Nikon in 2n half of 2012: D400, D600... or what?

I am a happy user of a Nikon D3100. I have a couple of lenses: 18-55mm VR kit; 35mm DX f/1.8 and Tamron (for DX) 18-270mm VC PZD. I also have some bags and a couple of tripods.

What do I shoot? Well anything, and nothing. I’m merely an aficionado, not sure if I can call myself amateur or enthusiast, but I do have fun with it! And now I’m thinking about upgrading my camera.

Before I go on, I don’t need anything else than what my D3100 offers, but sometimes it’d be nice to have faster focus, faster burst rate, handy buttons instead of menues and a bigger camera body (the D3100 is tiny). Take a look at Matt Granger’s rant on amateurs buying better (or pro) gear.

Since I don’t have very specific needs, I decided that what I want isn’t in the market yet. I know I want a Nikon and a better camera than what I have today. So let’s try to guess what may happen…

I think it’s best to start with the current line up, the history release, and work from there (the prices are body only). I also have to say that these are not predictions, but wild guessing

Some disclaimers here. I did put the D4 and family there for the sake of having the full Nikon line up. Some will argue that the D800 is not the D700’s successor, and while that may be true the D700 isn’t any longer (26.7.2012) in Nikon’s site.

But what’s gonna happen in the rest of 2012? The D400 has been long rumored to be the natural successor of the D300, but there are even more rumors of the D600, which would be an ”entry level FX” camera, whatever that means.

Let’s start bottom up then:

Entry DSLR DX

We’re at the bottom of DX domain here, and by all looks we’ll get a D3300 in 2013. More than 24 Mp would be nonsense. What then? Maybe another metallic color ...

Entry DSLR DX with tilty-swively screen

Canon has the 60D and now the 650D with capacitive touch tilty-swively screen. I guess 2013 (maybe earlier) it’s time for Nikon to launch the D5200, with 24 Mp, and capacitive touch tilty swively screen. (I don’t like them…)

Amateur DSLR DX

Following the apparent 2 years release cycle, they could unveil the D7100 in Photokina with 24 Mp, some nice video capabilities and (even) better ISO capabilities. That’d be my definite go to! Unless…

Now it gets tricky… I don’t think that a D600 and a D400 will coexist.

If the D600 becomes an ”entry FX” as suggested elsewhere, what we’d have is a D7100 with FX. What would be the price? Would they canibalize each other? To get a current pro body you’d need to spend 3000€ in a D800? What’s between D600 and D800? (And the ”old D700” isn’t the answer here).

If the D400 is just the successor of the D300, we’d get a pro body (big fat magnesium alloy, without silly-looking-scene selector) in DX. That would certainly please wild life shooters: fast focus, plus longer focal length with the 1.5x crop factor of the DX. But… you’d had to spend 3000€ to go to FX?

I’m not so interested in the future of D800 and D4. For one reason they were just released. For another one, they’re way out of my budget.

I’m confused by the D400 vs D600 dilema. I’d rather have a D300-like camera body, but FX is very tempting. It'd be smart from Nikon to release an affordable FX body: they would swim in money coming from FX glass!

I guess we’ll know more in Photokina 2012! It looks to me that whichever option they release (D400 or D600) that will be my camera. If they release both, then I'll have a problem.

PS: few pictures in Flickr taken with my loved D3100

Practical BBQ ribs in the oven :)

I wrote not long ago a great recipe to do BBQ ribs in the oven. I believe that some of you have been trying them, please comment on the results!!

That recipe has a big drawback though: it takes quite lots of time. Preparing the meat, the spices, let the meat spice for 30 minutes, cook it in the oven for 1h 40m (minimum), finishing it about 30 minutes more. Easily it goes to 3 hours of preparation. And if you were successful, about 5 minutes of eating.

I bring you a solution now. You can do the big work, froze them and whenever you want, just finish them off! How does that work? Let's just add some steps to the original recipe.

If I don't add anything, just follow exactly the original one.

Just start with: 1, 2, 3 and 4. No changes there.

4.1 Freezing the ribs

Let them rest for a while so they are not hot any more. Put them in a hermetic plastic bag, juices included and to the freezer they go!

Couple of weeks go by, now you feel like having ribs!

4.2 Unfreezing the ribs

Take them out of the freezer the day before and let them unfreeze in the frige.

5. Finishing off (just minor differences here)

Preheat the oven at 150 degrees. To place the ribs you can use here folio, or just a normal oven tray. Folio is practical because you need to do less cleaning afterwards. 

All the juices are probably in jelly form (because of the cold). Don't let that disgust you. Spread them on the ribs! Add some bbq sauce as well and spread it, and to the oven they go.

Keep them there for 10 minutes at 150 degrees. Then crank it up to 200 degrees and that's it!

Remember to keep an eye on them at all times.

PS: actually, the pictures of the ribs before finishing and ready in the original post are done following this method of freezing them :)

BBQ ribs, in the oven

I tried first this recipe in my friend's bachelor party, and was a huge success! Few weeks ago I we cooked those again, this time in my own bachelor party: another success. I have tried to them once in an actual barbecue but they weren't that good.

So here I offer you an excellent way to have awesome BBQ ribs, done in the comfort of you kitchen in your oven.

Ingredients:

• Racks of ribs: they should be about half kilo each rack, and that's good for one person (there's lots of bone there, don't worry).

• Beer
• Barbecue sauce (with honey, or hickory, or whisky, or whatever really)
• Spices: brown sugar, thick salt, black pepper, red paprika, coriander, cumin (and chili powder, if you like it hot).

There are several tricks in this recipe which make huge difference!

1. Preparing the meat

You need to remove the membrane behind the ribs. Turn the ribs around and make a cut to the membrane (if you do the cut on top of bone is much easier). Then you just need to grab the membrane and pull; tip: use kitchen paper to do that, it helps a lot!

Once that's ready, put each rack on top of some aluminium foil. There should be enough to wrap the whole rack afterwards. I recommend two layers of the foil.

2. Spice mix and meat rubbing

The proportions are easy to remember, in one hand you have the brown sugar, in the other hand you have the rest!

5 measures of sugar, one measure of each one of the other spices.
From top to down: salt, black pepper, coriander, cumin, red paprika.

If you got the cumin and coriander seeds instead of powder you'll need to bang them a bit and make them smaller. Tip: don't substitute black pepper for white one, and don't use them in thin powder form. If you want to add some heat, add a little bit of chili powder (by a little bit I mean less than 1/2 a measure).

Once the coriander and cumin have been smashed, mix them all  together. I usually shake them in an empty jar (with the lid closed!).

For example, for two racks (800 gr - 1 kg) use table spoons as measures and you'll get enough spice mix. Once that's ready rub the ribs with the spice mix, both sides! Once they are well massaged, close the folio with the bones down.

Let that rest for 20-30 minutes. Start pre-heating the oven at 150 degrees.

3. Preparing the cooking sauce

Mix some beer with some barbecue sauce. Done! About half and half is a good proportion to work with.

4. Cooking the ribs

Open the folio where the ribs were resting. At this point they probably started sucking the spices and getting nicely moist. Then add some of the sauce. They don't need to swim in it, but make sure that there's some liquid inside.

Close the folio again, and to the oven they go! Oven at 150 degrees (we had it ready already) and they need to be there 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Tip: take a look at them every 25-30 minutes or so, open the folio and move them around. If they've dried up, add some more sauce. Shake them a little so that the liquid spreads under them. If you don't do that, some bone may stick-&-burn to the folio and that isn't nice.

Tip: how to know if they're done enough? When the meat starts pulling away from the bone, or if when shaking them they almost break down because they're so tender... you're ready!

If they feel stiff and are hard at the touch, let them be for a while. When cooking 6 racks of ribs at once, I needed a little over 2 hours instead of 1h 40m.

5. Finishing off!

Take the ribs out of the oven, and crank it up to 200 degrees. Open the folio; I bet they look delicious already and you just want to eat them. A little patience my friend!

Paint them with barbecue sauce (just the top side) and if they sucked al the beer sauce, add a little (just beer will work fine also). Then back to the oven they go! 20 to 30 minutes will do.

Tip: keep an eye on them all the time! If you have so many racks that they are in several layers, move them around. If your oven has grill, you can use it, but don't burn them, you just want them glazed.

6. Enjoy :)

Boys and their toys (GAS)

According to the Oxford dictionary, a hobby is an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. I would very much like to question that.


Most people do take on hobbies, but not regularly. "Build your very own radio controlled Spitfire! With the first number, the wheels! Every Sunday in your paper shop!". I'm quite sure that 98% of the people who start it don't even get to the wings. Instead they have the antena of a U-boat, and the steering wheel of a classic Ford T. All of them 1:20. None of them will ever be built.


Then there's the pleasure issue. Ask some of those DIY-ers how pleasurable is to hear "oh, very creative bucket you've made" after weekends of hammering their own fingers trying to build a stool.


Most hobbies though cause G.A.S., especially among men. That is Gear Acquisition Syndrome. We spend more time and energy thinking and planning what else do we need (even though we do not need it) and then buying it than actually practising the hobby!


There are some which are especially dangerous. Photography for instance, getting into the DSLR world. You can always upgrade the camera body, or get a new lens, or a flash, or... the list of gadgets is immense. For me it isn't so bad yet... I have one camera body, three lenses, a grip for the camera and two tripods (which were gifts!).

People not musically trained but who take on some musical instrument are also dangerous. I've heard once "guitars? you just need one more. No matter how many you have". Then you go to amplifiers, pedals, software, ... the result is more time is spent reading about "the musical properties of the combination of alder and rosewood" than actually learning to play! Other than playing badly, this is the consequence:

Those two I know, because I suffer them. And it gets worse because I like to keep things in their proper place. More precisely three camera bags. I try to justify them saying that they have different purposes and sizes. Two are backpacks: the light one, and the big one (which can host a laptop); the third one is a shoulder bag. The guitars need also their own cases (two) and bags (two), plus two stands (an individual one and one that keeps 5 guitars) to keep them handy.

I'm told that there are other terrible hobbies: golf, aeromodelling, video recording and production, hi-fi systems and I have witnessed acute cases of knitting as well!

How about then redefining hobby: an activity done seldom, for which gear is investigated and bought regularly in one's leisure time, for no discernible reason.


Not sure if writing is a hobby, but I shall now stop and go and take few pictures and play some guitar before the next G.A.S. attack hits me!






PS: a hobby that I can recommend since other people enjoy it is cooking! It's fun and others get to enjoy it!