Close up of the Nikon 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens. A very capable, all around lens.

Review the Nikon 18-55mm kit lens and Explaination of some General Lens Concepts

March 07, 2014 in Equipment Reviews

To continue my brief reviews of my camera equipment, today I will be focusing on the Nikon kit zoom lens, the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. Again, here is a summary of the equipment I use:

My Gear:

The Kit Lens: Nikon 18-55mm Zoom Lens

When I say "Kit Lens," I basically mean the lens that comes with the D3200 body when you purchase the Nikon D3200 with basic zoom lens. It's pretty much the lens that everyone starts off with, since its much more economical to buy the camera body with the attached lens. And unless you know that you will never use the Nikon 18-55mm, I would recommend getting the body & lens combo. It might not be the fastest or sharpest lens you end up getting, but I think it is a good lens to start off with. And even if you eventually grow out of the consumer level kit lens and replace it with a higher end lens in this focal length range, you can still use the kit lens for some fun stuff, like reversed lens macro setups (which I may talk about in a later post).

So photography lenses are generally divided into a few large categories.

Standard/Normal lens - a normal lens is a lens that reproduces a field of view that looks "natural" to a human observer. This is usually around 30mm focal length for an APS-C sensor (like the Nikon D3200 has), or around 50mm focal length for a full frame sensor.

Wide angle lens - wide angle lenses have shorter focal lengths than normal lenses. A wide angle lens allows more of the background scene to be included in the photo, which is generally useful for architectural or landscape photography. Wide angle lenses also exaggerate relative size and distances, such that foreground objects appear much larger, while backgrounds are large and expansive and appear may appear small and far away. I will discuss more about wide angle lenses when I post my review of the Tokina 11-16mm.

Telephoto lens - telephoto lenses have longer focal lengths than normal lenses. Telephoto lenses range from 85mm to over 300mm in focal length. They are useful in making distant objects appear magnified, and are especially useful for wildlife photography (birding, zoo photos) or sports photography, where you cannot get closer to the subjects. I will discuss telephoto lenses in more detail in my upcoming review of the Nikon 70-300mm zoom.

Macro lens - a macro lens is used in extreme close up photography of small objects. In a true macro lens, the lens renders the subject on the camera sensor at life sized (1:1) scale or greater. You are able to make photographs much larger than life sized of some very small objects (insects and small flowers are popular subjects). Macro lenses are specially designed for close up work. Unfortunately I do not own a dedicated macro lens, but I will discuss alternatives for macro photography that I have dabbled in, including the fun reversed lens method.

The Nikon 18-55mm zoom lens is a pretty outstanding lens for its price. In fact, it has even been ranked by photographer Ken Rockwell as one of Nikon's 10 Best Lenses. [Ken Rockwell's website btw is an excellent source for in depth camera and lens reviews that go way beyond my brief reviews]. The only reason I would toss this lens out of my camera bag would be if I upgraded my camera body to a full sized FX sensor, since the 18-55mm zoom works only on DX or APC-S sized sensors. On a Full frame FX camera, you would experience extreme vignetting. But that is not really a drawback, since the lens is meant to work with the body it is bundled with, and with the D3200, it is extremely sharp and fast focusing.

The lens is nice and small, which is a really great attribute that I've only come to appreciate after having lugged my large telephoto around for a few days. It balances well on the camera body, and the zoom and focus rings are well positioned. It does not have a manual aperture ring, but I have not found that limiting at all. It has a hard plastic body, and is not weatherproofed like higher end Nikon models, but it is an overall excellent travel lens. I usually have the 18-55mm or Tokina 11-16mm as my walkaround lens.

Conclusion: The Nikon 18-55mm Zoom Lens is an excellent lens for the price. It's an excellent lens even if you had to purchase it separately, but since it typically is bundled with the D3200 anyway, it's a great lens for a great deal! It was my first lens, and probably most people's first lens, and I still continuously use it, even though I have purchased additional dedicated lenses many fold more expensive than the small kit lens.

In fact, it is so good that you may never feel the need to upgrade it. The 18mm side is a pretty decent wide angle, so you may never need to buy a dedicated wide angle lens. And the kit lens works fine as a general purpose macro lens (even though it does not get down to 1:1 reproduction), doing away with a dedicated macro. You may want to buy a telephoto to cover the long focal length range if you feel that is necessary, but honestly I found very little use with my telephoto. Besides it being large and heavy, I simply do not shoot the kinds of subjects that call for dedicated telephoto lenses.

The only reasons to buy another lens in the normal focal length range would be if you frequently shoot in low light conditions or want finer control over depth of field (eg for nicer bokeh). In both of these cases, I would recommend the Nifty Fifty, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G which will be the subject of my next post.

Previous posts in this series:

The Camera: Go to my Blog Review of the Nikon D3200

Future posts in this series:

The Nifty Fifty: Nikon 50mm f/1.8G

The Telephoto Zoom: Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G

The Wide Angle: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

The Nikon D3200 is a great entry level DSLR camera at a great value!

Brief Review the Nikon D3200, and My Experience Upgrading to DSLRs

February 28, 2014 in Equipment Reviews

So now that I've had all of my camera gear for several months and have had a few week long trips to test it out (Bahamas and San Francisco), I feel ready to give a brief review of my equipment. Here is a list of the photography equiptment I own. I will go through each one briefly in a series of blog posts.

My Gear:

The Camera

I have a Nikon D3200. I got this as a gift, so I didn't do any shopping around or research for this purchase. It is a 24 Megapixel camera designed for entry level DSLR photographers, which makes it the highest pixel count for the APS-C sensory size. My photos look way better than they did with my super outdated 6 MP Canon point and shoot. I don't use the video mode, so I can't comment on that (I use other cameras for my videography projects), but the photo quality is amazing!

The Nikon D3200 allows for full manual mode, aperture priority mode, and shutter priority mode, so if you are upgrading from a point and shoot like I was, then it will allow for much more control. It took a while learning the manual controls, and what everything like shutter speed, aperture size, ISO, etc all meant, but the learning curve is not steep, and was a really exciting process. For most of my photos, I tend to keep the camera in aperture priority.

Aperture priority - In aperture priority mode, you select the aperture and your camera sets the shutter speed according to the ISO. You can control the shutter speed indirectly by changing the ISO.

Shutter priority - In shutter priority mode, you select the shutter speed and your camera sets the aperture according to the ISO. You can control the aperture indirectly by changing the ISO.

Full manual mode - In full manual mode, you have complete control over the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

ISO – the level of sensitivity of your camera to available light. It is typically measured in numbers, a lower number representing lower sensitivity to available light, while higher numbers mean more sensitivity. More sensitivity comes at the cost though, as the ISO increases, so does the grain/noise in the images. Examples of ISO: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600.

Shutter Speed – the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. Shutter speeds are typically measured in fractions of a second, when they are under a second. Slow shutter speeds allow more light into the camera sensor and are used for low-light and night photography, while fast shutter speeds help to freeze motion. Examples of shutter speeds: 1/15 (1/15th of a second), 1/30, 1/60, 1/125.

Aperture – a hole within a lens, through which light travels into the camera body. The larger the hole, the more light passes to the camera sensor. Aperture also controls the depth of field, which is the portion of a scene that appears to be sharp. If the aperture is very small, the depth of field is large, while if the aperture is large, the depth of field is small. In photography, aperture is typically expressed in “f” numbers (also known as “focal ratio”, since the f-number is the ratio of the diameter of the lens aperture to the length of the lens). Examples of f-numbers are: f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, f/8.0.

For those moving from a point and shoot who don't feel up to learning all the manual controls, there are built in Scene modes and a Scene auto selector. You choose from common scenes like Portrait, Night Portrait, Landscape, Close up, Sports, etc. I haven't used this much, but from what I've played around with, it is very easy and intuitive to use.

The autofocusing in this camera is good, and pretty fast, but does tend to be lens dependent. There are 11 autofocusing dots spaced across the screen, and you can use advanced settings like AF-C or AF-S.

AF-C (AF continuous, sometimes called continuous servo) is good use when photographing moving objects. When your camera is set to AF-C and you focus on a moving subject, for example a dog running towards you, the focus will stay on the animal so long as your shutter button is held half way down. In other words, the camera will keep re-focusing as the animal moves. That is, so long as you keep your shutter button held half way down.

AF-S (AF single, sometimes called single area AF) mode, is good for photographing subjects that don't move, such as flowers or portraits etc. It locks the focus on the non moving object that you want to photograph. You can then recompose the shot and take the photograph.

I've actually set my camera to AF-C with back button focusing, which I may discuss in depth later. But essentially, I have the focusing action decoupled from the camera shutter. So instead of half pressing the shutter, waiting for it to focus, then fully depressing the shutter, I use a separate button on the back of the camera to focus the camera first (The button I use is labeled AE-L/AF-L, but you can customize this button in the camera settings). With the subject in focus, I can then use the normal shutter button to take several shots in a row, recomposing between shots, without adjusting the focus. If I want the camera to focus continuously (I'm in AF-C, remember), I just hold down my back button while shooting. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but now I really love back button focusing, and I highly recommend at least trying it for a few weeks.

When testing the camera out in low light conditions (with the kit lens, other lenses will be reviewed later), the camera is adequate. It has the ability to adjust the ISO from 100 all the way to a whopping 12800 on ISO Hi 1. In reality however, I rarely will go over ISO 400, because no matter how good the camera, high ISO equals more noise. And for my shooting purposes (mostly for microstock), noise simply is not acceptable. For low light conditions, I will usually use either my nifty fifty, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G, or my wide angle, the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, both will be reviewed in a future post. The wider apertures in the 50mm f/1.8 and 11-16mm f/2.8 (compared to the kit lens which is a variable f3.5-5.6) allows much more light in through the aperture, allowing for better low light photos.

Note: Typically when a lens is described (such as the Nikon 50mm f/1.8), f/1.8 refers to the maximum aperture opening of the lens. Sometimes the minimum aperture is also given, but since the maximum aperture opening tends to be of most interest, and is always included when describing a lens. This value is also known as the lens "speed", because it affects the exposure time. A lens with a smaller f-stop (smaller f number), has a larger maximum aperture, and is considered a "faster" lens. [The aperture is proportional to the square root of the light admitted, and thus inversely proportional to the square root of required exposure time, such that an aperture of f/2 allows for exposure times one quarter that of f/4.]

Zoom lenses typically have a maximum relative aperture (minimum f-number) of f/2.8 to f/6.3 through their range. High-end lenses will have a constant aperture, such as f/2.8 or f/1.8, which means that the relative aperture will stay the same throughout the zoom range. A more typical consumer zoom will have a variable maximum relative aperture, since it is harder and more expensive to keep the maximum relative aperture proportional to focal length at long focal lengths; f/3.5 to f/5.6 is an example of a common variable aperture range in a consumer zoom lens. So in my gear, the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G and Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 have fixed maximum apertures of f/1.8 and f/2.8 respectively, whereas the kit lens is a consumer level Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, with the maximum aperture changing from f/3.5 at the 55mm end to f/5.6 at the 18mm end. This means that the maximum aperture changes as you zoom, and is never as wide as the higher end lenses.

The only negative that I have with this camera is that you cannot do HDR photography with it. It does not have the capability for autoexposure bracketing. You can, of course do it manually with 3 photos taken at different exposures, but with moving objects or changing conditions, manual is just not quite good enough. So it is a shame that HDR is not supported.

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It is a post-processing task of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed. An HDR image is commonly made by taking three photos of the same scene, each at different shutter speeds. The result is a bright, medium, and dark photo, based on the amount of light that got through the lens. A software process then combines all the photos to bring details to the shadows and highlights both. This helps to achieve the same task in the final photograph that the human eye can accomplish on the scene.

You can do timelapse photography with the camera, but it requires an external intervalometer. I purchased this one, its fairly inexpensive and works well. Rainbowimaging TimerM LCD Timer Remote Control for Nikon D600 D7100 D7000 D5200 D5100 D5000 D3200 (Black) I will probably have a separate post in the future on time lapse photography with the camera, but its sufficient to know here that timelapse photography is really fun and addictive, and easy to do with the Nikon D3200. You can view some examples of my time lapse videos here: http://www.michelsun.com/videos

Upgrading from point and shoots to DSLRs: I couldn't be happier with my step into DSLR photography. Being able to control all of your camera's settings gives you the opportunity to learn more fully about your camera's capabilities, and gives you not only a better understanding of photography, but I think also makes you a much more thoughtful photographer. Instead of "pointing and shooting," you have to plan out your shoots, decide what aperture or shutter speed would be appropriate for the situation, decide what mode you want the camera to be in, decide how to frame your shots, etc. It's a much more active process, and you get much much better compositions. I feel like I am becoming an actual photographer when you think about and plan photos, rather than just some person with a camera. I highly recommend upgrading to a DSLR if you have any interest in taking better photos. Who wouldn't want better photos of the family or vacation photos!

Overall impression: Overall, I think that the Nikon D3200 is an excellent camera. The 24 MP sensor size allows room for lots of cropping if your composition isn't exactly what you want in camera. The camera is easy to use, and easy to learn, even from someone who has never had a DSLR before. It's competitively priced, and a great entry level DSLR. You can purchase it from Amazon here Nikon D3200. Other vendors that I like are Adorama and B&H Photo, or Keh for used equipment.

Future posts:

I'll review these lenses separately, since this post has gotten kind of long

The Kit Lens: Click Here to go to my Blog Review of the Nikon 18-55mm Zoom Lens

The Nifty Fifty: Nikon 50mm f/1.8G

The Telephoto Zoom: Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G

The Wide Angle: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

The Nikon D3200 and some popular lenses!

My Photography Gear

February 25, 2014 in Equipment Reviews

I want this blog to be a record of my journey trying to learn as much about photography as possible. To start off, I'd like to list what I've got to work with. I first got into photography when I got a Nikon D3200 for my birthday in October. Ever since, I've acquired thousands of dollars of photography equipment and gear. No one said this would be a cheap hobby... In fact all my hobbies tend to be expensive, but I digress.

I plan on giving a more detailed review of my gear at a later date, probably once I get some of my photos up on the website! But for now, here is a list of the gear I will be toting around the next few weeks. I'm going to San Francisco with my boyfriend for Christmas, and I plan on taking lots of photos!

My Gear:

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Review the Nikon 18-55mm kit lens and Explaination of some General Lens Concepts

Brief Review the Nikon D3200, and My Experience Upgrading to DSLRs

My Photography Gear