Lens Bubbles: Beautiful Innisfil

Friday, June 5, 2015

Beautiful Innisfil

Our IT department had the off-site meeting this year at Innisfil Ontario, about a 100 km north of Toronto. This was my third meeting and I must say Innisfil is the best so far. We used the Kempenfelt conference centre, which is away from the city and is pretty much all by itself, surrounded by farmland and next to Lake Simcoe. I brought my bike with me, as I did last time in Belleville and it was a good decision. I rode around the conference and found a very nice farm to take pictures of.

Speaking of pictures. I brought with me the Nikon D810 with the AF-S 28-70mm f2.8 and the AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 VR. The weight and bulk of these three items reminded me why I use the mirrorless cameras as my everyday choice, but in use, they also reminded me that mirrorless cameras still has a way to go to match DSLRs in certain situations.

I really adore the D810. It's the best DSLR that I have used. However unexciting it looks, this is the camera that combines image quality with great build and is very easy to use. I do find the exposure sometimes goes a bit wacky, and the auto white balance could change from frame to frame. Shooting RAW minimizes these minor issues.

As for the lenses, I am happier still. Both lenses are very sharp, especially the 70-200mm f2.8 VR, which in my opinion, is much better the Canon first generation equivalent. I do not hesitate to use both lenses wide open. My plan is to have only a few practical lenses for the (Nikon) DSLR system; two or three primes, plus two zooms, and this will cover pretty much all my needs.

My trusty Specialized Allez Epic that I put together from the frame I bought. It only has 8-speed, without the front derailleur but is enough for me -- Nikon D810 & 70-200mm f2.8 VR.