Indonesia – SULAWESI

Sulawesi

From what I read, the Nikon D810 boasts of 36 megapixel image sensor and has a burst rate of maximum of five frames per second at full resolution. So I had to get my hands on it. More importantly it is able to squeeze in 23 images using uncompressed 14-bit RAW files before the buffer gets full. Still a far cry from the D4s but that is good enough for me. I also like the availability of using the sensitivity of ISO 64 – the increased dynamic range will be ideal for landscape photography.

Its new EXPEED 4 processor means faster autofocus speed for focusing and tracking moving subjects – a bonus for wildlife photographers. I would like to see how the autofocus works when shooting on low light despite the claims of improved performance. The D810 has a quiet shutter function and gets even quieter in its Quiet mode – important so as not to alarm the more sound-sensitive skittish wildlife. I could hear my colleagues more obvious shutter burst from the D4s but he could not hear my D810 during my trial. I like the option of memory card slots for both Secure Digital and CompactFlash card – more flexibility so that I am not suddenly short of the other.

I tested my D810 on a recent trip to Sulawesi.

My photographic companion and I spent 6 days and 5 nights in Sulawesi in September 2015, trying to fathom the great divide mentioned by Wallace in his book “The Malay Archipelago”. Many part of Indonesia were blanked by smog from forest fires due to rampant land clearing. North Sulawesi was spared sparingly. Due to the extreme drought – pockets of fires had scorched the forest but fortunately, it was self-limiting as the primary forests had little undergrowth. We stayed in a village in Batu Putih (60km from the airport) which was near the entrance to the nature reserve.