Nikkor 28-105 3.5-4.5D - Cheap, Sharp FX Standard Zoom with Macro

If you are looking for an inexpensive standard zoom for full frame, you may be interested in the Nikkor 28-105 3.5-4.5D.  It has a lot going for it:

• Sharp even wide open
• Small and compact
• Aperture is not so narrow
• 1:2 macro function
• Inexpensive

Is there a catch?  Hit the jump to find out and see more samples.  And if you're into Skylanders you can also see some buying suggestions (or find out what the buzz is about).

LENS CONSTRUCTION
The 28-105 is very small and compact, which is a little surprising given its focal length range and aperture.  Filter size is only 62mm.  The lens is made of plastic but has a metal mount.  It is reasonably well made, and has no zoom creep.

The 28-105 has an aperture ring.  So this is one lens that will allow you to change aperture in real time in the D600's Live View Movie mode.

The lens cap is the old style Nikon lens cap with clips on the side, which my coauthor detests :).  The optional lens hood (HB-18) is plastic and is very wide.  I have a third party version but I don't usually bring it because it takes up so much space.

Safe

SHARPNESS
The 28-105 is very sharp.  Check out the test shot below with no additional sharpening.  The lens picked up the details of the skin very well.

Click for higher resolution

AUTOFOCUS
The 28-105 doesn't have a built-in focus motor, so autofocus speed depends on the camera body.  On the D600 it is very fast.  It was able to capture these shots of my kids on a swing on Auto Area AF with AF-C. I just held down the shutter and hoped for the best.  Even though I rarely got perfect focus, the majority of the time, the focus was acceptably sharp (good enough for 8x12 print).

Carefree

MACRO
One cool feature of the 28-105 is its macro mode.  True macro lenses offer a 1:1 reproduction ratio.  Many non-macro lenses claim macro capabilities but they have ratios like 1:3 or 1:4, which isn't really macro in my book.  In the case of the 28-105, it has 1:2 macro ratio, which does make a difference.

The Nikkor 28-105 3.4-4.5 has a switch between normal mode and macro mode.  In normal mode, it can zoom from 28mm to 105mm.  However, its closest focusing distance is about 1.5 feet (0.5 meter).  To focus on an object closer than that, you need to zoom it to 50mm or longer, and slide the switch to the macro mode.  In the macro mode, it can focus as close as about 3 inches.  While in macro mode you can only zoom between 50mm and 105mm.  To zoom it back to 28mm, you have to refocus it to 1.5 feet or beyond.

Nikon D600 + Nikkor 28-105 3.5-4.5D macro mode.
Click for high resolution.

THE CATCH

With all those positives, is there a catch?  Yes.  The 28-105 has significant chromatic aberration.  Fortunately, the CA can be reduced or corrected in Lightroom 4.  Click on the samples below for full resolution cropped samples.

Uncorrected

Corrected for CA and purple fringing

MORE SAMPLES

I like this lens as a casual walkaround lens because of its compact size.  Its aperture is not as wide as my other lenses but it has a very useful focal length range and I use its macro mode to capture small details.

SKYLANDERS

BTW, the macro shot above is of a Skylanders figure.  In case you're not familiar with Skylanders, it's an adventure video game (action RPG, like Diablo) that works with toy figures, and it's one of the hot toys for 2012.  You collect toy figures, put them on a platform (the "Portal of Power"), and the figure enters the game as a character.  You swap figures/characters in real time* during the game to take advantage of each character's particular strengths and to access areas that are open only to characters of a particular element.  Each character has money and upgrades that are saved on that particular figure.  That figure can then be used when visiting friends, even on a different console.
*The 3DS version allows swapping only between two characters at a time.

The game itself is fun and easy enough for young kids.  It is also strangely appealing even to parents.  (I suspect it will also be interesting to photographers who are gearheads.)  My wife was the one who got interested in Skylanders after seeing a display at a store.  I like it as a way to spend time together as a family (although the game can be played with 1 player, 2 players can play cooperatively or battle each other in an arena).  I also like it as a way of teaching our son.  He gets a new character as a reward (e.g. for reading a new book) and as a punishment, a character can get time out (e.g. he can't use it for a weekend).

The original game, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, is available for the Wii, 3DS, PS3, Xbox360, and PC.  Each version has its strengths and weaknesses.  They are all ports of each other except the 3DS which offers a different game.

- The Wii version of Spyro's Adventure has a quirk: you can use the Hidden Treasure item (from the Pirate Adventure Pack) an unlimited number of times in the Ruins to power up quickly.  Even if you have a PS3 or Xbox 360, you may be interested getting the Wii version to power up your characters then bring them over to your other console. hehe.  The downside of the Wii version is that the final boss is very difficult compared to other console versions.
- If you want to have one character of every element, then the triple packs to get are: Camo/Ignitor/Warnado and either Eruptor/Chop Chop/Bash or Zap/Hex/Dino-Rang.  Together with the starter pack (Trigger Happy/Spyro/Gill Grunt) you will have at least one of each element.  However, see below re Series 2 characters.
- The adventure packs include items that can make your characters stronger.  For example, if you use the Healing Elixir (from the Darklight Crypt adventure pack), it will heal your character every few seconds.  The effect of the item is usually limited to a certain duration (around 1 minute).  You can use an item only once per stage, and you can only use one item at a time.

The sequel to the original Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is Skylanders Giants, which was released just this past Sunday.

• Each element has one giant and one new small character.  The new characters cannot be used in Spyro's Adventure.
• The original characters can also be used in Giants, and their upgrades and money carry over.  Plus they can level up to 15 (instead of 10) in Giants.  However, see below re Series 2 characters.
• If you're still playing Spyro's Adventure, consider getting the Series 2 version of a character if possible.  The Series 2 characters have an extra power (the "Wow pow") in Giants.  Sometimes the wow pow is a cool attack.  Sometimes it's lame.  You just have to check with each character.  The other benefit of a Series 2 character is that it can change upgrade paths in Giants (but only when you get to your base, not in real time or in the middle of a level).  If you've decided the Series 2 version is better then you should get the Series 2 now because the most important benefit is that you can use the Series 2 figures in both Spyro's Adventure and Giants.  We use the Series 2 character in Spyro's Adventure so that we won't have to waste time upgrading them all over again for Giants.
• Even if you already have a portal, consider buying the Giants starter pack instead of the portal owners pack. The new portals are wired so you save batteries, plus you get 2 extra figures.  Not bad for the extra $15.  The new wired portals can be used with Spyro's Adventure as well.
• Triple packs are a little cheaper than buying the characters individually (it's about a $5 less than buying 3 characters).  If you plan on getting triple packs, think carefully before buying the single characters that are currently available.  For example, Flashwing and Sprocket are touted as rare characters.  Indeed they are currently not so easy to find.  However, they will be included in triple packs in the near future.  If you plan to get those triple packs, then you shouldn't worry about getting them now.  FYI each triple pack has only one of the new characters, and has two reposed Series 2 characters (or in the case of the Shroomboom triple battle pack, has a cannon item).
• Think carefully before getting the Giants' Legendary characters.  Toys R Us has a Legendary Triple Pack (Ignitor, Slam Bam,  Jet Vac) that has slightly more powerful versions of the characters.  However, according to the box, the Giants' Legendary  characters can't be used in Spyro's Adventure unlike the regular Series 2 versions of the same characters.
• Light Core: Each element has one Light Core version of one character.  All of them have non-Light Core counterparts.   Light Core characters light up (there's actually some sort of LED inside) and when you use them in the game, it creates an explosion that attacks a large area of the screen (each Light Core character can do this once per level).  The disadvantage of the Light Core version is that unlike the Series 2 version of the same character, they don't have a wow pow and they can't switch upgrade paths.  Officially, Light Core is not supported in Spyro's Adventure.  However, the Light Core versions of original characters (e.g. Prism Break, Eruptor) appear to work in Spyro's Adventure.  See this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ7k-EC0WUs .
• If you have a Nintendo 3DS, FYI the game plays quite differently from the other versions.  Some say it's not as nice as the other versions but at least it offers new adventures for the characters, so in my opinion it's a worthwhile extra purchase.  You can use the same characters but you can only use two at a time.
• Frito-Lays has a promo that offers mini versions of 4 skylanders, called Sidekicks.  These sidekicks don't do anything functional in the game.  They just tag along with your character.  But they are cute and are collectible.  Note: for Giants, there will be 4 new sidekicks that are mini versions of 4 of the giants.

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Shooting Tip: Prime Focal Lengths (Basic)

Part of the gang. 28mm

Do you want to be able to look at a shot and have a good idea of the focal length used without looking at the EXIF?  More importantly, do you want to be able to imagine the shot in your head and use focal length as part of your intended design?  Then here's a tip: become familiar with the prime focal lengths, such as 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, etc.

Instead of zooming for convenience, pick a focal length and shoot with that focal length until you become familiar with its 'look'.  If you don't have primes that's fine - just look at your zoom barrel which has these focal lengths marked on it.  Some point-and-shoot cameras such as the LX5 also have a "step zoom" function which zooms to the typical prime focal lengths.

I suggest first getting familiar with the equivalent of 50mm, then try the extremes - the widest angle you have, then the longest focal length you have, then work your way through the intermediate steps, becoming more familiar with increasingly subtle changes.  For example: 50mm, 24mm, 200mm, 35mm, 105mm, etc.

105mm

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Better Point-and-Shoot Shots with an External Flash

Last weekend, one of our friends celebrated their daughter's birthday party.  On this kind of occasion, I don't usually bring a DSLR anymore - I feel it is a little too much when we're not the celebrants.  Instead, I brought our trusty Lumix LX5 (reviewed here).  However, to get the best image quality out of the LX5, I paired it with an external flash, the Yongnuo YN-560EX (reviewed here).

Yes, the 560EX is a manual not TTL flash.  (I don't have a dedicated TTL flash for the Lumix LX5.)  However, using a manual flash while shooting run-and-gun is actually easier than it sounds.  (See: Therapy for TTL Addiction: How to Use Manual Flash).

In this post, I'll discuss my thought process in setting the flash and ambient exposures.

THE LOCATION
The birthday party was at a My Gym play area.  The room was about 4 or 5 times as long as it was wide.  The ceilings were white, and about 12 to 15 feet high.  One side of the room had mirrors while the other side had a mural and colorful playsets.

Not the same party but the same location, showing the ceiling

OVERALL STRATEGY

The first thing I do is assess the ambient light.  The party was late in the afternoon, almost sunset.  The storefront windows were covered by blinds to prevent glare.  There were fluorescent lights all over the ceiling, so the ambient light from the ceiling was soft.  Direct sunlight was streaming through and illuminating part of the room.  The direct sunlight was of course hard but it was coming in at an angle, so at least it had an interesting direction.

One possibility is to use ambient only.  There were two issues with this.  First, the fluorescent would be too dim, forcing the LX5 to struggle with much higher ISOs.  Second, there would be strong contrast between the sunlight and the fluorescent-lit areas.  Flash was definitely a useful tool under these circumstances.

Since I've decided that flash would help, the next thing is to figure out the respective roles of the ambient and flash.  One option is to expose for the ambient then use flash as fill.  It would solve the contrast between sunlit and fluorescent-lit areas.  However, it would not fix the dim fluorescent light (I would have to use high ISO).

On the opposite extreme, I could use flash only with no ambient, for maximum control.  The LX5 has an unlimited sync speed which facilitates 'deleting' the ambient.  But in this case, the subjects and the rest of the room were evenly lit with the ambient.  If I deleted the ambient for the subject, I would also be deleting the ambient for the room.  If I did that and used flash on the subject, then it would look artificial, like this (one of my early flash photos):


Or I would have to simulate the light in the room, which would have required at least a couple more flashes given the size of the room.  Not practical.

The compromise here is to use flash as the dominant light source, but to allow enough ambient to look natural.  How much ambient to allow here depends on a number of factors, such as: does the ambient look good or not, how consistent are the ambient and the flash, etc.  In this case, the ambient was fine (it's soft, comes from a reasonable direction, has a reasonable color, is consistent with the flash).  The more ambient I allowed, the more natural the image looked and the less the flash would have to work.  But because the camera can't handle high ISOs, I had to allow as much ambient as the camera could handle competently then use the flash for the rest.

I used manual exposure for the ambient.  In this case, I used the highest ISO the camera could manage, the widest available aperture, and used the slowest shutter speed that would not result in blur.  In the case of the LX5, I chose 400 ISO.  As for aperture, the LX5 can go as wide as f/2.0 to f/3.3 depending on the zoom; DOF is not really an issue for point and shoot.  For the shutter speed, I tried 1/100 first but it was too slow to get sharp enough shots of the kids.  So I tried progressively faster shutter speeds.  Of course it would be nice to shoot at 1/500 for sharpness but again, there would not be enough ambient in that case.  I settled at 1/200.

The rest of the exposure was lifted by the flash.  I wanted the flash to blend with the ambient - soft, overhead, white.  The logical choice was to bounce the flash against the ceiling.  That's exactly what I did, although I varied it slightly from pointing just straight up.  I also made sure to shield the flash with my hand so it wouldn't shine directly on the subjects.  In terms of intensity I just chimped it to lift the underexposed ambient to the right level.  That was around 1/4 power at 105mm zoom, although I was adjusting it up and down from time to time.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH
An alternative approach was to use automatic exposure, underexposed -1EV.  Closer to 0EV would be natural but again, the ambient was too dim -- plus shutter speed may be too slow).  I used aperture priority then chose the widest available aperture (again, DOF is not an issue for p&s), then I used flash to bring up the rest.  It's a simpler approach but with less control over the variables.

FILL FLASH
You recall that one of the issues is the contrast between the sunlit area and the fluorescent-lit area.  For those parts, the exposure was set for ambient, and the flash acted only as fill.

Aperture priority, 0EV.  No flash.

Aperture priority, 0EV. Flash added.

FLASH BLUR
One of the activities at the party was riding a zipline.  To capture that, I used intentional flash blur.  I set the exposure to a slow enough shutter speed.  Then, because the subject would be moving and the LX5 isn't fast enough to focus continuously, I used a narrower aperture to get a deep DOF.  Then I used the ISO to bring the exposure up to around normal.  Given that the aperture was somewhat narrow and the ISO on the low side, I set the flash to full power, then tweaked ISO upward as needed to get the desired exposure.

MORE SAMPLES
Here are a few more shots from the party.

Freeze!

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Nikon D600 posts

We have a bunch of posts related to the Nikon D600. I will consolidate them but for now here is a link to the posts, sorted in reverse chronological order:
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/search?q=d600&max-results=20&by-date=true

(This shows only the most recent 20 posts. Remember to click on "Next post" at the bottom to see the other posts.

UPDATE: All D600-related posts now on one page, organized by topic here
Nikon D600 Resource Page 

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How to Fix Underexposure

In this post, we're going to talk about options for fixing intentional or unintentional underexposure.  This is for any camera, not just the Nikon D600.

We have talked about how to preserve highlights by underexposing the image.  See here and here.  The next step is to recover the midtones and shadows.  Here are a couple options.

FLASH
One option is to use flash at the time of the exposure.  In the shots below, my wife and kids were standing under a gazebo, facing the shaded interior.  I underexposed the ambient so that the sunlit background wouldn't blow out.

For comparison, here is a shot from the same conditions where I did not use flash and only used post-processing:

The advantage of using flash to bring up the exposure of the midtones and shadows is that the image quality will probably be higher because you'll have less noise and posterization.  The challenge with using flash is that it takes good technique and equipment to make it look natural.  (That will be the subject of another post.)  In this case, I bounced the flash against the canopy of the gazebo, above and slightly to camera right.

POSTPROCESSING
The other way to remedy the underexposure is of course postprocessing.  An easy way to do it in Lightroom  4 is to drag down the highlights while boosting the shadows.  Here is a sample.

This is the SOOC shot:

Here is the recovered shot, in this case with -100 highlights and  +100 shadows:

Super easy.  To me it looks ok, and this is the approach I used for a while.  However, it has somewhat of an artificial HDR look to it, which I don't like too much.  My current postprcessing approach is different.  It takes a few more steps but it is still easy (though not quite as easy as the above method).  Here is the result, side by side.

The new version looks much more natural.  In addition, when you look at the arms for example, they appear more three dimensional rather than flat.

HOW THIS POST GOT STARTED
Before I talk about my new approach, you may be curious about how the new approach originated.  You know what?  It directly originated from a comment on this post, from Mark.  Mark observed that some of my shots look HDR-ish.  Mark's comment gave me the impetus to work on that issue.  And now look what resulted.  Isn't that amazing, how much a short comment had a significant impact?

This is by no means a unique example.  I can cite many others.  Here are a few:
- A long time ago, a reader suggested using Neil's black foamie thing.  Here is the resulting post.  You also know how often I have recommended Neil's BFT since then.  And you might recognize that reader now. :)
- I got introduced to wide angle lenses because of a comment by Opt on this post.  The Tokina 11-16 and 10-17 are now two of the lenses I most often use.
- A photographer asked me how to apply the D3200 camera profile for the D600.  This is the resulting post.
- A reader emailed me to analyze some images that he liked and I found how focus stacking could be used in a non-macro context.  (Subject of a future post.)
I really could go on and on.  What I hope you get out of this is that YOU are important.  On this blog, your involvement matters to us and has a significant impact on the blog and its readers.  Why?  In no small part because I know there are readers who are more talented, knowledgeable, and experienced than me.  So I listen carefully.

And I am very grateful to all of you who have taken the step of getting involved.  By that I mean anything from even posting a comment (even a criticism), sharing a link to this site on social networking sites or another forum, or emailing suggestions and questions.  And you know what?  There are tons of other ways to get involved.  Maybe you have a lens or equipment that you'd like to review.  Maybe you have a photo-related site and could mention us.  Maybe you are a web designer and know how to improve our site's layout.  Maybe you're a marketing or SEO guy (I'm clueless about promoting our blog).  Maybe you can help us update our index.  Got a huuuuuge backlog of article ideas too.

For some of us getting involved is second nature.  But for some of us it is not.  So, what's in it for you besides being able to help other readers?  Consider this - the most successful photogarphers I know are connected.  To other photographers, their audience, their community, and especially to their subject.  (And actually, it's not just photographers, it's virtually anyone successful I can think of.)  So getting involved is you getting connected.  Consider the impact that being connected may have on your photography and your life.  What would that look like?

Yeah so that's my take on how to fix underexposure. :)

BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING
So, let's talk about the new process I'm using.  Here are the things I do in Lightroom 4.  (BTW, in LR, the order in which you do them doesn't matter.)
1. Highlights: -100 (or as much as needed to get all available the highlight details)
2. Using a local adjustment brush I paint an additional -100 Highlight.  Usually I do this on the whole image with a large brush.  Related post.
3. I decrease contrast.  You'll see that the shadows will get lifted a bit while the highlight details become easier to see.  Depending on the contrast in the scene, I decrease the contrast up to -67 or so.  More than that and the image starts to look weird.
4. I boost shadows only up to +20.  More than that and the image starts to look HDR
5. I increase the exposure.  In LR4 this will affect the midtones more than the highlights.
6. I deepen the blacks by adjusting the black clipping slider.  By how much depends on the image but usually I want a pure black on a small part of the image.
7. If there's a little space left on the histogram between the highlights and the peak white values, I increase white.

Here are more shots that were post-processed with this technique.

All shots were with the Nikon D90 and Nikkor 24-70.  (I might post the SOOC versions but they look pretty much like silhouettes.)  BTW the Nikkor 24-70 was not such a bad focal length for the APS-C D90.  At its widest it was still reasonably wide.  At its longest it was a portrait-like lens.  Focus was off on some of the shots especially the backlit ones.  The D90 seems to struggle under those conditions.

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Nikon D600 Dynamic Range in the Real World

You saw from our Nikon D600 dynamic range test that the Nikon D600 showed exceptional shadow recovery capabilities.  In this post, we'll show how that capability can be used in the real world, using some of the samples from the Nikon D600 and the Nikkor 24-70 2.8G.




Here are a couple of those shots again:

Here are how those shots looked like straight-out-of-the-camera:

If you're wondering why the SOOC shots looked underexposed, it's because I wanted to protect the highlights.  With digital sensors (or slides), when highlights are blown, they are lost forever.  To avoid clipping the highlights, the shot has to be underexposed to the point where the highlights are not clipped.  See this post discussing this.  As you can see in the final shots, the highlight details were preserved.  The downside of this approach is that the image will have more noise on those areas where the shadows were lifted.  In the case of the D600, however, the shadow recovery is so incredible that there is not a lot of noise even for extreme adjustments.


Here are a couple of other, more extreme examples, comparing the SOOC version and the final result.  The noise in the final versions looks negligible to me.  I did not apply any noise reduction.

You might wonder how the exposure is set to avoid clipping highlights.  Setting the Active D-Lighting to 'Auto' or 'Extra High' is sometimes sufficient.  Check out this example:

Here is the SOOC version.  The camera chose an exposure that avoided clipping the highlights on the glove.

Here is the glove (exposure decreased to show that no detail was lost).

Other times, especially for very contrasty light, the D600 tries to make a guess: it either thinks you're doing a silhouette in which case all highlights will be preserved, or it thinks you're doing a more typical image, in which case it will try to get a correct exposure for the subject (based on where the focal point is) and let the highlights clip.  If the camera does the latter, I just have to rein in the exposure by dialing it down:

(If you'd like to know a more reliable way to confirm that highlights were not clipped, check out this tip.)

The second part of this solution is how to lift the shadows to where they should be.  I'll discuss a few alternatives in the next post.

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