MORE WITH MIRRORLESS: Nikon 1

Shot with a Nikon1 J3

It’s amusing when I pull out a Nikon1 J3 and stick it on my 300 f2.8…the sneers, the laughs, the “what the hell is that” remarks….but the things these little camera bodies can do…

The Nikon 1 system is a interchangeable lens mount system developed by Nikon for its Nikon CX format mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras. The Nikon 1 series was first introduced in 2011.

Initial reaction after the debut of the system was widespread disappointment. The new cameras were quickly dismissed as glorified point and shoot cameras with a clunky interface.

However, the quirky cameras’ lightning quick autofocus, high frame per second rate, and silent shutter have emerged as assets.

When released, I initially agreed with most of the reviews, but a clearance sale caused me to take the plunge and purchase a J1 with a kit lens for $199. At the time I thought it would make an excellent time lapse device with its built in intervalometer.

However, when the camera arrived, the camera’s intervalometer wouldn’t shoot when set to shoot frames faster than one every five seconds. Turns out Nikon limited the camera’s ability to do so in the firmware, for reasons unknown. Also, there is no external connectivity with the J series, so there is no possibility of attaching an external intervalometer.

Then my thoughts turned to Nikon’s FT-1 adapter, which allows Nikon’s mainstream F-mount lenses to be attached to the CX sensor based Nikon 1 bodies. After purchasing a FT-1, I found that the ability to continuously focus on a moving subject had been disabled in the firmware.

I finally hit a home run with the tiny J1 after having it converted to infrared. Businesses including Life Pixel and Digital Silver Imaging will convert DSLR cameras to infrared for around $300-$400. After converting a J1, I had a camera, lens AND an infrared conversion for about the same price.

University of Miami Campus in Infrared

After thinking the Nikon 1 was just going to be an infrared gimmick in my toolbox, Nikon released a firmware update to the FT-1 adapter, allowing for continuous focus. The system once again could be considered for use as an extreme focal length device.

Due to the 2.7x crop factor, a Nikon 1 body mounted on a Nikon 300mm 2.8 lens via the FT-1 adapter with 1.4x converter and lens hood attached creates an effective 1134mm f4 setup, albeit an odd looking one.

Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4, creating, as I call it, an “extreme focal device.”

After purchasing a Nikon 1 J3 body to replace the converted to infrared J1, I put the above combination to the test last weekend during the Arkansas State @ Miami football game and the Brown @ Florida Atlantic women’s soccer match.

  • Miami Hurricanes running back Duke Johnson attempts to elude two Arkansas State tacklers. Shot from approximately 80 yards away with a Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4.
  • Miami Hurricanes offensive line coach Art Kehoe on the sidelines. Shot from approximately 50 yards away with a Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4.
  • Florida Atlantic Women’s Soccer head coach Patrick Baker gives his club instructions during a break in the action. Shot from approximately 50 yards away with a Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4.
  • Florida Atlantic goalkeeper Sydney Drinkwater in action against Brown University. Shot from approximately 100 yards away with a Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4.

With the extreme focal length, fast responsive auto focus and rapid continuous frame rate of 15 fps the Nikon 1 J3 is rather adept at covering sports action.  At such a extreme focal distance, the biggest challenge was trying to follow a subject during play by using the rear screen as there are no viewfinders on the J series bodies. The slightest movement of the rig can cause you to lose track of the subject rather easily. A V series body with an optical viewfinder may help alleviate that challenge. This little system even came in handy while shooting my Dynamic Waterfalls project this past June. After hiking to Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park early one morning I pulled my full frame Nikon body and 16-35mm f4 from the backpack to find the lens completely fogged over. After waiting 20 minutes the fog hadn’t receded. My J1 however, with much less optic real estate, was clear as can be. Did I mention it shoots video too?

Blue Hen Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio. Nikon 1 J1 + 10mm f2.8.

In the end, the Nikon 1 series is an asset to my camera bag as a sports shooter, giving me extreme reach in daylight sporting events to get tight shots of coaches, action on the other end of the field, tight goalkeeper shots in soccer, and tighter shots of throwers during track meets. Sure, I could switch to Canon and pick up their legendary 1200mm f5.6 behemoth, but this setup is slightly cheaper. As a landscape shooter, I now have an infrared option that is small, inexpensive, and easy to pack alongside my regular setup. As a tourist, I have a small system that is as easy to whip out of my daypack as an iPhone, with better optics. I just may get along with this system after all.

Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Phillip Dorsett celebrates with assistant coach Brennan Carroll after scoring a touchdown. Shot from approximately 80 yards away with a Nikon 1 J3, 300mm f2.8, and a 1.4x extender for an effective focal length of 1134mm at f4.

JC Ridley4 Comments

The Source of the “Surge & Juice” Photo May Surprise You

2014 Miami Hurricanes Football – “Surge & Juice” Helmets

Most ‘Canes fans by now have seen the “Surge & Juice” photo I shot during the “New Uniform Shoot” last July. Most of you don’t know the story behind how I shot it.

During a short break between players, I looked down at my feet to see the new orange (Juice) and green (Surge) helmets juxtaposed just right on the brand new Field Turf practice field surface.

Without giving it much thought, I pulled out my iPhone, opened the “Pro HDR” photo app, stuck the phone horizontally in the turf and shot a few frames. I processed one of the frames with the “Snapseed” app and posted it online, hoping for a few eyeballs.

Yes, I said “iPhone.”

I’ve used that phrase a lot since that July day when asked about the image came about. The image quickly caught fire on the internet, appearing on several national blogs, in countless tweets and threads on Facebook. It even has nearly 3000 views on Caneshooter.com!

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The Gators Victory Through Our Eyes

Football capped an exciting September by defeating USF 49-21 to move to 4-0 on the season. The month included the big win over the Gators and we documented the game with our latest time-lapse film, which can be seen in higher resolution on our YouTube channel with our other short films and time-lapse footage.

We also produced a commemorative print of the event from a still image pulled from the time-lapse. You can order a print here.

We collected so much material from the Florida and Savannah State games we split them into separate galleries. We also started to post the “best of” gallery from each game as the massive amount of material we needed to edit kept us from posting the games for a few days. All of the galleries from the 2013 football season can be accessed here.

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Ron Fraser 1933-2013

Former Hurricanes baseball coach Ron Fraser passed away today after a long illness.

Much has been written about what an outstanding coach and promoter of college baseball Ron Fraser was. Off the field, Fraser was an even better person. One of the many random acts of kindness by Fraser I witnessed over the years was the one that happened after Fraser coached his last game in a 8-1 loss to Cal State Fullerton in a semi-final game at the 1992 College World Series. Under pressure from CBS to play a championship game the next day, on time, the game was played in a nearly constant downpour. An emotional Fraser (below) used the press conference to rail against the NCAA for playing the game in such poor conditions.

The following is what I wrote for UM’s Ibis Yearbook back then:

OMAHA, Neb. – The day from hell.

Upon arriving at NCAA media headquarters to pick up my press credential for the College World Series, the secretary handed me a seat cushion and a poncho.

Noticing the bright and sunny weather conditions outside, she deadpanned about our planned use of the rain gear at the game later that evening.

Little did we know she was a meteorologist. In the third inning that night, the skies opened up and our ponchos came out.

One good moment, though, came following the No. 1 Hurricanes’ dismal 8-1 loss to Cal State Fullerton in the semi-finals of the CWS.

As retiring coach Ron Fraser, after the final game of his 30-year career, left the stadium, he was met by a young boy waiting for an autograph in the pouring rain. Instead of his signature, “The Wizard of College Baseball” removed his hat and gave it to the young fan.

Over the years I came to know “The Wizard,” he did absolutely nothing to change my mind. This great university has lost a legend.

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360º

If you were at the last home game vs. FSU and were in your seat between the 1st and 2nd quarters, you may be able to find yourself in the 360º panorama we shot.

You can view and interact with the image at this link.

Is it a GigaPan, the iconic panoramas made popular in part from Major League Baseball’s “TagOramic” and the famous image of the Obama Inauguration?

No. Despite being hosted on GigaPan’s server, it is technically not a GigaPan. In order to capture the image, our own Eric Espada had only about 45 seconds to capture the images needed by going to midfield between quarters and handholding the camera. After a test pass of a portion of the stadium, he has just enough time to make adjustments and shoot 26 images, starting and ending with the 50 yard line on the FSU side of the field. Typical GigaPans can take upwards of 10 minutes to capture.

Late last week I used GigaPan’s software and server to assemble and upload the image, after tweaking the images in Photoshop.

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Classic Canestagrams

Classic Canestagrams - Series 1 Composite



With the recent popularity of smartphone app “Instagram,” I have experimented with re-creating the look of the iconic square images using images from my Miami Hurricanes Archive.

I started by making “Canestagrams” out of studio poses of our Volleyball team.

Recently I started working on making “Canestagrams” from my ‘Canes football action archive.

I hope you enjoy the first series of 49. You can view them all individually on the mother site. A square composite print (shown above) is also available.

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The Volleyball Photo Day Portraits Are Not Instagrams

For the past six months I have downloaded and tested over 20 photography apps for the iPhone. While many of them were excellent, there were two main issues that I had with using them. One was image quality and the other was the time needed to include shooting a few images during my shooting workflow. Early on with my iPhone photo app experimentation I stumbled upon an app named Pixlr-o-matic. Six months later it’s still my favorite app. The geniuses at Pixlr also created a Mac version of the app. It’s the same app I used with those ‘Canes Baseball Portraits back in May. The portraits I shot during yesterday’s volleyball photo day at UM were taken by a Nikon and cropped into high-res square images in Photoshop to resemble the 1:1 ratio of Instagram images. I then ran those images through Pixlr-o-matic to easily add a filter, vignette and border to get the results you see here. The images are also 4000 pixels wide, so larger prints can be made than with a regular Instagram image. So what to call these Instagram-like images? How about Canestagrams? Or more specifically, #Canestagrams (gotta keep things social media savvy!) Above are the “Canestagram” images of the 15 members of the 2012 Hurricanes Volleyball team. The entire edit is available at caneshooter.com.

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Yes, I Said iPhone

Recently I spent two weeks traveling the West Coast visiting many national and state parks, monuments and recreational areas. Those of you who follow me on Facebook saw my daily updates accompanied by a photograph.

Along with my conventional Nikon gear I took a seemingly unconventional photographic tool: my iPhone.

Every photograph I posted during the trip was shot and processed with my iPhone.

I was on the receiving end of many odd looks from fellow tourists as I continually pulled my iPhone from my pocket as my Nikon sat on a tripod nearby.

While my intention was to edit my takes daily, the sheer volume of material I shot coupled with the travel prevented nightly editing. The simplistic approach to photography the iPhone and its various applications made updating possible in seconds.

As I have experimented with various apps over the past few months I have settled on two apps: Pano and Pixlr-O-Matic. Pano allows an iPhone shooter to effortlessly shoot and stitch together multiple frames to make a panoramic photograph. Pixlr-O-Matic offers several filters, vignettes and frame edges. I often use both apps in my iPhone images.

Use of the iPhone camera has crept into the professional mainstream of late. New York based photographer Nick Laham shot portraits of Yankees players with an iPhone and Instagram on the team’s photo day this past spring. San Francisco based photographer Brad Mangin has used the same combination during Spring Training in Arizona earlier this year.

Will the iPhone replace DSLR’s with higher resolution, frame rates and professional lenses? Not for some applications. But millions of people now have a capable camera in their pocket for those “Kodak Moments” they would have otherwise missed with the old technology. The rest of us have a new toy in our tool box of creativity.

Who’s to say the next Henri Cartier-Bresson, who nearly exclusively used cameras with a simple fixed 50mm lens his entire career, won’t be using an iPhone?

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