Great Blue Heron's assessment of an old DSLR
- Thread starter murali
- Start date
AlanLichty
Moderator
Nice shot of this bird - I like it.
I like PhotoAI for handling jpeg files but it's not at the top of my list as a denoise step for my RAW work. It is where Topaz has centered their work on the rest of the photo processing tools like DenoiseAI and SharpenAI while they have abandoned updates for the latter two products. I do find PhotoAI useful for sharpening tasks but ignore the rest of what PhotoAI has for enhancements (denoise, lighting, and color adjustments).
My biggest complaint about Topaz is how they continue to orphan products in favor of something new with ever increasing prices. I have over a half dozen of their abandoned applications still listed on my Topaz account on their web page. I have been working with their stuff for over a dozen years now and currently still have current versions of PhotoAI and GigapixelAI but it is unlikely I will renew them again. Both of the current applications require you to buy credits for cloud processing to use their more advanced features now and I am just not on board with that business model.
I like PhotoAI for handling jpeg files but it's not at the top of my list as a denoise step for my RAW work. It is where Topaz has centered their work on the rest of the photo processing tools like DenoiseAI and SharpenAI while they have abandoned updates for the latter two products. I do find PhotoAI useful for sharpening tasks but ignore the rest of what PhotoAI has for enhancements (denoise, lighting, and color adjustments).
My biggest complaint about Topaz is how they continue to orphan products in favor of something new with ever increasing prices. I have over a half dozen of their abandoned applications still listed on my Topaz account on their web page. I have been working with their stuff for over a dozen years now and currently still have current versions of PhotoAI and GigapixelAI but it is unlikely I will renew them again. Both of the current applications require you to buy credits for cloud processing to use their more advanced features now and I am just not on board with that business model.
AlanLichty
Moderator
I do as well but worth noting that we haven't seen an upgrade for two years now since Topaz is folding it into PhotoAI. You can actually run your RAW image through DxO PureRAW and then feed it into PhotoAI for sharpening. PhotoAI seems to know that it shouldn't automatically apply PhotoAI denoise to such a file and then you can use the sharpen enhancement in PhotoAI on the file.
I personally prefer the interface in the standalone SharpenAI once inside of Photoshop but am bracing myself for the day it stops working like the rest of their abandoned applications.
Edit - here is the list of abandoned apps I had: Topaz Clarity, Topaz Adjust, Topaz DeNoise, Topaz ReStyle, Topaz Studio, Topaz Studio2, Sharpen AI, Adjust AI, and Denoise AI.
I personally prefer the interface in the standalone SharpenAI once inside of Photoshop but am bracing myself for the day it stops working like the rest of their abandoned applications.
Edit - here is the list of abandoned apps I had: Topaz Clarity, Topaz Adjust, Topaz DeNoise, Topaz ReStyle, Topaz Studio, Topaz Studio2, Sharpen AI, Adjust AI, and Denoise AI.
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murali
Well-Known Member
@JimFox - I hear u but I am now in the mode of carrying less stuff.
Here are my configurations:
Wildlife: D7100 + 80-400. Gifted my 500 to my friend who lives in FL and got addicted to bird photography.
Landscape: D780 + 20 f1.8 + 16-35 + 28-300.
Hopefully, I dont have to buy any more equipment in my lifetime
Here are my configurations:
Wildlife: D7100 + 80-400. Gifted my 500 to my friend who lives in FL and got addicted to bird photography.
Landscape: D780 + 20 f1.8 + 16-35 + 28-300.
Hopefully, I dont have to buy any more equipment in my lifetime
That's a good setup.@JimFox - I hear u but I am now in the mode of carrying less stuff.
Here are my configurations:
Wildlife: D7100 + 80-400. Gifted my 500 to my friend who lives in FL and got addicted to bird photography.
Landscape: D780 + 20 f1.8 + 16-35 + 28-300.
Hopefully, I dont have to buy any more equipment in my lifetime
I ended up finally switching over to Mirrorless (except for my D850 which has a 14mm lens on it for the Milky Way only). When the Nikon Z8 came out, it finally added the features I thought were worthwhile. I still didn't upgrade when the Z8 first came out, but several of my DSLR lenses like the 16-35 were really showing their age, not focusing at all, I would have to turn the focus ring to get it to finally Autofocus. The 24-120mm had slop in the barrel which caused the focus to change.
So rather then throw more money at dying technology, I decided since I knew the Z8 was worth the upgrade, that now was the time to upgrade and put that money towards the future and not the past. And I have to say it cost some $$$ but I am pretty happy with it now. Especially since I photograph so much in the dark, all of my new cameras are much better to use in low light.
My current setup
Nikon Z8 + Tamron 50-400mm
Nikon Z6III + Nikon 24-200mm + 14-30mm
Nikon Z6II + Viltrox 16mm f1.8
Nikon D850 + Sigma 14mm f1.8 (Used for MW only now)
Nikon D7100 + 18-140mm Converted to 590nm IR
I still have the Tamron 150-600mm it can work with both the D850 and the Z mounts when the adapter is used
I also have several 10 to 14mm lenses for capturing the Milky Way with the Z8 and the Z6III so I can have up to 4 cameras going to capture the Milky Way.
If you ever do decide to move to the Z mount, the Nikon 24-200mm is the perhaps the best all around lens ever made. It is super sharp from 24 to 200mm. It's awesome, because of the range, I never really have to remove it.
I would suggest the Z6II if you want to save money. I could never suggest a crop body as full frame sensors have so much better image IQ then the crop sensor.
My Infrared camera is a crop body, but I only chose that as I didn't have the heart to do surgery on any of my full frame cameras, and the D7100 was just sitting in a cabinet gather dust.
Years ago, I had the D700. During the first year, it decided to go swimming in the ocean and got ruined. I didn't have insurance on it, so the only thing I could do was pull out my old D7000. The D800 kept being rumored to be coming out, so I didn't want to spend money on another D700 if the D800 was just around the corner. Well that corner lasted 2 years. My time using that D7000 was among the worst of my life as a photographer. After having used a full frame for the first time with the D700, to go back to the D7000 was pure torture. The pixels are just so juicy with a full frame, seeing how bad my images looked when zoomed into 100% off of the D7000, it sickened me.
So I say that, I know you are using the D7100 now, but I honestly can't see how you would be happy with it's images compared to the images off the D780.
The problem with the 24-200 on the Z50, is that it is no longer 24mm on the wide end it's 36mm. And for me, that would be to tight to use as an everyday lens. 24mm is really just about perfect and it seems to be the focal length my eye sees in anymore.
The Z50 may be fine for you, if you are happy with the D7100. But I would really suggest the Z6II instead, or the Z6III. The Z6III has some really top of the line features to it, and has one of the brightest EVF's around.
Joe Colozzo
Well-Known Member
I like how you can see into the great blues mouth and all the colors in there. Do you know what it was eating?
murali
Well-Known Member
not sure but it did grab a tiny fish about 10 minutes before.
Eric Gofreed
Well-Known Member
Great photo, Alan! Topaz AI3 is my go-to sharpening program, but it sometimes makes the noise significantly worse—when that happens, I switch to DeNoise AI.
AlanLichty
Moderator
Not my bird - the photo is Murali's. My experience with add-on tools like DxO and Topaz is that it's good to have a wide ranging toolbox since there are some photos that just don't work with some (or all) of the tools we tend to favor. Never trust any of them
Quite a pose.
