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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2015-04-05, 20:23

There's a fisheye adaptor for the kit lens?
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2015-04-05, 20:27

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matsu View Post
There's a fisheye adaptor for the kit lens?
I got this one. Screws right into the kit lens.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008MBDRTK..._CcEivb08701AY
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008MBDRTK..._CcEivb08701AY
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Matsu
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2015-04-05, 20:32

That could be kinda neat. Does it give a full diagonal fisheye?
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2015-04-06, 06:40

When the lens is zoomed all the way out, it creates a perfect circle within the image.

Zoomed in, it gives a nice little curve to the images. Takes some playing with to get it to the right focal length, but it's fun to just play around with .Plus, it's pretty cheap for a lens.

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Matsu
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2015-04-06, 19:41

Anyone have a good suggestion for some really good de fishing software ?
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2015-04-09, 11:55

Ok, so on top of the lens recommendations, are there any waterproofing strategies for DSLRs that actually work?

I haven't really looked into it at all, but I was just wondering if there was something that I could take with me to give me that level of comfort.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2015-04-09, 12:40

A good camera bag with a rain fly or weatherproof fabric for carry, and if you want to shoot in heavy rain, them get some raincoats or DIY it with plastic bags and rubber bands.

http://www.lenscoat.com/raincoat-c-34.html
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PB PM
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2015-04-09, 22:22

Quote:
Originally Posted by kieran View Post
Ok, so on top of the lens recommendations, are there any waterproofing strategies for DSLRs that actually work?

I haven't really looked into it at all, but I was just wondering if there was something that I could take with me to give me that level of comfort.
As Matsu suggested a rain coat of some kind is ideal for wet weather or working in ocean spray (particularly the latter). You can also pickup cheap $5 rain covers, ideal for smaller DSLR's, from your local camera shop that will work in any kind of rain, and can easily be tossed away, since they are cheap. Perfect for a vacation to a tropical location for example.

If you mean underwater shooting, that's another story altogether, because underwater housings usually coat as much or more than the value of the camera body.
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PB PM
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2015-04-09, 22:31

Today I made the big switch, ditched the D800 for the D750. Kept the D700, since they wouldn't even give me $500 for it. It's worth more to me than that, in terms of usefulness as a reserve camera.

The first things I noticed, while playing with the in store demo, were the grip, lighter weight, and the snappier auto focus. Testing the camera in the field later in the day I noticed this more and more, particularly with moving subjects. Even the 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G VR felt like a new lens, the AF is just that much snappier than the D800. The Expeed4 really makes the entire camera just feel a little bit more responsive, in terms of menu moment, liveview focusing, and so on. I haven't really noticed any ill effects from the slightly tighter arrangement of the AF points, but I'm sure I will later on when I do some portraits. Oh, speaking of AF, I no longer need AF fine tune with the Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art.

I haven't played with features like WIFI or anything like that, but all that will come in time.
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Matsu
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2015-04-10, 06:34

The D750 is really good value. I bet it feels almost compact compared to D700/8xx sized bodies! I'm very tempted to sell both my cameras and get a matching set.

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PB PM
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2015-04-10, 15:10

Yes the D750 is a good deal, especially right now with the rebates on. The D610 is too, if you don't need the features of the D750. Size wise the D750 is not that different from the D700/D800 class, but it is thinner (mount aside) and remarkably light weight. Throw on an older AF-D prime, 1.8G prime, AF-S 24-85mm VR, or 70-300mm VR and you'll have a nice light piece of kit.

Now once you start putting bigger glass on there, aka 24-70mm F2.8 or a 70-200mm F2.8, you might wish you had the heavier body, but it's still comfortable for causal work.
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Matsu
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2015-04-13, 11:02

The D750 is a little bigger and thicker in the grip than the D7000. I don't find 2.8 zooms too bothersome on my d7000 (unless I'm trying to shoot one handed.) Most reports say the D750 is really comfortable, let us know how you make out after using it for a while. Probably not as good for bracing the camera into your breast/shoulder, but you often need a vertical grip for that anyway.

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PB PM
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2015-04-14, 20:47

I wouldn't say the grip of the D750 is bothersome with F2.8 zooms, they just balance differently than with the mid-size FX bodies. They are just a little bit more front heavy, which is expected considering that the D750 is a lighter body. Overall I find the camera comfortable to work with, but I haven't had a lot of shooting time yet, since I've been busy with other work.

One thing I really like about the D750 is the new OLED screen for the viewfinder HUD. Of course the one thing Nikon keeps getting wrong with the mid-range bodies is the placement of the function button, which is oddly placed right beside the mount, very awkward to say the least. I can just reach the button with my pinky finger, but I wish it was in the standard position, of the higher end bodies. I also quickly noticed that all the buttons are smaller than the higher end bodies, not a big deal, but I can see myself fumbling to find them in the dark. On that note, I really wish Nikon would backlight the buttons on all cameras, like the D4/D4s.
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PB PM
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2015-04-21, 19:00

I've had the D750 for over a week now, put a few hundred shots on the shutter, and I thought I would throw out my first impressions of this nice "little" FX body.

1. The D750 is quick and responsive, compared to the D800, and better than the D700 most respects. Auto focus, shooting speed, and writing to SD cards are very fast. Yeah, the buffer is not as big as the D700 or D800, but I don't tend to mash the shutter for more than a second or two at time. I think the shutter button is almost too sensitive, and often end up blasting off 2-4 frames when I only wanted one. As a side note, I find it much easier to get sharp images in low light, thanks to the quieter, gentler shutter/mirror slap. Now keep in mind I'm only using 400x SDHC Lexar Professional cards (60mb/s) so I'm not even using super high speed cards here. Lets put it this way, speed and the buffer are a painfully limiting factor with this camera, at least not for what I've used the camera for over the last week and half.

2. Even though the camera does not have the full "pro" button layout that has not proven to be a problem. With the combination of the U1 and U2 modes and the powerful auto ISO of modern Nikon cameras, I haven't been using most of those "pro" buttons much in the last year or so anyway. Okay, the position of the function button is too close to the lens mount, but other than that I don't have any issues. I don't really miss the AF-ON button, since the AF-L/AE-L button is poorly placed I've not programmed it for that function. One thing I'd love to see Nikon do on a D750 successor is use the larger pro buttons, the buttons on the D750 are kind small. The tactile feel and response of them is also not as nice as the D800/D700, but it's not a huge loss. Oh and I'd love to see them backlit like the D4/D4s.

3. It has all the menu options, and many of the functions of the D8xx bodies. Thanks in part to this, I don't miss the higher end body much at all. Do I wish there was a physical metering mode selector? Yeah, but then the D810 doesn't have that anymore either. I'm also still trying to figure out why highlight weighted metering uses the spot metering symbol with a *, it's kind confusing when you just glance at the camera. It would be nice if it had a more distinct symbol. I like the smaller top LCD, it only shows what needs to be there. I know some people might miss the white balance display, but I use auto 99% of the time, so it is of little consequence to me.

4. Auto focus, as mentioned before is very nice, a big upgrade from the D800 and D700. I cannot say that I find group AF to be any more useful than the older dynamic modes, and it seems to be less flexible. I think it might be a little quicker to acquire focus that in dynamic mode, but doesn't really seem to be any better at keeping focus on moving subjects. I still prefer to use single point or dynamic 9 point, at least for now. I'll keep experimenting with group focusing mode though. The is defiantly better at focusing in low light than the D700 and D800. Not by a huge margin, but it is noticeable. I don't think the actual focus lock is any better, but it is faster and less likely to hunt like crazy. I still have issues with my older Sigma glass, but the 50mm F1.4 Art is much improved over use on the D800.

5. Metering, Matrix with Nikon glass and the Sigma 50mm F1.4 it is very good. Highlight weighted metering does what it says it does. On the other hand the metering (all modes other than spot) do not play nice with the older Sigma APO 120-300mm F2.8 EX DG HSM. I found that I either have major over or under exposure. That is not something that I have experienced with the D800 or D700. Now the D800 did show some, but it was not as sensitive as the D750 appears to be.

6. Resolution, there is still plenty of resolution to go around, for situations when heavy cropping is not required. Do I miss the cropping room from the D800? Kind of. Loss of dynamic range? I cannot say I've seen a noticeable difference. The smaller files are much easier to work with, no doubt about it. Now I can take a few hundred shots and not feel like I'll need a new hard drive next month. Would I wouldn't mind a 36MP camera with the speed, size and weight of the D750. Maybe in two or three years we'll get that.
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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2015-04-22, 13:47

It sounds like a winner, total worth the extra outlay over the D610. I hope they can make an even smaller FX body, perhaps the rumoured f-mount mirrorless camera will drive the FX entry level even further down?

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PB PM
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2015-05-01, 19:53

Has anyone upgraded to Lightroom 6/CC yet? If so what do you think of this update?

I've been running LR CC since launch day, and so far I'm rather impressed with the built in pano stitching and HDR. It may well be one of the best HDR assemblers out there, at least in terms of making photos look like what you can see with your eyes, vis the super arty stuff. I like that it pumps out a DNG that you can work with afterwards rather than a jpeg or TIFF file, which makes a huge difference in what you can do with the image.

I cannot say that I've noticed any speed differences thus far, but LR does seem optimized a little better, at least in some areas. Launching the application itself is much slower. Now that LR is 64bit it does seem to be more RAM hungry, but that may improve the speed of some tasks.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2015-05-01, 22:23

I haven't touched LR since the very early days. Have you been an LR guy for a while or since the demise of Aperture. Have you used both? I'm thinking of trying LR but not in a major rush.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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PB PM
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2015-05-02, 09:35

I was a long term Aperture user (6 1/2 years), but started using the LR/Photoshop CC Photographers bundle back in February after playing with the Photos beta, which obviously was no match. It was not my first go at LR, I've fiddled with the free trial versions since 3, but still liked Aperture better. Lets put it this way, I tried 6 different RAW editors, including some free open source apps, after the EOL announcement of Aperture last June. I still prefer the UI of Aperture, but I finally accepted LR as the replacement, simply by virtue of knowing Aperture wouldn't be compatible with the next version of OSX.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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2015-05-02, 17:30

Thanks, I thought I remembered you being an Aperture guy but wasn't sure. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to switch too but trying to make the most of Photos. Still having a hard time managing the bursts and 1000+ image outings with it though. Going from 5 stars to a single "Favorite" option kinda sucks for my weed and edit workflow, among other things.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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PB PM
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2015-05-02, 17:51

Photos is just an update of iPhoto, at least for now, so the lack of any meaningful new features and the limited functionality are no surprise to me. It's workflow is even more painful than iPhoto, in some respects. The loss of basic things like star ratings and a meaning full way to use keywords is just baffling. It sure makes creating smart albums and such far more difficult than it needs to be.

It does not help that the editing algorithms of Photos are no better than Aperture or iPhoto, both of which were trailing behind most of the competition in the first place. For a free app Photos is fine, but since it's lagging behind even some open source software I had to drop it from consideration almost right away.
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turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2015-05-03, 17:48

That makes a lot of sense given your photography as compared to mine. Now I'm not doing shoots anywhere near as often. I even refer to myself as a "former semi-pro photographer" since I did a number of paying jobs but not any more.

You are right about Photos though. Oh well.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2015-05-08, 13:04

I just picked up a D810 (refurbished) with only 2, two!, clicks on it. Got a ridiculous deal; couldn't pass it up. Though I tried longer than most, using DX and FX jointly wasn't really working for me. The focal lengths never really mapped out across bodies as practically as they should for event shooting I do. The 24-70 and 70-200 pair is just seamless with two FX bodies. Always felt like I was wasting glass the other way around.

I'm going to sell off my remaining DX stuff and probably won't be buying any cameras or glass unless they combine smaller size, faster AF, and more pixels, though the D750 remains really tempting for a few reasons of it's own (smaller size, dual SD, faster AF and shutter speed, I might have to get one more FX camera...

When I get a chance I'll offer up some thoughts on the D810 vs D800 series bodies. Off the top, it is really impressive how much quieter the D810 is. It's dead quiet. And it's a bit better to hold too. Now I have to update Lightroom and learn about moire retouching techniques...

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PB PM
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2015-05-08, 16:13

Nice, the D810 is a nice upgrade over the D800. When I messed around with a D810 in store I also noticed that the grip was improved, and the quieter shutter. It was even quieter than the D750, surprisingly. Having a D810 with a D800 as a backup is a nice setup.
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Matsu
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2015-05-09, 06:58

I had nothing to do last night so I took the camera out to shoot some pics at the local arboretum. It's pretty impressive how all the little changes make the camera easier to use. It's better in the hand, quieter, and group area AF works nicely. I'm not convinced the files are significantly better, though, just easier to obtain. The D800 makes you work a little harder to select focus points for instance, and the shutter kicks a little harder - enough that you hold/brace it more securely. And while I haven't tried highlight metering yet, it should be perfect for certain night scenes. On the D800 you'd be best served by shooting manually, or using exposure lock.

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PB PM
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2015-05-09, 11:19

Yes the shutter of the D800 has a real kick to it, making it a rather poor choice for low light shooting. Sometimes I felt it was a wonder that I managed to get anything in focus at wide apertures. Group AF takes some getting used to, since it is basically a mini version of "Auto", where is uses closest subject priority, but allows you to confine the target area. In some ways I wish it was expandable, like dynamic mode, in terms of allowing you to choose how many points are active, but I'm sure that will come later.

Highlight weighted metering (HWM) is interesting, sometimes it works really well and other times it just makes you scratch your head. It works well for landscapes for example, and even portraits in some situations. Then there are times when it doesn't seem to do what is intended at all, so there is a bit of learning curve. It seems to work well when there are well defined bright areas, such as the sky or bright lights. Then comes the tricky part, if the brightness is not a dominant part of the frame it does not seem to work well at all. There have been a few situations where HWM just crushes everything in the shadows into deep blacks and leaves the bright areas totally blown out. I'm guessing that happens primary when the brightness of the scene goes beyond the dynamic range of the meter sensor.
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Matsu
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2015-05-09, 15:46

The problem with upgrading cameras is that you inevitably start to favour one over the other - at least I do, as I tend to update only one camera at a time (the oldest) and thus usually have bodies from two different generations/iterations. On nights when you get a little GAS it gets in your head and you start thinking about upgrading one piece or other of kit.

Now I have to figure out which works best with which lens, and set them up that way. I know the d800 loves the 85mm, so that's easy, and it doesn't care for the 50, so that's easy too. To date that lens has underwhelmed on both my d800 and d7000, I should see if it fares any better on the 810.

The big task is to see the best way to pair the pro zooms up. The 24-70 has been my most sure footed AF lens on the D800. Give it at least 1/60th of a second and a bit of fill flash and it rarely misses. The VR1 doesn't have the best stabilization going and so doesn't really love to be more than one stop slow. I think I get a bit of movement at times on the D800 when the shutter speed really drops... it may be the shutter snap? This lens has some weaknesses - out at 200mm it's a bit softer, and the edges and corners of the FX frame are weaker, and vignette. In the one day I've used them together, it seems stronger paired with the 810. 14-24 works well with either one.
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PB PM
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2015-05-09, 19:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matsu View Post
The problem with upgrading cameras is that you inevitably start to favour one over the other - at least I do, as I tend to update only one camera at a time (the oldest) and thus usually have bodies from two different generations/iterations. On nights when you get a little GAS it gets in your head and you start thinking about upgrading one piece or other of kit.
Yes the new camera does gain favour quickly, particularly if there are things about the older camera that get on your nerves often. Oddly enough I kept the older camera (aka D700), and dumped the D800. Hard to dump a solid camera that has been reliable, vs the D800 which was just nagging me all the time with this little thing or that little thing.

Quote:
Now I have to figure out which works best with which lens, and set them up that way. I know the d800 loves the 85mm, so that's easy, and it doesn't care for the 50, so that's easy too. To date that lens has underwhelmed on both my d800 and d7000, I should see if it fares any better on the 810.

The big task is to see the best way to pair the pro zooms up. The 24-70 has been my most sure footed AF lens on the D800. Give it at least 1/60th of a second and a bit of fill flash and it rarely misses. The VR1 doesn't have the best stabilization going and so doesn't really love to be more than one stop slow. I think I get a bit of movement at times on the D800 when the shutter speed really drops... it may be the shutter snap? This lens has some weaknesses - out at 200mm it's a bit softer, and the edges and corners of the FX frame are weaker, and vignette. In the one day I've used them together, it seems stronger paired with the 810. 14-24 works well with either one.
I suspect that you'll find the D810 will give similar results as the D800, just with fewer nagging issues, like shutter slap and AF strangeness. The D800 had the worst shutter/mirror slap of any camera I've used to date. Even on a tripod with mirror lockup it would not be perfectly sharp, due to shutter vibration. If the D810 shutter is anything like the D750 that will be much less of an issue. I've found the Nikon 50mm F1.8G usable on the D750, while on the D800 it was just useless wide open. Whether it was a resolution or auto focus issue I don't know, but I didn't use it much on the D800 as a result.

The 24-70mm F2.8G has simply been stunning on every camera I've tried it with, it just seems to work. The 70-200mm VRI is an interesting lens. I much preferred the barrel design of the VRI, which more comfortable to hold for extended periods of time, but the VRII is much sharper at 200mm @F2.8. I cannot say I noticed a huge difference in VR performance. I rented both a few times for some events, but there was some separation between use so I cannot give an accurate appraisal of the situation from memory alone. The 14-24mm should have enough depth of field at F2.8 that you wouldn't notice anything short of major AF misses.
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Matsu
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2015-05-10, 08:26

I actually find the 70-200 VR1 pretty sharp. While the VR is effective I have found that at its at its best between 1/100 and 1/400 or so. You can get weird double halos at faster speeds too. It's almost always shaper with VR off at higher speeds. According to Thom Hogan, it has something to so with the sampling frequency of the VR system, which supposedly cycles at about 1000hz. VR2 is probably a lot faster.

At slower speeds it might just be a combination of me getting tired and the d800 shutter giving it a good kick.

I took a picture of a Canada goose the other day and it was sharp enough to show moire patterns on the feathers on the 810. The good news is that the moire reduction brush in Lightroom works pretty well.
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PB PM
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2015-05-10, 16:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matsu View Post
I actually find the 70-200 VR1 pretty sharp.
So did I, but it's just the as I said, the VRII is just sharper. Is it massively sharper, like the Nikon 50mm F1.4G vs the Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art? Uh no, nothing like that.
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Matsu
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2015-05-14, 08:34

The 50mm f/1.8 focuses significantly better on the D810. For whatever reason it often seemed soft on the D800 wide open, but it looks very good on the D810. The 85 looks great on either one.

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