor. (
Everything is a compromise. This is just one of the sweeter ones, was my
real point.

BTW, I just tried this on my Nikkor 600 f4 AF and it is OK. I think there
is a bit of loss of resolution overall. This lens was pretty good on film
and didn`t have much resolution fall off from centre (then again, it didn`t
have all that much resolution to begin with, say compared to a 105 mm f2.8
micro.

I could get in easily 10 frames at high fire rates with (RAW+Fine-jpg)
suggesting it has a pretty fast bus and buffer.


Tien

 

As another person mentioned, the improvement would really be found if at
all, at the edges. If the drop off in resolution was worse than 0.67x
(i.e.1/ 1.5) centre resolution at the edges, then you might see some
improvement at the edges. The centre will always be less sharp (assuming
the film was outperforming the lens at the centre and that max resolution of
the film and sensor in terms of lpm are the same).

Yah, just that the Nikon RAW image software is another 100 bucks (and I was
pissed-off it wasn't included) and I don't have ADOBE PHOTOSHOP (atleast not
the professional variations) either. I have to get the Nikon Capture 4
software sometime anyway and maybe try to get by with my other MS Digital
Image 2006 manipulation software.

Tien

 

According to Tien Dao <>:

[ ... ]

You want something free which does it? Look at dcraw. The
version which I downloaded, compiled, and installed on April 13th of
this year works with the D200. I know because I took an empty CF card
to the photo shop (Penn Camera, if anyone cares) and took a couple of
shots on it in RAW mode with their demo camera. I then brought the CF
card home, loaded the images into my computer, and verified that it
decodes the RAW images without problems.

That happens to be version 8.13, if you care, but if you don't
yet have dcraw, what you download will be at least that new.

To download it (for free -- and no registration required),
visit:

http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin

and follow the links to the program. I download the source, but I
believe that he has links to other sites where someone has compiled it
for Windows.

Click on the linux link, and scroll down to the FAQ section at
the bottom of the page, where there are links to the Windows versions.

And -- for another free program which should be as good as
Photoshop for you, check into "The GIMP" (GNU Image Manipulation
Program). Again -- it was written for unix variants, and ported to
Windows by others.

Try "dcraw" and "The GIMP" and you should be fine.

Good Luck,
DoN.

 

You know: Bits, sensors, dust ;-)

-espen

 

The latest version of Pixmantec's Raw Shooter Essentials works just fine
http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter_essentials.asp

 

Yes, RSE is pretty good and the basic version is free. It's fast &
convenient though I'm not at all sure about the quality of the results.
Nikon Capture is probably optimized for their data but that program just
makes me mad, it's slow, awkward, etc. Photoshop Elements is probably
the best option, I just like PS for workflow but if you don't process
large numbers of shots maybe you could tolerate Capture. DCRAW is an
interesting option but is command line so impractical with no visual
feedback, no sliders & tedious abstruse documentation. I'm just delaying
getting a full $600 version of CS2 after forking over for the D200 so
I'm using free RSE for the moment.

 

According to Paul Furman <>:

[ ... ]

If you want a graphics front end, it is available with "the
GIMP" (using a plugin which can be downloaded with the source for
dcraw), or one of the number of other programs which have been built
around dcraw's algorithm's as image processing tools or as frontends to
other tools.

I run dcraw from a shell script for which I determined which
options I wanted most of the time, and just process (in batch mode) to a
format which I then process using "the GIMP". Some of these days, I
will compile my own copy of "The GIMP, and have the right libs on hand
to link it with the plugin which runs dcraw.

I can understand being "camera poor".

Enjoy,
DoN.

 

Excellent advice. Thanks!

Tien

 

Espen Stranger Seland a écrit :

Well, as luck would have it, while checking for banding, I have
discovered atleast 3 visible dead pixels creating a "+" artefact.
Nikon says it will take anywhere from 5 hrs to 1 day to remap the
sensor. (

Tien

 

Photoshop Elements also uses the RAW conversion plug-ins. If you want to
go extra whacky, you could use Adobe DNG converter, then load those
into Photoshop Elements.