Category Archives: Photography

The Nikkor 16-35mm revisited

Nikon lenses

All that’s old is new again.

I last wrote about this ultrawide full-frame zoom in 2012. I must have been enjoying a period of more money than sense as I paid the full retail price of $1300 for what was a lens recently introduced by Nikon. At that time I wrote:

It’s bulky, the gargantuan lens hood is needed to shade the exposed front element, it’s set in a yucky resin body and at 24 ounces it’s no featherweight. The maximum aperture of f/4 is relatively modest and you will struggle getting dramatic differential focus effects. Being a ‘G’ optic there is no traditional aperture ring, aperture control being solely possible from the control dial on the body. I prefer a ring on the lens. Finally, at just under $1300 it’s anything but cheap.

The lens was sold after a couple of years’ use when I went all MF. That 16-35mm was in great demand at the time so the high resale price somewhat mollified the pain from the damage to my pocketbook.

When Nikon started transitioning from flapping mirror DSLRs to the mirrorless Z range, they did buyers of the old Nikon F mount optics a great favor. Stated simply, the bottom dropped out of the market on resale value on some of the finest optics known to man. Having recently added mint examples of the D800 and the 28-300mm zoom, I could not resist completing the focal length range with an ultrawide zoom and picked up a near new specimen of the 16-35mm ultrawide zoom for …. $315! Thank you Nikon and thank you Mr. Upgrading Seller. And thanks also for the free Hoya UV “Antistatic” (whaaat?) filter which sells for $70.

All the familiar characteristics of the 16-35mm are there. The awful barrel distortion at 16mm (the built in Lightroom Classic lens correction profile takes care of that with ease), the huge bulk and the slow maximum aperture. You can’t do anything about the bulk but the fact that this was the first ultrawide zoom with Vibration Reduction makes that f/4 maximum aperture more like f/2, and it works well.

But how wide, exactly, is 16mm? In full frame vernacular it’s plenty wide but not as wide as the claimed 12mm of the ultrawide optic in my iPhone 12 Pro Max, one of the best reasons for buying the iPhone. Yes, that device may have third world ergonomics and lacks reach at the long end of the lens range, but the ultrawide is excellent.

I set to checking who is who and what is what with two quick comparisons:


The 16-35mm Nikkor at 16mm**.


The 12mm lens on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

** With distortion correction using the Adobe profile in Lightroom v6.

The answer is that the iPhone is noticeably wider using the ultrawide lens, if not as wide as you might expect, but what is really interesting is the comparison of resolving power from the miniscule lens in the iPhone with the giant on the D800. Yes, the D800 is better, but barely so. And the lenses in the iPhone will only get better whereas the Nikkor 16-35mm has remained unchanged for over a decade.


Comparing definition at 1:1. iPhone at left.

Still, for a modest investment of under $1,400 I have a top class 36mp sensor body and a lens focal length range of 16-300mm with just two zooms. I’ll leave you to count how many fixed focal length optics those two zooms replace and the fact that I can stretch the 300mm to 1000mm with relative impunity is just icing on the cake. Can’t do that with an iPhone.

Here’s my complete D800 kit:


The 16-35mm and 28-300mm VR Nikkors with the D800 body.

Fake Nikon camera batteries

Nikon bodies

Watch out!

A few years ago B&H, a reputable vendor of photo hardware, was forced to recall a batch of EN-EL15b Nikon batteries which turned out to be anything other than OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). In fact they did not even ask for their return. They sent new OEM ones to purchasers of the bad batch and asked that the originals be recycled. B&H had been scammed and acted honorably to fix their procurement mistake.


The B&H recall advisory.

Battery fraud is common and my research indicates that saving $30-40 on an aftermarket or eBay ‘Nikon’ battery is false economy.

The D800 and many other Nikon bodies take the EN-EL15, of which there have been 4 versions – EN-EL15, EN-EL15a, EN-EL15b, EN-EL15c.

The D800 came with the EN-EL15 but all later models fit. The ‘a’ and ‘b’ variants appear to be complying with new labeling requirements as the first three versions are all rated at 1900mAh. The ‘c’, which came with later mirrorless bodies, has increased the capacity to 2280 mAH, or 20% more shots, which is a lot.

My D800 came with two EN-EL15; the one would only charge to 40%, the other would charge to 100% but then lose 20% daily even without use, so I bought a new Nikon OEM EN-EL15c. Neither battery which came with the camera, when fully charged (solid LED on the charger), would reset the shot counter on the D800’s LCD.

Advice from Nikon and others as to compatibility is all over the place. I have found no issues charging or using the EN-EL15c in the D800 with the original charger MH-25.

Disadvantage of the OEM battery? It costs two or three times as much as the fakes.

Reckon on 2000-3000 snaps per charge (assuming no LCD chimping and no wi-fi use on bodies which have it). So I only need one good one. No way I take >2000 snaps in a session.

One excellent article on the subject is this one. The comments are particularly worth reading.

After reading that piece and others on the interwebs, I conclude there are eight indicators to look for in spotting fake Nikon camera batteries:

  • The four notches on the long sides of the holographic gold label on the back. Real batteries have these. Fakes may not unless they are really good fakes.
  • Weight. A real battery weighs 78-87 grams. Fakes may weigh less as there’s less power storage material inside. My new EN-EL15c came in at 80 grams.
  • Tap for a hollow sound. Tap the rounded sides of the battery with a fingernail. A hollow sound indicates a fake. A solid one points to the real thing – or a really good fake. The hollow sound is the result of the internal void from lack of energy storage material.
  • Failure to reset the shot counter to ‘0’ after a recharge. The shot counter in my D800 can be found on the LCD tool menu->Battery Info. An OEM battery resets this to zero after a full recharge. A fake one may not.
  • Failure to reach full charge in the MH-25 (or MH-25A – identical) Nikon charger. My new EN-EL15c gets a solid ‘fully charged’ light in the OEM charger, from dead flat (as shipped), in 2 hours and 45 minutes. A fake or aftermarket one may not.
  • Loss of charge, as indicated by the camera’s battery indicator, even after a period of non-use. This can indicate a fake or a really tired OEM battery.
  • There is a small stamped lower case alphabetic letter between the ‘+’ sign near the connector and the connector. It’s ‘a’ for the EN-EL15a, ‘b’ for the EN-EL15b and ‘c’ for the EN-EL15c. It’s blank on the original EN-EL15 so this is not a foolproof indicator. To be safe if you battery is an ‘a’, ‘b’ or ‘c’ model and the stamped letter is missing, it’s probably a fake.
  • Price. If it’s much under $70 and/or does not come in a Nikon box with circular holographic label, it’s probably a fake.

If any of the above symptoms is present, the chance are that your battery is a fake. (You need to check for all eight as each can be countered by a really good faker. It’s unlikely all eight will be). The first eight digits of the serial number on the battery are the manufacture date in the format yyymmdd. If the battery is much used and over 4 years old, even if OEM, it’s probably close to the end of its useful life.


One of the four notches on the holographic label is arrowed.
Both of these batteries have all four notches.

There are many <$30 Nikon batteries on eBay which never seem to come with a Nikon box which, when included, should also carry a holographic circular label.


OEM box. The holographic circular label is at top right.

The broader issue is why waste money on a non-OEM battery which can swell and jam in the camera or, in extreme cases, catch fire when being recharged? The camera costs many times the premium for the OEM battery. And good luck with the home fire claim with your friendly insurance company. My brand new OEM EN-EL15c cost $70 from a factory authorized vendor, has the holographic label notches, does not sound hollow when tapped, resets the camera’s shot counter to ‘0’ after a full recharge, gets a solid glowing LED on the MH-25 charger when full charged and does not lose charge even after many days of non use in the camera. And yes, there’s a stamped ‘c’ near the ‘+’ embossing:


Arrow indicates the stamped ‘c’ on my OEM EN-EL15c battery.

Apply all of the eight indicators above when examining your battery and you will almost certainly know if it is OEM or a fake. (For original EN-EL15 batteries, disregards the seventh indicator in the bulleted list above).

As for private label aftermarket batteries, it’s a crapshoot. As Mr. Eastwood once put it “Do you feel lucky?”.

Nikon D800 cropping

Nikon bodies, Nikon lenses, Photographs

1,000mm? Hand held? No prob.

Cattail fields are a favorite perching palace for male redwinged blackbirds. (The blah-looking females keep a far lower profile).

The birds are fairly shy and while it’s a joy to listen to their trilling sounds, getting close enough for a good picture is something of a challenge.

The long end of 300mm on my 28-300mm AF-S VR Nikkor is really not enough for the job, but it’s not like I’m going to lug around 8.4lbs and $12,000 of 600 f/4 AF-S Nikkor bottle, so I make do with what I have:


The red winged blackbird on a favorite perch.

How best to do that? Simply crop like crazy, taking benefit of the massive pixel count of the Nikon D800, and handhold with VR for a perfectly sharp result, using center spot AF:


Here’s the full frame. Focal length equivalent for the crop is 1,000mm.

EXIF tailoring in Lightroom

Lightroom

Another fine plugin from Jeffrey Friedl.

One of the small frustrations in Lightroom is the inability to tailor the display of EXIF data in the Library module. What follows is relevant to the ‘purchase-once’ versions of Lightroom, before Adobe went to a ‘purchase many times’ subscription model. Whether the plugin works with the latter versions I do not know.

Lightroom displays EXIF data in several preset formats but you can bet that the one you want – meaning no blank or redundant fields of information – is not available. The Friedl plugin ….


The plugin viewed in the Lightroom Plugin Manager.

…. allows you to pick and choose which fields are displayed and the display order. Once your changes are saved restart LR to view the effect.

Very handy. Subscription is on the honor system after a 6 week free trial. The full range of Friedl’s plugins can be found here.

Be sure to put the plugin in one of these locations on a Mac:



Where to put the Friedl plugin file.

The Nikon D800

Hardware, Nikon bodies, Nikon lenses

No more Cold Turkey.

‘Cold Turkey’ refers to the process whereby and addict gives up addictive substances in one fell swoop. No weaning, no cutting back, no phasing out. Bang. All at once. The most compelling version of the process can be seen in French Connection II where poor old Gene Hackman is made an addict of heroin by his captors. It’s a disturbing movie and a good one.

And when the iPhone 11 Pro came along I went Cold Turkey with regard to my DSLR, MFT and 35mm film hardware. The Nikon D3x, the D700, the two film bodies – FE2 and F100 – and two Panny GX7 bodies along with a plethora of lenses were all sold, right down to the last lens cap and card reader. In the four years since I have been chugging along (almost) happily with that iPhone and its successor, the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Almost? Well, in a word the ergonomics are indistinguishable from the function of a bilge pump. Both suck. And the reach at the long end is extremely limited.

So the other day finding that I might want a ‘serious’ camera on occasion I reneged on the ‘iPhone only’ commitment and bought a DSLR and lens.


The Nikon D800, introduced in 2012. Mine came with two Nikon batteries
and the ghastly factory strap, quickly replaced with an Upstrap which I found in a drawer.

My D800 body came with a mint 85/1.8 AF-D Nikkor which I immediately resold. Never sell a body with a lens – you will lose money on both, as did my seller.

What is the thinking behind buying a camera discontinued almost a decade ago, along with a 28-300mm VR Nikkor discontinued in 2021? There is a host of good reasons.

Quality: As an upper end Nikon body, the D800 succeeded the fine D700, upping the sensor megapixel count from 12 to 36. Who needs 36 megapixels? See below. The body is robust and the shutter long lived with subsequent iterations (D810, D850) adding little.

Economics: At introduction the D800 retailed for $3,000. The latest Nikon mirrorless digital bodies sell for $2,000 to $5,500 (Z6/II, Z9) and you need the latest Z series lenses to take full advantage of what these offer. By contrast the used D800 I just acquired ran me $525 with a very low shutter count of under 16,000.


Open a snap in Preview for a shutter actuation count.

You can buy beaters with hundreds of thousands of actuations (probably ex realtors, wedding snappers and war types) for just a little less, which seems pretty dumb to me (KEH on the web, Roberts Camera and many others on eBay), especially given the abundant availability of lightly used bodies. I got a mint body and, for another $450, a mint 28-300mm ‘lens for all seasons’ VR Nikon AF-S lens. And I had to splash out another $13 on an SD/CF card reader (the D800 can use one of each) as mine had been sold at the start of the Cold Turkey interlude.

Negligible depreciation: With the D800 having lost over 80% (!) of its original cost in the decade since it was discontinued it’s not going to go much lower very fast. So if I get disillusioned with my purchase it’s out of here for negligible net cost. Same reason I only buy used cars …. every 20 years!

The Nikon F mount: It’s probably fair to say that more lenses were made with the Nikon F mount than with any other. The new mirrorless Z cameras dictate the use of a kludgy adapter with these and you do not get the full functionality of the latest Z optics. But with the Nikon F mount you do get access to some of the finest SLR optics made at ridiculously low cost. My own journey through that cornucopia of choice is best seen here. And all those manual focus Nikkors work with the confirmation light in the viewfinder of the D800, taking the guesswork out of critical focus.The D800 will happily use old screw drive AF-D lenses as well as the latest AF-S optics, not to mention the old and vast range of manual focus lenses.

Weight: The D700 weighed 40ozs, the D3x 50ozs, with the Z6/II and Z9 coming in at 25 and 47ozs (!), respectively. The D800 weighs 35ozs, just 10ozs more than the Z6/II. Not bad.

Cropping: While sensors of 45 megapixels are now common on the high end, the 36 megapixels introduced with the D800 was a revelation. If your lenses are of decent quality then you can extend the long end with cropping rather than carrying extra glass. Here’s a case in point:


D800, 28-300VR at 300mm. ISO 800.


Crop of the above image.

The cropped image is one quarter of the full frame, meaning the focal length equivalent is no less than 1200mm. Handheld. VR is the icing on the cake of the D800’s big sensor. The crop is unprocessed – the minor color fringing and sharpness drop off are easily fixed in Lightroom.

Lightroom: I refuse to ‘upgrade’ to Adobe’s subscription version of Lightroom. I prefer to keep control over my images. My purchased version (6.4) has not been materially improved and natively supports import of D800 RAW files with no special tricks required. All I have to do is plug in my $13 USB3 card reader into the 2010 Mac Pro (still barely improved on by Apple, and adequately powerful to deal with the D800’s large files), with USB3 being a nice way of speedily handling those 70 megapixel uncompressed RAW files. Nice.

In conclusion, if you want a state-of-the-art camera and lens combination, have no issues with buying used, do not wish to spend over $1,000 and lose very little should things not pan out, the D800 with a modern polycarbonate-encased Nikkor AF-S lens is the way to go. And the ergonomics are the best on the market – button placement, feel in the hands, use with gloves, the menu system, and so on.