2Oceans

Are we reaching a point where the meters on older cameras are going to be unreliable more often than not? I have a Nikormat pushing 50 and two F4s bodies pushing 30. Film is so expensive now that I am not convinced that its worth the risk. As well Fuji mirrorless cameras have film emulation.

Since price is secondary I would recommend Gitzo or Really Right Stuff pods. You save money in the long run if your planning to be involved with photography for a while. This is as true now as it was 25 years ago. There are plenty of used Gitzo tripods on the market for a bargain that will do a great job. A good ball head such as the ones made by RRS or Arca Swiss are the best way to go. The original post was not about switching to a bridge camera to save money but for back packing where a few ounces are meaningful.

tcyin, If money is no object I would go with a Gitzo or Really Right Stuff series 2. I use an Arca Swiss B1 single pan ball head now available as the Z1 and I also use a Kirk BH1. Both fit well on series 2 Gitzo pods. My Gitzo is a three section that barely fits diagonally in a small roller bag. Really Right Stuff ball heads seem to be the most popular with professional photographers these days. Some of the new bridge cameras are very good but your likely going to spend more on your tripod and ball head than the camera. While you will likely replace the bridge camera your pod and ball head will last a life time. Good hunting.

Andrew, I am not sure if the loose caps you have are old and worn out but replacements are inexpensive. .I have resorted to third party caps from B&H and they work fine and my experience is that they are snug. Nikon brand are good but too expensive. Gaffers tape has always worked if I need a way to stick things together temporarily and don’t want to worry about residue. I keep pieces of gaffers tape smashed onto my lenses, flashes and camera bags for any event. It’s very attractive. You could put the tape inside the lens cap to help get a better bind. Good hunting.

Mark, 17 years and 8 DSLRs later this is too late in the game for me. I loved my f4s and N90 and was certain I would not give them up but I would purchase an old used DSLR for $250 before I would jerry rig one of my old film cameras. It’s about 15 years too late. Hope imback can make a go of it. You never know but it’s just not for me.

Chulster, The most important consideration is that the weight of the gear matches your tripods capacity. My first tripod was a Slik Grand Master Sport. The largest lens I would use it with was a Nikon 300 mm f4 (non AFS) with a Slik Pro Ball Head. It was decent in 1991. When I started shooting a 500mm f4 P then I started using Gitzo sSeries III Systematic support and Kirk and Arca Swiss ball heads and a Wimberley action head that I still use. Over the years it has been funny to see folks at the Washington Mall or Bosque del Apache stooped over a Nikon 300 mm f 2.8 lenses mounted on tiny series I Gitzo or Feisol. We all want to save money but if you invest in quality large telephoto glass or any large glass for that matter you will need a substantial tripod. For wide angle and the right wind and terrain conditions you can get by with a small series I tripod or small minor brand aluminum but not for large telephoto lenses. Galen Rowell made a good living shooting breath taking images with light gear and small tripods even sometimes securing his camera to whatever he could but he was shooting with 20 and 24 mm lenses. With a 300 mm f 2.8, 400 mm f 2.8, 500 mm f 5.6 or 600 mm f5.6 or faster you will need something more substantial. For most shooting conditions I like Carbon Fiber because it is light but if I am wedging my pod between rocks where the tubes may get scratched like a stream bed or shale out crop then I prefer aluminum. Creating carbon fiber is a layering process and scratching the CF tubes can cause damage compared with aluminum that will however bend. The medium size Bogen/Manfrottos might do OK with a slower telephoto like a 300 mm f4 or the 150-600 mm zooms that Tamaron and Sigma make but beware of under doing it. Also read a little about long lens technique that seems to be largely forgotten about. Also with an action head nothing is tightened down so that the lens is weightless and movable in all three degrees of freedom. If I have my 600 f4 I will generally shoot it on an action head these days though I have a large Arca Swiss B2 pan tilt ball head that works well. With my previous 500mm f4 or current 200-400 f4 I can use an action head but I really like to use an attachment to my ball head called a "side kick" designed and made by Wimberley to turn the ball head into an action head. It works well with telephotos that are 500mm f4 or smaller. I have tended to stay with companies like Gitzo, Manfrotto, Arca Swiss, Kirk and Really right stuff because I believe they are the true innovators and because I can afford them. They need to stay in business. Most of these companies provide parts for their older stuff. I like Slik but even though their newer designs resemble their older designs I sadly can't get rubber parts. I have recently gone to shooting a 100-400 mm Tamaron that I can schlep very easily and it does OK on a Gitzo series II CF pod with the column all the way down. I bought the Tamron tripod collar for this lens and it’s OK and that's all. On my current Nikon 300 f4 AFS I bought the Kirk tripod collar to stabilize it. The Kirk collar has the collar and a front rest that the original Nikon and the Really Right Stuff do not and that adds to the stability. Its a dream. If you’re stuck with the manufactures collar and foot then I agree with the idea to push a towel or wash cloth between the foot and the barrel of the lens to dampen things up a bit. Finally one of the best things you can do is to get a proper size pod and by that I mean one that is within 14 inches of your height so that you can shoot it standing perfectly erect in landscape or portrait mode with either a ball head or action head. There is a lot of talk about hand holding a telephoto lens and occasionally one gets lucky but properly mounted on a tripod and using good long lens technique you stand the best chance of getting sharp images regardless of whether it’s a large cumbersome 600 mm f4 with action head or a much smaller 100-400 on a ball head. Good hunting.

Looks like what I was looking for. Thanks

Andrew, slide 42 was not what I was thinking. I was looking for a feature that begins recording/buffering image files when the shutter release is half way depressed. When you press the shutter release halfway, image files will be recorded, and when you fully press the shutter release, future images will be saved along with the previous 30-40 images. Still when going over your work there are imagined changes like autofocus fine tune to cover the range of a zoom lens that I certainly hope will be implemented and are not just nice to have. I hope someone upstairs is taking notice. Stay frosty.

Nicely done. I would like to see what Olympus calls Pro Capture implemented on Nikon mirrorless cameras. The camera begins recording when the shutter is half pressed and records 20-30 retrograde images to capture action that would have otherwise been missed 1/2 a second or so before the photographer thinks to fully actuate the shutter release.

Sorry for the repeat offense.

Sanford, I love the feel and texture of waxed cotton. It makes a wonderful barn coat. I realize that modern day laminates including Gortex are lighter but for me there is an aesthetic property to Barbour waxed coats that can’t be beat. I think that is why they are still around. Also even Gortex and laminate breathable materials that I own for travel and the US Militatry now uses must be be taken care of and will loose a battle with barb wire. We have not had problems with ours leaving residue though I can understand if it happens. As well I have a PVC/cotton Calcutta rain coat for off shore and it is a very heavy sun of a gun. The Domke Rugged Wear bags are beautiful and classic. I love the brand. I am sure if they were bad and goofing up camera gear on the inside they would not sell. Anyway the nautical legacy of wax cloth is interesting and is part of the appeal. Good hunting.

Sanford, I love the feel and texture of waxed cotton. It makes a wonderful barn coat. I realize that modern day laminates including Gortex are lighter but for me there is an aesthetic property to Barbour waxed coats that can’t be beat. I think that is why they are still around. Also even Gortex and laminate breathable materials that I own for travel and the US Militatry now uses must be be taken care of and will loose a battle with barb wire. We have not had problems with ours leaving residue though I can understand if it happens. As well I have a PVC/cotton Calcutta rain coat for off shore and it is a very heavy sun of a gun. The Domke Rugged Wear bags are beautiful and classic. I love the brand. I am sure if they were bad and goofing up camera gear on the inside they would not sell. Anyway the nautical legacy of wax cloth is interesting and is part of the appeal. Good hunting.

Hector, Sorry theses are ancient “bridge” cameras. Not sure you can get them cleaned for less than what they are worth. I have never heard that this is a common problem with these fossils but word off mouth often gets socialized enough to dictate reality. Good hunting.

Alan, My wife has owned Canon IS binoculars for over 10 years. They definitely help. They make several models. I recommend them if you need to control shake. Zeiss, Leica/Leitz and Swarovski make enviable glass but I will take the Canons for their price point and quality.

Agree Karin, Two of the most important things to do to extend the life of a PC / Mac is maximized the RAM and change over to a SSD, preferably a PCIe bus NVMe interface and M.2. The rest is up to God. Still using 10T spinning drives for mass storage. Not certain that SSDs are any less reliable than HDDs. My ownly drive failure over 30 years has been a HDD though I am sure the HDD tech is better now than ever. This blog awakens the inner nerd that I usually surpress with Bordeaux but it's too early in the day.

Yardkat, Your lens and camera combination is fine. Patience is a virtue in this endeavor. Long lens technique has not changed much with the advent of digital. You need to make the camera and lens weightless by supporting the lens on a car window or a tripod. If you shoot from a car window I would bring a pillow or pillows to sit on so your at the proper height and comfortable. Your car is the perfect blind. I would have a medium sized bean bag filled with what ever is heavy enough to provide stability but also light enough to allow you to man handle the bag on and off the window. Buck wheat hulls work well and are not as heavy as beans but easy to lift onto your car window. Beans are heavy but stable and foam pellets from the UPS store are light and not as stable but easier to lift. If you have good tripod and ball head I would start with that and add a Wimberley “side kick” to turn your tripod ball head into an action head. I think monopods are OK and that’s all but a good tripod and action head that brings your cameras eye piece to eye level is a more stable choice that you can stand back from and relax. If you shoot with a bean bag you should put your non camera hand on to of the lens at a point over the bean bag and let the weight of your arm press the lens onto the bag. If you shoot with a tripod place your hand onto the lens barrel directly over the tripod head assembly and let your arm press down from its own weight. In both cases using a bean bag or tripod consider using and eye cup and press your cheek and eye brow against the camera. If your going to shoot with DX both the D500 and D7200 have very good ISO performance and image quality but the D500 is a much faster frame rate and bigger buffer. I bought my D500 as a refurbished but even now a couple of years later the price is quite a bit lower. I still use the D7200 for close ups. On hand holding sometimes that affords the best opportunity to get a shot or at least a reference image but I don’t think hand holding a 600mm lens will consistently get you the quality you want. Taking critically sharp images will allow you a little more room to crop. Don’t shoot in the middle of a sunlit day. Shoot in the afternoon after 3 PM until sun set and in the morning get up before day light and drive to your destination. Start shooting before sunrise and end at 930 or 1000 AM. The best light is always on the edges and not in the middle of the day. When I lived in San Diego I would make numerous 100 mile trips starting at 3 AM to the Sunrise Highway in the Laguna mountains or Ansa Borrego to be in the desert with big horn sheep or a desert bloom or the Tamarisk grove to shoot long eared owls in beautiful light. I have a slow 100-400 mm lens but my current heavy long lenses are my 600mm f4 and an older 200-400 f4 with a quick auto focus. Both lenses will take teleconverters with 600mm being one of the sharpest lenses aI have ever owned. Your 150-600 Sigma in most cases will do very well. You need to go out a lot and once you have found a great location return again and again. If you know and bird photographers to hang with that is good but I belong to and have always enjoyed going out with Audubon Society birders who know a lot more than I do. You can help with a bird count and learn a lot from those folks sometime to make the most of your efforts. Good hunting.

Shun, sorry. I thought this was a prediction. Regardless thanks for answering my question. I promise not to bug you about it anymore.

Shun, Any news on if Nikon will have a firmware release for the D850/D500 to make them CFx compatible. You had predicted it would be out last year so I am wondering if I had missed the announcement. There seem to be a lot of CFx cards out at this point. Just sayin.

Frans, I have really enjoyed this great teleological discussion. Come to think of it I have never in my life viewed a raw image even though I shoot raw files. I have always known that but realizing it yet again is a small epiphany. My understanding is that embedded JPEGs are there to help me make sense of my composition and exposure. That is all I care about and it is otherwisw not a frying pan I want or need to jump into. But thank you just the same for making me consider the possibilities. If I had a raw in camera histogram perhaps it would up my game but I really don’t really know and that’s the honest truth. On the issue of exposing to the right one of the things I think is true is that as a whole we have the increasing opportunity to become sloppy with our image making since we can correct in post and also that recent digital cameras are more forgiving. That said I don’t think it is a reason to give up on being careful with exposures. So I think that Michael Reichmann is still and for the time being correct. When one has to be fast then the practice of good technique is a engram. Also I think that proper technique exposing to the right reduces the differences between digital cameras and also allows us to understand equipment limitations. Thanks again for this conversation. While its not on the level of importance of “do dogs have souls”, it stimulates a good discussion that maybe important in the future. Stay frosty.

Birdsofearth, the the TC 14-B is designed for lenses with an aperture ring. Also as mentioned the glass sticks out. You can put and extension tube in between the lens and the converter for closeup only but with or without an extension tube you will not have any electronic data or aperture control. So I the answer is no if you need to control aperture. The Kenko teleplus converters gets used all the time underwater on the Nikon 105 f2.8 G VR. The Kenko converter’s lenses are recessed and you will have electronic linkage. I owned the TC-14 B when I shot with a Nikon 500mm f4 P. It was pretty good. I currently own the Kenko Teleplus 1.4 and the Nikon TC 14 E II. Good hunting.

Brian, I have used buckwheat hulls and I keep one of my larger bags filled with the stuff when I don’t travel. You have to keep them dry. Besides being a little heavy, like Rodeo said they are a foodstuff and that can be problematic. I have a small bag that I throw in my luggage that has plastic foam pellets. Foam pellets are by far the lightest and probably least expensive. I have purchased mine at B&H at a premium but I would suggest a UPS store as a much cheaper source. My favorite large bag is a Vertexphoto molar bag that I use a lot at Bosque del Apache. When I fly into Albuquerque I stop at the Sams or Costco, they are across the street from one another, and I buy a large bag of dry beans. They have bags full of rice as well. I like the extra weight when I am sitting a 500 or 600mm lens on the window of my rental car but I don’t take the beans home with me. I usually leave them in my hotel room with my tip. I would suggest using a bag fill that is too large to leak out. Sand is used for some bags to hold down light stands but I would be terrified of it getting into my lenses and bodies. Any way there is a balance between being too heavy and too light. Good hunting.

Merry Christmas Andrew. Glad to see you back.

Perhaps its not the first letter of an English word. Nikon’s lettering scheme has occasional utility such as D for distance, if that was actually the intent, and is certainly not linear and with no clear understanding of the logic for lettering. Perhaps Nikon can answer this. Welcome back Andrew. I have not seen a post from you in a while and your comments are always polite, well thought out and worth the read. Excuse me now while I traipse off into the woods to go work on my iPhone fine art portfolio. I’m abandoning Nikon.

Ab3, Sorry, I didn’t catch that you were talking about the 16-35 f4. I own that lens. It’s 77mm filter ring will definitely fit a P mount adapter of that size. Lots of landscape folks still using grads these days, even though with the newer software HDR renderings are not as cartoonish as they were when HDR was first catching on. On a different note I got a snap on telephoto lens for my iphone under the Christmas tree, so I am going to sell all my long lenses and use the money to buy a 12 wide mobile home on some swamp land in Mississippi and shoot iPhone fine art images for a living. Merry Christmas

ab3 not sure about the filter size of the lens you mentioned. The Cokin P holder’s largest adapter ring will accommodate a 82mm lens thread. I still shoot Singh Ray and Hitech grads that fit a Cokin P holder. Big investment to replace. If I were starting over I would go bigger than a P mount. My Zeiss 15 mm requires a very large Fotodiox Wonderpana filter system for oversized Fotodiox, Cokin Xpro and Lee grads, and oversized polarizer and ND filters. The Wonderpana fits over a fixed lens hood of large wide angle lenses. Merry Christmas