[Jocko]

I had a trial with the new lens today. It wasn't the best of weather, though it brightened up somewhat at lunch time, and the local park looked more like the Somme.
Here is one I took earlier in the morning. It is just a shot, from the window of my flat, through glass and with a polarizing filter fitted. Handheld, and it shows how well the VR works.

   
Nikon D80, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, 1/4 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 82mm lens equivalent

[Browser Mike]

I think that you should find the performance of the lens perfectly acceptable, particularly when considering the cost of purchase. I have one which was the kit lens to my D3300.
A great aspect of the lens, which I have found, is that it closes down to such a convenient size. When on walkabout it fits with ease in a side pocket of my holster.
Regards, Mike

[MrB]

It looks as though you have acquired a good lens there, John.

Have you processed the image much - just curious, as I think the colours in the image look very natural. It might be helpful for other Nikon users to know whether that is one of the lens's characteristics, or is it down to your processing?

Cheers.
Philip

[Jocko]

Very little post processing. The white balance is as shot, I added a bit of Clarity and then, after cropping, I did my usual noise reduction and raw pre-sharpening. I then sharpened for Display before posting (I store all my finished tiff files, without Output Sharpening, then sharpen for the medium before using). So far I am extremely pleased with the colour rendition.

[Jocko]

Here is another image, colour corrected to white panels above windows, cropped, and a little Clarity added. I have done NO noise reduction and NO sharpening (all sharpening is switched off in camera and Lightroom). I will use Dfine 2 and then Sharpener Pro 3: RAW Presharpener (Nik Software) before storing finished image.

   
Nikon D80, 18-55mm lens, 1/100 sec, f11, ISO 200, 45mm lens equivalent.

I will post the completed image once it is done.

[Jocko]

And here is the completed image, with a little Output Sharpening (Nik once again), for Display.

   

[Jocko]

One last image for today. This one taken with on camera flash.
Lovely Lucy,

   
Nikon D80, 18-55mm lens, 1/60 sec, f5.6, ISO 200, 72mm lens equivalent.

And one last thing. My Nikon Lens Hood has arrived, so that's me all set.

[Jocko]

It is amazing the impetus a new toy gives you. I was out before first light this morning, to reach the Forth Bridges as the sun came up, with my new lens and monopod. The forecast was clear and frosty and it was clear and VERY frosty. I got some workable images and I am sure you will see some once they are processed. By the time I got back in the car my hands were frozen solid. Time Nikon invented a heated camera body!
On the way home, I spotted one likely image and thankfully I was able to stop and park the car.

   
Nikon D80, 1/100 sec, f22, ISO 100, 82mm lens equivalent.

I was lucky, in that there was a road sign I could position between me and the sun. However, to do so I had to stand in the middle of the road, at a country road junction. This meant I had to be very aware of approaching traffic, as anything coming up behind me would be unlikely to see me against the low sun. Possibly one of the dodgiest photographic situations I have put myself in. I think it was worth it though.

[Jocko]

This is a better rendition, showing the green glow of the insulators, which caught my attention in the first place.

   

[Jocko]

Beginning to look like going out early was worth it.

   
Nikon D80, 1/20 sec, f5.6, ISO 200, 82mm lens equivalent.

[MrB]

The pylon shot is truly electrifying(!), John - as you have written, the appeal is in the translucent glow of the insulators. The second shot is well-constructed(!) and has lovely colours, but the white halos around the verticals indicate that it is perhaps over-sharpened.

Cheers.
Philip

[Jocko]

It was oversharpened. It was a very tight crop and I sharpened it in processing. I then, inadvertently sharpened it again when I did the Batch processing to resize for Shuttertalk. Here is the image without the second level of sharpening.

   

Here is a second image, not sharp at all I'm afraid, but I rather like it.

   
Nikon D80, 1/4 sec, f22, ISO 200, 75mm lens equivalent.

[Jocko]

Now that I have finished processing my current batch of snaps. I have resumed updating some of the less well processed images from my earlier work. Here is an example of the type of thing I am doing.

Before
   

After
   
Dimage Z3, 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO 50, 420mm lens equivalent.

Not a massive improvement (I can only work with what information is there) but an improvement never the less.

[Jocko]

Took my Mrs to the dentist, in Edinburgh, today. While she was in, I spent about 20 minutes taking photographs. Rather disappointing. The light was low and from the wrong direction. Only processed a couple so here they are.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/100 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 57mm lens equivalent.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/100 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 72mm lens equivalent.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 30mm lens equivalent.

It wasn't until I was on the bridge, heading home, that I realised I should have dropped down into South Queensferry and taken some pictures of the Forth Railway Bridge. The lighting was perfect for that. Oh well.

[caveman]

Took my Mrs to the dentist, in Edinburgh, today. While she was in, I spent about 20 minutes taking photographs. Rather disappointing. The light was low and from the wrong direction. Only processed a couple so here they are.


Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/100 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 57mm lens equivalent.


Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/100 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 72mm lens equivalent.


Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 30mm lens equivalent.

It wasn't until I was on the bridge, heading home, that I realised I should have dropped down into South Queensferry and taken some pictures of the Forth Railway Bridge. The lighting was perfect for that. Oh well.

at least you did get some sun ,today (teus) is the first bit of sun we've had for days
still bloomin' cold !

[Jocko]

Where about are you, caveman?

[Jocko]

Here some more of my Edinburgh shots.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/160 sec, f8, ISO 100, 82mm lens equivalent.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 78mm lens equivalent.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/160 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 82mm lens equivalent.

   
Nikon D80, Manual mode, 1/320 sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 51mm lens equivalent.

[EdMak]

John, did the horse jump onto the other bus? Cheers. Ed.

[Browser Mike]

Last time that I was in Edinburgh, April 2012, there were rather evident excavations along Princes Street. Signage informed all that they were planning to lay Tram Lines.
Good to see that the Trams are now up and running.
Would recommend Edinburgh to anyone visiting Scotland and don't miss the Old Town.
Thanks for the series John.
Mike

[Jocko]

Well spotted, Ed. I didn't notice that.
Mike. The trams are a shambles. The stops are miles apart, the trams are very infrequent compared to the buses which cover the same route, and once they get to Haymarket they leave the roads altogether and run alongside the railway. They ended up building only half the planned route failing to connect Ocean Terminal and all its tourists to the city centre. A fiasco then and a fiasco now.

[Jocko]

You were right, Ed. It did. I assume you have seen it doing that before.

   

[EdMak]

Wonder if he can get back again. Ed.

[Jocko]

Yesterday was a photographic disaster, computer wise. I discovered that there was an update for Lightroom, so I duly updated my software from Lightroom 6.3 to 6.4. That went fine, but when I tried to access the internet using Google Chrome (my browser of choice), it would hang at New Tab. After the usual shutting down and restarting, and confirming Google was working fine using Microsoft Edge, I reinstalled Google Chrome. That made no difference.
I then did a system restore back to a point earlier in the day, and that cured my browser issue, but now Lightroom saw an error with the catalogue and nothing I did let me past that. I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Lightroom from disc, so that took me back to Version 6.0. The problem now was, with no catalogue, all the work I had done on the raw images was lost. In itself that wasn't a huge loss. I usually like to start from scratch when I revisit an image, but it was a loss, nevertheless. I then had issues trying to update back to 6.4 but got there in the end, with everything working.
Lying awake in the early hours I figured that, when I first updated to 6.4 the catalogue would update too. After the system restore back to 6.3 the software didn't recognise the catalogue. Luckily, the old catalogue was in the Recycle Bin, and when I restored it this morning I got back to full functionality. Thank goodness. You never had all those hassles in a darkroom!

[caveman]

Yesterday was a photographic disaster, computer wise. I discovered that there was an update for Lightroom, so I duly updated my software from Lightroom 6.3 to 6.4. That went fine, but when I tried to access the internet using Google Chrome (my browser of choice), it would hang at New Tab. After the usual shutting down and restarting, and confirming Google was working fine using Microsoft Edge, I reinstalled Google Chrome. That made no difference.
I then did a system restore back to a point earlier in the day, and that cured my browser issue, but now Lightroom saw an error with the catalogue and nothing I did let me past that. I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Lightroom from disc, so that took me back to Version 6.0. The problem now was, with no catalogue, all the work I had done on the raw images was lost. In itself that wasn't a huge loss. I usually like to start from scratch when I revisit an image, but it was a loss, nevertheless. I then had issues trying to update back to 6.4 but got there in the end, with everything working.
Lying awake in the early hours I figured that, when I first updated to 6.4 the catalogue would update too. After the system restore back to 6.3 the software didn't recognise the catalogue. Luckily, the old catalogue was in the Recycle Bin, and when I restored it this morning I got back to full functionality. Thank goodness. You never had all those hassles in a darkroom!

well done,this tec takes some figuring out !!!

[caveman]

Yesterday was a photographic disaster, computer wise. I discovered that there was an update for Lightroom, so I duly updated my software from Lightroom 6.3 to 6.4. That went fine, but when I tried to access the internet using Google Chrome (my browser of choice), it would hang at New Tab. After the usual shutting down and restarting, and confirming Google was working fine using Microsoft Edge, I reinstalled Google Chrome. That made no difference.
I then did a system restore back to a point earlier in the day, and that cured my browser issue, but now Lightroom saw an error with the catalogue and nothing I did let me past that. I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Lightroom from disc, so that took me back to Version 6.0. The problem now was, with no catalogue, all the work I had done on the raw images was lost. In itself that wasn't a huge loss. I usually like to start from scratch when I revisit an image, but it was a loss, nevertheless. I then had issues trying to update back to 6.4 but got there in the end, with everything working.
Lying awake in the early hours I figured that, when I first updated to 6.4 the catalogue would update too. After the system restore back to 6.3 the software didn't recognise the catalogue. Luckily, the old catalogue was in the Recycle Bin, and when I restored it this morning I got back to full functionality. Thank goodness. You never had all those hassles in a darkroom!

Well done !