FIREWORKS DO-OVER

Normally we watch the 4th of July fireworks in Las Colinas behind Williams Square - a couple pictures from last year’s show. Since our last visit a wave of new apartments and houses is underway, so we might need to find a new location next year. While the view is nice, the show only lasted 15 minutes. This is not a slam against Las Colinas perse, but if other people from North Dallas are reading this - you might want to go to a different fireworks show in 2010. Fifteen minutes is a short reward for the effort required (driving, parking, etc).

The Canon 1Ds Mark III developed an ERR99 fault (read about here in the 135 Blog) while shooting fireworks on July 3rd. The 1Ds Mark III is completely dead, so I considered not taking pictures and just enjoying the show. Last year’s pictures at this location were taken with the 1Ds Mark III and 24-105L, so there was a feeling of “been there, done that.” But then the inner geek took hold. Could the Mamiya ZD could pull it off? The Mamiya ZD is not good at long exposures, so this experiment was destined for failure. The Canon 1Ds Mark III is a better choice for this type of shooting because:

1. •Live View makes framing a breeze, and checking focus at infinity is very easy with 10x magnification.
   

2. •The 1Ds Mark III has a nicely dampened shutter, so mirror slap is not much of an issue.
   

3. •The 1Ds Mark III’s buffer is pretty quick, and it can take one picture after another non-stop.
   

4. •CMOS handles heat better; the ambient temperature was 98 F.
   

5. •The 24-105L IS offers a wide range of compositional options.
   

6. •Image stabilization (IS) is handy if the wind is blowing and shakes the tripod.
   

USING THE MAMIYA ZD

The Mamiya ZD started out well. The picture at the top of the page was among the first 10 pictures taken. The settings were 150mm (using the Mamiya 645M 150mm F2.8), F4, ISO 50 and 4.5 seconds. At this point the camera was still fairly cool and had not taken many images. For amusement I also took some 8 and 15 second images - those were disaster. As the evening progressed, the raw images became increasingly noisy. Four or five seconds is probably the ZD’s maximum exposure. If shooting in very cool conditions, maybe the ZD would do better (as CCD sensors become hotter, their noise increases).

I took around 20 test images to get the city background exposed to taste. When the fireworks started the ZD was set for a 4 second exposure with noise reduction enabled (this is an absolute must). With noise reduction enabled, the ZD takes a black frame exposure after each image. The ZD must complete that 2nd exposure before it can shoot the next frame. Four seconds for the picture plus four seconds for the black frame translates to one picture about every 8 or 9 seconds. Thus, I was taking a picture of every 2nd or 3rd volley of fireworks - listening for launch and then waiting about 1 second before pressing the shutter button. It took awhile to get the timing right.

The rest of the set-up was sub par - a cheap $89 Manfrotto 724B tripod (now discontinued) and NO remote shutter release cable. This type of shooting is so far out of the ZD’s comfort zone, that “proper” technique was the least of the issues. Plus, a 100 milliseconds of vibration at the beginning of a 4 second exposure is not going to impact quality much.

This year we were probably 250 to 500 feet closer to the fireworks than last year. The 80mm was too long and in hindsight the 35mm may have been a better choice. There was a small channel of water in immediately in front of us; having some reflections off that water may have looked nice.

DEALING WITH THE NOISE IN POST

As expected the Mamiya ZD RAW images were peppered with confetti noise. If processed in C1 and downsized for the web, the noise cancels out is not much of an issue. The 100% crops are a totally different story. As best as I can tell, C1 does not have any provisions for eliminating hot pixels. RAW Developer does and it is because of RAW Developer that the images were not only usable, but actually good.

With RAW Developer’s hot pixel noise suppression turned to up the maximum, RAW Developer eliminated almost all the hot pixels. The image the left is a side by side comparison of the noise reduction result from C1 and RD. The C1 image did not have any other editing; The RD image was edited (ie - custom white balance, custom tone curve, saturation, tinting, etc).

C1 is my primary RAW editor, but when RAW files are not turning out well in C1, then RAW Developer is my choice. A plug-in like Noise Ninja could probably fix the hot pixels just as well RAW Developer, so ZD owners may want to try the free demo’s. RAW Developer is only available for Mac’s, so PC users are out of luck.

By no means do I recommend the Mamiya ZD for long exposures, but with noise reduction software it is workable. The image quality is quite good after the hot pixels are eliminated. To be honest, I am surprised the images turned out as well as they did. Time and time again the ZD has proven, if given the time and effort in post production, the ZD can deliver very good image quality.