Bergen County Camera Blog » Nikon

Snow – Photographing Winter’s Majesty

Franklin Viola — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:42:39 +0000

The weekend’s precipitous frozen flurry presented a wondrous opportunity to capture the majesty of winter’s cloak. Armored in boots, cap and gloves, I marched into the white of Sunday morning’s golden light with my Nikon D-SLR and a spare battery, of course, warm and snug in the pocket of my Gortex jacket!

Strong diagonal rays and shadows accentuate a classic winter scene.

©Franklin Viola

IPTC Data: Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 12-24 at 12mm, ISO 200, f/8 at 1/125sec (Manual mode), Tripod

Emphasizing powder coating with ‘close-focus wide-angle’ imaging

©Franklin Viola

IPTC Data: Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 12-24 at 22mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 at 1/250sec (Manual mode)

Selective framing to contrast ‘icons’ of hot and cold

©Franklin Viola

IPTC Data: Nikon D2Xs, Nikon 24-120 at 105mm, ISO 200, f/8 at 1/320sec (Manual mode), Tripod

Have a question about winter photography? Please leave a comment, email, visit the store or visit our Winter shooting tips on our blog.

Nikon 200-400 VR AF-S lens rental now available

Franklin Viola — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:50:16 +0000

Recently on assignment in Panama, I used my Nikon 200-400 VR AF-S lens and Nikon D300 camera to capture this image of a Female Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) drinking nectar from a Hibiscus flower.

©Franklin Viola

IPTC Data: Nikon D300, Nikon 200-400 VR AF-S f/4 at 400mm (effective 600mm on DX body), ISO 640, f/8 at 1/200sec, iTTL fill-flash with Nikon SB800 (EV-2.0), Tripod

Observing the tiny birds ‘routine flight path’ to specific flowers for over an hour, I pre-set focus in AF, then switched to Manual focus to ‘lock’ my composition. Using a Nikon wired shutter-release, Bogen carbon-fiber tripod and Wimberly gimbal-head, the 200-400mm never flinched even in my excitement as the ‘hummer’ flew into position. iTTL fill-flash from a Nikon SB800 (hand-held via SC17 cable) applied just the right ’stop-action’ to complement the gyrating wing-blur. This artificial ‘light’ also added color ‘pop’, an often under-used tool in outdoor photography!

Nikon’s 200-400mm VR f/4 AF-S lens works with all Nikon ‘full-frame’, as well as Nikon APS-size sensor (DX) D-SLRs. You too can ‘reach out’ with this lens through BCC’s rental department. Call 201.664.4113 or come by the Westwood store for more details.

Nikon D700 Firmware v1.02 released

John Tworsky — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:07:15 +0000

Nikon D700 DSLR

Firmware uprades are part of routine maintenance and give you all the latest and updated functionality for your camera. Bergen County Camera is always ready to assist you to upgrade your firmware. Many times when can do this on the spot, but it is always better to call ahead and let us know when you are planning to stop by. If you are more DIY, you can visit the Nikon D700 download page and choose the v1.02 firmware and follow the instructions. The process is pretty straightforward and takes less than 15 minutes.

Nikon’s list of fixes for this firmware update include:

Auto white balance performance has been improved.

Support for 64 GB memory cards has been added.

When ISO sensitivity settings>ISO sensitivity auto control in the shooting menu is set to On, the Maximum sensitivity option can now be specified in steps of 1/3 EV, 1/2 EV or 1 EV, according to the Custom Setting b1 ISO sensitivity step value setting.

The length of time the camera waits before adjusting focus in response to sudden changes in the distance to the subject can now be selected from 5 (Long) , 4, 3 (Normal), 2, and 1 (Short) from Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on. With the increase in the number of options for Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on, this item will be set to 3 (Normal) after firmware upgrade. Adjust this setting as needed.

When the camera’s AF-ON button is pressed, the monitor turns off and a focus point can now be selected using the multi selector.

When the MB-D10 AF-ON button is pressed (with AF-ON selected for Custom Setting a10 AF-ON for MB-D10), the monitor now turns off and a focus point can be selected using the multi selector.

A Use GPS to set camera clock item has been added to the GPS item in the setup menu. When Yes is selected, date and time information acquired via connection to a GPS device is used to set the camera’s internal clock. After selecting Yes for the first time, turn the camera off and then on again to reacquire GPS data.

When Enable is selected for GPS>Auto meter off in the setup menu, the time until meters turn off is now extended by up to 1 minute to enable camera acquisition of GPS data immediately after the camera is turned on, and immediately after meters turn on. (only with GPS Unit GP-1)

When On is selected for Long exp. NR with shooting at shutter speeds slower than 1 s but faster than or equal to 8 s, it did not function properly. This issue has been resolved.

The focus point was sometimes not displayed even when focus was acquired with playback of images captured with continuous shooting. This issue has been resolved.

When the virtual horizon was displayed with shooting in live view tripod mode and live view was then cancelled, the focus point displayed in the monitor could not be moved. This issue has been resolved.

When some memory cards were inserted in the camera, “CHA” was displayed in the top control panel and images could not be captured. This issue has been resolved.

When [M] exposure mode was used in live view shooting via Camera Control Pro 2, the electronic analog exposure display did not function. This issue has been resolved.

Nikon’s download center for all digital products is located here