Hunting Focus

I have the 80-400 VR lens, a pro-sumer grade telephoto from nikon. I had (still have actually) the 70-300VR (both of these are slower 4.5-5.6 aperature lenses) and had meant to sell the 70-300 when I upgraded. Then I found out the 80-400 weighs a ton and wasn’t that highly thought of  by a lot of lens reviewers.

Their chief complaints are that its large (its the very first VR lens, and I think thats part of the problem), and that its not AFS. The last complaint is really two complaints – its slow to focus (its a LARGE lens and the motor drive in the camera has to do all the work) and it has nikons older “clutching” system for going back and forth between autofocus and manual focus modes.

Well, its horse hockey mostly. First of all, its as sharp a lens as you are. Perhaps when I get better I’ll see a quality difference between it and the very sharp 70-300, but I don’t see it right now. As for focus, it ISN’T the fastest focusing lens I’ve ever owned (which I think was my sigma 30), but its not THAT bad. I would not want to use it for sports true, but … I’m not a sports shooter. And I think if you intelligently used the focus limit switch, probably most of that would go away.

But lets see where this lens really shines – for one – again, its sharp. If you do your job it’ll take great pictures. I’ve never looked at a bad picture I’ve taken with it and blamed the lens. Second, there’s more to focus than just speed. There’s also accuracy – this lens focus’s very accurately. There’s also low-light focusing. In my shoots with Beast Women Productions I’ve had the opportunity to torture test all my lenses in the dark basically, and this lens does as well as my 50mm AFD f/1.4 – a lens which focus’s in the dark very very well indeed.

Plus it gets you out to 400mm (FX no less) for about $1100 used (I paid less than that, but that seems the going rate). Thats a hell of deal. One of the shooters at the zoo today was using nikons awesome 70-200 f/2.8 VR – but to get to 400, he was using a 2.x teleconverter. It works out to about the same thing – both 400, but he’s paid about double what I did and we have about the same result (esp since that TC turns his f/2.8 into a f/5.6).

Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to have that 70-200 VR, but I’ve got an 80-400 today, and I’m keeping mine.
Whether I get rid of the 70-300 is another question – its much lighter, which is attractive. But I can’t shoot Beast Women Productions with just the 300, and I feel silly keeping both.

But everyone can stop harshing on one of my favorite lenses.

A favorite haunt of mine up here in chicago is the Mercury Cafe. A few weeks ago I was enjoying a rare good coffee (starbucks is rampant up here) and the wireless when a troupe of female comedians broke out. (It happens). I asked permission and they said sure, so I shot some photographs. There weren’t great (the light is awful) and I didn’t have a tripod with me. But I did get a business card for something called Beast Women Productions. 

I’ve been shooting their spring series at the Prop Thtr (yes, thats how its spelled) twice a week now for 2 weeks. I’ve learned more about photography in the last two weeks than I have in many months. 

Its a smallish theater with about 7 rows of stadium style seating. The stage is maybe 10×15 or so. My chief complaints are that the stage, floor, and rear wall are black. Not dark. BLACK. The other walls are brick, which is definately lighter than  the black but not really a help here. Lighting varies greatly performer to performer, and I generally don’t know what thats going to be until the show starts. Imagine taking a picture of anything holding a single D cell flashlight (and the battery is old) in a black plastic garbage bag. And its dark outside.

This isn’t anyones fault – the technical director is quite good. Its just that the lighting that makes good cabaret does not lend itself to photography.

My first faulty assumption was that I would need a fast lens. I recently bought a nikon 85 f/1.4 off of craigslist that seems to be in really good shape. I used this the first two nights, and was generally disappointed with the results. For one, its a prime and with all the changes in action on stage I really would like a zoom here. The second is that its just not blinking long enough – at 85mm I was having to crop a ridiculous amount and that was hurting sharpness in some already none to sharp photos.

On a lark, I broke out the Nikon 80-400VR. I was not expecting this to go over well – its very dark and this is a slow lens, meaning it has a small maximum aperture (of 4.5 to 5.6 depending on zoom position). This lens also has a reputation for slow autofocus (its a non AFS lens, meaning the motor in the camera must drive it). And its worked extremely well. This is a sharp pro or semi-pro nikon lens, and being zoomed from 250 to 400mm has made a TON of difference. I’m not having to do the crazy 60-80% crops I was before.

I’m still fighting the equipment some. The mighty D700 has really stepped up, but I generally spend a fair bit of time fiddling controls trying to get good exposures. I don’t understand why, but an ISO from 2000-3200, Program mode, and anywhere from -0.7 to -1.3 EV compensation yields the best results to date. I’ve tried aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode and auto-iso meaning the camera picks the ISO automatically based on conditions. Some worked better than others, but the first listed mode is generally what I’m shooting. I switch from spot metering to center weighted metering depending on light and whats going on. I use a single focus point and I aim for the eyes/face. This with the spot metering generally gives me good to very good exposure/focus on the performer. A side effect is there is NO background. None. Its just total blackout.

Each night I seem to do a little better. I’m constantly playing with the controls (thank you nikon for an ergonomic camera layout I can generally work with in the dark). I’ve also lately been carrying the D700 instruction manual around with me to dinner and whatnot, looking for more ideas/settings. The D700 is a complex beastie, and I’m still coming to grips with it.

I’m also suffering from the great tripod screwup of 08, namely I bought an off brand tripod (Induro). This was on the recommednation from the pro teaching my first photo class last year. The legs are jamming a little but its major malfunction (and its major all right) is that the joint where the head attaches to the central pillar is a little loose. No amount of tightening makes any difference – the head ITSELF isn’t loose – its what the head is attached to is. I’ve disassmbled that sucker as much as I dare, and I can’t see what holds that joint together at all, much less how to make it tight. UPDATE: The cool dudes at Calumet have helped me out, and the head/platter thing is no longer loose. When I get the chance to upgrade to a gitzo, karma demands I buy it from them.

The upsides are what I’m shooting, or more to the point WHO. The performers are generally great and they and the producers have been very tolerant and supportive of me. I can’t begin to thank them enough for the learning opportunity. Even if I grumble a bit about the lights…

Names are important. Picking a good name for something is vital. (As someone who once stupidly named a piece of software current, its really vital).  I know the trend in photography is to use your name (Bill Smith Photography, Cassie Jones Imaging) but for some reason that doesn’t sit quite right with me. Also, I’ve got a moderately long name.

Inspired by a friends idea and because it was available as a dot.com , I’ve picked Hunting Focus. The site isn’t up quite yet, but I’m working on it right now. The Beast Women shoots I’m doing right now will be the first thing to go up.

[UPDATE] Due to popular demand, as of June 29 2009 I’ve had to reverse this. Hunting Focus will be my personal site including blog, and the business side will be huntermatthews.com. Multiple people said they could remember my name, but not my darn site. Clients win – oh well.

Long time no blog. Anyway, this “hobby” may be better for you than a nasty heroin addiction, but its not all that much cheaper.

In recent months I’ve upgraded both of my basic lenses from the Nikon kit lens (an 18-55 and a 55-200 VR) to a 16-85 VR and a 70-300 VR. I’ve also bought a lightly used 50mm f/1.4 from Craigslist. As far as lenses go, the two VR’s are very good “tourist” lenses – they’re slow (f/3.5 – 5.6) but very flexible zooms. The VR makes up for a world of sin, especially in daylight. I recommend both. The 70-300 is also a full-frame (FX) lens, which became important last week.

The 50mm f/1.4 joined my first “pro” level lens, the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. Its basically more of the same,  which in this case is VERY nice glass. I didn’t regret getting the sigma – I just found a 50mm for a very good price and have decided that I love primes.

To cart all this muck around (plus various accessories and if I’ve lost my mind a 15″ mac book pro) I bought a Domke F-1x in “Sand”, which is a fancy way of saying tan. Its a canvas bag, and while I was nervous about the very minimal padding, I’m a life long convert. The bag is VERY tough, extremely well made and even with all the purchases lately its still not full.  Possibly best of all if you travel much it doesn’t LOOK like a camera bag – so the bad guys ignore you.

But all of this was too easy. Even the remote trigger I bought to try and make capturing pictures of the moon easier (it helps, and I’m still pretty bad at it).

No, a couple of weeks ago I bought a Nikon F100. F as in “Film”. Its a TANK of a camera. Bought from the very friendly people at Peace Camera in Raleigh, its currently in manual mode with the 50mm f/1.4 attached. (The sigma and the 16-85 won’t work on this camera- its FX (nikons code for full frame) naturally, while those are DX only lenses).

My theory here (as much as any deep in the hole addict has a theory) is that shooting film will make me a better photographer. I’ve run 3 rolls so far, including my first roll of true black and white (Ilford HP-5) and already I’ve learned a couple of important life lessons.

One, you simply just have to pay attention to what you are doing. The light meter is everything. This stuff is just too expensive to have processed to clip off a few and not have some idea that you’ll get something. The other is that nikon pro cameras are hewn from a solid billet of iron. This thing is impressive. If you say got into a tussle with another photog and bashed him/her in the head with this thing, don’t worry about the camera taking damage.

The build quality of the F100 makes my D80 feel pedestrian. I look forward one day to owning one of the higher end Nikon digitals (the D700 would be a dream – Full frame digital in almost exactly the same size as the F100). For now, having the F100 _is_ making me a little bit better at this stuff.

But it never ends – now I’m looking at Pentax 67 and Mamiya 645 pro’s in the used camera stores….