The Nikon D4 Unboxing Video:
[video=youtube_share;RI48tWg4njM]http://youtu.be/RI48tWg4njM[/video]
Nikon D4 User Experience
I am not a full-time professional camera reviewer and not a full-time professional photographer. I bought the Nikon D4 and it came to me 2 days ago. I decided to write my user experience with the Nikon D4 and share it with everybody alongside with the thousands of other reviews you read from the Internet. The topics I will cover in my user experience are listed below:
Visual & Handling
First look at the Nikon D4 is it has more rounded edges as compared to its predecessors. I welcome this. I had never liked the boxy feel of the D3 / D3s / D3x. Put the camera my hands and it feel like home because the grip of the Nikon D4 is carved in such a shape that it follows our hands ergonomics. In technical reviews, the shutter release button orientation is angled lowered at a 35 degrees down. That is a welcome too because with my hands gripping the D4, my index finger is tilted in a manner where my finger movements coincides with the 35 degrees down orientation. This will certainly helps during long shooting. Another important thing to note is the Nikon D4 body feels lighter than its predecessors! Both Bernard and I were quite surprised when feeling its weight. Bernard is physically very active when he decides to shoot. He would run, twist, squat, crawl and even roll on the floor to get his shots. With the D4 being lighter, he will definitely welcome the new weight.
Button Orientation
You can read all the button orientation from the reviews on the Internet but I would like to bring to your attention on the dedicated zoom in button which is a new addition over the predecessors. You can now zoom in to check your focus with a dedicated button. Gone are the days where you need to press a button and rotate a dial. That is too troublesome. I had always hope that Nikon would make the change in the D3s but it didn't. Sad. But with the D4, my wish comes true. It is certainly very helpful with the dedicated button. Remember, you are not / or will not only be the only one reviewing the pictures in the camera. Your clients will also be. The dedicated button will make things easier for them to zoom in (somehow I really don't understand why everybody likes to zoom into their pictures and see). Ha ha ha ha. Actually, I know the answers but I'll talk about that some other time.
Viewfinder
The viewfinder is bright. Don't get me wrong, it is not that kind of bright as to compare it to monitors. It is bright to a point it is close to the brightness you see with your own eyes when you look at things. But I still find the size is not big enough for me. I would prefer something even bigger. I will be buying the 1.2x viewfinder enlarger for my D4. But having a bigger viewfinder display will not help if the eye entry is small. With bigger viewfinders with bigger view entries, every corner inside the viewfinder can be seen. This is because when you look inside the viewfinder, you will notice that there is a 'space' inside. You are looking into the pentaprism. There are 3rd party viewfinder enlargers around that boosts to 1.5x or 1.7x but that is useless because when looking through the view entry, you only get to see the center of the image as bigger and you cannot see the corners properly. You have to adjust your eyes left and right to see it, that is wasting time and effort. So Nikon, hear me out, please make a bigger viewfinder with a bigger entry so that a larger magnifier can be used.
Autofocus Speed and Accuracy
You gotta love this! Bernard describes the focusing speeds as "almost instantaneous" while he was taking his shots on his models. True enough. I took some shots myself and confirms this. The speed of focusing in the D4 is slightly faster than of the D3s. I mounted an AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G SWM Aspherical lens onto the D4 body and took some shots. I feel that the focusing speed on the D4 is faster but not significantly faster than its predecessor D3s. I randomly focus on anywhere on all modes; single point, continuous and auto area. Among the 3, auto-area autofocus takes the longest time. Having said taking the longest time, it is still very fast! AND very accurate too! The 91,000 pixel RGB metering sensor coupled with the Advance 3500FX CAM autofocus engine and its Advanced Scene Recognition System is like a gift from heaven! Each time I point the camera on the model's face no matter at what angle and which approach, the D4 always gets its focus on the eye and brow areas most of the time. There were occasions where it takes the lips as focus but it never leaves the face! The face detection really works! Bernard doesn't need to worry about whether the focus is on the face or not, he only needs to focus in getting his shots with confidence that the face is always in focus. If you are a portrait photographer like myself and Bernard, I really recommending using the auto-area autofocus feature. It really works. And, it certainly looks very pleasing having so many focusing points visible on your vewfinder. Another nice feature to note is the Store Points by Orientation. New in the D4, your focus points will follow the landscape/portrait orientation of the camera. Example: If you use a single focus point and you focus on somewhere on the top point, when you rotate your camera into the portrait orientation, the focus point will also follow this orientation and be automatically place at the top as well! What this translate into is, you don't need to waste time moving the focus points yourself which can be very time consuming!
Frame Rate
With strong interests in portraits and macro photography, frame rate is not something that is important to me. Most of the time my subjects stay still for me to shoot. I seldome use frame rates more than 5 FPS. Even for action shots, I shoot a single frame to get the shot I want. If I didn't get it, I'll ask for another round. Having a super fast 10 FPS means the chances of calling for a second round is much lesser. Sports people will love this. For my genre, actions usually coupled with expressions and emotions. If the feel is not right, I will be calling for another round of take even if I have 20 FPS at hand! On the Nikon D4, do note that 11 FPS can only be achieved when the focus and exposure is locked. Else you will be squeezing at 10 FPS. But frankly, the faster your frame rate, the more pictures you have to go through in choosing the one you like... Wow... I cannot imagine another camera being able to do 14! Good luck looking through the pictures!
Storage
New to the Nikon D4 is the introduction of the new industry standard XQD memory cards. I was given one with a reader together. the writing speed is 125 MB/sec! That's blazingly fast! I tried firing a full 11 FPS onto the card in RAW. I stopped after about 50 shots. The card wrote everything in about 2 seconds after I stopped. Wow!! BUT... My computer cannot read a XQD... Argh! Guess I'll be using the compact flash for now until I change my computer (Its due anyway...)
Image Quality
Pixel quality is the main selling point of any FX camera. The amount of details the D4 captures is NOTHING LESS THAN IMPRESSIVE! Bernard is so awed by the details my D4 captured. He said he will be working a lot more time on the processing of his pictures when compared when he was still on his D7000. Being a FX sensor, the pixel is larger. Larger pixels captures more light, has better control over ISOs and can "see" better highlights. Everything in the D4 works together seamlessly; the autofocus, ISO, metering, Advanced SRS, Active D-Lighting, etc. The camera just doesn't allow your subject to overexpose or underexpose! It brings out highlight details nicely and lift up shadows well enough. All details are seen. Images that come out from my D4 is very clean and neat. It is a visual joy seeing photos done by the camera. The strongest win between the D4 and its predecessors is the ability of capturing ambient environment. In the D3 / D3s, there is a strong contrast in their images. Sometimes portraits do not turn out that pleasing looking on Asians. Asians are yellow-skin base and black hair. Sometimes the contrast so so strong that the image looks underexposed. The D3x does this slightly better. Skin tones are improved over the D3 / D3s. But with the D4, all this are solved. Skin tones are rendered so naturally as according to our Asian heritage. Fair Asians look great. Malays and Indians look great. Caucasians look good as well. This balance is finally achieved sucessfully where previous models are still missing the fine touch. Of course, one can argue that we can tweak the D3 / D3s to correct the tones. Totally agree. That's what I did as well. But know this, tweaking takes a lot of effort and time to get the tones correct. I prefer getting it close to correct in the camera. Good luck tweaking tones for different types of people.
[video=youtube_share;RI48tWg4njM]http://youtu.be/RI48tWg4njM[/video]
Nikon D4 User Experience
I am not a full-time professional camera reviewer and not a full-time professional photographer. I bought the Nikon D4 and it came to me 2 days ago. I decided to write my user experience with the Nikon D4 and share it with everybody alongside with the thousands of other reviews you read from the Internet. The topics I will cover in my user experience are listed below:
- Visual, Handling & Weight
- Button Configuration
- Viewfinder
- Autofocus Speed & Accuracy
- Frame Rate
- Storage
- Image Quality
- White Balance
- HDR
- ISO features
- Optional Flash & Exposure Compensation
- Sub-Selector Functions
- Conclusion
Visual & Handling
First look at the Nikon D4 is it has more rounded edges as compared to its predecessors. I welcome this. I had never liked the boxy feel of the D3 / D3s / D3x. Put the camera my hands and it feel like home because the grip of the Nikon D4 is carved in such a shape that it follows our hands ergonomics. In technical reviews, the shutter release button orientation is angled lowered at a 35 degrees down. That is a welcome too because with my hands gripping the D4, my index finger is tilted in a manner where my finger movements coincides with the 35 degrees down orientation. This will certainly helps during long shooting. Another important thing to note is the Nikon D4 body feels lighter than its predecessors! Both Bernard and I were quite surprised when feeling its weight. Bernard is physically very active when he decides to shoot. He would run, twist, squat, crawl and even roll on the floor to get his shots. With the D4 being lighter, he will definitely welcome the new weight.
Button Orientation
You can read all the button orientation from the reviews on the Internet but I would like to bring to your attention on the dedicated zoom in button which is a new addition over the predecessors. You can now zoom in to check your focus with a dedicated button. Gone are the days where you need to press a button and rotate a dial. That is too troublesome. I had always hope that Nikon would make the change in the D3s but it didn't. Sad. But with the D4, my wish comes true. It is certainly very helpful with the dedicated button. Remember, you are not / or will not only be the only one reviewing the pictures in the camera. Your clients will also be. The dedicated button will make things easier for them to zoom in (somehow I really don't understand why everybody likes to zoom into their pictures and see). Ha ha ha ha. Actually, I know the answers but I'll talk about that some other time.
Viewfinder
The viewfinder is bright. Don't get me wrong, it is not that kind of bright as to compare it to monitors. It is bright to a point it is close to the brightness you see with your own eyes when you look at things. But I still find the size is not big enough for me. I would prefer something even bigger. I will be buying the 1.2x viewfinder enlarger for my D4. But having a bigger viewfinder display will not help if the eye entry is small. With bigger viewfinders with bigger view entries, every corner inside the viewfinder can be seen. This is because when you look inside the viewfinder, you will notice that there is a 'space' inside. You are looking into the pentaprism. There are 3rd party viewfinder enlargers around that boosts to 1.5x or 1.7x but that is useless because when looking through the view entry, you only get to see the center of the image as bigger and you cannot see the corners properly. You have to adjust your eyes left and right to see it, that is wasting time and effort. So Nikon, hear me out, please make a bigger viewfinder with a bigger entry so that a larger magnifier can be used.
Autofocus Speed and Accuracy
You gotta love this! Bernard describes the focusing speeds as "almost instantaneous" while he was taking his shots on his models. True enough. I took some shots myself and confirms this. The speed of focusing in the D4 is slightly faster than of the D3s. I mounted an AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G SWM Aspherical lens onto the D4 body and took some shots. I feel that the focusing speed on the D4 is faster but not significantly faster than its predecessor D3s. I randomly focus on anywhere on all modes; single point, continuous and auto area. Among the 3, auto-area autofocus takes the longest time. Having said taking the longest time, it is still very fast! AND very accurate too! The 91,000 pixel RGB metering sensor coupled with the Advance 3500FX CAM autofocus engine and its Advanced Scene Recognition System is like a gift from heaven! Each time I point the camera on the model's face no matter at what angle and which approach, the D4 always gets its focus on the eye and brow areas most of the time. There were occasions where it takes the lips as focus but it never leaves the face! The face detection really works! Bernard doesn't need to worry about whether the focus is on the face or not, he only needs to focus in getting his shots with confidence that the face is always in focus. If you are a portrait photographer like myself and Bernard, I really recommending using the auto-area autofocus feature. It really works. And, it certainly looks very pleasing having so many focusing points visible on your vewfinder. Another nice feature to note is the Store Points by Orientation. New in the D4, your focus points will follow the landscape/portrait orientation of the camera. Example: If you use a single focus point and you focus on somewhere on the top point, when you rotate your camera into the portrait orientation, the focus point will also follow this orientation and be automatically place at the top as well! What this translate into is, you don't need to waste time moving the focus points yourself which can be very time consuming!
Frame Rate
With strong interests in portraits and macro photography, frame rate is not something that is important to me. Most of the time my subjects stay still for me to shoot. I seldome use frame rates more than 5 FPS. Even for action shots, I shoot a single frame to get the shot I want. If I didn't get it, I'll ask for another round. Having a super fast 10 FPS means the chances of calling for a second round is much lesser. Sports people will love this. For my genre, actions usually coupled with expressions and emotions. If the feel is not right, I will be calling for another round of take even if I have 20 FPS at hand! On the Nikon D4, do note that 11 FPS can only be achieved when the focus and exposure is locked. Else you will be squeezing at 10 FPS. But frankly, the faster your frame rate, the more pictures you have to go through in choosing the one you like... Wow... I cannot imagine another camera being able to do 14! Good luck looking through the pictures!
Storage
New to the Nikon D4 is the introduction of the new industry standard XQD memory cards. I was given one with a reader together. the writing speed is 125 MB/sec! That's blazingly fast! I tried firing a full 11 FPS onto the card in RAW. I stopped after about 50 shots. The card wrote everything in about 2 seconds after I stopped. Wow!! BUT... My computer cannot read a XQD... Argh! Guess I'll be using the compact flash for now until I change my computer (Its due anyway...)
Image Quality
Pixel quality is the main selling point of any FX camera. The amount of details the D4 captures is NOTHING LESS THAN IMPRESSIVE! Bernard is so awed by the details my D4 captured. He said he will be working a lot more time on the processing of his pictures when compared when he was still on his D7000. Being a FX sensor, the pixel is larger. Larger pixels captures more light, has better control over ISOs and can "see" better highlights. Everything in the D4 works together seamlessly; the autofocus, ISO, metering, Advanced SRS, Active D-Lighting, etc. The camera just doesn't allow your subject to overexpose or underexpose! It brings out highlight details nicely and lift up shadows well enough. All details are seen. Images that come out from my D4 is very clean and neat. It is a visual joy seeing photos done by the camera. The strongest win between the D4 and its predecessors is the ability of capturing ambient environment. In the D3 / D3s, there is a strong contrast in their images. Sometimes portraits do not turn out that pleasing looking on Asians. Asians are yellow-skin base and black hair. Sometimes the contrast so so strong that the image looks underexposed. The D3x does this slightly better. Skin tones are improved over the D3 / D3s. But with the D4, all this are solved. Skin tones are rendered so naturally as according to our Asian heritage. Fair Asians look great. Malays and Indians look great. Caucasians look good as well. This balance is finally achieved sucessfully where previous models are still missing the fine touch. Of course, one can argue that we can tweak the D3 / D3s to correct the tones. Totally agree. That's what I did as well. But know this, tweaking takes a lot of effort and time to get the tones correct. I prefer getting it close to correct in the camera. Good luck tweaking tones for different types of people.
