I'm still stunned from yesterdays test. I was out there shooting and couldn't get my head around it, I just didn't believe what I was seeing.
I'm not one to believe everything I read, I don't dismiss it but I have to see it myself. I'm a brutal camera tester and when I buy a camera, I test at the extreme ends not in the middle. I try and find the failure points so I can know those before I go on a real shoot. If I know a system will fail given a circumstance, I'll find workarounds or avoid. I do real world tests, not lab tests, I don't' care what it does in the lab, I want to know what it will do in the field, that's where I shoot.
My tests for yesterday revolved around existing light exposure and focus.
I shot about 350 images in a variety of light conditions, open shade, bright sun, backlit, 1/2 sun 1/2 shade. I shot under canopies, I shot white walls, green trees, into the sun, sun at my back, I shot in the trees, through the trees and everywhere I could push the system to fail and every single exposure was within 1/3 of a stop or less of each other, actually there were closer than that. Every exposure was perfect according to the histogram. I kept looking at the histogram in disbelief, my camera was in Matrix, Aperture priority and Nikon nailed the exposure and every.... single... time. If I had been shooting Canon I would have had 350 different exposures.
When I got them home I pulled them off the cards and confirmed, they were ALL the EXACT same exposure. Unbelievable is all I could say, that and wow....
I'm usually a man of many words, and frankly didn't have any at that time. They were DEAD ON accurate and unbelievably CONSISTENT beyond my belief or expectations! Wow...I mean really guys.....wow!
I had heard that Nikon had better focusing than Canon and that was the #1 main reason I moved over. Better is a relative word though. The question was... is Nikon 10% 50% 1% better at focus than Canon? Only I could answer that so I went to test the Nikon focus system compared to what I know in Canon and I wasn't gentle about it on Nikon.
I focused between trees, through fog (mist), through shallow ponds, peoples arms and legs, through leaves of the trees and onto waterfalls and everything I could find to make these Nikons grab another focus point other than where I was focusing. The Nikons were 100% perfect, and they were never fooled and I mean EVER no matter what I tried.
I took that lowly d70 and 70-300 and at 450mm I focused between tiny branches and nailed a black bird in eye in the shade. I shot people walking, riding bikes in sequences of 1, 3 fps and 5, I used S and C and every single shot was in focus. I shot at 24m to 450mm from 3 feet away to 500 yards. I shot macro and I focused locked and recomposed and still every single shot was in focus. The word wow just doesn't do it justice but frankly I just don't' have any other words to describe it. However, the word "perfect" does comes to mind.
The exposures were indeed perfect and so was the focus and I pushed both to the absolute extreme limits.
Guys, I tried my VERY best to find failure points and pushed these to the absolute shooting limits no amateur would and I simply could not find even ONE single failure point or situation where Nikon failed me. I put these through near impossible circumstances that Canon could never accomplish anywhere close to the same accuracy and consistency and yet Nikon did not fail me... not even once. It's still unbelievable to me how good these Nikons are today and I have the test images to prove it. I'm still in a wow state of shock this morning.
Nikon vs, Canon guys? Oh come on, it's not even remotely close and anyone who says that, is just being politically correct, either that, or they don't know the difference, or care. The 5d to D700 is Ford to Ferrari, it's a plain Donut to Chocolate Éclair for crying out loud.
If anyone is reading this thinking about coming to Nikon, all I can say is dump that Canon gear right this minute and come on, you simply won't believe the difference and EVEN when you see it with your own two eyes.
You guys that have shot Nikon take such things for granted I guess, but for us Canon guys just moving over, it's like the sea has parted and the Sun has come out. Shooting has become fun, processing easy, I don't have to worry if my camera misses or take 5 shots to get one in focus. I can rely on my gear and that frees me up to be more creative. It takes the worry out and what's that worth?
Yes, I'm stoked because I love photography and rely on my camera for my lively hood. I'm beyond happy this morning and can't wait to go shoot and I have not been able to say that in years.
Thanks Nikon! You ROCK!
Joe
