We shot this for Canadian Business Magazine and a story about business travel. Photo by Greg Locke © 2012

Sometimes you need big lights and sometimes the little one are the perfect tool for the job. Small area, limited time to shoot and reaching for our Speedlights. For this shot we used a Nikon D800 camera and a couple of Nikon Speedlights controlled with the onboard CLS (Commander Mode) system. One Speedlight had a softbox and the other a grid to light the scene in the setting sun overlooking the harbourfront.

Cougar Helicopters dedicated search and rescue helicopter doing ocean rescue exercises off St. John's, Newfoundland. Photo by Greg Locke © 2012

Since we are on the theme of working in a harsh environment lets look at some people who willing jump out of helicopters into into a cold stormy ocean to rescue you when things go wrong. Working search and rescue requires a special breed of person to do a job where the physical and psychological demands to just do the training is beyond what the majority of the population are able or willing to face.

Cougar Helicopters in St. John’s, Newfoundland, which conducts helicopter operations on the Grand Banks supporting the offshore oil industry, has added a dedicated search and rescue helicopter and crews to its fleet.

The SAR teams have been doing training exercises over the past month and we’ve been chosen to photograph their operations as they prepare their especially equipped Sikorsky S92. Cougar is the first operator, civilian or military, to use the S92 as a dedicated SAR helicopter.

Speaking of crappy weather (see previous post) we all know that working in Newfoundland and Labrador, especially if it is outdoors, has its physical and technical challenges.  Our fishermen and mariners have been doing it for hundreds of years and it is still one of the most dangerous jobs around. They survive by their wits, experience, ingenuity and the knowledge passed down from their fathers.

Even with today’s survival and safety technology and practises making it possible to work when you would otherwise be forced to retreat you need a healthy respect when working out on the land and especially the sea.

For one of our clients being able to work and conduct advanced engineering and marine operations safely and effectively in a “Harsh Environment” like the North Atlantic in winter, is the central theme to their overall communications message.

To that end I spend a lot of time out in winter storms, on boats, chasing icebergs, bobbing up and down on the pack ice and generally trying not to get too wet and cold in pursuit of that quintessential Harsh Environment image.

I have learned the finer points of high tech survival suits and discovered the wonders of alpaca wool socks. Choosing the right technical clothing for the situation not only makes working more comfortable but could save your life if things go wrong.

It also means making sure your equipment is prepared for the elements. Choosing the right gear for the job and having backups will determine if you come back with the shots or not. You want to take enough gear to do the job but not so much that it becomes a burden adding to the physical demands of the environment.

After you dress yourself don’t forget to dress your cameras and equipment. Rain coats, hot packs, weather proof cases and pouches, extra batteries, chargers, memory cards and hard drives.

Don’t be afraid to leave your gear out in the cold. It will keep working, if you have enough batteries, down to -20C. Those small hand warmer heat packs taped to the camera will keep everything working  when it gets colder than that.

Bringing a camera from the cold into the warm indoors only causes condensation not only on the lens but inside the camera which will eventually mean a nice repair bill somewhere down the road. …or destroy it completely. Let it acclimatize.

It brings new meaning to the term “environmental portrait.” These are a few shots from recent assignments out in the elements of Newfoundland ….and this is spring time!

West End St. John's, Newfoundland. © GREG LOCKE 2012

Here is the view of the west end of downtown St. John’s you don’t often get. This scene will change considerably over the next few years as three major office building construction projects have begun in the area after more than twenty-five years being vacant land prime for commercial development.

Camera #2 has been installed, with the view above, for our 15 month time-lapse project in the downtown. This site has a few more challenges …like wind, snow, fog and sea gulls …and their droppings! While Camera #1 is nice and warm and dry and next to a coffee machine in an office Camera #2 will have to brave the elements on the roof of an office tower for the next year.

If there was ever any doubt about the fickleness of the elements in St. John’s in Spring I offer up these photos as evidence. On the left is a shot done on a beautiful warm Friday afternoon in April as I was downloading data from the camera. The photo on the right was Monday morning. ...click to enlarge

I have not been excited about a new camera since I traded a bag full of Olympus OM1’s and a bunch of lenses for a couple of new Nikon F3’s, an 80-200mm and a 20mm back in 1985. The first digital camera I considered worth buying was the Nikon D100. I had used the NC2000 and the D1’s and they were total crap. Sorry, it’s the truth and we all know it. Since the D100 I’ve only bought a couple of D2x and a D700.

I wasn’t really planning on buying a Nikon D800.  However, when I saw the specs and it coincided with a need for a new HD video setup I figured it was as good a time as any to make the credit card say ouch.

I don’t think anyone expected a 36 megapixel “full frame” monster with new expanded video features.

I got my order in to  Nikon Canada Pro Services preferred purchase program and Jeff Chevrier at Photocreative, I was able to get one of the first D800s to come into the country.

Cameras, as cool as the technology can be, are still just work tools for professional photographers. They have to have features that are useful and functional in my “real world” shooting and production environment.

With that in mind, this review of the D800 is going to be more about things that matter to working photographers in the field. It’s not a tech “test” or a spec review or, God forbid, a Nikon vs Canon discussion.

Every camera and tech geek on the web has their own version of that and you’ll find the best at RobGalbraith.com and DXO labs websites. Which, by the way, calls the D800 the best DSLR to date.

D800 ON THE JOB

Arc Welder © Greg Locke 2012

I was on my way to a shoot on an office tower construction site when my favourite Fed-Ex driver delivered the new D800. There wasn’t much of a ceremony, the camera was pulled out of the box and tossed in the camera bag and the battery was charged on the way to the site. It would be working alongside the D700 and grand-daddy D2x shooting some stills but mostly B-Camera video today.

It’s baptism would be with splatters of wet concrete. The rest of the week shooting would be rain, freezing rain, winter snow storm, salt water spray and hopping pans of ice on the North Atlantic Ocean and hours of vibration in a big helicopter.  We did get a relaxing evening at the Newfoundland Symphony where its low light capability really showed through. Welcome to your new home buddy.

The photo gallery will give you a pretty good idea the nature of our work over a three week period.

Sikorsky S92 © Greg Locke 2012

The D800 is a chunky camera. Height and width much the same as the D700 but its deeper and a slightly different shape. Certainly heavier. But it feels substantial and balanced in the hand and easy to operate even without the accessory battery grip. Which is good because there is no technical benefit to adding the grip as there was with the D700. You are not getting any faster frame rates or extended battery life.  The only benefit I can see would be the option of AA batteries.

The one knock against the D800 I’ve seen discussed, so far, is the slow frame rate. At 4 frames per second I would tend to agree if you are a daily news or sports photographer.  The 36 megapixels would make anyone’s eyes gloss over with desire but everyone really do have to ask themselves what’s the right tool for the job. The D800 might not be it for you. Frame rate has not been an issue for most of my work and when it is I have other cameras that can handle the job.

DYNAMIC IMAGES

Sea ice. Fogo Island, Newfoundland. © Greg Locke 2012

The thing that struck me almost immediately was the dynamic range and tonal graduation. The files are noticeable different. Side-by-side in NXView2 (see below for software rant) with the D700 and D2x files it was pretty easy to pick out the D800 files.

I was shooting a construction worker almost directly backlit and still getting perfect tones and exposure in the shadow areas. No blocking, blotching or noise in the shadow area.

White sea ice lit by low angle sun and every nuance of the snow texture shows.

Lawyer, James Thistle. St. John's, Newfoundland. © Greg Locke 2012

No blow outs in the snow or blocked up shadow detail. The huge amount of data collected with the 36 megapixel sensor allows for a 14 EV range which allows for much smoother transitions and tonal graduation.  (See DXO for more specs.)

Can it be possible that I can handhold this camera at slower shutter speeds than my other digital cameras and get sharp pictures?  I’m going to have to do some real control tests to sort this one out.

When I first got digital cameras I was finding I could not handhold at slow shutter speeds like 15^th or 30^th, as well as I could with my Nikon or Leica film cameras. The digital sensors were just more sensitive to the smallest of movements than film I figured.

One of the first things I noticed was I was getting very sharp images from the D800 with a 20mm manual focus lens with 15^th of a second shutter speed. Something I was never able to do with my D100, D2x or D700. If anyone also has any experience with this please add a comment below. Curious.

BRING THE NOISE

NSO. © Greg Locke 2012

What noise you say? Yes, it’s true, some people love that they can shoot at 12 thousand, whatever, ISO and get perfectly “usable” photos. The lowlight skills of the D800 a very good but honestly, I might use 3200 ISO once a year and only then out of desperation.  We usually just light everything we need to light so I see noise where other people don’t simply because I rarely have to work with high ISO. Some of the symphony shots were done at 6400 …just to see where the break point for me would be and, yes, I see noise.

BUT it’s not the same as the high ISO noise from my D700 or other DSLRs with mid-teen megapixels.  The “noise” from the D800 isn’t dirty or blotchy. It’s clean, clear and you can still see detail and contrast in the shadow areas where digital technology is at its weakest.  It struck me that it reminded me of film grain!!  Remember when we would say, “its grainy but its sharp.” ?  If you can still see the pores on someone’s face in something shot at 6400 ISO it’s amazing. Weird, eh?

WHAT ABOUT AUTO FOCUS?

North Atlantic Ziplines. Petty Hr, Newfoundland. © Greg Locke 2012

It’s fast. …at least on the AF lenses I have. Even fast with some of the old AF D lenses. Fact is AF is not that important to

most of my work. I still use a lot of old manual focus Nikkor prime lenses which get a bit of a boost with the bright new viewfinder in the D800. It makes manually focusing off the screen much easier.

If any of you “old guys” are still pineing for the manual focus days the D800 viewfinder works very nicely with your old lenses. I’m looking forward to trying out a couple of  Zeiss manual focus prime lens.

I’m send you back to Rob Galbraith for the definitive statement on AF.

VIDEO.

Adapting to the video functions after years of traditional video cameras will be a bit of a learning curve but when you look at what guys like Sandro and Chase Jarvis can do with these little wonders it’s pretty inspiring. You just have to remember the budgets they are working with and all the lighting, grip and stabilization gear it takes to make a professional motion picture production …and that’s before it gets to the editing suite.

I have not had a chance to do any major production with the D800 yet but here is a quick clip reel from the camera, out of the box, no extra lights, mics or stabalization.

WORKFLOW WOES

Fish & Chips at The Duke. © Greg Locke 2012

It looks like the D800 may put an end to my relationship with Adobe products as my primary RAW file processing tool.  My MAJOR GRIPE is not with the camera and I’m not sure if there is anything Nikon can do but Adobe does not support the D800 RAW files in my PS/BRIDGE/ACR PS3 software, nor in my Lightroom 3 which is less than a year old. In fact if you want RAW support for your D800 you have to buy the latest version of Photoshop/ACR or Lightroom. Weren’t counting on that were you? Me neither.  This is the kind of crap that drove me to dump all Apple products out of the office and life a few years back also and there really is no excuse. It’s just corporate bullshit.

Phase One software was recommended by my printer and I’ll be checking that out. They announced last week support for the Nikon D4 and D800.

Or it might be back to Nikon Capture (which is very good software by-the-way) for processing RAW files from my various generations of Nikon cameras.

A UNIQUE CAMERA

Adrienne on her Vespa. © Greg Locke 2012

I don’t think that comparing the D800 to other Nikon or Canon products is of any use. Every creature has its job and the D800 is a different animal in the DSLR world. It brings a whole new paradigm to the game and is a camera with extraordinary abilities for the photographers who need or can use them.

Like all gizmos today, engineers pack in every feature and function they, their mothers and cousins can think up. Most we’ll never use. Hell, I still use these cameras on FULL MANUAL! …But when you find the few features that you can use to make your work sing then that’s gold to you.

The 36 megapixel sensor produces files better than any other DSLR to date and is more comparable to medium format digital cameras and backs where prices start at three times that of the D800 and no where near the handling flexibility. A recent comparison on YouTube to a 40 megapixel Hasselblad tethered to a laptop must have been a joke.

The D800 would not be my first choice for daily news photography either but for editorial and commercial photographers who can use the highest quality and still take advantage of the highly mobile and flexible DSLR form factor this camera is literally …to use an overused phrase, “a game changer”, for the professional photographer.

In just a couple of weeks using this camera it has already allowed me to think anew about my picture making process and that not only brings new creative ideas and possibilities but allows me to “up my game” in the eyes of the client.

GAME ON!

See ourNikon D800 image gallery and our video test reel.

CLIENT: “Greg, we need you for a few days to shoot some portraits of workers at a bunch of locations”.

ME: “Great. Whats the concept?”

CLIENT: “Well, its for a corporate annual report and I’ve laid it out so the portraits are panoramas spanning the page. Nice face shot with vista for a background.”

ME: OK, do have any sketches done?”

CLIENT: “Yes, sending them over now. …but don’t sweat the composition, we can shoot the portraits and backgrounds separately and I’ll put them together in Photoshop.”

ME: “How about we shoot it right the first time and save us both some time ….and it will look much better.”

Here is one of 14 panoramic portraits we shot in five locations on work sites around the Avalon. Many thanks to the crew at Oceanex for accommodating us on this particular shoot on a very cold early morning.

For the tech curious:
For this shot we used a Nikon D700 and a SB700 Speedlight in a softbox controlled by Nikon CLS system.
ISO 200, 160th sec @ f2.8. Focal length = 50mm

We’ve installed our first camera in downtown St. John’s for what will be a 15 month time lapse video of the construction of a new office building on the harbour front. This little Panasonic TM-700 camcorder (an awesome little camera if anyone is looking for a small but high quality HD camcorder) is the easiest installation and gets the cushy job in a nice warm office, next to the coffee machine,  overlooking the site. It will work away at 1 frame per minute for the next 15 months.

Still fine tuning a few things but the first few days look pretty cool. Heat build up from being ON for weeks at a time will be the big test for one of my favourite little cameras.

The next cameras will be outside, down on the site and on the roof of another nearby building, as the project progresses. Weatherproof boxes will be the order of the day for these guys. Have not made a final decision on the camera / intervalometer combination yet. Talking to Nikon tech about what they might have to fit the bill.

The last time I did a major time lapse project it was with a Nikon F2 with a monstrous motordrive, intervalometer and film back with 250 foot rolls of Ektachrome motion picture film. ….and 200 metres of AC power cable.

It’s MUCH easier now.

My only worry is I’ll forget where I left the cameras!!  Check back in 15 MONTHS for the results.