A Brief Update

Some Face Time with the Nikon D610

(I still can't believe I have this camera!)

My wife and our dogs and I went out for a weekend drive this last weekend, and spent the night in Pinetop/Lakeside, Arizona. It's at about 7,200 feet elevation and it was nice and cool there - around 60 degrees at night. It's surrounded by pines and is a nice alternative to Flagstaff (where the motels were all booked up). It is a bit farther from Phoenix but still only took about 3-1/2 hours to get there through Globe, AZ. The return route we made through Payson, which is maybe 10 miles shorter, but there was an accident on the highway so it ended up taking a bit longer. Still, only 1/2 of a tank of gas in the Explorer for each direction.

I spent more time just driving and enjoying my wife and dogs than I did taking pictures. On the way home on Sunday we took the Woods Canyon Lake exit and I took a handful of pictures there, but that was it.

But, those pictures were enjoyable to take. They aren't great but I enjoy taking them with the new D610. Before shooting I wanted to make sure my settings were ready to go. Since there are around 300 settings, that may seem daunting. However, I have saved all of my settings in a user setting, "U2" so all I have to do is dial it in on the mode dial and I'm ready to go.

To double check things all I have to do is look at the control panel on the top of the camera to see my ISO, aperture, and shutter. I can verify I'm shooting in RAW and the auto focus and metering mode. Too cool!

I also really enjoy the large viewfinder (as compared to the Nikon D3200). I can see in it!
If there is anything I wish were different, it would have to be that I kind of wish I had a different lens or two. Perhaps even a zoom, but I'm still not convinced I want a zoom. The pictures I got from the prime 50mm are amazing to me.

If you look at the full size version of this picture:

http://www.poppavein.com/wwwroot/randymorter/photos/Landscape/WoodsCanyonLake/index.html#Pinetop-Lakeside_20140720_088.jpg

You can see the individual tree trunks at the bottom of the valley. Again, it's not a wonderful image but I like it because of the detail. Note that it's not really got a lot of post processing sharpening either.

It's Heavy

I did use the camera a bit more to take some snap shots of our motel room and the pups, but they're just for personal memories so I didn't post them or expect much of them. I did, however, play around with the camera. Since I wasn't going to do anything with them, I shot them in JPEG mode. It's so quick to change the format with all of the dedicated controls (compared to the D3200 where you have to go through menus).

I also wanted to shoot our dogs jumping from bed to bed so tried bumping up the ISO and shooting in burst mode. It kind of worked but I never did catch one of them in mid air. However, even at ISO 800 in JPEG the noise was okay.
 
And again, even in a small motel room (well, it was large enough for 2 king size beds) I wish I had a bit longer lens. I really think the 85mm would be perfect.