Moose Gear
At every DLWS event, I demo the power of Capture NX numerous times. That’s because it’s an important tool in my finishing of images. The makers of Capture NX, Nik, have now brought that power, U Point Technology, to Photoshop in a pluggin called Viveza (a name that rolls off the tongue). Your digital darkroom time has just been cut to nothing!
Here’s a photo of Chatham Lighthouse in MA in the Viveza UI inside of Photoshop. You can see in the lower right corner the before and after of the roof. The vibrant color on the right comes from the Control Point I’ve dropped on the tile roof and than yanked over the slider on Saturation, Brightness and Contrast. This is the exact same thing you can do in NX working on a Raw file (NX can also so this to a Jpeg & Tiff) but now in Photoshop.
I actually dropped a total of three points on this photograph. One on the roof to make it pop, one of the green window casings to make them darker and a third on the sky to make it darker, stormier. And in less than 30 seconds, without selecting, masking or brushing, I was able to take this image from bla to colorful to say the least.
as you can see in this comparison, it’s quite a difference (the roof color from the UI isn’t accurate, not sure what was going on with the screen captures).
As I see it, Viveza brings the power of U Point technology to a whole lot more now, especially Canon users (a common question at NX demos). Personally, I still prefer NX because I can make these changes (plus others) to a raw file, but I won’t hesitate to use Viveza if I miss something in NX. Viveza should be available pretty darn soon, like in April. You can pre-order it or get even more information from the Nik website and sign up to be notified when it is available. And yeah, it will be demoed at DLWS now that we can talk about it.
Oh yeah, the 600VR II is very sharp! And it focuses nice and close. This is a photo of a Clark’s Nutcracker perched outside my office (photo taken literally from my desk chair) as it was grabbing a bite of suet (a “here it is” shot). Shot with a 1.7x attached and focused at its MFD, the lens performs very sweetly. The majority of the 600VR II write up is done, should be posted Thursday.
I thought I would start the weekend with a little teaser. You’re staring down the barrel of my 600f4G ED AFS VR II lens. I’m about half way through my initial testing (official sounding term for playing and lusting) period and I have to tell you, I’m impressed. The connoisseur of fine glass, Joe McNally, had told me months back it was well worth obtaining (he shot with it during his shooting for the D3 brochure). Just the closer minimum focusing distance gets your attention, real fast. The VR focuses down to 15.7′ (MF) compared to the AFS II’s 18.7 (MF), a huge improvement! That three feet makes a world of difference with small dickie birds for example. And to obtain this closer focusing distance without using extension tubes is to me in itself, well worth the price. In the next week or so, I’ll have the new page with pics and trivia up so you can make the right choice for your own photography. Until then, I’ll be out testing (playing).
Nikon announced a new body and three new lenses. You’ve got the D60, the 16-85DX, the 60f2.8AFS micro and the very exciting 24f3.5PC-E. I’m very excited to receive the 24PC-E and create some ultra wide panos with the D3. In case it wasn’t on your radar screen, PMA is this weekend.
(photos courtesy of Nikon)
Here’s some more info on the 24PC-E, 60Micro, 16-85DX, and D60. At the Nikon booth at PMA, you will also be able to see the new 45PC-E Micro and the 85PC-E Micro.
Update: Since I haven’t seen these lenses, I wanted to double check facts before posting more info. The E in PC-E stands for Electromagnetic Diaphragm. Since most photographers don’t use a PC lens, this doesn’t mean much. On the D3 & D300 (only at this time) you can use a PC-E lens in any exposure mode, A, S or P just like you would with any lens. Why is that special? PC lenses “break” in half to achieve their PC and when you do that, you loose any mechanical links to the aperture so previously, all PC lenses were preset lenses. No more, that’s darn cool! The 45 & 85 had the soft release because they aren’t ready for prime time yet. You should see the three lenses as early as March.
We’ve been hammered of late with questions in regards to the 600VR lens. I just got word mine is in route so once I have it and have shot with it, I’ll post some thoughts here.
