d4

Hard to believe that the Nikon D4 has been out now for more than a year. It feels like just yesterday that I took my first frame with it. As of this week, I have taken 145,573 images with my D4. I really love this camera. It is the most responsive camera I have ever shot and the low light ability is exactly what I need. There are some things that really stand out to me about this camera, some that I expected and one that I didn’t. I’ll get to the surprise later. Lets start with the things i have noticed in real life. Now, understand, these are the things that I have found with my camera and my shooting style. Your mileage may differ.

  • Battery Life. The battery life is really good. I have three batteries for this camera and always carry a spare with me, but have never needed it. A full battery has lasted me for days. I know that the specs say the battery is lowered powered etc… but in my world, it lasts a really long time.
  • XQD cards. The Nikon D4 is the only camera to use these cards. They  rock. Right now there are only two manufacturers of XQD cards; Sony and Lexar. I have only used the Sony cards and only the slower type H cards and not the faster S cards, but they are still faster than anything else I have ever used. The fact that I can shoot 10 frames per second for over 70 frames is just awesome. It’s not like I want to shoot like that all the time but for certain sequences when shooting sports or drummers it really is liberating not have to worry the frame count. I hope to get my hands on a few of the Lexar cards in the near future to see how they compare.
  • Ergonomics. The reason I bought my first Nikon was the way it felt in my hand. All the Nikons I have owned feel great in my hand, but the D4 especially so. The only thing that I still have an issue with is using the small joysticks to control the focus points. I still tend to use the multi selector unless I am really thinking about it.
  • ISO. The reason I wanted this camera was for the low light ability and it has performed exactly the way I expected. I have no problem shooting at 1600 or 3200 ISO with this camera. The images look amazingly noise free.
  • Time Lapse. This one was a surprise to me. The D4 can create time-lapse movies in the camera. That has been a huge time savings for me since I have been shooting a lot of behind the scenes time-lapse.

 

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys shot from the FOH with the D4 and the 300mm f/4 at ISO 1250.

The Who perform Quadrophenia and More at the Valley View Casino Center

The Who shot at ISO 1000 using the D4 and the 70-200mm f/2.8

The Black Keys / 2012

The Black Keys shot at ISO 1600 with the Nikon D4 and 24-70mm f/2.8 lens

If you have any questions, drop me a line… I’ll be happy to answer them if I can.