In this digital age we are slowly forgetting about traditional prints, and more focus on just sharing photos on the web. During last few years, I been wanting to set up a home print shop, in which I can start to sell some of my work if people are interested. Mostly, I wanted to get to know the different types of paper and printing techniques, the goal is to get excellent quality prints every single time. The first step towards my print shop is find a decent printer at a manageable price, after numerous suggestions I went with Epson.
I purchased the Epson Stylus Photo R2000, a wide format printer, that does extremely GOOD prints for both matte and glossy paper for its price. I did some testing with an initial batch of prints and was very satisfy with the result. The color on the fine art matte paper was extremely accurate and the blacks really pops. The photo really shine when I tested the glossy paper, it serious look like studio quality prints. I excited now that I get to print up to 13in x 19in, that well really help to cover up those white walls in my room.
I still need more testing to make sure of the color accuracy between my monitor and the printer matches. Hopefully I will get the shop up and running by the end of next month. My plan is starting to sell prints from 4X6 to 8×11, anything bigger might need special arrangements. The price should ranger from to 5 to 10 dollars depend on the size of the print.
I will keep updating the progress of the shop, and should announce a opening date soon!
On tuesday, Nikon has finally announced their successor to the D700, which was their entry level FX camera. It’s called the D800, and it has an unbelievable 36.3 megapixels sensor. I been waiting for this camera ever since I wanted to upgrade to a full frame from my current camera. My trusty old Nikon D80 has been with me for the past four years and has treated me well over the course of time. In result, I felt that I have pushed this camera to it’s limit and now it’s slow dying away. The rumors for the D800 was expected to be releasing mid of last year, but due to the flooding of Thailand the manufacture came to a complete stop.
Before I give my opinion for the camera here some of the listed specs
36.3 megapixel, full-frame sensor (FX)…. MOTHER OF GOD up to 5fps still image shooting (FX mode is 4fps) 1080pHD video 24 or 30fps
ISO Range 100-6400 (extendable from 25,600)
Two card slots: CF and SD
My old D80 only had a 10.2 Megapixels CCD sensor and shots about 3fps in RAW, so if I am gonna upgrade to the new D800 it’s gonna be huge leap for me. At 36.2 megapixels the RAW files gonna be at least 70mb to 80mb big and when its converted to a TIFF files it can easily go over 200mb. At my current work flow any files over 50mb is already taking up a lot of my backup hard disc space, so at 200mb I will defiantly needs to invest in new drives to store all those images. Another problems I see from having such large files is that I don’t think my late 2008 Macbook Pro can handle the processing power, especially when it’s already connected to a 27in Cinema Display. Hopefully I will get a chance to download a sample RAW file and play around with it to see if my computer can handle such large files. Above all, I am very excited for this camera in term of the video option it offers; Nikon has finally an answer to the Canon’s 5DMII. I haven’t done any video on DSLR but I am excited that now we have option to use our own lens for video capturing.
There’s two model of the D800 one comes with AA filter and one doesn’t, I am not really sure on the matter of AA filter, but for me the regular version at $2999 will suit me just fine . The camera doesn’t expect to ship till late March and seem from difference sources pre-order has already seem to be filling up. Thought I am in no hurry of getting the camera since my D80 still works pretty good. Once my local camera shop has one I will indeed test out the camera myself and see if its the right upgrade for me. One thing does bother me is that FPS went down from the D700, but I guess it’s due to the large sensor. I have hoped for a faster frame rate, since my friend’s Sony Alpha 850 can go up to 9FPS in JPEG. I don’t do any sports photography so I think FPS won’t matter to me as much.
Most of my work consist of Landscape and Still Life, so the large sensor will defiantly benefit me in term of image quality. The current reviews says that the dynamic range is excellent in this camera, which really help for landscape photographers. I am really up for a upgrade this year to a full-frame camera, and I do hope that this D800 will be my savior.
