A friend called this afternoon; she had finally harvested her prize pumpkin which measured over a metre in diameter and weighed 44 kilograms... almost 100 pounds. After filling all the spare space in two freezers she still had lots left so was looking for 'good homes' for the rest. Here's our share roasting in the oven prior to using it to make pumpkin soup.
This is for my PLAY project - you can read more about it in my profile - where I'll be using a different prime lens for each month of the year: in January it's the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G on a full-frame camera (the D610 today). This illustrates one of the uses of this focal length - food photography. Normally you want to restrict the depth of field to focus attention on the key subject but not too dramatically - the 50mm often has just the right balance.
Nice food shot and interesting sounding project. I think I'd benefit from a more structured approach to understanding what lens is optimum for what situation. But then of course I'm sure it would never be the lens I actually had with me!
@maggiemae As the cook in our household, I'd like to take credit for that but the truth is that it's a brand-new oven as the previous one gave up the ghost between Christmas and New Year on a day when we had guests for lunch. I turned the oven on to start cooking and it immediately tripped the main circuit breaker for the house. All the food was prepared and needed the oven so it tested my culinary skills somewhat ;-))
When I got the D610 I spent a long time trying to decide between it and the higher resolution D800. I finally settled on the D610 for three principal reasons:
- the raw files from the D800/810 are enormous so take up a lot of storage space and require a powerful computer to process efficiently.
- the high resolution sensor is less forgiving of slight camera or subject movement so it's harder to get pin-sharp images.
- the high ISO noise performance is not as good (better in the D810) because of the smaller size of the photosites.
If you decide to change, the D750 is a better bet; it has an upgraded sensor and several additional features which the D610 doesn't have - I'm very pleased with mine. Final thought; the D810 must be due for replacement soon, it might be worth waiting for that and at the worst, you should be able to get a D810 cheaper than today ;-)
@domenicododaro@vignouse
1. (Richard) We yesterday did Sunday roast (lamb) and veges for English visitors, so this makes me smile. They've been in Oz for about 10 days, but confessed to still being disoriented by it being summer in January. Not that they were complaining :)
2. (Dom) Camera replacement -- Richard's advice is dead on. My $0.02; I have a much used D800, and I love it -- it is not a camera to be used in a hurry, though -- slow and deliberate is best. I like what I can get out of the big RAW files -- they spoil you. If you have the money, a D810 replacement would be excellent -- if not, a D810 would be very nice.
@vignouse@scotthouston Thank you very much! The problem is, for slow and deliberate I have my Leica M9 that's deadly slow - but I love her! The D3 is a machine gun and I also have a battery of Nikon lenses that I'm not supposed to giveaway. Beside, the D3 files have a three-dimensionality fear to lose... Don't know, perhaps I'll just wait (and save money, that's not bad!)
@domenicododaro If you want fast, go play with a D500. The crop sensor is a bit annoying, but not the end of the world (Sigma 17-50 2.8 is cheap and good). I (personally) don't think the sensor has the DR of a D800. But, if you can get over those two things, it's an excellent camera. It's the old story, though -- your D3 doesn't take worse pictures just because there are newer models.
You are doing such a helpful turn in showing me what the 50 is capable of. I also have put the LB on my camera to use for 2 days (couldn't commit to a month), and already can see that having and using one lens -- even if not one I particularly like -- is valuable for learning.
Well, the helpful aspect for me in this picture has more to do with pumpkins than with cameras! Still have three or four from last summer and I just wasn't enthusiastic about soup... But perhaps if I roasted first? So, on a nice chilly holiday, I believe I'll light the oven and give this idea a try.
@francoise I cut the pumpkins into chunks about 3" square and 1" thick and roasted them until they were soft and lightly caramelised around the edges - about one hour at 170C. Meanwhile, I fried a large pile of onions until they were soft and translucent and a fair quantity of carrots with them and also added a good-sized piece of root ginger minced. I combined these ingredients with enough seasoned to stock to make a thick broth and whizzed the whole lot up with a stick blender... job done! This made 14 generous servings which are now in the freezer.
@francoise I forgot to say that I brushed the pumpkin pieces with olive oil before roasting and sprinkled them with ground coriander and dried chilli flakes.
- the raw files from the D800/810 are enormous so take up a lot of storage space and require a powerful computer to process efficiently.
- the high resolution sensor is less forgiving of slight camera or subject movement so it's harder to get pin-sharp images.
- the high ISO noise performance is not as good (better in the D810) because of the smaller size of the photosites.
If you decide to change, the D750 is a better bet; it has an upgraded sensor and several additional features which the D610 doesn't have - I'm very pleased with mine. Final thought; the D810 must be due for replacement soon, it might be worth waiting for that and at the worst, you should be able to get a D810 cheaper than today ;-)
1. (Richard) We yesterday did Sunday roast (lamb) and veges for English visitors, so this makes me smile. They've been in Oz for about 10 days, but confessed to still being disoriented by it being summer in January. Not that they were complaining :)
2. (Dom) Camera replacement -- Richard's advice is dead on. My $0.02; I have a much used D800, and I love it -- it is not a camera to be used in a hurry, though -- slow and deliberate is best. I like what I can get out of the big RAW files -- they spoil you. If you have the money, a D810 replacement would be excellent -- if not, a D810 would be very nice.