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by **johndec** on Sun Jul 17, 2005 11:53 pm

Don't get me wrong, I love my D70 and 99% of the time, 6 mp is more than enough, but sometimes you could use a bit more (or a fat wallet to buy a D2X) to get usable shots via cropping when you can't get close to the subject.

Last week I was driving up to Richmond (outer Sydney) for work and going past the air force base noticed that there were 3 FA-18's doing "touch and go" landings. If I could capture one at the moment of touchdown it would make a great "Decisive Moment" :lol:

Luckily I had my camera, but the longest lens in my bag was a 200mm. Now you can't exactly wander up to the runway there and shoot away (If I did, I may well have been the one being shot), so it was do your best from the road through a chain link fence...

I took about 100 pics, got my magic moment but alas from such a distance the plane didn't exactly fill the frame. Still, I was full of hope and when I got home I started PPing my heart out...

When I cropped to size, it looked like a pic taken with the camera in my phone :cry:

I blew it up with extensis and noise ninja'ed the bejesus out of it which improved it but unfortunately not to competition entry standard.

The original NEF:

The crop:

It's been a lesson to me that on occasion more MP might be handy :lol:

by **stubbsy** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:00 am

John

Interesting observations, but you could easily get glass with more reach for much less than a D2x or get a TC for what you have :wink:

by **johndec** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:15 am

Very true Pete but, although a D2x may cost cubic dollars, a (fast) 400 or 500mm lens takes up cubic space and is impracticable to carry around. TC's are a good comprimise but take time to fit and slow the lens down which would have possibly caused motion blur in this example (but still worthy of consideration).

With the march of technology, I'll get my wish eventually. :lol:

by **glamy** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:06 am

Even an 80-400 would have helped. I find I often miss the extra range with the 70-200.
Cheers,
Gerard

by **birddog114** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 8:33 am

johndec wrote:With the march of technology, I'll get my wish eventually.

As mentioned on other thread, your patience is your "soon" rewards.
Even if you have the big zoom lenses, it also requires time for you to set them up before you can shoot, and these birds are quick, fast disappear when you're ready.

by **KerryPierce** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 9:09 am

I agree, John. The ability to crop greater chunks would be most welcome. Of course, the downside to that is the requirement for more precise focus, because the crops will show the focus errors and lack of DOF more readily.

by **wendellt** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:21 am

Check out the 22megapixel Medium Format HD1

http://www.hasselblad.co.uk

by **Sheetshooter** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:32 am

Hey John,

Hold on a second, I might have located the whereabouts of a couple of those lost marbles you miss so much.

A bigger pixel count - especially in the range from a D70 to a D2x - is only going to provide a marginal pictorial improvement whereas what you REALLY need is better access and a much, much longer lens. (Along with more pixels if possible.)

I find nothing wrong pictorially with your initial shot. You have caught the point of contact and presented the subject in context. In a narrartive sense the viewer is there with you looking in on the action and eager tyo get a better seat/view. Your crop loses that dynamic for me. It simply becomes a portrait and, dare I say it, a rather static and predictable portrait at that. (No offence intended.) What would give impact and catch the attention would be a much tighter framing of perhaps just the landing gear and a part of the underbelly of the fuselage. A more head-on vantage point added to a tighter cropping would start to really get the viewer on the edge of their seat. Sadly, that may prove more difficult to access than a biiger camera and bigger lens.

In photography the grass is all too often greener with the OTHER KIT - if only I had ..... !! - but there is great truth in the expression DO THE BEST YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE GOT. It is your picture, your idea - not mine. But if it were mine I would be quite content with the contextual narrative that the picture provides. Perhaps a slower shutter speed and a few of PANNING STREAKS might add a sense of speed and energy, but essentially you have planted a lovely rose, why not take the time to smell it for what it is?

Cheers,

by **Sheetshooter** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:34 am

Or you can find out about the proposed new Phase One 39MP back:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... 0705.shtml

by **sirhc55** on Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:57 am

Sheetshooter is absolutely spot on. Given the circumstance of the shoot I would have been MORE than happy with the result.

Always remember that as the Kamikaze was approaching the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill it did not do a loop so the photographer could put on the correct lens :wink: