What format do I regular shoot
What format do I regular shoot? A good question. I tend to lean toward the 4×5 format, finally available in camera with my Nikon D800. The reason for this is that I find it eliminate some compositional problems that I personally have with the edges of the frame. With the native format of the senor I feel the frame is just a little bit to wide and I tend to make compromises with my self esteiquely. Also I find the frame more in tune with what my vision of sight is. The native frame feel more like viewing through a balaclava or the window of a tank.
What’s the “cost”? With the Nikon D800, the cost is to lose 6 megapixles (with 36 megapixles that is a small loss) and a cropfactor of 1,1. So with wideangle shots, these makes a 2mm cut in viewing angle, making a 28mm effectively a 30mm (the actual lens still remains a 28mm). But for me, all these shortcommings is a huge gain comapred to what I needed to do with the files on the D200 to get the same frame.
There I need to mentally visualize the frame I would shoot, then get the image into lightroom and there crop the file down to the frame I wanted. Also with the D200 I lost 20% of my file, compared to 17 % on the D800. And then you say, it’s only 3% differnce, but with a resolution of 10 MP it meant that I would be left with a 8 MP image, compared to the 30 MP of the D800. That’s a file that is 3,75 times larger than what I had originally with D200.
Another benefit to shooting in the “4×5” format with the D800, is that problems with vignetting is almost disappeared since the image is “cropped ” at both sides equal and it’s at these corners the problem accurs.
Since I shoot stock-images, many agencies require aleast a 10MP file, and with that requirement many of my images would not make the cut.
What’s the “cost”? With the Nikon D800, the cost is to lose 6 megapixles (with 36 megapixles that is a small loss) and a cropfactor of 1,1. So with wideangle shots, these makes a 2mm cut in viewing angle, making a 28mm effectively a 30mm (the actual lens still remains a 28mm). But for me, all these shortcommings is a huge gain comapred to what I needed to do with the files on the D200 to get the same frame.
There I need to mentally visualize the frame I would shoot, then get the image into lightroom and there crop the file down to the frame I wanted. Also with the D200 I lost 20% of my file, compared to 17 % on the D800. And then you say, it’s only 3% differnce, but with a resolution of 10 MP it meant that I would be left with a 8 MP image, compared to the 30 MP of the D800. That’s a file that is 3,75 times larger than what I had originally with D200.
Another benefit to shooting in the “4×5” format with the D800, is that problems with vignetting is almost disappeared since the image is “cropped ” at both sides equal and it’s at these corners the problem accurs.
Since I shoot stock-images, many agencies require aleast a 10MP file, and with that requirement many of my images would not make the cut.
Nikon D800, Tamron SP 28-75mm f2.8, 4×5 format in camera.When I shoot wildlife I generally turn the D800 into a DX-format camera, to gain the 1,5 cropfactor (or as I like to call it, the 1,5x lossless teleconvertor, since one retain the original optical quality and no loss to the maximum aperature of the lens (unlike a 1,4x hardware teleconverter were one loses 1 stop of light).
Nikon D800, Tamron SP 70-200mm f2.8, DX-format in camera.
Toffa Berg Photography
Toffa Berg, a dedicated landscape photographer hailing from the picturesque landscapes of Stavanger, Norway. Toffa's lens is a portal to the intimate and less-traveled corners of Norway's natural beauty. With a passion for solitude and an aversion to city life, Toffa's photography is a reflection of the quiet moments and serene vistas that capture the essence of the Norwegian wilderness. He runs both Toffa and Knotten and Toffa Berg Photography. Under this author profile he writes in the power of being a photographer and not a vanlifer.
