But sometimes  it’s just the little guy with a big idea. Something like Tod, and maybe Genie.

Genie is a self propelled Camera mount system. It drags itself across a rope to get sweeping shots.  I certainly would not pay their full retail price ($999) – but for $695, they look like a decent deal. There are various DIY and opensource methods of doing the same, but I can hardly tie two wires together let alone solder something. So I just backed my first Kickstarter Project: Genie

Lets see how it goes.

200mm f2.8
Models: Suchitra, Neha, Vineetha

85mm 1.4
Model: Archana

–

Last weekend I volunteered for a non profit called Pratidhwani. They have a bi annual charity dance extravaganzas. They have elaborate dance sequences, awesome costumes and  sets.

So I took the D800 for a spin. Theater atomosphere lends itself to extreme dyamic range with harsh lights and pitch dark areas in the same stage – any modern camera (which doesnt have a Hasselblad badge) will suffer to cope with a 8+ variance in dyamic range. I was extremely suprised by the way D800 was able to hold highlights and pull up shadows – particularly the shadows, it was able to pull up 3 stops of details in the shadows.

I shot some videos for the show – but they very not as impressive as the stills were. So I still need to learn proper technique for shooting videos with D800.

I will post more images as I get around to process them.

Got my D800 within 2 days of its release. D800 is sold out everywhere for the next few months. Amazon, Adorama & B&H have started shipping in very low numbers. If you are not in the preorder list by now – it will be late summer before you get it in your hands (Here is the preorder list for D800: Amazon D800).

Me? I got it by old fashioned cold calling, I called almost all non-city Nikon Authorized Centers (PDF) over western US (Utah, Montana, Oregon, Idaho) and found a rural shop in Wyoming which had one in stock (Thanks PhotoImagingCenter!), paid for overnight shipping & it was here 2 days later (2 days is the new overnight for USPS)

Busy playing with it.. will be back in a week :)

Initial impressions

• Unbelievable Dynamic Range – it holds direct sunlight, and shadows very well.
• Proper technique is needed to get tack sharp images. Its not as forgiving as my D90
• Solid well built body - wouldn’t hesitate to take it out in rain or snow.
• HEAVY – I need a good holster to carry it. Most likely I will use it with a light monopod

I need to take all the old content offline to do some spam extermination.

Many of the old posts has been infested with some kinda russian spambot. Its very tedious to remove it manually – it was easy to disable old posts altogether than clean it, and being a lazyguy with a short attention span, I just chose to disable old posts. Hopefully I can clean it up and repost it. But for now, I am just going to add new content.

+ I am going to disable comments or hook up Disqus.

1999 – Nikon D1 (3 MP - $5500) – It was a time when KODAK reigned supreme – they owned the whole Pro Digital DSLR market. Each camera costs 10s of thousands of dollars. $30,000 for a digital camera was not unheard of. Nikon was very late to the party. But when it released Nikon D1 – it was the start of a revolution (which lasted till 2005-06, when Canon raced ahead when Nikon foolishly dissed the FullFrame market). They also made a decision to stick to the 40 year old Nikon F Mount.

Feature set:

• 2.7 megapixel
• 2000 x 1312 px images
• 3D Color Matrix, Center-Weighted and Spot metering
• 2.5 lb Magnesium Alloy body
• shutter lag of 58 milliseconds
• 5,500 USD

Next up, Nikon D70

• Camera NIKON D90
• Focal Length 102mm
• Shutter Speed 1/80 sec
• Aperture f/2.8
• ISO/Film 400
• Category People
• Taken January 27th 2012
• Copyright Ram Ganesh

• Camera Nikon D90
• Focal Length 26mm
• Shutter Speed 1/125 sec
• Aperture f/11
• ISO/Film 200
• Category Fashion
• Uploaded 2 months ago
• Taken January 12th 2012
• Copyright Ram Ganesh