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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shou and Ricoh
Photo by Zak Braverman
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the participants in the eclectic musical ensemble are all acquaintances of one guy, who thought it'd be nice to get them together. Some of them belong to a camera club together, so advanced amateur photographers were plentiful in attendance, both on stage and in the audience.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nishimoto-san and his Canon 85mm f/1.2 Monster
The central acquaintance, Nishimoto-san, had a Canon 85mm f/1.2, a beautiful, robust lens, that we all ogled. Nikon has nothing comparable, though there is a Nikon 50mm f/1.2. Zak used to have one, which I've borrowed to good effect to get artsy-fartsy with the shallow depth of field, and with my D700 to explore the depths of low-light photography.
One of the photographers in attendance was Kyoto friend Stéphane Barbery, who prefers a small, quiet, unobtrusive camera. However, he's looking to branch out and add an advanced SLR for low-light photography, so he took the opportunity to check out the ergonomics and lenses of Nishimoto-san's Canon 5D, and my Nikon D700...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Test Shot With the 5D + 85mm f/1.2
It was during the pre-concert setup that Stéphane was playing with my D700 and 85mm f/1.4 that Zak noticed the interesting photo opportunity of Nakamura-san with his Ricoh compact while in full traditional dress, holding his priceless shou instrument, so he quickly borrowed the camera to snap the shot that leads this post.
Later, Nakamura-san explained the benefits of his Ricoh compact to Stéphane, who had a different model Ricoh...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nakamura-san — Ricoh Compact — Stéphane Barbery
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
The shot you included by Zak of the gentleman in the traditional clothing with the priceless shou instrument and the Ricoh camera is very interesting. -> The way he is juggling the camera and the instrument speak to something about maybe balancing the old with the new. And yet all of is so quintesentially Japanese. (Kyoto, the arts, the camera, the Shou, the outfit, etc.) I’m curious as to what the benefits of the Ricoh (is that a GX200?) camera were/are?
Those low light shots are very warm in their color. Do you have to do a lot of post-shot work for these ?
I don’t think any of these have any post-production work, except slight angle correction on one or two, and maybe a touch of crop here and there. On some I had tried correcting the white balance for the color of the predominantly incandescent light, but in the end preferred the warmer feel of the originals (I leave my D700’s white-balance setting on “Auto”), so reverted back to that. —Jeffrey
E-gads! The 50/1.2 is gone! For shame. I fence-sat on my mediocre 50/1.4 AIS until I saw your shots; sold the old 1.4 and got the 1.2 instead.
Fun series, Jeffrey. What is the Ricoh model? Almost appears to have an accessory finder …
I don’t know the model (I didn’t even know Ricoh was still in business, sorry), but it did indeed have an accessory finder. —Jeffrey
I think that Ricoh camera is a GX200.