Loads of new stuff (Nikon D7100, The Touch App, cheaper NIK Software and a new photo competition)!
The last month has seen a few new, exciting developments for photographers. Let’s have a look at them.
Nikon D7100 Launch
Chief of this is the launch of the Nikon D7100, a new 1.3x crop 24MP DSLR. I’ve been keeping an eye out on the D7100 as a possible replacement for my second body, the D7000 which has held its end of the market for quite a while. Its specs seem to indicate good news for photographers and its price puts it easily into the serious enthusiast’s budget.
So, how does it stack up? Have a read of this detailed review of the Nikon D7100 courtesy of SLRLounge.
… As a general all-around camera for the advanced amateur photographer, the D7100 is stellar. Its price is amazing considering its semi-flagship feature set, and I am hard-pressed to think of a type of photographer from beginner to pro who wouldn’t feel good about having a D7100 as either their main camera, or at least as a backup.
The review also addresses initial criticisms of the D7100s picture buffer, which ranges from 6-11 frames depending on image quality and crop mode selected:
If you shoot 14-bit lossless compressed RAW, the bufffer is a measly 6 images large. At the camera’s native frame rate, that’s just 1 second of shooting before the buffer slows.
However, turn the D7100?s RAW quality down to 12-bit and true (lossy) compressed, you get a good 9 frames in before the camera slows down. Then, jump to 1.3x (total 2x) crop mode, and you get a good solid 10-11 frames (at 7 FPS!) before the buffer fills.
For most photographers, this is going to be absolutely more than enough. Only the most serious sports shooters are going to miss the larger buffers offered in the flagship sports cameras.
And don’t forget to check improvement to long shutter exposures built into the D7100 – with its click on/click off Bulb mode feature!
Will I upgrade to the D7100? It’s very tempting but like all serious photographers, I have a try before I buy attitude, so I can’t wait to get my hands on a demo D7100 and to give it a whirl!
Cheaper NIK Software courtesy of Google
I posted this on Facebook yesterday and have since purchased my copy of the complete NIK Collection by Google. For $149, you get all six NIK plugins from Silver Efex Pro to Viveza 2. And if you have purchased a plugin, then the others are available to you for FREE. How awesome is that? If this tickles your fancy, head on to The NIK Collection by Google and have your credit card handy.
The Touch App
There’s been a rapid move away from using a mouse in image editing – and the latest addition to the market is the Touch App from Arctic Whiteness. It presents a more intuitive and precise touch interface for your Macbook Trackpad, Magic Trackpad or iPad. Have a look at this video:
The Parkinson’s Centre Photographic Competition
This is a photography competition and fund-raising event to benefit the Parkinson’s Centre, which is dedicated to research into Parkinson’s, health and ageing. Organised by Craig Tonkin of CT Photography Perth, the Parkinson’s Centre Photographic Competition offers a prize pool of $3,000 across two competition categories: Open and Landscape.
We’re sponsoring this competition with a prize of a gift voucher to one of our 1-day workshops, so if you’re keen to win one or would like to enter this competition, head on down to the competition page and download the entry form.
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