D800 CLS issue feedback from Nikon Germany – UPDATE !
I have to make an amendment and an important correction to the last post. To be sure that everybody who subscribed and already read my last post gets the information I am also posting the update into a new article. Today I got the access data to the repair protocol at...
D800 CLS issue feedback from Nikon Germany – it’s a hardware AND software issue (updated)
***UPDATE, 24.06.2013*** Today I got the access data to the repair protocol at nikonrepair.net. At first I have to apologize - in the initial post I mixed something up. Even with the new circuit board the problem is solved only when shooting at fully open aperture. In...
Unboxing the Yongnuo YN568EX Speedlite Flash (not in a boring way)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmIBY0ORKgc Along with Yongnuo YN-622N i-TTL radio triggers I ordered an i-TTL flash from Yongnuo. Shipping took about 1.5 weeks and today the package arrived. No time for a review yet, but I made an entertaining unboxing video. Enjoy...
D800 CLS issue : Off to Nikon service…again
************UPDATE, September 17th 2013*************** The CLS problem has been solved. On some early D800 cameras a circuit board which controls the popup flash must be replaced. That is what Nikon did with my camera. Read about the solution here and additional...
Lighting 101 – Free and excellent guide to flash photography on strobist.com
I've been reading a little on flash photography in the last weeks. I already wrote about the great book by Joe McNally, today I would like to present another pearl of "flash education". US-based photographer David Hobby runs an excellent blog called Strobist. The...
How to tell if your sensor needs cleaning
While shooting a building near the Hannover fair grounds I manually underexposed the image to get some texture in the sky. When I controlled the image on the LCD screen I got big eyes. The sky - now with nice texture in the clouds - was full of dark specks. This, my...
Historic steam engine (Lightroom filter presets)
Two weeks ago I was in the Frankfurt region. At a small town called Königstein there was a celebration at the train station with historic trains. Yes, one of those big black monster trains which...
Shooting a Porsche GTS
Last week I got the opportunity to shoot a Porsche GTS. I never shot cars before and this was quite a challenge. I practiced on our car at home, shooting it in the carport. Finding a pleasantly looking perspective did not prove to be a challenge but I experienced that...
Book review: The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally
Today I would like to give a short review on a very educating book. "The Hot Shoe Diaries" by Joe McNally is a very entertaining and also informative volume on flash photography. The name of the book gives the clue: It is about strobe flashes, not big studio flashes....
Another ladybug post
With the insects coming out in spring the temptation to shoot bugs of all sorts is high. Especially ladybugs are crawling around a lot these days as you might have realized from my previous post. Today I got the opportunity to shoot another ladybug. Both images were...
Ladybug and Duplos
Spring has finally reached us and last Sunday I could spend the first afternoon on the terrace. While my daughter was playing with her Duplo bricks a ladybug crawled around. I grabbed my D300s with the 105 mm macro lens and was able to take some shots of this insect....
D800 CLS issue – resolved (not quite ?)
************UPDATE, September 17th 2013*************** The CLS problem has been solved. On some early D800 cameras a circuit board which controls the popup flash must be replaced. That is what Nikon did with my camera. Read about the solution here and additional...
Something to laugh about
You wonder why I make that terrified face ? Go ahead, read.... This picture is from the beginning of my DSLR days back in 2007. I visited a friend who studied in Edinburgh, Scotland. One day he had to work on a project to meet the deadline so I was on my own. I went...
Chocolate Romeo (high speed flash sync)
A few weeks ago my wife presented me with a Chocolate Romeo, which is a chocolate frog holding a big heart. Before munching this sweet sweet treat I took some photos of it. I...
Death of a Snowman (it’s supposed to be art)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meYbPNs8WOY Nothing techy today, just a snowman candle burning down. Shot with the D800 timelapse function.
Yongnuo RF603 wireless flash trigger delay
During the photo shoot with my daughter in the studio I realized something odd. The D800 is supposed to have a minimum flash synchronization time of 1/250s. This is the fastest shutter speed at which the camera can still communicate in time, so that the flashes...
Hanover Zoo
You might remember the unboxing video of the Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 lens I made previously. Since then I have tested it a little here a little there, but I have not made a dedicated...
Kermit the Agamid
Some days ago our neighbors invited us to have a cup of coffee. They have a terrarium with a lizard in the living room. Meet Kermit, the Agamid. Kermit is a very sleepy fellow. Most of the day...
One happy child
Taking pictures of children requires many things. You have to establish a positive connection with them. If they are feeling uncomfortable the pictures won't be any good. Then it's patience and of course a little bit of luck to get good shots, because children won't...
Backup your files – The Icy Box HDD dock
In a previous post I outlined the importance of backing up your files and how I personally deal with it. Short recap - My main backup system is a Drobo, which is a plug & play RAID system with four harddrives. On the Drobo I have two partitions. One is for Time...
Conclusions from owning a D800 for nine months
This is the last post for 2012 and it is time to look back. I am owning my D800 for about nine months now and, having had some time to reflect during the Christmas season, I have some thoughts I would like to share with you. The D800 is truly a great camera. The...
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 34,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals...
Hanover townhall
Today I made an excursion to the new townhall of Hanover. "New" hereby means that the building was finished in 1913, the old townhall is from the 13th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany attended the opening ceremony, jawohl ! The new townhall is an impressive...
Building a home studio (timelapse)
I am very fortunate to have a large basement in our new home. Finally I got the chance to build a permanent studio in the basement. In this video you can see the creation of the studio. There was some painting and carpet laying required to make the room hospitable....
How many images did you take in your photography life ?
Us digital photographers talk a lot about the flood of images we produce and there are numerous blog entries and products for organizing and storing your images. But have you ever asked yourself how many images you have produced exactly ? I did. And so I did a little...
A geeky iPhone4 case
I got a new case for my iPhone4. Before it I used bumpers, both a cheap silicone bumper for a few bucks and a 1:1 copy of the original Apple bumper. The silicone bumper was really bad, it tended to...
Yet another unboxing video (70-200 f2.8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVfmCYjJeTk I know that unboxing videos are very nerdy. But it is kind of fun making them, so here is another one. If the weather clears up tomorrow, I will go out and give it a test run.
Windmill
We have this awesome park and city forest about 15 min walking time away from our new home here in Hannover. Recently we went exploring the park a little and discovered that awesome windmill. It has been...
Lytro light field camera – quick review
I have my Lytro for some weeks now and played around with it a little. It is astonishing, the light field new technology is quite exciting. You capture an image and then you can...
One of many photo gear storage solutions
I have not posted in a while since I was moving to another city, sorry for the long time I was silent. Having moved to another place brought the opportunity to realise a solution I was longing for a long time now - a dedicated piece of furniture to store my photo...
Unboxing a Lytro light field camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYdG9j2e3k As announced a few days ago here is an unboxing video of the Lytro camera. I am a little under pressure at the moment due to preparations for moving to another city, so the review might take a few extra days. Stay tuned !
New toy incoming next week
Geeks and gadgeteers beware ! There is a new toy incoming. I hope to receive a Lytro light field camera next week. The special thing about a light field camera is, that images taken with it can be refocused after the exposure. That is right. Take an image of a person...
D800 grip comparison
After posting the unboxing and mini review video on the MeiKe D800 camera grip yesterday I tested the grip a little. Works fine, all buttons do what they are supposed to do. But when I compared the grip to the MB-D10 for my D300s I noticed some differences in the...
MeiKe battery grip for the D800/E – unboxing and mini-review
Some weeks ago I ordered a third-party battery grip for the Nikon D800. The original grip from Nikon ranges between 300 and 350 Euros, now I paid 60 Euros plus 11,40 Euros custom for a grip made by MeiKe. A smiliar grip is available from Pixel Vertax (around 90...
Dragonfly evolution – Don’t give up on images too quickly
After I posted the dragonfly image in the last article I went back to Lightroom and had a look at the raw file. And I was astonished to see how different it looked. I forgot how much retouching and modifying I did. "How much" is in terms of "achieving dramatic...
Dragonfly
No techy post today, just a nice image to enjoy. Still very busy finishing some projects at work and preparing to move to another city in Mid-September. Some days ago I was sitting outside when a dragonfly landed on the balcony and rested on the outer wall of our...
A survey from Nikon on the D800
Today I got invited to participate in a survey conducted by a dutch company, Ipsos. It seems that Ipsos is doing the survey for Nikon, both logos appear in the invitation email. The survey should take "only" 25 minutes (which is quite long if you ask me), but being a...
Offtopic: Rub some bacon on it
After posting the bacon weave time-lapse video I was reminded of a wonderful video I saw earlier this year ("wonderful" if you have my type of humor). It is not photography-related, but in the aftermath of the bacon weave video I want to share this with you. Enjoy !...
Bacon weave (a D800 time-lapse experience)
I have not blogged in a while. Many changes in my life kept me busy the last months - a sweet little baby girl, finding a new job, preparing to move into another city, wrapping up everything at my current job, preparing for a big exam and so on. This morning I decided...
Camera Exposure Cycle Video online again
Some weeks ago one of my Youtube-Videos got censored by EMI because they claimed I used music from one of their artists (In that article I wrote GEMA censored the video, but that was a mistake, it was EMI. But since GEMA also censors a lot on Youtube this is not so...
Nikon D800 CLS issue – feedback from Nikon HQ !
************UPDATE, September 17th 2013*************** The CLS problem has been solved. On some early D800 cameras a circuit board which controls the popup flash must be replaced. That is what Nikon did with my camera. Read about the solution here and additional...
D800 firmware update
Today Nikon released the anticipated first firmware update for the D800, D800e and the D4. The B firmware is updated from version 1.00 to 1.01 (side note: What is the difference between the A firmware and the B firmware ? Does anyone know ?). The update is supposed to...
GEMA Censorship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btA3W_02Yo This post is a little emotional because I am p***ed off at the moment, so take everything with a grain of salt. The message says "This video is unfortunately not available in Germany, because itpossibly contains music, for...
D800 CLS problem – back from service – no solution
Today my local camera store called that my D800 is back from the dead service. That's good ! But. The outcome of the nearly four weeks the camera spent at the service: Nothing. Nada. Nihil. Zero. Nichts. Rien.That's bad. They tested my D800 with a SB-600, SB-700 and...
D800 service chaos
I get the impression that things are a little chaotic at Nikon. Today a customer service employee called me and asked for the serial number of my camera, because the dudes in Japan have asked for it. Me: "Well, I sent you the camera, flip it over and look at the...
D800 service update
************UPDATE, September 17th 2013*************** The CLS problem has been solved. On some early D800 cameras a circuit board which controls the popup flash must be replaced. That is what Nikon did with my camera. Read about the solution here and additional...
WordPress has a sense of humor
I just had a very good laugh. While working on the Lumenatic website and implementing some changes in the German version I accidentally clicked the "like" button of a page. Wordpress recognized that I just liked my own page and send me a message via email, see above...
EN-EL15 battery exchanged !
Nothing spectacular today, just the news that UPS delivered the new EN-EL15 battery today. The delivery man opens the package, hands you the new battery, takes the old one, you sign the delivery and that's it. Now I have to wait for my D800 to come back from Nikon...
A report from Nikon Solutions Expo
Last Friday and Saturday (27th / 28th April 2012) the Nikon Expo Solutions show took place at the tradeshow Essen (Germany)....
CLS goes havoc again
Do you see a baby in the above image ? No ? Me neither. It's enough, I am seriously not amused. Today I made a studio session and out of 125 images 58 (fifty-eight) are black because the flashes did not fire. That is 46,4 % of all images taken ! Since I was shooting a...
EN-EL15 battery replacement programme
A few minutes ago I received an email from Nikon support. I registered my D800 with Nikon online, therefore I got this automated message. A potential problem with the EN-EL15 batteries has been detected. A batch of EN-EL15 batteries has not been produced according to...
Nikon D800 follow-up cost
This post is for anybody who considers buying a D800 and I want to point out that the extra cost connected to the purchase must be calculated into the budget. I am having the camera for less than a month now. Since it was quite foreseeable that 36 Megapixels will fill...
D800 CLS Problem – another answer from customer support
Yesterday I received another answer from Nikon customer service concerning the problem with the CLS system (triggering flashes wirelessly that is). Recap: During a shoot I discovered that the internal popup flash of the D800 won't trigger the slave flashes reliably....
D800 CLS issue – a preliminary answer from Nikon
#I reported the issue with the CLS master function of the D800 to Nikon Germany. They tried to reproduce the problem. I got this answer: "Dear Mr., thank you very much for your inquiry. We have tested the master function with four Nikon D800 bodies but could not...
Food that looks like stuff: Pancake Rooster Lamb
Source images on the right: all-free-download.com (top) and amazon.de (bottom) Some days ago I stumbled over a coffee bunny. To complement the upcoming easter season another easter-related animal has appeared in my lunch. Actually, two easter-related animals. I was...
Triggering slave flashes with the Nikon D800 – update
I received feedback from several users regarding the CLS problem which occurs with the Nikon D800. Well, it is not reproducible, therefore it sometimes occurs and sometimes it works, which is what I encountered again when I shot the title picture for this post. I...
Shooting in the old slaughterhouse
I reported a lot about the tech specs of the Nikon D800 and about issues with this new model. But what is it all about ? The pictures. It is all about the pictures. This sunday I went on a photoshoot with friends and we conducted a session inside an old industrial...
D800 and Kingston memory cards
The 36 Megapixels of the D800 produce large files. One click equals 38-59 MB (RAW, 14-bit, lossless compressed). This means that with a 4 GB-card I use as secondary card in my D300s only 60-80 images can be taken. That's about two rolls of film. Therefore I needed...
D800 – thoughts and experiences
Today I would like to sum up some experienced and personal opinions on this camera in a telegram-style. The files are large, who would have thought that. Each image is between 38-45 MB in size (14-bit RAW, lossless compressed). This means that a 16GB memory card lasts...
D800 and wireless flash photography problems
************UPDATE, September 17th 2013*************** The CLS problem has been solved. On some early D800 cameras a circuit board which controls the popup flash must be replaced. That is what Nikon did with my camera. Read the full story here and a summary here. With...
First impressions of the Nikon D800
I got my D800 on Thursday and I can tell that I really really like this new camera. I had multiple "Aha !" moments with this camera already. One being "That's what an image taken at 24 mm actually looks like... wait, is that vignetting at the corners ?" Another good...
Nikon D800 unboxing video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daXMFZu_nAo
The Nikon D800 arrived
I got my D800 today, it was the very first D800 my dealer sold. Oh happy day ! I made an unboxing video, as I type these lines iMovie is compiling and uploading the project to Youtube. It takes some time to be uploaded, therefore I am sharing these images with you at...
Coffee Bunny
This morning I made a nice hot cup of coffee and wonderful creamy milk foam.When I poured the foam into the coffee cup and the rest of the liquid milk spilled into the foam, a funny pattern emerged. I present to you: The Coffee Bunny. Maybe it's a sign to prepare for...
Timelapse video: Assembling an Ikea closet
It has been a while since my last post. I had a deadline to keep at work for submitting an important document, and that kept me busy for a while. Deadline reached, all is well, time for the blog. This week I bought a new closet at Ikea. To make the assembly process...
D70s for sale *Update – S O L D*
*01 March 2012 - Update - Camera sold* *19 Feb 2012 - Update - Price lowered from 200 to 170 Euros* Since I ordered a Nikon D800 my first camera, a Nikon D70s, is now obsolete. Therefore I heavy-heartedly sell this camera, which has served me so well. It is a Nikon...
Tech talk – why I ordered a Nikon D800
The long awaited Nikon D800 has finally been released on February 7th. I ordered one and am now awaiting its delivery end of March. Today I would like to explain why I chose the D800 above the D700. And what's that got to do with a whale ? Well, read the story 🙂 I...
The city at night
Tonight I met a friend and we grabbed our cameras and tripods and headed out onto the Krefelder Str. and the soccer stadium (Tivoli) Aachen to take some images. I shot with a Tokina 11-16 f2.8 and my good...
Textile production machinery
Time for some images. I keep writing on equipment and technology so much that I tend to neglect posts which actually contain images shot with the oh-so-wonderful photographic equipment. A few months ago I did a shooting session in the machine halls of the institute...
A backup strategy which works for me
Backing up your data is essential and you are foolish if you do not do so. Harddrives can fail at any given time (after all, it's a piece of technology and won't last forever), CDs can be unreadable after some years. Coping with the huge amount of data which...
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here's an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would...
Camera Exposure Cycle in Slow Motion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btA3W_02Yo What exactly happens when you expose an image using a DSLR camera ? To illustrate the series of events which take place in that short "click" moment the image is taken, I borrowed a highspeed-video camera from work during...
Memory cards – can’t get enough…
Beginning of December I was booked for a wedding ceremony at Aachen townhall. The ceremony and subsequent toast with friends took about 1.5 hours and I pressed the shutter button 600+ times (If I was a soldier the applicable word for me would be "triggerhappy"...)....
Nikon SB-910 and SB-900 side-by-side
This night Nikon released a new product, the Speedlight SB-910 flash unit. We were all waiting for the D800, but it seems as it will be next year before the camera is announced. Instead Nikon announced an updated version of the SB-900 Speedlight. I did a side-by-side...
The core of every photograph
In my last posts I was very techy, talking only about new cameras and giving guidance on how to choose the perfect camera for you. Reading these posts again I realized that some people might get a wrong impression, so I would like to add something. In the last post I...
Which camera should I buy ?
...is a question I hear regularly. Honestly. This year it is the 5th or 6th time I was asked to advise on the choice of a camera. Previously I wrote an entry about that, but that was written with a bit of annoyance and therefore not very much helpful. Today I want to...
*Update* Pictures of the D800 on Nikonrumors.com
During the night (the German night, daytime in the US :-)) NikonRumors published a front and back shot of the new D800 body (thank you to Peter from Nikonrumors.com for letting me use these images !). The images show the...
Nikon D800: The mystery of 36
Nikon Rumors just released the information that they received a sample picture taken with the D800 and that the EXIF data really says it will have 36 Megapixels. That is 7360x4912 Pixels. Hell. I am still very confused about the 36 MP issue. I can't get my head around...
Some new pictures
Time to show some photos I recently took. A few weeks ago I was at the dutch north sea shore. On that trip I also took my camera and here are some shots I took during these days. These photos are also available in the "Photos" section of this website. Photo taken with...
One point six meters of focal length
A few weeks ago a brilliant plan of mine, a cunning plan so to say, backfired. While eagerly waiting for the D800 to arrive on the stage of photographic enjoyables I thought about making room for the new toy which is hopefully to be announced on October 26th. So I...
Comments on the Nikon D800 Tech Specs Rumors
My favorite source for rumors on anything Nikon is www.nikonrumors.com (well, pretty obvious URL if you ask me...). What is that website ? Perhaps I should explain the nature of rumors websites first. A *whatever*rumors dot com page collects bits and pieces of...
Goin’ Retro with Hipstamatic
I am using a nice little App for the iPhone4, Hipstamatic. It is a photography app, simulating old cameras. You can choose a variety of virtual lenses, flashes and film types, Hipstamatic does the rest....
Repairing a Playstation Move Gun attachment
I own a Playstation 3 and the Playstation Move system. Move is Sony's answer to the Nintendo Wii, adding motion control to the gaming experience. How does it work - you place a camera ("Playstation Eye") in front of the TV which films you. The PS Move controllers have...
Rainfall video now public
Ooops. It was pointed out to me that the video in the last post could not be viewed since it was marked as a private video. I did not realize that when I checked the blog entry, because I was logged in at Youtube and naturally I am allowed to view my own videos....
Heavy heavy rainfall
A few weeks ago, middle of August, there was a helluva thunderstorm here in Aachen. Rain rain rain amassing to a flood of epic proportions. When the rainfall started we just returned from a walk into the city. I was amazed by the sheer force of the rainfall. And I...
What’s a Photoshop ? Where’s the Lightroom ?
A few days ago I was asked by a friend who wants to get into photography a little more which software I use. I was asked what kind of software I could recommend for managing, editing and manipulating pictures. The keywords "Lightroom" and "Photoshop" fell. I think it...
Hotpixel Removal in Lightroom
I was writing about hot pixels in a previous post. Now here is an example on how this looks like and why you don't have to worry. When selecting a photo in Lightroom for the first time, you see a preview for a few seconds while the picture is being rendered. I snapped...
Original ways to present a money gift
Do you know people who say "I don't like to give money as a present - it is so unpersonal and is not a present to remember" ? If you answer this with yes please forward them today's post.If you are attending a wedding, birthday party, anniversary or whatever event...
First entry with the iPad
I have an iPad 2 for about a week now. Today's entry is the first one I am writing on the iPad. Mainly to test the typing process on the glass surface. It is a little odd not to have the haptic feedback or hear the clickediclick of the keyboard. Instead it is the numb...
I’ve got a hotpixel
Oh my goodness, my camera got a hotpixel. What's a hotpixel ? To explain that I...absolutely have to do this in German, taking a bow towards the Feuerzangenbowle and a German Star Trek parody "Wat is enne Hotpixel ? Da stelle mer uns mal janz dumm. Enne Kamera, dat is...
Samyang 8 mm sharpness test. Or: It’s not a bug, it’s a feature !
In the last post I was ridiculing the sharpness of the 8 mm Samyang lens at wide open apertures. To illustrate the problem I have made a few test shots at different apertures. The focus ring has not been moved between the shots, only the aperture has been closed step...
In the Ghe… Grotto
Sardinia is an island with many spectacular caves. Two of them I visited,...
Time-lapse test video: Folding the laundry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Z5T2Zhrmk Today I decided to combine a necessary and a pleasing activity. I made a time-lapse video of me folding the laundry. Some background info. Movies usually display 24 frames per second, because with this number the human brain...
Taggin’ again
Today the mailman delivered the repaired Solmeta N2 geotagger unit from China. The port has been replaced and the unit is working again. All in all this adventure lasted six weeks, which is quite good considering that the service is located in China (far away I mean...
Catch the lightning
Ride the lightning (a Metallica album), catch the rainbow (some Hippie phrase)... mashed together to form this post's headline. We did a trip to Sardinia. On that trip I wrote several posts on the iPhone, but due to a lack of internet connection I could not post them....
Update – Solmeta Repair Service
A week ago, on 20th of June, I received an email from Solmeta stating that the unit has been received and repair will start soon. Also the shipping time back to Germany has been announced (10-15 working days). Getting such short status updates is very reassuring for...
When horses are about to throw up…
...it might look like this. There is a German saying which goes "Ich habe schon Pferde vor der Apotheke kotzen gesehen", which translates roughly to "I have seen horses throw up in front of the pharmacy". It is a weird...
Xanten and
Three weeks ago we spent an extended weekend in Xanten at the river Rhine. Xanten is about a 1.5h drive from Aachen and has, like Aachen, a rich history connected to the Romans. Xanten was a thriving Roman city of strategic importance its roman name was Colonia Ulpia...
I am a photographer, not a camera salesman
I expect that everybody who is into photography will encounter this situation once in a while. You receive a message, a phone call or an email which goes roughly like this: "Hey, I want to buy a new camera because my old one broke. Can you recommend one ?" or, even...