Lowepro Classified 160 AW

Just browsing through a camera shop the other day and my friend pointed out a new Lowepro camera bag to me, the Lowepro Classified 160AW. One which I have never seen before, he told me it was pretty new on the market, only released to world back in November.

Hmm, very nice I thought. Doesn't even look like a camera bag. Very stealthy, won't attract those camera theives. I opened it up had a good look at the innards, looked well padded, in a light greyish material.

I needed a new camera bag as I recently discovered that my new Nikon D700 and 14-24mm combo will longer fit into my faithful Lowepro slingshot 100.

I decided to go home and find out more about this camera bag. I found a couple of reviews both had goods things to say about it. I then found an online retailer in Sydney selling them for only $215 AUD. Nice.

I called them up and asked if we could come and check if my camera and lenses would fit. My kit consists of a Nikon D700, Sigma 70-200mm, Nikon 14-24mm and Nikon 50mm. They said no problems. Anyway, everything fitted nicely and only comes in two colours, black or sepia (looks more khaki to me). I got the sepia.

Outside - Lowepro Classified 160 AW

Front View

Back View

The outside of the bag is made from nylon, looks and feels quite tough and durable. Will definitely be able to stand up to the elements. The stitching is uniform and straight which good news. The shoulder strap is padded provides cushioning and relief for the "poor" shoulder when the bag is fully loaded.

There are 3 separate compartments, 2 in the front and one at the back.

First compartment

The opened zipper you can see is not another compartment, it is a gusset to allow for expansion if additional capacity is required.

Second compartment with memory card wallet

Memory card wallet opened

The memory card wallet can hold up to 6 CF cards.

Third compartment is around the back

Uniform and straight sticthing - check the discrete logo

Uniform and straight sticthing

Buckle for attaching the strap

Lowepro Logo - very discrete

The Lowepro logo is more discrete, which is excellent. I really hated the logos on my other Lowepro bags. It's a beacon for camera theives.

Inside - Lowepro 160AW

The interior is grey padded material, nice and soft. There are 3 separate compartments. The center one has leather trimming on the top where the camera rests with an adjustable support pad depending on the length of your lens.

The compartment on the left has 2 separate pouches on opposite sides, one at the top and other at the bottom. The one at the top contains a microfibre cloth, the bottom is empty for storage. Closer inspection revealed that the compartments can be adjusted to suit, they are held in place by velcro.

View of the inside - coat hanger used to keep it opened

Can I really fit these items in?

Sigma 70-200mm and Nikon 50mm in first

Nikon D700 with 14-24mm last to go in

With everything packed in the bag does not look bloated at all. Check both views of the bag. Still pretty streamline. Nice.

Horizontal View

Vertical View

The only annoying thing is that whenever I pull my Nikon D700 & 14-24mm out the lens cap on the 14-24mm gets left behind. This only happens when the Sigma 70-200mm is packed in. I guess the girth of the Sigma pushes the padding against the 14-24mm lens cap and holds it in place as the D700 is pulled out.

It is also a tad heavy, not sure if I would want to walk around for long periods with his across my shoulder. I bought it mainly to the carry my 14-24mm and 50mm. If I need to carry all 3 lenses then I will resort to my Lowepro micro trekker 200 which is more comfortable and less stress on the shoulder.

I have only ever taken the bag out with just the Nikon D700 & 50mm combo. It was very comfortable but that combination didn't exactly weigh that much. I will test it with the Nikon 14-24mm next time and see how that goes. I let the bag hang around waist height as it allows me access to the camera quite comfortably and easily.

Update:

I took it out on the weekend with both the 14-24mm & 50mm. It was very comfortable, my shoulder didn't get sore and I never took the bag off once in over 2 hours. It was quite handy as I was able to store the 14-24mm lens cap safely inside the bag and was able to quickly retrieved it when I needed to replaced the lens cap back onto the lens.

All weather (AW) - Classified 160 has its own built-in "rain coat"

Hidden in a secret pouch at the back

Back View

Front View

Buckle poked through the "rain coat" slot

Won't have to worry about inclement weather. You need to undo the strap and poke the buckle through the slot in the "rain coat" and put the strap back on.

Pros
Stealthy & discrete apperance
Nikon D700 and 14-24mm combo fits
Excellent build quality

Highly Recommended!

Nikon D700 - DIY GPS Project

I built a GPS unit for my Nikon D700 over the last couple of weeks. I have been testing it all this week. I came across this design by Rick Wargo while looking for DIY GPS solution for my Nikon D700 that was simple and cheap to build. If you are keen to build one Rick's site has step by step instructions on how to do it.

GPS circuit diagram - click for larger view

The design is based on the USGloblSat EM-406A. The project costs less than $200 AUD and would have been much less if not for the extremely high shipping costs (USD $50) from the USA. The genuine GP-1 Nikon GPS unit costs $425 in Australia.

GPS module - USGloblSat EM406A

GPS unit - completed

Both the GPS unit and remote shutter release use the same 10-pin connector. This means that I can only use one or the other. I then realised that I could add remote shutter release via a 2.5mm stereo jack connected to pin 9 (autofocus), pin 4 (shutter), pin 6 (gnd) on the Nikon 10-pin connector and using the remote controller from my Canon G10. It is a cheap one I picked up on Ebay.

2.5mm stereo jack

Remote shutter release unit from my Canon G10



See the remote shutter in action

GPS unit mounted on D700

The initial search to lock in satellites take a few minutes. The GPS logo on the Nikon flashes while it is searching and goes solid when it has locked in. The D700 has a battery saving mode and shuts down the GPS unit when not in use. However, I disable this initially otherwise it will keep turning off before it can lock onto any satellites. Once this has been achieved I then re-enable battery saving mode. The GPS module also has a built-in supercapacitor that backs up all the satellite location data making all subsequent GPS lock much faster.

GPS locked onto satellites

GPS coordinates

The GPS data is embedded directly into the raw file with each press of the shutter. I then import all the photos directly into Adobe LR2 which supports embedded GPS data. In the library module scroll down to the bottom and you will see the GPS coordinates.

Adobe LR2 - GPS coordinates highlighted in red

If you click on it, you need to be connected to the Internet, it will take you to the exact location in Google map.

Google Map

You can zoom in for a closer look

Google Map - Street View

I can also automatically export all my photographs directly from Adobe LR2 to PicasaWeb using Jeffery Friedl's "Export to Picasaweb" Plugin. I love this plugin! Its a donationware based usage model so if you use it and like it please send Jeffrey some money.

Check-out how I did it here and Check-out my project build pics. As part of my GPS testing I tracked my friend across Sydney. You can find out all the places he visited. Click on view map.

Nikon D700 - High ISO samples

Here are some high ISO samples taken from my new Nikon D700. These were all taken from inside St. Marys Cathedral near Hyde Park. I used my Nikon 50mm and my friend's Sigma 12-24mm.

ISO 3200, 24mm @f/5.6

ISO 3200, 24mm @f/5.6

ISO 3200, 24mm @f/5.6

ISO 3200, 50mm @f/2.0

The following photos were taken during the Chinese New Year Parade in Sydney last weekend. I used my Nikon 50mm and Sigma 70-200mm.

ISO 2000, 135mm @f/2.8

ISO 2200, 122mm @f/2.8

ISO 1100, 50mm @f/2.0

ISO 6400, 50mm @f/1.8

ISO 6400, 50mm @f/2.0

ISO 800, 50mm @f/1.8

ISO 6400, 50mm @f/1.8

ISO 6400, 50mm @f/1.8

I am very impress with the high ISO performance of the Nikon D700. I am just amaze at the quality and cannot help myself from repeatedly looking at them. I cannot believe how clean the images are and the lack of noise compared to my Nikon D200.

Nikon D700 - First Impressions

When Nikon released the D3 in late 2007, I said that I would go full frame when Nikon shrunk it down into a D200/D300 sized body. I had no idea Nikon were going to announce such a beast barely 6 months later. I have been umming and ahhing about getting one since it was announced last July. I finally bit the bullet and picked up my new toy (D700) last week. I guess it is my belated Christmas gift or early birthday present to myself.

Honestly, I started playing with it before reading the manual. If you are familiar the D200, or any Nikon dSLR for that matter, you can navigate around the D700 without any problem. Although, I did spend quite a bit of time reading up on all the new features later on.

The D700 is a little bigger and heavier than my D200. It also has the biggest and thickest Nikon dSLR manual I have ever seen. Both the D70 and D200 manual were both tiny by comparison.


What I like about the D700

• It's built like a brick shit house, very robust

• It has a full frame format or FX sensor

• The viewfinder is much bigger and brighter compared to the D200. I like.

• The built-in dust sensor cleaner

• The incredible low noise performance at high ISOs
  

• Huge 3.5" LCD screen. It's awesome and the ease of zooming in to check whether your shot is sharp or not.
  

• I like the fact that they no longer use screw caps for both the pc sync and the 10-pin port. I am sick of misplacing those little suckers
  

• The other cool thing is that you can create your own menu (My Menu) by grouping all of your favourite custom settings in the one place for easy access. So far, the only thing I cannot put there is the format command.

What I don't Like about the D700

• The door to the CF compartment is a bit on the flimsy side compared to the D200. I'd preferred if they used the same locking mechanism as the D200.

• No dedicated BKT button. For some reason Nikon has decided to remove it from both the D300 and D700. No matter, just reassigned the Func key to do the same thing.

• I don't hate it but I am not that keen on the feel or sound of the new shutter. It doesn't sound or feel as crisp as my D200. I think I am getting used to it and I sure I will learn to love it.

Test Run

I took it out for a test run today. I am very happy with the results as all of the exposures were spot on. No need to fool around with the exposure compensation here. This means minimal adjustments were required in Lightroom, which is what I like as I am extremely lazy.


St. Patrick's Cathedral - Outside









St. Patrick's Cathedral - Inside





High ISO Shots

I also took some high ISO shots to checkout its low noise capabilities and I have to say the shots at ISO 6400 were very impressive.




These were taken straight out of Adobe Lightroom, no noise enhancements applied, e.g. Noise Ninja.


Some BW Shots

Hills Hoist - An Australian Icon

Conclusion

I am very very impress with the D700. I hear you asking, do I really need a D700?

Only if you want to shoot full frame, shoot hand-held in low light at high ISOs (@6400) and you want gorgeous looking images. If the answers to the above questions are all "no" then just get the D300 and save a shit load of money.

You won't regret getting the Nikon D700. It has my highest recommendation.

Check-out more D700 high ISO shots here

Wentworth Falls - Empress Falls Trek (Blue Mountains)

I did the Wentworth Falls - Empress Falls trek yesterday. The climb down to the bottom of Wentworth Falls was the easiest part as it was straight down. The trek from Wentworth Falls across to Empress Falls was not too bad. The waterfall here is definitely more impressive than the one back at Wentworth Falls.

The climb up from the bottom of Empress Falls to the top was a killer. It was toughest thing I have done to date. I guess being totally unfit didn't help. I honestly thought I wouldn't make it back up. I was gone, my legs were like logs I couldn't lift them at all and I was sucking in the big ones and my heart rate was somewhere up there in the stratosphere.

I was totally stuff and had to stop multiple times to regain my energy along the climb. It was embarrassing to see parents with babies strapped to backs effortlessly glide pass up the side of the mountain. Finally, I spotted the kiosk/diner and a feeling of relieve swept over me.

I finally made it after after 5 long hours. First thing I did was buy an ice cold bottle of coke, it was just what the doctor ordered. I also ate some biscuits and rested for about 20 minutes before trekking back to the Wentworth Falls car park, which took about 15-20 minutes.

Here are some photos from my trek. Please enjoy them.

Wentworth Falls (Top)

Path to the bottom of Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls (Bottom)

Path to Empress Falls

Path to Empress Falls

Empress Falls (Bottom)

Anyway, you can see more of my shots here.