I just found out about DTown TV, even though it’s apparently been airing for some time now. It’s a new weekly video series put on by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski for photographers who use Nikon DSLRs.

I have to say, even though I’m a Canon shooter I’ve watched a couple of episodes and you’ll get more out of it if you use Nikon gear, some of the tips work on other brands and aren’t necessarily obvious.

Anyway, if you shoot Nikon camera’s it’s probably worth checking out; even if you’re an old hat.

This month birdphotographers.net has posted an introductory guide to photographing birds in flight.

BirdPhotographers.Net – It Ain’t Just Birds.

I’ve started trying to flesh out the technical center a little more, as such I’ve added my bookshelf/reading list, and am working on some more reviews of the stuff I have read. Right now, I have one waiting for me to get the photography for it done and an couple more in the half written stage. Hopefully I’ll get them done soon.

Points in Focus Photography Bookshelf/Reading List

I have the feeling I’m getting around to this a little late, but I’ve been out in the field shooting a lot lately.

The Digital picture has posted their review of the Canon EOS 5D mark 2, and the BG-E6 battery grip.

The camera’s review can be found here: The Digital Picture’s Canon EOS 5D Mark 2 Review.

Their review of the battery grip can be found here: The Digital Picture’s Canon BG-E6 Battery Grip Review.

Also while I’m on the subject of the 5D Mark 2, Canon has released a new firmware for it (1.07) that appears to have fixed the black dot issue that seems to have been present in the release firmware.

As I mentioned previously, several users, my self included, have run into problems with Adobe’s Lightroom 2.2 update installation some how resulting in exporting to CDs and DVDs failing to work. They would receive the error message, “Disc burning is not supported by Lightroom on this computer. It has been disabled.” Apparently the problem seems to have something to do with the update process, not the software it’s self. After a brief email exchange with adobe’s support they recommended that I uninstall Lightroom and reinstall it and see what happens. Sure enough, the uninstall/reinstall process fixed my problems.

So on that point, to insure smooth sailing upgrading to Lightroom 2.2, I’m recomending, uninstalling Lightroom though the Add/Remove software control panel then installed 2.2. Then installing the update as you normally would using the downloaded update/installer. The download for the update contains the full installer and it will detect your serial number as well as your catalog settings when it launches so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about there.

In the world of digital photography our software is as important to our work as our cameras and lenses.

This post comes on the release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.2, an update that for the moment I’d recommend avoiding if you use the built in disk burning capabilities and run Windows XP or 64-bit Windows Vista.

What I don’t understand is why Adobe can’t seem to release updates and patches to this program without introducing a slew of new bugs and problems. Is Lightroom already such a mess internally that they can’t fix issues with out introducing new issues?

That being said, if you are experiencing this problem or any other problem, I strongly recommend filing an official bug report with Adobe. You can do so by filling out the Adobe Feature Request/Bug Report Form.

First off, Nikon has announced their new studio camera, the D3x. A 24 megapixel beast that stands poised to challenge the Canon EOS-1Ds. Well at least if it wasn’t so underwhelming. The D3x doesn’t have nearly the ISO range the D3 and D700 do, and while it does finely give Nikon a serious studio camera there’s a lot to be unhappy about; the $8000 price tag is a good place to start. Thom Hogan has posted a fairly in depth commentary on the D3x here.

Personally I find the D3x a bit underwhelming, partially because Nikon raised the bar so much with the D3 and D700 when it comes to image quality and high ISO performance and partly because it’s really nothing revolutionary in and of itself. They also can’t seem to figure out how to make a self cleaning sensor work or fit in their top end body either.

To wit Canon countered the high ISO IQ of the D3 quite effectively with the 5D Mark 2 and demonstrated that such performance can be achieved in a 20+ MP sensor. So why isn’t it in the D3x? Clearly Nikon must have known that after the D3′s stunning success with high ISO it was just a mater of time before the competition put out a similar camera with higher resolution. At a minimum, I think Nikon needed one more stop on the top end on the D3x. Sure the D3x has a stop more ISO than the EOS-1Ds Mark 3, but this isn’t the same market place as when the 1Ds Mark 3 was released. While I doubt Canon will take the 1Ds Mark 4 all the way to ISO 25,600, I have doubts that the top end will only advance a stop to ISO 6400.

But, by having made the D3 such a leap over it’s predecessor Nikon has inadvertently set the bar for their successor quite high. I don’t think it’s possible they could have put a D3x out with out it seeming seriously underwhelming. Either way it’s likely going to be a seriously good piece of kit. Here’s hoping they stick to tradition and have a new 70-200 VR coming along shortly as well.

For more information visit Nikon USA’s product page by clicking here.

Following the news, I’ve posted my gallery for the Miami Auto Show. I’m also working on an article for the show, including some tips and tricks on making the best of marginal situations.

Finely I have also posted an interesting experimental gallery of long-exposure night driving photographs. No these weren’t done hand held, the camera was locked off on a tripod in the back seat, with an ultra wide angle lens and a cable release so I didn’t have to take my hands off the wheel. One thing I noticed in these experiments is that images rounding curves are significantly more interesting than ones on straight roads and you need between a 10 and 15 second exposure to get enough blur to gather something interesting. Oh ya, and the roads are a lot more bumpy than you realize.

Until next time…

DP Review, seems to be my favorite source for camera news at the moment, and they seem to be the first in the field with a review of Canon’s new EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. The short of it, the lens compares favorably to other similar lenses in some respects and not so favorably in others. Distortion isn’t very well controlled, nor is chromatic aberration. Center sharpness looks pretty good, but edge sharpness isn’t all that great.

Build quality seems nice though, and my experience handling one briefly bears that out. The zoom ring is nice and snug but still very smooth and precise. Though the lens’s lack of a USM focusing motor, especially for a lens in this price range (roughly $700) is disappointing, and the focus ring is small, and turns when the lens focuses.

Read DP Reviews full review: Canon EF-S 18-200 mm F3.5-5.6 IS Lens Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review.

Based on this review alone, I’d say that this lens is probably a good buy for someone who’s looking for a single lens to cover the wide focal lenghts and doesn’t need ultra razor sharp images, or is using an 8-12 MP camera (where it should be some what sharper). This lens isn’t for the pro or advanced amatuer photogrpaher looking for the best image quality possible though.

Photokina wrapped up last week, and I have been trying to following along on the news as best I can. The big news to me was that there wasn’t an awful lot of news, outside of the cameras and lenses I’ve posted about previously. There were a lot of rumors about a new 70-200 VR from Nikon and a new 100-400 IS from Canon, neither materialized. Sigma announced a new revision of their SLR, the DP15; and a new point and shoot, the DP2. The DP2 is similar to their DP1 but complementary with a faster (f/2.8) more normal (41mm equivalent) lens.

Probably the biggest news on the camera front was the announcement of a couple of Micro 4/3rds cameras. If you’ve not seen Olympus’s announcement on what it is, Micro 4/3rds is an adaptation of their 4/3rds system to a thinner mirror-less design. The new system is compatible with 4/3rds lenses—through an adapter—but supports a new smaller lighter series of lenses designed specifically to be as compact and portable as possible.

The most interesting new camera, at least form an SLR user’s perspective, is probably the Panasonic Lumix G1. Not much bigger than more traditional super zoom point and shoots, it supports interchangeable lenses and a SLR sized (2x crop factor) sensor, giving it more flexible lens choices and potentially better low light capabilities. That coupled with the forth coming 20mm f/1.7 (40mm equivalent) micro-4/3rds lens would make quite a powerful yet unobtrusive camera for street photography.

Some things that did catch my eye include the announcement of Adobe Photoshop CS4, which brings 64-bit support to windows machines and support for using your video card to accelerate calculations among other things. I could write about it, but most of the cool features are demonstrated in this podcast (creativesuitepodcast.com), and it’s far more fun to watch than it is to read about.

On the storage front, SanDisk announced Extreme III and Extreme IV flash cards, including 32 GB Extreme III cards. Speaking of which, while it’s been trumpeted all over the web as of late, but SanDisk has been running a rebate on their compact flash media for the last few weeks (ends the 11^th of October), on their flash media. 16GB Extreme three cards are going for as little as $7 to $25 a card in some places, if you can find them in stock. Most of the online camera stores are participating, so if you’re in the media market right now that may be a place to look.

The other announcement in storage was by a company I’ve never heard of, Pretec (pretec.com), of two new compact flash flashcards, a 64GB and 100GB 233x (35MB/s transfer) flashcards. Something that’s sure to come in handy with the today’s high resolution and video producing cameras. I’ve never used them, and I can’t seem to find them listed any ecommerce sites I’ve used for ordering media, so I have no idea if they work well or even at all.

On the lens front, Tokina has added motors to their Nikon mount lenses. I’m not sure if this is good or bad yet though. On the up side, they will focus on the D40, D40x and D60 bodies; on the down side, Tokina doesn’t have an Ultrasonic lens motor design, so they will likely be louder than they otherwise would be when driven by the in body motor. One thing that is for sure, this gives entry level Nikon users access to fast f/2.8 zooms of decent optical quality in focal lengths of 11-16mm, 16-50mm and 50-125mm. All told, it’s not a bad for set of pretty close to pro grade lenses and can be had for less than $1900 for the three.

Also completely unrelated to Photokina, there is currently an update for Adobe Lightroom 2 in the final stages of testing. According to the Adobe Labs page, it fixes several stability issues and makes some performance improvements. As a Lightroom user, I’m keeping on top of this, and I can only hope it fixes a couple of the issues that I’ve experienced with Lightroom on Windows XP.

I can’t say it’s unexpected, in fact it’s been long awaited, and if you even remotely follow what Nikon has been doing with their cameras the idea that Nikon was moving away from their old in-body auto-focus system towards an in-lens system has pretty clear. All new professional glass has been made AF-S with silent wave/ultrasonic focusing motors and their low end cameras lack in-body focusing motors. The conspicuous abasement though, is the lack of AF-S wide angle and standard focal length primes.

Today, with the announcement of an AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, that starts to change. Though of course this isn’t Nikon’s Thrifty 50, with an expected release price of nearly $440; a hefty premium over the current AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D, which currently retails in the $290-300 range. And that’s even with the cost saving loss of an aperture ring.

Nikon USA’s AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G page