You also enjoy the amazing speed of your Nikon Z8 (or maybe Z9) like me? But do you check if your memory cards and their settings allow to perform up to 20 frames per second (fps)?
I did not!
Nikon Z8 memory cards for 20 fps weiterlesenPixel Shift Woes: Why the Nikon Z8 Might Disappoint You
Switching from Nikon Z7 to Z8 is a lot of fun. There is only one major disadvantage: 675g compared to 910g is a big difference. Everything else is a game change 😉
One of the new features for Nikon is Pixel Shift first introduced in Nikon Zf and then in firmware update to Nikon Z8. It brings 180 Megapixel instead of 45 Megapixel by shooting 32 images. As this requires the object not to move at all this is feasible for large prints of wide angle landscape pictures without moving clouds. This is my test set-up:
- Nikon Z8
- Nikon Z 24-70mm f2.8
- Nikon Z 14-30mm f4
- Tripod Dörr A4 Alu
- SIRUI KX-Series Aluminium Tripod Head
- ARCA-SWISS Classic Leica R / SL / Hasselblad: fits perfect on Nikon Z8
But the results were really disappointing. Yes, the final pixel shift image as .NEFX file has amazing 16,512 x 11,008 size but the higher resolution on my test scene did not show any improvement in detail resolution nor sharpness. I did test shots with 32 pixel shift images:
| Lens | mm | f |
| Nikon Z 24-70mm f2.8 | 24 | 30 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 8 |
| Nikon Z 14-30mm f4 | 14 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 30 | 4.0 | 8 |
Can you spot a difference?
Pixel Shift Woes: Why the Nikon Z8 Might Disappoint You weiterlesenMacro flash lightning & diffusors
Since corona-lock-down I embraced macro photography more systematically. Many excellent videos are out to learn. Micael Widell inspired me to look closer at diffusors. Here is one of his amazing videos. Her are my settings I derived with multiple tests for different set-ups. My equipment:
- Nikon Z7
- Nikon Z MC 105 mm 2.8
- Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X with LED on/off
- 2 x Godox V860IIN
- Godox X Pro N
- DÖRR SLR Universal Soft Diffusor
- NAMVO Square Box Diffusor
| Nikon Z MC 105mm 2.8 | @1:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f8 | 64 ISO | |
| Godox | M | 1/128 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/128 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @2.5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | on | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @2.5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | off | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Laowa 25mm 2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro | @5:1 | |||
| Z7 | 1/200 | f4 | 64 ISO | |
| LED | on | |||
| Godox | M | 1/16 | 20 mm | |
| Godox | A | 1/16 | 20 mm |
Cleaning scanned documents with Photoshop masks
Scanning high quality handwriting or scanning of important certificates always leaves me with the trouble of removing scratches or blot. I think the best way is to mask „away“ the dirty background pixels. That used to be so easy with PaintShopPro but with some whistles it can be done in Photoshop, too. Here comes the recipe:
Cleaning scanned documents with Photoshop masks weiterlesenToday’s wounds & scars: The Impact of Colonialism
Uganda as well as Indonesia rank very low on the transparency international corruption perceptions index with 144 and 96 respectively. The structural corruption, patronage, and nepotism is visible every day from police checks on the road to natural resource deals with top politicians:
“These days, Indonesians have rather a low tolerance for real corruption, for pure, self-serving greed […] That other type of ‘corruption’ – the one that leads to bad appointments and bad roads – is complained about endlessly. And yet no one gets voted out of power for that kind of patronage (In the 2004 elections in South Sulawesi, eleven of the thirteen provincial parliamentarians who had previously been convicted of corruption were re-elected”) That’s because everyone continues to expect their Big Men to deliver to their clan.” Pisani, Elizabeth. Indonesia, p.158. Granta Publications, London, 2014.
And as you get more involved, the boundaries of corruption and “a deal” get very blurry, particularly in Indonesia, a nation that has been successful in trading since the 12th century. I have never seen so many “Middlemen” helping to serve but also taking their proper share of “the deal.”
Our exceptional tour guide and multiple young entrepreneur, Nasser is very proud of Uganda’s independence.
Working on my photography skills
Last but not least, I enjoyed taking my photo equipment and skills to its limits. During my sabbatical I took 6,107 pictures with my Nikon. Trees and animals from the very small to very big, under Uganda heat or Indonesian humidity.
I learned (again) that my photography obsession is capturing magic moments with all the empathy for the people around me. This is my humble “thank you” for your accompanying my sabbatical.
Down two Rabbit Holes: Crypto & CO2
In the public knowledge, Bitcon is the slowest, most expensive, and most energy consuming database on the planet. From my perspective this problem is solved with switching from “Proof-of-Work” to “Proof-of-Stake”; although Bitcoin will continue with “Proof-ofWork” – maybe even there are some interesting Bitcoin climate options.
Crypto technology and organizations promise or already offer:
- transparent public ledgers for trust building
- International payment and trading systems
- Independent institutions from national authorities organized in Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
- Smart contracts build on open source
- Highest innovation speed based on thousands of talented enthusiasts
- Evolution of today’s decentralized finance into regenerative finance
and will therefore be relevant for the CO2 removal market. Both the crypto technology (see unofficial state-of-the-art messari report) and the CO2 Removal market are in early innovation phases. I dived deeper into both rabbit holes and captured three possible benefits of crypto technology for the CO2 Removal market:
- Keeping records of CO2 removals in digital ledgers in order to report and auditing CO2 removal activities.
- Using Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) to capture a CO2 removal activity
- Using CO2 crypto tokens to trade CO2 removals independent of national currencies
The real revolution behind crypto and web 3.0 is its new approach of highly motivated people to collaborate fast and intensely: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
But on the down-side, both rabbit holes share a major communication problem: It is impossible to understand what is going on here without learning the special tribal language and concepts. My recommendation is to start with the Carbon Removal Primer and Normie’s Guide to Becoming a Crypto Person. Good luck, don’t get stuck too long in the rabbit holes. I did!
The “improbable nation”: Indonesia
My next trip in April to Borneo, Bali, Java, and Flores introduced me to the “improbable nation” of Indonesia: 273.8 mio people of 1,300 ethnic groups with 719 languages live on 6,000+ of 16,000+ islands across three time zones.
My new pearl in Africa – Uganda
My last international pre-Corona trip was in November 2019 and I felt free again when we took off to our journey in Uganda, at the end of January 2022. “But the forests of Uganda, for magnificence, for variety of form and colour, for profusion of brilliant life—plant, bird, insect, reptile, beast—for the vast scale and awful fecundity of the natural processes that are beheld at work, eclipsed, and indeed effaced, all previous impressions.” Therefore Winston Churchill concludes with “Uganda is the pearl.” in My African Journey.
Hippos everywhere – “singing Safari songs” all night long
Nature’s early morning greetings – beautiful hibiscus
Climate impact: CO2 Markets & Trees
As I belong myself to Generation Golf, working in the automotive business for several years, I dived, during my sabbatical, into the UN Sustainable Development Goal: #13 Climate action. The clock is ticking:
Synchrodestiny! The Fairventures CEO Johannes Schwegler invited me to join the software spin-off TREEO for some months as a volunteer and mentor. TREEO’s core idea is to empower millions of smallholder farmers to plant trees. Farmers will then sell CO2 removals to net-zero companies via a smartphone app like they sell bananas or cocoa on their local market. In order to lock the CO2 for 50+ years, the harvested wood will be used in the building sector or in Biochar, serving as a long term CO2 sink. Potentially, 205 GtCO2 can be removed additionally with planting trees world-wide. Particularly, in areas with rainforest climate due to the amazing quick growth of trees. The German TV-show „Das schaffst du nie!“ planted 1,000 trees on 24h in February 2019. After 24 months, in April 2022 the Sengon trees have grown up to 29 cm diameter (DBH).
Climate impact: CO2 Markets & Trees weiterlesen