At the beginning of the year I said I wanted to try lots of different types of photography. One form I haven’t tried yet is product shots. As my new Nikon D4 arrived today, I thought I’d do a nice shot of my new camera, using my old camera – for the last time.
This shot took 20 minutes to set up, with some black paper behind the camera creating a seamless backdrop, the camera sitting on an upturned cooking bowl with one of James’ black t-shirts on it, and three speed lights pointing at the camera from different angles. Amazingly it was pretty easy to set up and I got good images almost immediately.
So here is the D4 in all it’s glory. I haven’t really taken that many pictures with it yet, but the few I have taken have left me already very impressed. This thing can shoot images in nearly complete darkness by supporting incredibly high ISO settings. The focusing speed is amazing and I got some fantastic shots of Roxie on the deck and Abi on the trampoline, everything was in focus, and I took 11 images a second! Think about that, that’s almost unbelievable.
Abi did a somersault and I got her perfectly as she spun in the air. When I go to Abi’s gymnastic meets later in the year I should be able to capture some amazing images.
Getting this camera has been a bit of a nightmare. I decided early last year I wanted what’s called a “full frame” camera, that’s a camera with a sensor that’s the same size as 35mm film. However the Nikon models at the time were coming to the end of their lives and the new “D4” was supposed to be coming out in March 2011.
However Japan had a really bad year last year. There was of course the terrible tsunami and later in the year a lot of very bad flooding. Both times the Nikon factories were hit. All through this I decided not to by the older D3S. Rumors kept coming out that the D4 was around the corner, and summer went to fall, and fall to winter every month the release date moved out.
January came around and on the 6th, Nikon announced the new D4. Early in the morning camera stores around the US started to accept advanced orders (there were none around but we were promised a February delivery). So I went to one of the largest suppliers in the US, Adorama. I’ve purchased a lot of gear from Adorama over the years and been very happy with them, their prices are good and they ship for free. So Adorama it was. I would bet I placed my order within 10 minutes of them letting you in.
Anyway, February came and went, as did March and April, each month Adorama promised a delivery in two weeks. I have to say I was getting really frustrated but I guess it really wasn’t their fault, Nikon just weren’t shipping cameras.
By the time it got to June I was really worried I wouldn’t get the camera for my July vacation. So I signed up to an online service that promised to text me when a major supplier got some in stock. Last week at 7:30am I got a text message saying Best Buy had some D4s. I placed my order with them in 3 minutes and got one. 15 minutes later they were sold out. When I got to work I called Adorama and cancelled my order with them and today Best Buy delivered my camera (exactly when they said they would).
Lisa keeps asking me if I’m excited but in truth it’s all a major anti-climax. I’ve waited well over a year for this camera, I’ve had lenses on a shelf that only work with the full frame sensor that I couldn’t use for ages waiting for the D4 to arrive. So yes I’m really pleased but I’ve never had to wait so long for an item I have the money for! Very, very frustrating.
Anyway, I’m off work tomorrow and going out to test the camera out. Expect more posts on the D4 and LOTS and LOTS of images. Thank you Best Buy, you made my summer.
As the D4 arrived today, the Halo guys insisted on getting an unboxing shot. I particularly like Carter’s pose.
