Nikon D750

After playing with the Nikon D750 this past week, let me just say this... the Nikon D750 could very well be one of the best full frame cameras for the money today.  At a retail price of just under $2300 (body only), the camera offers a lot for the price.

It's 24.3 MP full frame image sensor offers a native ISO range of 100 - 12,800 and extends to 51,200 although nobody would really want to do that since it's quite noisy at that high of an ISO.  The camera's continuous shooting ability goes to 6.5 frames per second which isn't the fastest on the market, but reasonable enough for many types of action events.

It's a relatively small camera body and while it is considered an "enthusiast" camera, I'd say a pro can easily use it for professional use.  Would I use it for a wedding?  Absolutely!  Many pros are now buying this camera as both their main camera and also as their backup camera.

You can read all about the camera through the various reviews on the internet, but let me just tell you my impressions:

1.  I like the smaller body and lighter weight.
2.  The high ISO ability in low light is adequate, but not as good as a Nikon Df or Nikon D4s.
3.  The shutter sound is quieter than a Nikon D4s, but not as quiet as a Nikon Df or Nikon D810.
4.  It's full frame!  You can get shallower depth of field with full frame image sensors and it handles low light better too!
5.  The video ability allows for full HD recording at 1920 x 1080 / 60 frames per second... great for slow motion.
6.  It is the first full frame camera with a tilting LCD screen.
7.  It has built-in WiFi which works great!  You can control the camera to take photos remotely with your smart phone or tablet.  You can even transfer images in JPG to your device too!  It will also take a RAW image amd convert it to a small JPG for upload to Facebook or emailing purposes!
8.  The new face detection matrix metering helps get proper exposure if it detects a person's face in the image!
9.  The shutter is rated to 150,000 actuations.

There are a lot of features on this camera, but most importantly, the images look great!

If you are looking for a full frame camera, this is one I would highly recommend.  While not as high of a resolution as the 36.3 MP on a Nikon D810, it has plenty of resolution for most applications.

Museum of Science and Industry

 

I spent the morning and afternoon with several Balanced Exposure students at the Museum of Science and Industry yesterday.  I hadn't been there in several years, but wanted to do something during the winter months.  I decided to offer a quick field trip since it was a museum "Free Day" which would save us all on entrance fees.  Of course, the parking was $20 still!

I found the museum rather crowded, but expected that since it was a "free day" after all.  Still, I believe we all had a good time taking in all the exhibits and seeing the holiday decorations there.

I especially like seeing all the kids having fun at the museum!  The Museum of Science and Industry was my favorite museum growing up here in the Chicago area and just seeing the kids running around and enjoying it brought back fond memories of when I did the same thing as a child.

No MSI trip would be complete without a visit to the hatchery of baby chicks!  We visited them and I was able to get a good shot of two of them together.

Go visit the museum if you get the chance.  Lots of interactive exhibits there, but we were just concentrated on taking photos of everything!  All images were taken with the Nikon Df full frame camera and a Sigma 24-105mm f4.0 DG Art Series lens.  Camera was set on Aperture Priority mode at f4.0 using Auto ISO to complete the exposures.  Images were shot in RAW format and converted in Adobe Lightroom 5 and cropped as needed with Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud.