Have you ever heard of focus-trap shooting? That’s where you set up your camera to wait until a subject moves into a pre-set zone of sharp focus. As the subject enters that zone, the camera automatically starts shooting. It stops shooting after the subject leaves the focus zone. If the subject re-enters the zone, the camera will start shooting once again. Humming bird fly-by: caught in a focus trap Focus-trap is useful for things like the finish line of races, where the photographer isn’t allowed to be there. He sets up his camera to automatically shoot the end of the race with his camera unattended. This feature is also used beside a trail where shy or dangerous wild animals will wander by, and you have your camera in a secured box with a hole in it for the lens to see through. It’s also great for shy bugs moving onto a pre-focused spot over a flower or waiting for birds to land on a perch. It’s not very straight-forward how you can do focus-trap with the Nikon D500 or D850, but it’s possible to do. High speed hummer: not easy to react to. For the shot above, I set up a focus position in mid-air where I knew that a humming bird would fly past on its way to eat. It’s almost impossible to shoot a humming bird up close if it’s not hovering or perching. With a focus trap, the camera could easily do what I find exceedingly difficult to do: get a shot in flight from just a few feet away. How to set up the camera Pre-focus your lens to the distance where you want your camera to trigger shooting. Set your shutter release to AF-C mode, and make sure you’re in auto-focus mode. Set Ch for high-speed continuous shooting to get lots of shots while the subject is in focus. This won’t work in manual-focus mode. You might want to set your focus-point selection to ‘single’, if you want a very selective focus zone, but this isn’t mandatory. Autofocus menu AF-C shooting priority configuration Focus priority with AF-C: only shoot an in-focus subject AF activation menu Select AF-ON only. Don’t allow combined shutter and focus Disable the Out-of-focus shutter release Go to the ‘Custom Settings’ (pencil menu) “a1” AF-C priority selection. Select “Focus” (you may want to switch back to something like “Focus + release” after you’re done with focus-trap shooting). Go to the “a8” AF Activation | AF-ON only | Out-of-focus release | Disable Now, point your camera in the direction of the zone where you want the subject to trigger shooting after it comes into focus. You probably want to set your camera on a tripod at this point, unless you plan on holding the camera yourself. Don’t touch the AF-On button! The trick here is that your camera can’t (auto)focus on its own, because this button doesn’t ever get pressed. Unattended operation: wired remote with shutter-hold feature Hold down the shutter, or use a wired remote that has a locking feature on its shutter release function to keep the shutter release active. The shutter is “held down” until you unlock it. When the subject moves into the correct-focus region, the camera will start shooting until the subject leaves the zone of focus. If the subject re-enters the zone of focus, the camera will start shooting once again. Make sure that you test your setup by waving your hand in the desired focus zone and verify the camera starts shooting. You’d hate to waste an hour waiting for that animal to arrive, only to discover later that you had overlooked something in the setup that caused to camera to ignore taking the shot. Remember to go back to the “a1” menu when you’re done, and restore the original setting you had (such as “Focus + release”). If you don’t remember to restore the old setting, you’ll get burned later when you try shooting and your camera behaves strangely. Many of the flying bird close-up shots require you switch to “M” and set a really high shutter (1/4000 and faster) with Auto-ISO and a stopped-down aperture to get some depth of focus. The Auto-ISO options on something like Aperture-priority mode just won’t go fast enough for the focal length. This mode of shooting causes fairly high battery drain, so be aware of that fact. Charge up your battery before you start up a focus-trap session. Samples Summary You may just find that some types of difficult/impossible shots become do-able with this technique. You wouldn’t make a steady diet of this kind of shooting, but when you need it you need it. You may think that animals wouldn’t be any good at taking selfies with a DSLR, but they may just surprise you.

On Nikon cameras that support Auto-ISO with a minimum-shutter-speed option, Aperture Priority is the best option available when shooting action. Some people are of the opinion that Manual mode is best, but I’ll explain why that isn’t correct. Manual Mode When you set Manual mode with Auto-ISO, your camera will never change the shutter or aperture setting you already set. Instead, it adjusts the ISO higher as light dims until it gets to the programmed ISO limit. After this, your shots just start getting under-exposed. It’s up to you to manually change the shutter or aperture to get correctly-exposed pictures in this dim lighting. Having to manually alter the shutter speed is the opposite of proper ‘action’ shooting. Aperture Priority Mode When you set Aperture Priority Mode with Auto-ISO, your camera will adjust the ISO as light dims until it reaches the programmed ISO limit. So far, this operates just the same as Manual Mode with Auto-ISO. If light gets even dimmer, then your camera will now start lengthening the shutter speed to always maintain the correct exposure. In very bright light, you camera will drop the ISO as needed, and then finally start increasing the shutter speed to maintain good exposure. Your aperture doesn’t get touched under any circumstances; it’s up to you to manually change the aperture if you need it. Configuring the Intelligent ISO Settings (D500 Example): Start here to configure ISO behavior (on Nikons) Set the ISO min/max range and enable “Auto ISO”. Minimum shutter speed “Auto” uses 1/focal length Modify the shutter time: quadruple/double/as-is/half/quarter Photo Shooting Menu ISO sensitivity settings ISO sensitivity Typically a low value, like 100 To get better quality/dynamic range in bright light Auto ISO sensitivity control ON Automatically adjusts ISO to keep proper exposure Maximum sensitivity Typically 6400 Set maximum ISO limit to retain at least some quality Minimum shutter speed AUTO* Auto-adjust the shutter at (1/focalLength) I recommend auto with faster shutter (1 or 2 stops) Configurable +-2 EV for acceptable motion blur 400mm lens using the ‘half’ multiple (0.5) is 1/800s With this algorithm, it’s self-adjusting to your focal length (zoom setting) with extra margin if you want (+- 2 EV worth of shutter speed). This is quite intelligent, being able to automatically make the correct trade-offs in the correct priority order. You want the lowest possible ISO setting that will work with your chosen aperture and the action-stopping shutter speed. You lose about one stop of dynamic range every time you double the ISO value, so you don’t want to waste larger potential dynamic range by setting the default ISO sensitivity high. The camera will automatically increase this ISO value as needed, so there’s no advantage to setting a high default ISO. With long telephotos, you’ll freeze the motion better by adjusting the “Auto” minimum shutter speed to use an ‘Auto’ multiple of at least (0.5) as shown in the shot above. You would set this by clicking the ‘Auto’ setting once in the “Faster” direction. With a 600mm lens and a multiple of 0.5, your shutter speed would be 1/1200 second. Some subjects will require the multiple be set to the (0.25) multiple, (or 1/2400s for the 600mm), which is the maximum “Faster” setting allowed in the “Auto” menu for the minimum shutter speed. Configured in this way, you’ll always get the maximum shot quality that the lighting allows. Summary The aperture-priority mode with auto-ISO is simply smarter and more capable than manual mode using auto ISO. Under most circumstances, there’s no need to exit this mode just because you’re shooting something other than action. In extraordinary circumstances, you might need a shutter like 1/8000s. In that case, Manual mode with Auto-ISO might be needed instead, but that scenario would be exceedingly rare. When action is happening, your attention should be on keeping focus and framing. You don’t need to be distracted with maintaining proper exposure. Not all Nikon cameras (or other brands) provide this level of flexibility. If you shoot action, having these camera features available should weigh heavily in your future purchase decisions.

I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and had a camera converted to have an infrared sensor. The main reason I did it was to see what’s going on through my viewfinder. I got really tired of having to compose the shot, screw the opaque IR filter onto the lens, and then take the shot. I wasn’t enamored with 2 or 3 minute exposures, either. And I was not pleased with how the wind always blurred the tree branches and leaves. I chose to get my old Nikon D7000 converted, which was mostly relegated to collecting dust. Now, this camera is “new” again. I decided to use Kolari Vision , mostly based upon their IR filter specifications. Their filters are glass, thick enough to (mostly) shift focus to match your lens focus scale, and they provide an upgrade to have the IR filter coated with anti-reflection materials in the IR wavelengths. Additionally, the IR filter coating is supposed to be easier to clean and it’s scratch-resistant. Kolari Vision provides factory white-balance, assuming you get a camera converted that allows it. Their website has a list of cameras that allow custom white balance. If you don’t use an IR white balance, then you’ll only see red when you review your shots on your camera’s screen. You should still be shooting in Raw format, if you want to get the maximum quality from your camera. You can buy a camera from them directly, if you wish, and avoid having to send them your camera. If you send them your camera, they have an option to send you a well-padded, insured box to protect your camera for shipment to them (I selected this option, too). Kolari Vision replaces your IR-blocking filter with their IR-passing filter under a filtered clean bench to keep things dust-free. Even so, my sensor had a couple of specks on its surface after I got my camera back from them. I’m well-versed in sensor cleaning, so it was easy to quickly fix that issue. The main thing is to NOT get dust between the camera sensor and the new IR-passing filter; Kolari Vision made sure that didn’t happen. 590nm IR spectrum (with red-blue channel swap) 105mm f/2.8 White-balanced 590nm shot, using cloud for neutral color 590nm as black and white Kolari Vision (similar to other vendors such as LifePixel) offers many filter options. I chose the 590mn option, since it includes part of the visible spectrum (deep orange and red) in addition to infrared. This option allows you to get fairly vibrant colors, and you can get realistic sky colors if you process your shots to use a red/blue channel swap. Converting the shots into black and white can still capture the classic infrared ‘glow’ off of chlorophyll in plants (the ‘Wood’ effect named after Robert W. Wood), even though it’s not as dramatic as the 850nm filtering. I need to mention that you shouldn’t even consider getting an infrared camera conversion unless you’re willing to do plenty of post-processing in a photo editor. Many editors aren’t very suitable for IR editing, including Lightroom. You need a photo editor that is able to handle white-balance in the more extreme red end of the spectrum. You should also use a photo editor that allows red/blue channel swapping, unless you want to stick with black and white. I’m finding that my Zoner Photo Studio works very well for IR, since it has great white-balancing capabilities (the eyedropper tool) and it supports the plug-ins that I use for color channel-swapping. I’ll have to work on an article detailing the special kinds of tools and activities that you need to do for editing infrared photos, compared to regular photos. Kolari Vision offers IR conversions of 590nm, 665nm, 720nm, 850nm, and some mixed-spectrum options, too. The 850nm conversion will only produce black-and-white results, because there’s no human-visible-light left to apply color. If you get a conversion like my 590nm one, then you can still put IR filters such as the 850nm onto your lens and shoot long-wavelength IR. It won’t work to shoot short-wavelength filters over a long-wavelength conversion, though. Exposure times are just as short with IR-converted cameras as normal cameras, so you don’t need to use a tripod if you don’t want to. In fact, you can even do infrared video if you’re so inclined. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that most people won’t thank you for photographing them in infrared. Skin looks pasty and ghost-like. People that go for the ‘Goth look’ might really like this effect, however. Visible light: about 400nm through 700nm The chart above (thanks to Wikipedia) shows what portion of the light spectrum that most humans can see. The 590nm filter conversion eliminates the blue and most of the green spectrum. Infrared light starts at about 700nm and goes to about 1 millimeter. About half of the energy from our Sun is in infrared. IR Compatible Lenses Many lenses aren’t compatible with infrared photography, mostly because of internal reflections that cause the dreaded “hot spot” in the middle of your photographs. You can consult many web-based databases to try to find out which of your lenses will work. These databases are pretty sketchy, and only mention a fraction of the available lenses. Here’s the link to the lens database by Kolari Vision: https://kolarivision.com/articles/lens-hotspot-list/. An issue with the IR lens databases I’ve seen is that the filter wavelength-cutoff being used isn’t mentioned. The 590nm lens response won’t match the 850nm lens response, for instance. Also, there’s no mention of the Kolari coated/non-coated anti-reflection IR filter upgrade. Kolari Vision states that all lens hotspots will be reduced with their anti-reflection coating, but it won’t cure bad lenses. You’ll probably not even notice most lens “hot spots” unless you have a large expanse of cloudless sky in your shots, because they’re often subtle. If people judge hot spots while photographing trees or buildings, they’ll draw a very different conclusion than shooting a clear sky instead. There are also lenses (mostly super-wide lenses) that cannot focus far enough beyond infinity to achieve correct focus in infrared. My Rokinon 8mm fisheye is one of these, although stopping down to about f/11 still gets infinity into focus for it. I’m working on my own IR-compatible lens database for a future article, but it will take quite a bit of effort to finish it. Many lenses work okay for infrared as long as their apertures are wide-open through roughly f/5.6 or f/8. Most lenses start to develop a noticeable “hot spot” between f/11 and f/16 or beyond. If you care about sharpness, you shouldn’t be using f/16 anyway. All of my old Nikkor AI-converted manual-focus lenses are excellent with infrared. I think that Nikon used to consider IR in their lens designs (IR anti-reflection coatings and focus scale shift markings). I have found that placing my 850nm IR filter on my lenses can usually reduce or rid mild hot spots. For instance, my Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 has fairly poor performance with the camera’s 590nm, but it’s excellent when adding my BCI 850nm filter. This may be due to the 850nm shots being black and white, so that sky hotspot discoloration disappears. Some web sites report the opposite result, that the 850nm creates more hotspots than shorter cutoff filters. Every different lens may be a new and unique adventure in what works. Focus Calibration You’ll probably need to recalibrate focus, even with Kolari Vision’s thick glass filter. Every lens is a new and unique adventure with IR focus shift. With my D7000 camera, the focus calibration was typically shifted by +10 (out of the total range of +- 20). I noted that my old Nikkor 20mm f/4 AI-converted lens now focuses perfectly, using its normal “visible light” focus scale. With an IR filter on an un-converted camera, I’d have to use its little infrared ‘red dot’ focus scale shift. This tends to validate Kolari Vision’s claim that their thick IR filter glass does indeed shift IR focus to that of visible light (depending upon the lens). You can of course avoid focus calibration by using Live View and contrast-detect focus. This works fine, but you’ll probably need to invest in an LCD screen viewfinder when shooting in daylight. You can find decent viewfinder magnifiers for pretty cheap these days, such as my Xit finder. LCD viewfinder magnifier to use with Live View The other obvious choice to avoid focus calibration is to get a mirrorless camera converted, but only if your camera uses pure contrast-detect focus off of the sensor. Deep IR Filters As I mentioned earlier, you can still use IR filters on your IR-converted camera. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that deep IR filters, combined with Live View, let me shoot long-wave IR (850nm) hand-held. I just can’t use my optical viewfinder for this combination. 850nm IR lens filter with my 590nm IR camera When I want to explore the look of long-wave IR, I can do it much more easily than I used to. I got accustomed to making 3-minute exposures with other cameras, and now I can do them hand-held! The shot above was 1/100s f/5.6 at ISO 100 on my 85mm lens. I like to use my Silver Efex Pro plug-in to fine-tune my monochrome IR shots. My BCI 850nm IR filter drops the light levels by about 3 stops, as opposed to about 15 stops when shooting with a visible-spectrum camera. If I want to do really long exposures, I can always just add a strong neutral density filter to my lens. If you’re certain you won’t ever want to shoot color IR, you could just get Kolari Vision’s 850nm conversion instead. I’d recommend you invest in the Nik plug-in Silver Efex Pro if you get this type of conversion. You’ll be amazed at how long-wave infrared eliminates distant haze in your landscapes. LifePixel also offers an 850nm IR conversion. Samples Distant hill with all haze removed The hill shown above was quite hard to see, due to atmospheric haze. The haze was utterly removed by shooting in infrared. Note that infrared doesn't see through water vapor, however, such as clouds and fog. Polarized light Summary I’m very pleased with having my camera converted to infrared. I just love the unique look that you can get using IR light, particularly in black and white. I chose a conversion filter that lets me explore both color and black and white, so that I’m not limited in what I can do. I don’t want to forget to mention that Kolari Vision also sent me a camera neck strap (with their name on it, of course). It’s actually a quite nice one, to entice their customers to actually use it and therefore advertise for them. It’s a sort of symbiotic relationship. IR photography generally works best around noon on sunny days, which is exactly the opposite of regular photography. This way, you can keep shooting landscapes all day long instead of just during the ‘golden hours’, assuming you didn’t just convert your only camera. I don’t get any money from Kolari Vision, so I’m not trying to sell you anything here. I just thought you might like to know about what to expect if you decide to convert your camera into infrared. I didn’t research what IR conversion companies are available outside of the United States, so you’ll have to do that legwork yourself.

Here’s a non-standard way to use the Nik Plug-ins: from Nikon’s free NX Studio. This is an easy way to vastly increase the power of Nikon’s free program. By the way, other plug-ins can be added with these techniques, but only if they’re a plug-in that is an “.exe”. The “8-bit filter” plug-ins (.8bf) aren’t compatible. The Nik plug-ins require input files to be converted into jpeg or (preferably) 16-bit TIF format; they can’t use raw-format files. If you want to use NX Studio, you can stick with RAW (NEF) format, and have it convert them into 16-bit TIF prior to running the plug-ins. If you’re interested in quality results, please skip using either jpeg or 8-bit TIF files. You can always use NX Studio to convert the 16-bit TIF results into jpeg as a final step before display. Nikon has abandoned Capture NX-D, which was also able to use the plug-ins. That program was slightly more sophisticated than NX Studio, because it had the ability to automatically convert the raw format into TIF/JPEG before calling a plug-in. Now, you have to manually convert the raw format before you can use the plug-ins. So much for progress. To convert your raw NEF photo into TIF, just select the photo and then click File | Export. Select the option to save it as 16-bit TIF format from the dialog that pops up. Convert your raw photo into TIFF format Be aware that all of the plug-ins except HDR Efex Pro 2 will overwrite the input TIF file when you save the results via their “Save” button. How to run NX Studio with Plug-ins Nikon’s NX Studio is a somewhat limited, but free program. Because Nikon keeps NX Studio current, it knows how to use Raw-format files from its most recent cameras, unlike my beloved Capture NX2. Although it can support “control points” and the auto retouch brush to increase its power, the plug-ins such as Silver Efex Pro, Viveza 2, Dfine 2, Sharpener Pro 3, and HDR Efex Pro 2 can greatly expand NX Studio’s power. Register your plug-in first I am assuming you have already installed your plug-ins. As of this writing, the plug-ins are available from DxO. You’ll need to locate where the plug-ins were installed. On my computer, they are installed into folders beneath “C:\Program Files\Google\Nik Collection”. I’m using the 64-bit versions, but Nik has also provided 32-bit versions for programs/operating systems that cannot support 64-bit. Before you can start using the plug-ins, you need to register them in NX Studio. As shown above, begin with File | Open With | Register… Add a new plug-in Highlight “Open with Application”, click “Add…” Next, click “Other…” Navigate to where your plug-in is located Select the desired plug-in executable, then click “Open”. Now, you can run the added plug-in from NX Studio. Select the desired plug-in to edit your TIFF photo If you’d rather, you can edit the selected photo by right-clicking it and then selecting “Open with” and select the (registered) plug-in. You will probably get an error dialog that complains “Error: Unsupported Image format”. This error alludes to other files in your folder that are raw format. Just acknowledge these errors, and then you’ll finally get to your plug-in to edit your photo. Running Silver Efex Pro 2 via NX Studio In the example above, the photo is being edited in Silver Efex Pro 2. After saving the results, you can then edit it further after you return to NX Studio. If you’re done editing, then you can also save the photo in jpeg format. Once again, be aware that the TIF file auto-created by NX Studio will be overwritten by the called plug-in when you click the plug-in “Save” button. Conclusion The Nik plug-ins are more generally useful and flexible than most people think. They make a great combination with NX Studio, particularly since it’s a bit limited in the editing feature set that it natively offers. Plug away.

When you look through your viewfinder, you could be forgiven for assuming that the little auto-focus sensor indicator squares on your screen are accurate. Think again. Active focus sensor square The little square(s) showing where your camera is focusing isn’t even close to showing you how big the actual focus zone is. I’m going to show you how you can discover for yourself the real size of the focus sensor. This technique should work for most (Nikon) camera models, even though I'm demonstrating the Nikon D850. My focus-checking chart from the MTFMapper site I use printed charts like the one shown above to check and calibrate my auto-focus. The chart is meant to be rotated by 45 degrees, and then my software can figure out where my lens actually focused versus where I pointed the focus sensor. In this case, I used this test chart to find out how accurately my D850 indicates the area of sensitivity of its focus points are, compared to the little etched squares on the viewfinder’s focus screen. This chart makes it easy for the camera to focus on the right-hand edge of the big square in the chart middle, so you don’t have to guess where the camera focuses. Before testing, I set the camera to be in AF-C mode and I select the “single-point AF” mode. I want the camera to concentrate on only one focus sensor, so I can find the boundary of sensitivity of that sensor. I use a sturdy tripod, and I pan the camera away from the rectangle edge I have focused on until I lose focus. To measure the actual size of the focus sensor area, I make use of the little viewfinder focus-confirmation “dot”. When the camera sees proper focus, it displays a little dot while you’re activating auto-focus. When the camera loses focus, it instead displays a couple of little flashing triangles. Out-of-focus indicator I make use of the transition from the in-focus “dot” to the flashing triangles to know when the camera has lost focus, while pressing the AF-ON button and moving the focus sensor away from the chart’s big rectangle edge. When the flashing signal starts, it means that your focus sensor has fallen off of the target edge. This indicator is located along the bottom left-hand side of the viewfinder. Aim the single focus point at the edge of the rectangle edge As shown above, I begin by centering the focus point over the middle of the target rectangle edge. I slowly pan to the right, watching to see when the camera focus indicator shows that it lost focus. This operation lets me find the sensor left-edge boundary. I repeat the test using the rectangle left edge to find the focus sensor’s right edge boundary while panning to the left. I mount the chart vertically and pan up/down to find the focus sensor boundaries in the vertical dimension. I tried the test using other focus sensors, to see if they behaved the same; it appears that they behaved similarly. I only tested the “cross-type” focus sensors, since I was looking at both horizontal and vertical details. I'll mention that mirrorless camera focus sensors are usually NOT cross-type sensors, and they cannot detect pure horizontal details. The real focus sensor boundaries I drew a square in magenta to show the size and location of the focus sensor, as seen through the viewfinder. I have overlaid (in purple) the extent of actual focus sensitivity for the sensor that I measured in the vertical and horizontal directions. The boundary is almost exactly an entire ‘square’ away from the viewfinder sensor indicator area. The total area of sensitivity maps out to a perfect circle, as near as I can tell; I used a round focus target and panned diagonally to estimate the extent of sensitivity in various directions. I drew a red circle around the estimated area of sensitivity for the focus sensor. Summary There are times that it’s good to have some elbow room around a sensor and still hold focus. Other times, it’s the last thing you want. In any case, it’s good to know what your focus sensor is actually seeing. I’m not trying to pick on the D850 here; it’s certainly not alone in exhibiting this sort of “dishonest” focus response. There are probably times that you noticed some unusual focus behavior. This analysis may shed some light on why that happened.

I thought it would be fun to see how Nikon has progressed with improving focus speed over the years. I picked cameras starting with the D50, introduced way back in June 2005. I tested a representative sample of their DSLRs up through the D850. For the tests shown in this article, I chose my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 Sport lens, since it’s about as fast at focusing as anything that I’ve got. My focus speed timing tests are usually done in bright sunlight, but for this series of tests I chose to try heavy overcast conditions. It turns out that focus speed didn’t seem affected by this lower light level (EV 14 to be exact), which is good news. I bet you think that the D50 probably has Alzheimer’s disease by now, and likely has forgotten how to autofocus. You’d be very, very wrong on that point. You’d be right, on the other hand, to think that its sensor is total crap compared to anything modern. For all testing, I chose the center focus point, since they’re always the most accurate and sensitive. I used slow-motion video from my D850 (120 fps) to monitor and time the focus action, except when testing the D850 itself, where I used the D500 with its 60 fps video. I start with the lens set on minimum focus (about 4 feet), and then I have it focus on a distant high-contrast target to force the lens to focus on infinity. The focus target here is “easy”; I didn’t try anything tricky to focus on. I used the Sigma USB dock to program the lens focus algorithm on my 70-200 f/2.8 Sport lens. I selected the non-default algorithm called “High Speed AF” (or “Fast AF Priority”), which has the highest available speed of its three focus algorithms. It has proven to be totally accurate and reliable, so it makes zero sense to me to use a slower focus algorithm, such as the default “Standard AF”. That’s right: that's a Nikon D50 behind that 70-200 lens Sigma USB Dock: program lens focus speed behavior The Sigma Optimization Pro program that is used with their USB Dock to program any of their modern (Global Vision) lenses is shown above. Besides focus speed behavior, it also lets you customize focus fine-tune calibration at various focal lengths and distances and also the optical stabilization characteristics. Companies like Nikon and Canon don’t have anything as sophisticated as this for their lenses. This series of speed tests produced some real surprises, both good and bad. First, I’ll show a table of results, followed by an analysis of the character of the focus behavior. Camera comparisons If you study the tabulated results shown above, something should stand out to you: The Nikon D50 performed very, very well. In fact, the D50 beat the D7000, D7100, and D610 cameras. How is this possible? I believe the answer lies in the camera’s “focus algorithm” and not the camera raw focus horsepower. Detailed Focusing Behavior Analysis For each test, I carefully studied how the camera would focus the lens in the slow-motion video frame-by-frame. The key to fast focus has a lot more to do with getting straight to the distance goal than with raw speed. Again, each test started at the lens minimum distance and I had the lens focus on a distant target requiring an infinity setting. A smart focus algorithm won’t cover the same ground more than once; a dumb focus algorithm will move forward, then backward, then forward to get to its goal (or the reverse for a near target). To nobody’s surprise, the Nikon D500 and D850 focus algorithms are “smart”; they move straight to the focus goal, and they do so at considerable speed, basically skidding to a stop at infinity. These cameras don’t suffer from getting distracted or being lazy; they’re all business when it comes to the job at hand. The results are quite close to each other, and probably within experimental error of being a tie. They finished within 1/100 second of the same time and won the contest. I used the slower D500 video at 60 fps to analyze the D850, but for the other tests I used the D850 video at 120 fps. The focus hardware in these cameras is equivalent to the D5 hardware, so it should behave similarly. The D50, surprisingly, is also quite smart; it went straight to the focus goal, although more sluggishly than the D500 or D850. As the lens got close to infinity, it just coasted at a slow pace to reach the final focus position with no overshoot. The D610 could move the focus at a reasonably quick pace, but it stopped at 4 meters, back-tracked to 3.5 meters, and then went forward to stop at infinity. Had the camera not back-tracked, it would have had a fast focus time. The D7000 focus looked very confused. It focused to 10 meters, back-tracked to 5 meters, went forward to 20 meters and stopped, then moved forward beyond infinity, then finally moved backward to get to the correct infinity setting. This extra motion caused the D7000 to finish in an embarrassing last place in the competition, behind the lowly D50. The D7100 focus moved to 4 meters, back-tracked to 3.8 meters, and then went straight from there to the correct infinity setting. The individual focus motions were quite fast, but the stutter maneuver cost it precious time. I always had the “feeling” that this camera was faster than my D610, but this test proves it. Summary Contrary to the expected results, camera age and the processor speed aren’t reliable predictors of how fast a camera can focus a lens. The intelligence of the focus algorithm built into the camera firmware can make a huge difference in focus speed. I remember when Sigma produced a firmware update for my 150-600 zoom (programmed with their USB Dock). The focus became both faster and more consistent. This indicates that firmware in both the camera and the lens factors into focus behavior. Life’s complicated. Different lenses may produce different focus behaviors, which is why I decided to use a single lens in all of my testing. I chose a very fast lens (with a fast focus motor), so that it wouldn’t be the limiting factor in determining how fast a camera can focus a lens. There are of course other factors involved in focus, such as low-light performance, the number of cross-type sensors, frame coverage and the sheer number of sensors. That kind of information is available in an uncountable number of sites on the internet. What you won’t find is information comparing camera focus algorithm cleverness, or the lack thereof. Someday, camera manufacturers will probably get around to using artificial intelligence. I think one of the big beneficiaries of this technology will be smart focus algorithms combined with smart subject tracking. That will be a great day. It’s very illuminating to study focus behavior using video. Your own eyes are just too slow to perceive what’s really going on. These test videos reminded me of Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare. Slow and steady can win the race, or at least get you the bronze medal.

Camera mirror blackout is the term for DSLRs when the mirror pivots out of the way for the shutter to open and take the shot. When you’re looking through the viewfinder and take a shot, there’s a brief time when you can’t see anything until the mirror pivots back to its “down” position. Most of the time, you simply ignore mirror blackout, because it’s really brief. It’s a whole different story if you’re taking a series of shots as fast as your camera allows (continuous shooting). During high-speed shooting, such as 10 frames per second, you really need to be able to track the action and follow your moving subject. Also, your camera needs to see the subject in order to update the focus distance as the subject moves. If you’re curious about how much time is spent flipping the mirror out of the way so that the camera can take the shot, a great way measure it is with video. Most smart phones and many cameras are capable of taking super slow-motion video at high frame rates. I’m going to show you how I used my Nikon D850 to track mirror activity at 120 frames per second (24p * 5 = 120). As an additional benefit of this test, you will be able to measure the actual frames-per-second your camera is able to shoot, versus what the manufacturer claims it can do. D850 filming a D500 In the shot above, you can see a D850 (with a 105mm Micro Nikkor) looking through the viewfinder of a D500. The D850’s105mm lens is focused on infinity, and is seeing what the D500 photographer would see. The lens has to be pretty close to the viewfinder to see very much of the frame. Video image of the viewfinder The D850 video, being replayed via its LCD screen, is shown above. The camera multi-selector right-arrow is used to single-step through the video frames to observe when the mirror blocks the viewfinder image during high-speed shooting. With the setup I used, I couldn’t see the entire frame, but that isn’t necessary to conduct a test like this. I attached a 10-pin remote release to the D500 to make it easier to shoot a sequence of 10 frames per second, while also starting and stopping the video recording on the D850. After taking the video footage, I just replayed it in the D850. The time duration of each frame of video is 1/120 second or 0.0083 seconds. The results were pretty consistent for each D500 shot that I reviewed. What follows is a summary of the D500 shooting chronology video. Frame 1: partial image visibility at the top of the viewfinder Frame 2-7: total image blackout Frame 8: partial image visibility at the bottom of viewfinder Frame 9-12: full image visible The 12-frame sequence above repeated itself throughout the video, with minor variations of how much of each “partial frame” was visible. I consider the partial frames to be the same as “blackout”. Adding up the frames, it turns out that the blackout time versus visible time is in a proportion of 8 to 4 (0.0667 seconds blacked out and 0.0333 seconds visible). In other words, two-thirds of the time the viewfinder is blacked out while shooting at 10 frames per second. As a reality check, 0.0667 + 0.0333 = 0.1 seconds per shooting cycle. As expected, each frame then takes 0.1 seconds or 10 frames per second. Nikon is telling the truth about the D500 frame rate, after all. A partially flipped mirror view You’d swear while looking through the viewfinder while shooting 10 frames per second that you ‘mostly’ see the subject, and the blackout time is only a fraction as long. Exactly the opposite is true. I think that your brain tries to stitch together each isolated view into a continuous image, just like when you watch a movie. Summary Super-slow-motion video can be a great tool for viewing things that are simply too fast for human perception. I showed in a previous article how lens auto-focus speed can be studied and measured in detail. If you’re interested in comparing cameras, don’t overlook video as a great measurement tool. It’s rather amazing that the auto-focus system, which only gets to see the subject one third of the time, is able to keep focus on a moving subject while shooting at ten frames per second. This may sound like a problem that’s been solved by mirrorless cameras, which by definition can’t have any mirror blackout time. Most mirrorless cameras only trade this problem for another, potentially more serious problem, however. The mirrorless camera electronic viewfinders have finite refresh rates, and many of them are slow enough that you can’t see where your fast-moving subject really is. Instead, you only get to see where the subject “used to be”. Whoops.

The following is a compendium of all articles published at this website since its inception. This list should make it easier to locate articles of interest. The “search” widget provided by my website provider is pretty lame, in my opinion. I think that a simple list of all article titles and their links will make it much easier to locate website content of interest. Most browsers should let you use “Control-F” within this article to find specific text. The article list below is sorted by oldest first. The bottom of this website’s home page has a horizontal list of numbers to let you step through the article links sorted from newest to oldest. Options are good. 9-3-2015 Sigma 150-600 f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM C Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015-9-3-sigma-150600-f563-dg-os-hsm-c-review 9-4-2015 Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015-9-4-nikkor-85mm-f14-afs 9-4-2015 MTF Mapper Cliffs Notes https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015-9-5-mtf-mapper-cliffs-notes 9-5-2015 Sigma Optimization Pro Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/09/05/sigma-optimization-pro-review 9-5-2015 Using the Exif Tool Program https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/09/05/using-the-exiftool-program 9-5-2015 Use “FP” Mode with your Nikon Flash https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/09/05/use-fp-mode-with-your-nikon-flash 12-11-2015 Camera Upgrade Resolution Expectations https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/12/12/camera-upgrade-resolution-expectations 12-13-2015 Micro Nikkor 60mm AF-D Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/12/13/micro-nikkor-60mm-afd-review 12-18-2015 Turn off VR with high shutter speeds? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/12/19/turn-off-vr-with-high-shutter-speeds 12-27-2015 Use your phone for a camera remote https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/12/28/use-your-phone-for-a-camera-remote 12-31-2015 Manual Exposure with External Flash https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2015/12/31/manual-exposure-with-external-flash 1-9-2016 Nikkor 18-140 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016-1-9-nikkor-18140-f3556g-ed-vr-review 1-13-2016 Nikkor AF-S Micro 105mm f/2.8G Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016-1-13-nikkor-afs-micro-105-mm-f28g-review 1-23-2016 Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 AF-S G DX Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016-1-23-nikkor-35mm-f18-afs-g-dx-review 1-28-2016 Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X116 Pro DX Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016-1-28-tokina-1116mm-f28-atx116-pro-dx 2-6-2016 Rokinon Aspherical IF MC 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/02/06/rokinon-aspherical-if-mc-8mm-f35-fisheye 2-29-2016 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D FX Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/02/29/nikkor-50mm-f18-afd-fx-review 3-9-2016 Does Focus Calibration Make a Difference? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/03/09/does-focus-calibration-make-a-difference 3-26-2016 Nikkor 55-200 f/4.0-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/03/26/nikkor-55200-f4056g-ed-if-afs-dx-vr-review 3-29-2016 Nikkor 18-55 f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR DX Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/03/29/nikkor-1855-f3556g-afs-vr-dx-review 4-5-2015 Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/04/05/micronikkor-55mm-f35-review 4-6-2016 Nikkor-PC 105mm f/2.5 Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/04/06/nikkorp-c-105mm-f25-review 4-22-2016 Why is My Full-Frame Worse Than My APS-C MTF50 Measurement? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/04/22/why-is-my-fullframe-worse-than-my-apsc-mtf50-measurement 4-24-2016 Lens Centering Tests https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/04/24/lens-centering-tests 5-21-2016 Use the Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX Lens on FX? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/05/21/use-nikkor-35mm-f18-afs-dx-lens-on-fx 5-24-2016 Using the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 DX Lens on an FX Camera https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/05/24/using-the-tokina-1116mm-f28-dx-lens-on-an-fx-camera 6-12-2016 When is Manual Mode Not Manual? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/06/12/when-is-manual-mode-not-manual 6-26-2016 D610 VS D7100 VS D7000 Infrared Comparisons https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/06/26/d610-vs-d7100-vs-d7000-infrared-comparisons 7-12-2016 Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 AF-S E ED VR Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/07/12/nikkor-2470mm-f28-afs-e-ed-vr-review 7-22-2016 Nikkor 20mm f/4.0 AI Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/07/22/nikkor-20mm-f40-ai-review 8-9-2016 Measure Axial Chromatic Aberration: MTF Mapper Part Deux https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/08/09/measure-axial-chromatic-aberration-mtf-mapper-part-deux 8-21-2016 Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary Lens Firmware Updates https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/08/21/sigma-150-600mm-contemporary-lens-firmware-updates 9-3-2016 Sigma 150-600 Contemporary OS Anti-Vibration Algorithm Comparison https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/09/03/sigma-150-600-contemporary-os-anti-vibration-algorithm-comparison 9-25-2016 The Fallacy of Spray and Pray https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/09/25/the-fallacy-of-spray-and-pray 10-12-2016 MTF Mapper Version 0.5.8 Updates Discussion https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/10/12/mtf-mapper-version-058 11-19-2016 MTF Curves: Theoretical Versus Actual https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/11/19/mtf-curves-theoretical-versus-actual 11-21-2016 Focus Stacking With Combine ZM https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/11/21/focus-stacking-with-combine-zm 12-19-2016 Clean Your Camera Image Sensor Video https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2016/12/19/clean-your-camera-image-sensor 1-21-2017 The Orton Effect https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/01/21/the-orton-effect 2-12-2017 White Balance Calibration When Colors Go Haywire https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/02/12/white-balance-calibration-when-colors-go-haywire 2-17-2017 Lens Focus Repeatability and Calibration https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/02/17/lens-focus-repeatablity-and-calibration 3-6-2017 “Safe” Storage of Camera Gear https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/03/06/-safe-storage-of-camera-gear 3-16-2017 Test Your Secure Digital Card: Lame and Lamer https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/03/16/test-your-secure-digital-card-lame-and-lamer 3-26-2017 Photo Noise Reduction: Nik Define 2.0 https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/03/26/photo-noise-reduction-nik-dfine-20 4-8-2017 SnapBridge and D500 Remote Control https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/04/08/snapbridge-and-d500-remote-control 4-13-2017 How Bright Is Your Camera Viewfinder? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/04/13/how-bright-is-your-camera-viewfinder 4-21-2017 Infrared Photography and the Nikon D500 https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/04/21/infrared-photography-and-the-nikon-d500 4-29-2017 Does the D500 Automatic Focus Fine-Tune Calibration Work? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/04/29/does-the-d500-automatic-focus-fine-tune-calibration-work 5-11-2017 Do Long Lenses Not Like Filters? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/05/11/do-long-lenses-not-like-filters 5-24-2017 Focus-Stacking: Camera Hardware Suggestions https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/05/24/focus-stacking-camera-hardware-suggestions 6-10-2017 Convert Your Fisheye Lens into a Regular Superwide https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/06/10/convert-your-fisheye-lens-into-a-regular-superwide 6-20-2017 Keep Using Capture NX2 with Raw Format https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/06/20/keep-using-capture-nx2-with-raw-format 7-5-2017 Make Manual Exposure Automatic https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/07/05/make-manual-exposure-automatic 7-15-2017 Using MTF Mapper 0.6.3 New Features https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/07/15/using-mtf-mapper-063-new-features 7-27-2017 A Better Way to Test Fisheye Lens Resolution https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/07/27/a-better-way-to-test-fisheye-lens-resolution 8-7-2017 Yet Another MTF Explanation Article https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/08/07/yet-another-mtf-explanation-article 8-18-2017 Nikon D500 Focus Bug https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/08/18/nikon-d500-focus-bug 8-25-2017 UniWB and ETTR: the Whole Recipe https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/08/25/uniwb-and-ettr-the-whole-recipe 8-31-2017 How to Make a Crowd Disappear in Broad Daylight https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/08/31/how-to-make-a-crowd-disappear-in-broad-daylight 9-9-2017 How to Correct an LED “White” Light Source https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/09/09/how-to-correct-an-led-white-light-source 9-21-2017 White Balance for Infrared Photography https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/09/21/white-balance-for-infrared-photography 10-2-2017 Nikon D500 Focus Point Map Decoded https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/10/02/nikon-d500-focus-point-map-decoded 10-16-2017 MTF Contrast Plots: How Useful are They? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/10/16/mtf-contrast-plots-how-useful-are-they 10-22-2017 D500 Electronic Front-Curtain Shutter Analysis https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/10/22/d500-electronic-front-curtain-shutter-analysis 11-5-2017 Sharper Moon Shots with AutoStakkert https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/11/05/sharper-moon-shots-with-autostakkert 11-16-2017 Stack Star Shots with CombineZP https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/11/16/stack-star-shots-with-combinezp 11-24-2017 Nikkor 300mm f/4.5 pre-AI Review: A Blast From the Past https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/11/24/nikkor-300mm-f45-pre-ai-review-a-blast-from-the-past 12-16-2017 Reverse that Lens for Extreme Close-ups https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/12/16/reverse-that-lens-for-extreme-close-ups 12-26-2017 Panoramas Using Raw Format with Lightroom and HDR Efex Pro 2 https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2017/12/26/panoramas-using-raw-format-with-lightroom-and-hdr-efex-pro-2 1-15-2018 The Brenzier Method: Thin Depth of Focus https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/01/15/the-brenzier-method-thin-depth-of-focus 2-3-2018 Create Your Own Planet https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/02/03/create-your-own-planet 2-17-2018 Nikon D500: Multiple Buttons, Multiple Focus Modes https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/02/17/nikon-d500-multiple-buttons-multiple-focus-modes 3-2-2018 High-speed Lens Focus Shift Explained https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/03/02/high-speed-lens-focus-shift-explained 3-16-2018 Coolpix B500 40X Super-Zoom Camera and Lens Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/03/16/coolpix-b500-40x-super-zoom-camera-and-lens-review 3-29-2018 Remote Camera Control Using digiCamControl https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/03/29/remote-camera-control-using-digicamcontrol 4-13-2018 How to Measure Lens Vignetting https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/04/13/how-to-measure-lens-vignetting 4-28-2018 Keeping up with MTFMapper: any MTF you Want https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/04/28/keeping-up-with-mtfmapper-any-mtf-you-want 5-11-2018 Portrait Retouching Using Maks https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/05/11/portrait-retouching-using-masks 5-29-2018 The History of MTF50 Resolution Measurment https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/05/29/the-history-of-mtf50-resolution-measurement 6-15-2018 Fake Focus Peak on Select Nikon Cameras https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/06/15/fake-focus-peak-on-select-nikon-cameras 6-29-2018 Reflex-Nikkor C 500mm f/8 Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/06/29/reflex-nikkor-c-500mm-f8-review 7-14-2018 Longer Wavelength Infrared Photography Using 850mn Filters https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/07/14/longer-wavelength-infrared-photography-using-850nm-filters 7-27-2018 Simulate an Expensive Big Telephoto https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/07/27/simulate-an-expensive-big-telephoto 8-10-2018 Camera Infrared Filter Resolution and Focus Shift Testing https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/08/10/camera-infrared-filter-resolution-and-focus-shift-testing 8-18-2017 Infrared Filter Comparisons: Hoya, BCI, Neewer, Zomei https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/08/18/infrared-filter-comparisons-hoya-bci-neewer-zomei 9-3-2018 Tamron AF 24-70 f/3.3-5.6 Aspherical Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/09/03/tamron-af-24-70mm-f33-56-aspherical-review 9-15-2018 The Darktable Photo Editor, Part 1: Overview https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/09/15/the-darktable-photo-editor-part-1-overview 9-28-2018 The Darktable Photo Editor, Part 2: Image Masking https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/09/28/the-darktable-photo-editor-part-2-image-masking 10-11-2018 The Darktable Photo Editor, Part 3: Tethered Shooting in Windows 10 https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/10/11/the-darktable-photo-editor-part-3-tethered-shooting-in-windows-10 10-26-2018 Lightroom Masking https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/10/26/lightroom-masking 11-8-2018 Test Lens Coma Yourself https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/11/08/test-lens-coma-yourself 11-14-2018 Nikon Z Camera Lens DesignBrilliance https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/11/14/nikon-z-camera-lens-design-brilliance 11-18-2018 Sigma 150-600 Firmware Update 1.02 for Nikon D500 https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/11/18/sigma-150-600-firmware-update-102-for-nikon-d500 11-28-2018 Fixing the D500 “Live View” AF-ON Button Failure https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/11/28/fixing-the-d500-live-view-dead-af-on-button 12-9-2018 Find the Maximum Shutter Speed for Vibration Reduction https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/12/09/find-the-maximum-shutter-speed-for-vibration-reduction 12-21-2018 Using an LCD Viewfinder on your DSLR https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2018/12/21/using-an-lcd-viewfinder-on-your-dslr 1-2-2019 Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Art Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/01/02/sigma-14-24mm-f28-dg-hsm-art-review 1-18-2019 Create a 3-D Anaglyph with Zoner Photo Studio https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/01/18/create-a-3-d-anaglyph-with-zoner-photo-studio 2-1-2019 Monitor Calibration with the Spyder 5 Pro https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/02/01/monitor-calibration-with-the-spyder-5-pro 2-17-2019 Using Nik Plug-ins Stand-alone or Inside Nikon Capture NX-D https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/02/17/use-nik-plug-ins-stand-alone-or-inside-capture-nx-d 3-5-2019 How to Test Your Lens for Focus Shift https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/03/05/how-to-test-your-lens-for-focus-shift 3-19-2019 How to Align a Lens Resolution Target https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/03/19/how-to-align-a-lens-resolution-target 4-2-2019 Free ‘Dehaze’ for Lightroom 6.1 or Newer https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/04/02/free-dehaze-for-lightroom-61-or-newer 4-17-2019 DSLR Focus Calibration in Record Time https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/04/17/dslr-focus-calibration-in-record-time 4-30-2019 Make a Flash Diffuser for Free https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/04/30/make-a-flash-diffuser-for-free 5-19-2019 Sigma Lens Focus Algorithm Comparison https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/05/19/sigma-lens-focus-algorithm-comparison 6-4-2019 Lightroom Radial Filter: The Spotlight https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/06/04/lightroom-radial-filter-the-spotlight 6-18-2019 How Lens Optical Stabilization Works https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/06/18/how-lens-optical-stabilization-works 7-10-2019 F-stop Fun Facts https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/07/10/f-stop-fun-facts 7-27-2019 Nikon Custom Settings Banks versus Photo Shooting Banks https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/07/27/nikon-custom-settings-banks-versus-photo-shooting-banks 8-10-2019 Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Sport Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/08/10/sigma-70-200mm-f28-dg-os-hsm-sport-review 8-24-2019 Sigma TC-1401 1.4X Teleconverter Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/08/24/sigma-tc-1401-14x-teleconverter-review 9-7-2019 Sigma Focus Algorithms: Speed versus Accuracy https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/09/07/sigma-focus-algorithms-speed-versus-accuracy 9-20-2019 Nikon D850 Buffer Capacity Reality Testing https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/09/20/nikon-d850-buffer-capacity-reality-testing 10-7-2019 Nikon D500 Un-cropped versus D850 Cropped Shot Comparison https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/10/07/nikon-d500-un-cropped-versus-d850-cropped-shot-comparison 10-20-2019 Flashpoint Wave Commander Remote Shutter Intervalometer Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/10/20/flashpoint-wave-commander-remote-shutter-intervalometer-review 11-3-2019 Fix that Lens Infrared Hotspot with Lightroom https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/11/03/fix-that-lens-infrared-hotspot-with-lightroom 11-16-2019 Should You Turn Off Vibration Reduction When Using a Tripod? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/11/16/should-you-turn-off-vibration-reduction-when-using-a-tripod 11-30-2019 Lens Resolution Measurement: Avoid Sharpened Jpeg Like the Plague https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/11/30/lens-resolution-measurement-avoid-sharpened-jpeg-like-the-plague 12-14-2019 Measure Lens Focus Speed with Nikon D850 Video https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/12/14/measure-lens-focus-speed-with-nikon-d850-video 12-31-2019 Hoya Pro ND1000 Filter Review https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2019/12/31/hoya-pro-nd1000-filter-review 1-15-2020 Lens Resolution: Red Green Blue Comparison https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/lens-resolution-red-green-blue-comparison 2-8-2020 Lens Field Curvature Visualization https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/lens-field-curvature-visualization 2-22-2020 Nikon AF Nikkor 75-300 f/4.5-5.6 Zoom https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/2020/02/22/nikon-af-nikkor-75-300-f45-56-zoom 3-7-2020 Phase Detect Versus Contrast Detect Focus Accuracy https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/phase-detect-versus-contrast-detect-focus-accuracy 3-19-2020 How to Update Lightroom 6.14 with Lens Profiles After Adobe Has Ceased Support https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/how-to-update-lightroom-6-14-with-lens-profiles-after-adobe-has-ceased-support 4-2-2020 Update a Fresh Lightroom 6 Install to Version 6.14 Without Adobe’s Help https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/update-a-fresh-lightroom-6-install-to-version-6-14-without-adobe-s-help 4-18-2020 High-Res Camera Sensors: Worth It? https://www.photoartfromscience.com/single-post/high-res-camera-sensors-worth-it 5-2-2020 Extreme Perspective Photography Suggestions 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It’s a huge time saver to make edits on a picture and then share those same changes with many other similar photos. There are several ways to automatically add edits from a single photo into one or more other photos in Lightroom. What follows are the main techniques that work best for me. The Adobe programmers didn’t exactly make this stuff intuitive. One-photo-at-a-time Edit Sharing Technique Go to the “Develop” module. Edit your master photo first Pick a representative photo, and make all of your desired edits on it. Copy which edits you want to place into another shot (or shots) Click the “Copy…” button in the lower left of your screen. Set or clear the checkboxes to configure which edits you want to propagate to another image inside the “Copy Settings” dialog. You don't have to include any editing steps that don't make sense to transfer into other shots. Click the “Copy” button at the bottom of the “Copy Settings” dialog after you’ve finished selecting all of the edit steps you want saved. Select an un-edited photo to receive edits Click another un-edited image from the filmstrip at the bottom of the screen that you want to have edited. Click the “Paste” button in the lower left part of the screen. The selected photo will be edited with the features you have chosen. Click on another image from the filmstrip to paste the edits into, if you want to transfer the same edits into yet another picture. Click the “Paste” button again. How to Modify Multiple Images at Once Go to the “Develop” module. Edit your master photo first Pick a representative photo (the “master” photo) and make all of the edits on it. Don’t worry if you made a few edits that you don’t want to transfer to the other shots, such as cropping, because you don’t have to transfer every single edit into other shots. Select the multiple photos to transfer your edits into Select the range of un-edited photos (Shift and Control buttons) that you want to transfer the edits into while your main edited photo is still active. Your active photo will have a white border on it in the filmstrip at the screen bottom. The other selected photos to receive the edits will have a medium-gray border on them in the filmstrip. Apple users will need to click the equivalent buttons that let you multi-select the desired photos. Click the “Sync…” button at the lower-right of the screen. The “Synchronize Settings” dialog Select all of the edits to transfer into the chosen photos via the "Synchronize Settings" dialog. Make sure un-wanted edits get un-checked (such as “Crop”). Click the “Synchronize” button to start the batch processing. Your selected edits will get transferred into all of the selected photos at once. Summary The procedures to perform edit repetition and batch edits aren’t very intuitive in Lightroom. Once you have repeated these steps a few times, it becomes pretty easy to efficiently re-use your editing labor. Learning these techniques will save you many hours of labor and also enable you to reliably repeat edits on multiple photos.

Nikon has had a feature called “Color Sketch” available for many years on several of its amateur/enthusiast camera models. Color Sketch isn’t offered on any of its professional models, of course. I did an article a few years ago on how to use this same Effects feature to perform “focus peaking” here: If you have read about it on the web, then you probably noted that Color Sketch is looked upon with loathing and contempt. Most of these same web site reviewers have the same disdain for HDR photography; anything that isn’t “realistic” should be banned from photography. I was doing some Live View shooting the other day and tried out the Color Sketch/Focus Peaking technique with a manual-focus lens. I happened to notice that my LCD screen was showing me some very striking images, which got me interested in what this feature could do. Some cameras, like my D7000 and D610, don’t offer a live-view Color Sketch effect mode, but the effect can instead be found in the “Retouch” menu. Even shooting Raw format, you can easily make a color sketch version of your shot in-camera. The color sketch version of the photo is only available in jpeg format. Cameras that allow a color sketch retouch conversion but not a Live View imaging mode make using this feature a bit more challenging. You’ll find that some subjects make terrible color sketch images, and you can’t reliably predict this ahead of time. Fortunately, you don’t have to make any decisions while you’re out shooting. You can explore converting shots back in the comfort of your home; if you don’t like the effect, just delete it. It costs you nothing except a few moments of your time. Philodendron Retouch Steps to Make a Color Sketch Select Color sketch in the Retouch menu Select the shot to convert When you select a photo to convert (even raw format) you’ll note that already-retouched shots cannot be re-selected. Use the multi-selector arrows to locate the shot, then press OK to select it. Default: Drab The default color sketch always looks dreadful to me, but maybe that’s just me. Use the multi-selector up/down arrows to select Vivdness and then use the left/right arrows to alter the vividness. Crank up the Outlines I increase the Outlines, which thickens the lines. Press OK to save the shot, or else select cancel if the shot looks hopeless. It will save it as jpeg format, and it won't touch your original shot. The original can be in raw format or jpeg. Proteas Minolta XK with 135mm f/2.8 Humming birds Patio Queen Palm Succulents Backlit leaves Rose Protea detail Summary Think of Color Sketch like candy. A little bit of it can be quite nice, but you’d never make a steady diet of it. Before dismissing it, I really think you should give this feature a chance, if your camera has it. I find it ironic that the “pro” cameras don’t have anything like this feature (they’re above that sort of thing). It can turn a boring subject into something quite dramatic. See if it doesn’t bring out the inner Andy Warhol in you.

Ironically, a major disadvantage of macros is their narrow field of coverage. You get really, really close to see tiny subjects, but you wish you could see a wider field of view. This problem can be solved by panning and taking overlapping shots to create a panorama, but there’s yet another problem. Focus depth is just too shallow on these small subjects. Now you have to turn to focus stacking. It’s actually possible to combine all of these techniques together to create a macro panorama with deep focus. I’m going to show you how you can use a few different programs to make this all possible. A Macro Panorama from 3 overlapping stacked shots I’ll mention that you can make theoretically superior macro panoramas by translating the camera/lens instead of simply panning on a tripod, but the results are basically no different. For landscapes, especially with a wide-angle lens, you can notice significant perspective distortion in panoramas. In macro panoramas, it’s difficult, if not impossible to see perspective distortion unless you overlap a very large number of stacked shots. Panorama via translating the camera/lens on a rack Panorama via panning the camera/lens As you see, the pair of shots above look fundamentally the same. You wouldn't be able to tell which shot was done via panning or translating the camera. Macro Panorama Recipe The following discussion spells out how I make focus-stacked macro panoramas. I’m using a Nikon D850, that supports focus-shift shooting. I am using the 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor at f/8. I typically shoot 25 shots with a step width setting of 6, and I mostly use ‘DX’ crop mode. The CombineZP program I use that combines the photo stacks can have trouble with the huge FX-format shots from the D850, but DX-format shots are no problem. Please shoot in Raw format. Shoot a whole stack of shots (using a tripod) at the left-most panorama framing, starting with the lens focused on the nearest detail. Autofocus must be active for the focus-shift shooting feature to work correctly. If the last shot didn’t focus far enough for the desired detail, then simply do another stack of shots without touching focus (it will pick up where if left off). Next, pan over to the next panorama position with about a 30% overlap from the previous stack of shots. Focus on the nearest detail. Take the next stack of shots. Repeat the panning/refocus/stack-shooting until the right-most shots are complete. Open up the raw-format shots in a program such as CaptureNX-D that can batch-process the shots and convert them all into 16-bit TIF format. Run the (Windows-only) CombineZP program or an equivalent (such as Helicon Focus) on each stack of shots. Save the stacked photo in 16-bit TIF format for best quality. The CombineZP program leaves each stacked photo with unwanted artifacts around the edges; don’t worry about this for now. If you're interested in more details on using the CombineZP program, use this link to another article I wrote on the topic. Stacked photo with edge artifacts that need removal You can see in the stacked shot above that the edges have mirror-image artifacts. These artifacts will need to be removed before you can combine the shots into a panorama. . The CombineZP program gives you the ability to crop off these artifacts, but it doesn’t let you specify the exact pixel dimensions of the cropped file. Import the stacked TIF photos into Lightroom. In the Develop module, crop the shots to remove the unwanted edge artifacts. All of the cropped shots will need to be the exact same dimensions before they can be merged into a panorama, so use the File|Export|Image Sizing|Resize to Fit to save each cropped file with the same pixel dimensions in both width and height. You have a variety of image formats to select from here, but I’d still suggest you use something other than jpeg for best quality. Select the stacked/cropped/sized/exported photos and use the Photo | Photo Merge | Panorama… Lightroom feature to combine the stacked shots into a panorama. You can select from the projection options of Spherical/Cylindrical/Perspective to combine the shots. I usually select Cylindrical. Left stacked shot with un-cropped mirror artifacts Middle stacked shot with un-cropped mirror artifacts Right stacked shot with un-cropped mirror artifacts The three stacked shots above (from the CombineZP program) had to be cropped and then resized before Lightroom could successfully combine them into a panorama. The finished result is shown at the top of this article. Conclusion There are probably many ways to get a panorama from stacked macro photos, and this is just one of them. There’s no question that it’s a bit tedious to make macro panoramas this way, but the quality is simply superb.

Nikon provides an automatic focus-calibrating feature on some of its newer cameras, which uses Live-View autofocus feedback to perform the calibration. Live-View focus uses the more accurate (and very slow) "contrast detect" focus. This article analyzes just how good (or how bad) this feature is. The camera expects an ‘easy’ target in good light to get a reliable focus result. The tests in this article were shot at EV 7.6, which should be well inside the realm of “easy” focusing for this camera. I am using the D850 for all of these tests, along with my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AF-S lens shot with a wide-open aperture. This fast lens exhibits spherical aberration, so the optimum focus fine-tune calibration value is different for other lens apertures, but that’s a whole other story. You’ll typically want to calibrate with your lens aperture wide-open, since stopping down will just hide small focus calibration errors. I’m using my 85mm f/1.4 for this evaluation, because it has an exceptionally narrow focus depth when shot wide open at short distances. It desperately needs accurate focus calibration. Automatic Focus Fine-Tune feature To perform the automatic focus calibration, you begin by focusing your lens on the target in Live View mode (with AF-S), and then press the “AF mode” and the “Movie Record” buttons simultaneously for about 2 seconds. After you give the camera permission to continue (as shown above), it then assigns the focus fine-tune value to your lens. The “AF mode” button is on the front of the camera near its base. Plot of a perfectly focus-calibrated lens The holy grail of focus calibration is shown in the ‘profile’ plot above, generated by the MTFMapper program. The blue line shows where the expected focus should be, and the green plot shows where sharp focus actually occurred. Truth be told, taking multiple photos with the same focus calibration multiple times results in perfect focus only approximately 70% of the time with this lens. The other shots would exhibit small shifts both in front of and behind the desired focus plane. The “correct answer” starts to involve statistics, due to the inevitable small amount of slop in the imperfect camera/lens focusing system. I got the results shown above my manually performing focus fine-tune calibration. Next, I used AF-C continuous phase-detect autofocus while taking the shot. The focus target I used the target shown above to perform the automatic calibration. This shot actually shows what the MTFMapper program calls an “annotated plot”, which includes little resolution measurements added to each edge that it can measure. This target makes it really easy for a camera to focus; the camera focus point is aimed at the right-hand edge of the large black central rectangle. The target itself is rotated 45 degrees relative to the camera image sensor, so that the right-hand side is closer to the camera. The MTFMapper web site offers free files of focus targets and resolution targets that you can then print and mount.. It's of course not mandatory to use a target like this for automatic focus fine-tune calibration, but you'll find that it's superior to almost anything else you could use. Target measurements detail, fine-tune +2 The close-up above shows my manually-calibrated lens (85mm f/1.4) using the focus fine-tune value of +2. The plot shown earlier in this article was generated using all of the measurements it makes using this chart. This photograph of the focus target used phase-detect focus, with AF-C continuous focus. The highest MTF50 edge measurements pretty much align with the vertical right-hand edge of the large rectangle, just as they should. I made a series of attempts to have the camera focus-calibrate itself, just to see how these measurements compared to my manually-determined focus fine-tune value of +2. All of my attempts were done at f/1.4, and the camera was on a tripod. My first automatic focus calibration attempt got an answer of -8. I then took a shot of the target using this new focus fine-tune value using AF-C and phase-detect. Focus results calibrated with fine-tune -8 The results, just as I had assumed, showed the lens focus was now much too near to the camera. The automatic calibration feature got it very,very wrong. Maybe that was just a fluke. This focus miss would result in a resolution loss of about 18% at the desired focus plane. Target measurements detail, fine-tune -8 The measurement details shown above indicate that focus got shifted to the right, nearer to the camera and away from the large vertical edge of the target where I had aimed the focus sensor. Not wanting to give up just yet, I tried the whole automatic focus-fine tune calibration procedure again. This time, the calibration fine-tune value result was -5. Slightly closer to the correct answer, but still really poor. Focus results calibrated with fine-tune -5 The plot shows that the camera is still near-focusing and not very close to the target edge that I had aimed at. Time to try calibration again. The next fine-tune answer was -3. Close, but no cigar as they say. Focus results calibrated with fine-tune -3 Focus fine-tune of -3 shown above is fairly close to the desired edge, but not as good as what it should be. I tried auto-calibration yet again, and the next answer was -5. The plot expectedly looks almost exactly like the “-5” plot I showed earlier. At this point, I’d seen enough. The results would have been closer to what was really needed for correct focus if I had instead never even bothered to calibrate the lens at all. I tried the same auto-calibration experiments on my D500 quite a while ago, and I got similarly disappointing results with that camera. At the time, I thought that maybe my camera was an exception and other cameras would do a better job than mine. I had tried a few different lenses, but none were properly auto-calibrated. Conclusion Sadly, you will probably get much better results by manually calibrating lens focus yourself. I’ll bet everyone thought that Nikon had finally solved the focus calibration issue. The MTFMapper program feedback (with the focus target files at the same web site) makes manual focus calibration fairly simple, and the results are very accurate. Nikon’s engineers need to take their auto-calibrate idea back to the drawing board. By the way, Nikon’s mirrorless cameras also provide a focus fine-tune calibration feature. Even those cameras can use a little help getting focus just right, because lenses don’t always do exactly what they’re told to do. They’re still better than DSLRs for focus in most situations, but even mirrorless cameras aren’t flawless focusers. You can get the free MTFMapper program here.