Shooting with the Nikon D600

Late last year, I talked about how I rented a lens from my friends at LensProToGo.com.  Not only do they rent lenses, but they also rent out all sorts of camera gear.  This week, I decided to start experimenting with different cameras.  I chose to rent a Nikon D600 camera body this week.  So far, it's measured up to be a real workhorse.  I really like it.  The menus and functionality are a little different from my Nikon D5000, but I like it!         

It's a full frame camera, with 39 different focus points to choose from.  I like the ability to choose where I want my focus to be.  As you shoot, you can choose from any of the 39 focus brackets within frame, just by touching the control pad on the back of the camera.  

The other reason I like it is its ability to produce a photo that's lower in noise when you're shooting in low light with a high ISO.  Have you ever noticed when taking pictures in low light or in the dark, that most cameras add a lot of noise?  iPhones are notorious for doing this.  It automatically adds something called ISO.  It's basically like adding fake light into a photo.  On DSLR cameras, you can adjust that manually, or leave it on Auto and let the camera decide how much ISO to add in.  When you can't use a flash, ISO may be your only hope for getting a decent exposure.  But there are downsides.  When you add ISO, you add noise.  Below are two shots taken with both cameras with EXACTLY the same settings/lens.  My dog kindly posed for me in these shots.    

Not only is the D600 yielding a sharper photo, but it's also lower in noise.  Why does this make a difference?  Well, it really depends on how trained your eye is and whether or not you're printing your photos.  When you look at your photos on a screen, are they at 100%?  Or, are you zoomed out?  That'll make a difference too.  If you're printing photos like this, you can be sure you will see that noise.  Guaranteed.

As a general rule, most people don't notice it.  But if you look close in certain photos, you'll start to see it more and more.  Sports photography has a lot of noisy photos because the lighting in stadiums isn't really that great.  Look at your next issue of Sports Illustrated.  Rummage through the photos in the articles.  You'll see that those photos are noisy.  It's just a fact of life.        

I have two shoots scheduled in the next few days.  One of which is the Mobile Summit at Notre Dame tomorrow.  This will be a great trial weekend for the D600.  But I have a feeling it's going to perform great.  Hope to see you there!