D700 Bokeh ... Or, The Great Underwear Expedition

Ok, that probably sounded silly. But in fact, today I dropped by the Mountain Equipment Coop in order to pick up some long johns for photography in the cold. I am tired of freezing half to death and I want to be able to snow show and walk outdoors without being in constant pain ...

So ... I picked up a nice mid-weight set made with the latest technologies that wick away your sweat etc ... and got into a conversation with a nice young man who noted that I was carrying a large camera bag with me (I had the whole kit with me and was not about to leave it in the car.) Turns out he shoots whitewater rafting ... way cool. He mentioned where I could get access to the place where they do this stuff so I could shoot it next year ... sounds like a lot of fun.

Anyway ... I also needed decent gloves for shooting and general hacking around, and he took me over to the glove spot and set me up with really nice tight fitting liners and big snow-proof mitts ... a great two layer system. I pulled out the D700 to test it with the liners and they worked perfectly. No problems with any of the controls ... I got this shot of him to test.


Note the terrific bokeh ... and the rack of clothes he was leaning against is nicely blurred just over his shoulders as well ... I'm really impressed as this was the Tamron 28-75 at 75mm and f/2.8 ... the 85mm 1.8 would have been even better. I love this camera :-)

By the way ... if you happen to be at MEC, grab this guy if you see him ... he's really good.

I was finally back in my car and noted that Jon had texted me that he was out of his exam already (actually, I had beef and rice noodle soup -- very Pho-like -- at the Phnom Phen restaurant on Wellington street in between) and I went back to pick him up. We dropped by Carlingwood shopping mall for some Christmas shopping (duh) and he wanted to grab a bite.

While we were sitting in the food court, eating truly evil food, I caught a few images of him to test the cam in horrible lighting. Backlit with almost no light on the face.

Here is Jon's obligatory "talk to the hand" pose ...


And a couple of him drinking and munching his poutine from New York Fries ... (and half of mine, as I did not really like it.)



Shot wide open at 2.8 ... excellent clarity and superb bokeh in my opinion. Very neutral and smooth. This is a great lense for the price ... no question.