Dxomark Nikon D7100 Review

See here, image quality doesn't appear much different to D7000, which is either:

1. A very good thing if you like the D7000's IQ but really need the extra resolution.

2. A really good thing if you don't - because it means you can stick with your D7000, if you have one, or if you don't, save yourself about £500 over the D7100 and buy a D7000 instead (but be quick!).

But there are a couple of reasons that might be compelling reasons to buy a D7100 for sports or wildlife, the expansive AF system that covers much of the frame, and the 1.3x crop mode (2x the lens focal length).

Samsung Phablets News

Following on from my post on Helicon Focus, I just saw Samsung have announced even more 'phablets', with even bigger screens than the 5.5" Note II I used, see here for details.

Focus Stacking for Macro

A great article with some excellent examples of focus-stacking in macro photography on dpreview.

Helicon Focus mini review

I got the opportunity to try Helicon Focus recently, which is a software package that automates taking a sequence of images at different focus points, and then 'stacks' these to produce an image with massive depth of field. Applications are macro work, product photography and landscapes, the latter being my particular interest.

For landscapes you ideally need an Android or Apple iOS tablet, as carting a laptop around is not really practical. I chose the former as iOS support seems a bit clunky, and I was able to get hold of a Samsung Galaxy Note II Android 'phablet' which with it's 5.5" AMOLED display makes it viewable in daylight and it is also extremely portable at under 200g.

With the Helicon Focus Android app downloaded and installed, the Note was connected to my Nikon D3x camera via a USB Host Adapter (I used a genuine Samsung item, about £8 from Amazon) and a standard mini USB cable. The app worked flawlessly with the D3x and 50mm 1.8G AF-S lens.

You simply select the near and far points you want in focus using the liveview image shown on the Notes' touchscreen, and the app works out the number of images required and then takes them in sequence. The resulting images (jpeg only in trial version, full version supports RAW) are then imported into the desktop application on your PC and stacked to form single image with vastly increased depth of field compared to a single image.

For landscapes this means you can get the depth of field you want without degrading quality by stopping your lens down beyond it's diffraction limit, or resorting to fiddly and expensive tilt/shift lenses. Instead you can shoot with a relatively modest lens at it's optimum aperture, like f/5.6 or f/8.

Given that a single Canon or Nikon tilt/shift lens retails for around £1400, the cost is competitive - even the Note II retails for around £500 SIM free and the Helicon Focus lifetime license is about £180 i.e. about half the cost of a single tilt/shift lens. A Galaxy Tab 2 7" halves the price down to a total of £350, but it is heavier and I haven't used one so I cannot vouch for the screens viewability in daylight.

I'm still evaluating this setup for landscape use and will post an update when I have reached a conclusion. At the moment it all still seems a bit cumbersome but I sense some real possibilities.

Comparison of D7100 OPLF omission on image quality

DP Review just added this interesting article on the D7100.