David Difuntorum
New member
You'll be very happy with this camera if you place it in an environment
where it will excel. I don't do photojournalism or editorial work with this
camera unless there is a ton of light around. Camp out at 80 ISO and you'll be
happy with the results but make sure that your shadow areas are within the
bounderies of the chip's performance arena.
The detail in the files is outstanding. Nothing competes with it for price and
quality just yet.
My clients have been very happy with the results especially when I shoot
tethered. Very cool to have the images
come up on my G4 Powerbook right then for the client to see and make
adjustments.
Makes for a very fluid leadership environment where everyone has a say in the
final image and can contribute to an outstanding image.
Kodak support is outstanding and the people there are proactive and the
software and firmware updates are fantastic. Every complaint I have is
registered and influences the upcoming software and firmware updates.
I only shoot DCR files and the Photo Desk software is excellent at giving me a
heads up on the quality of my images as I shoot them. The Loupe function is
way cool.
Because of the quality of the Kodak software I'm reluctant to get a second
camera that isn't Kodak because of the ease of use. If the SLR/n solves the
noise/high ISO problems I'll stick with Kodak. If not then I'll start looking at
CCD based cameras.
The 1:1 ratio is great and is another reason why I'm reluctant to move to
another platform.
Battery use isn't an issue with me.
Having the ability to open my shutter and blow off dust is very handy in the
field. Just make sure you're not in a sandstorm when you do that.
Check out my website (www.difphoto.com) to see 14n images and click on
"contact' to give me feedback and your thoughts. Keep in mind most of the
images are from the 14n. A few are film.
Problems:
Here are the caveats to the warm and fuzzy ratings;
Low light shooting produces garbage images filled with way too much noise.
Don't go there unless you like that kind of look. Like I said, this isn't a camera
for All Things Digital but it does great once you get to know it.
Stay between 80 and 125 ISO. Everything sucks above that.
Extreme differences in highlight and shadow areas can create a halo effect that
appears to be a result of excess light bouncing off of the chip to hit the rear
of the lens and then bouncing back again to make a "ghost" reflection. Weird
but managable if you know the abilities and limitations of the camera.
The current 14n has a maximum of 125th of a second flash sync but in pro
shooting environments I have to pull back to 90th of a second with my radios.
Reason? The Kodak gurus say that there is a delay of some kind between
shutter actuation and flash acuation. (I don't shoot on camera flashes, only
power packs.)
If you shoot with the radios at 125th you'll get a faint dark band on the top of
the image if you're shooting horizontaly and the band appears on the left if
you shoot verticly.
I haven't shot with a PC chord directly conntected to my power packs and I
don't mind the inconvenience of radios too much.
I use the new Pocketwizard Plus (Best bang for the buck!) to keep my
Speedo gear from frying my camera with an uncontrolled pulse of electrical
feedback.
The radios provide great freedom and safety but I have to pull pack my sync
speed a bit. It's a little annoying because when I shoot out side with Speedo
gear I have to hang out around f16-f22 in order to get the look I want and
the only way I can do that is if I pull back my ISO to it's lowest possible
setting. I haven't experimented yet with artificially pulling back to ISO 64 yet.
I assisted a photographer who had an older digital camera that got zapped
because his camera was directly connected to the power packs. He didn't have
a radio slave or a surge protector between the camera and the power pack.
The thing is a pig to hold but I didn't buy it because it looked sexy. The
verticle shutter button is awkward so expect the problems and suck it up.
My schnoz will bump the buttons on the back and can be irritating as long as
the wrong buttons aren't pressed.
If you use a VR lens in a studio environment, shut off the VR. You'll get some
irritating blur in the images.
Run a test on all your lenses to watch for slight variations in exposures. Only
one of my lenses is dead-on with exposure but I've taped exposure correction
notes to all my other lenses; I have a 300 f2.8, a 20-35 f2.8 and a 70-210
f2.8.
where it will excel. I don't do photojournalism or editorial work with this
camera unless there is a ton of light around. Camp out at 80 ISO and you'll be
happy with the results but make sure that your shadow areas are within the
bounderies of the chip's performance arena.
The detail in the files is outstanding. Nothing competes with it for price and
quality just yet.
My clients have been very happy with the results especially when I shoot
tethered. Very cool to have the images
come up on my G4 Powerbook right then for the client to see and make
adjustments.
Makes for a very fluid leadership environment where everyone has a say in the
final image and can contribute to an outstanding image.
Kodak support is outstanding and the people there are proactive and the
software and firmware updates are fantastic. Every complaint I have is
registered and influences the upcoming software and firmware updates.
I only shoot DCR files and the Photo Desk software is excellent at giving me a
heads up on the quality of my images as I shoot them. The Loupe function is
way cool.
Because of the quality of the Kodak software I'm reluctant to get a second
camera that isn't Kodak because of the ease of use. If the SLR/n solves the
noise/high ISO problems I'll stick with Kodak. If not then I'll start looking at
CCD based cameras.
The 1:1 ratio is great and is another reason why I'm reluctant to move to
another platform.
Battery use isn't an issue with me.
Having the ability to open my shutter and blow off dust is very handy in the
field. Just make sure you're not in a sandstorm when you do that.
Check out my website (www.difphoto.com) to see 14n images and click on
"contact' to give me feedback and your thoughts. Keep in mind most of the
images are from the 14n. A few are film.
Problems:
Here are the caveats to the warm and fuzzy ratings;
Low light shooting produces garbage images filled with way too much noise.
Don't go there unless you like that kind of look. Like I said, this isn't a camera
for All Things Digital but it does great once you get to know it.
Stay between 80 and 125 ISO. Everything sucks above that.
Extreme differences in highlight and shadow areas can create a halo effect that
appears to be a result of excess light bouncing off of the chip to hit the rear
of the lens and then bouncing back again to make a "ghost" reflection. Weird
but managable if you know the abilities and limitations of the camera.
The current 14n has a maximum of 125th of a second flash sync but in pro
shooting environments I have to pull back to 90th of a second with my radios.
Reason? The Kodak gurus say that there is a delay of some kind between
shutter actuation and flash acuation. (I don't shoot on camera flashes, only
power packs.)
If you shoot with the radios at 125th you'll get a faint dark band on the top of
the image if you're shooting horizontaly and the band appears on the left if
you shoot verticly.
I haven't shot with a PC chord directly conntected to my power packs and I
don't mind the inconvenience of radios too much.
I use the new Pocketwizard Plus (Best bang for the buck!) to keep my
Speedo gear from frying my camera with an uncontrolled pulse of electrical
feedback.
The radios provide great freedom and safety but I have to pull pack my sync
speed a bit. It's a little annoying because when I shoot out side with Speedo
gear I have to hang out around f16-f22 in order to get the look I want and
the only way I can do that is if I pull back my ISO to it's lowest possible
setting. I haven't experimented yet with artificially pulling back to ISO 64 yet.
I assisted a photographer who had an older digital camera that got zapped
because his camera was directly connected to the power packs. He didn't have
a radio slave or a surge protector between the camera and the power pack.
The thing is a pig to hold but I didn't buy it because it looked sexy. The
verticle shutter button is awkward so expect the problems and suck it up.
My schnoz will bump the buttons on the back and can be irritating as long as
the wrong buttons aren't pressed.
If you use a VR lens in a studio environment, shut off the VR. You'll get some
irritating blur in the images.
Run a test on all your lenses to watch for slight variations in exposures. Only
one of my lenses is dead-on with exposure but I've taped exposure correction
notes to all my other lenses; I have a 300 f2.8, a 20-35 f2.8 and a 70-210
f2.8.