Month: July 2013

The Nikon V1, with its small size and thanks to the electronic shutter silent operation, is a perfect cat capturing machine. Which lens you end up using for cat pictures is up to you. I use the Nikon 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 and the Nikon 18.5mm f/1.8. If you get close, you can achieve nice bokeh with both of them. The 18.5mm is best used at full aperture at f/1.8 and the 10-30mm at the long end, also wide open, if bokeh is what you are after. Here are some cat samples with the V1 and both the Nikkors.
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26/07/2013 / / B+W 1000X

I find that the Nikon V1 with the Nikon 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 is a nice, carry anywhere set up for long exposures provided you have a strong grey filter (like the B+W ND 3.0 1000x) and a step-up ring on hand. Even when shooting at ISO100 there is some grain visible at 100% magnification, which I don’t find disturbing at all. In fact V1’s noise reminds me of film grain. It is kind of organic, pleasant to look at, if you are an ex analogue user like me. The following six photos were all taken using a Nikon V1, the Nikkor 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, the before mentioned B+W 1000x and a tripod. Hope you enjoy them. 🙂
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The Nikon 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 has an exceptional image ratio. Without any additional close-up or achromatic lenses you can fill the frame with larger insects, like some butterflies. I’m expecting that with a close-up lens you can come pretty close to a 1:1 macro lens. That’s the reason I’ve bought a Marumi DHG200 (+5), but didn’t have the time to test it so far. The Nikon 18.5mm f/1.8 on the other hand is no macro wonder, but still pretty good for a “nifty fifty”. The problem with this lens is that because of the shorter focal length (I use the 10-30 at 30mm for macro), you get more spacial distortion the closer you get. Don’t get too close, or features of various insects will get distorted. In the following you will see what these two lenses can do without the use of close-up lenses. As I’ve said, the 10-30mm is pretty impressive for a lowly kit zoom. 😉

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