2Oceans

Shun, have you used your Z6 and FTZ adapter with your 600mm. If so how efficient was the AF?

Daniel, For the daylight images. Your images are soft all over. There is no point of sharpness. This is likely due to camera shake. The general camera shake rule for shutter speed with 35mm or full frame DSLR is shutter speed should be at least 1/focal length of a non stabilized lens. The angle of view of your 50mm lens is equivalent to that of a 75mm lens since your shooting a 50mm lens with a DX 1.5 crop body into full frame. I would shoot hand held at 1/80 of a second or faster as a starting point. More over 1/250 is far better and would probably obviate any motion from hand holding if your standing still with little to no wind shooting a static subject that your not having to track. Don’t worry we all make this mistake. A tripod would be best. The second set of images do not assure that there is no sensor pitch or yaw that changes the angle of the focal plane and therefore the focus on certain parts of the image as you change lenses. The sensor is so small that any subtle change of angle when you change lenses especially with a larger target will be appreciated. If you can fully control these parameters then I think you may be right but at this point I can’t be convinced it’s the lens and not the operator. Thanks for sharing your camera settings. The least expensive way to test your camera’s exposure is to compare it with other cameras using the same lens. Another way is the Wallace Expodisc. I have owned one for years. It came from the factory with hand inscribed calibration correction for the disc itself. In recent years it has become even more popular for white balance. It will help you nail down exposure error on your camera/lens combination. The d3400 is a great camera and so is the Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-S G. Don’t give up.

JMA, Its hard to determine without knowing the frequency that both units operate at. I think you have already best answered your own question by direct testing. Nikon is proprietary whereas third party companies by their very nature are not. I would contact Yongnuo directly and see if something can be done. If your trying to make full use of your SB5000 the Nikon WR-R10 and WR-A10 "remote adapters" are quite inexpensive compared to Nikon's optical controllers/commanders and I believe they are a better over all choice but then you are tied to Nikon flashes if you shoot TTL and/or want the reach of a radio trigger even though you can shoot 3rd party flashes in optical slave if you have one Nikon flash. Given what you paid for the SB5000 I would use the Nikon remote adapter. That said the suggested third party radio trigger/receiver/transceivers are well thought of these days and dirt cheap, especially if you shoot manual. You can buy multiple third party TTL flash guns for the price of one SB5000. I do not believe third party flashes are as well made as the Nikon stuff. My SB25 was built in 1992 and is as well made as my more advanced SB800 and SB910. I use Phottix non adjustable manual triggers but the Yongnuo brand does the same. Good hunting.

Arron, I was in Best Buy a few days ago and was impressed with the number of affordable lap tops that use M.2 PCIe NVMe technology. When you start looking at late generation i7 and i9 processors is when you see a bump in prices. I like the price point on HP but they are not the only company. Newegg carries some nice gear for under $2000 with i7 processors, dedicated GPUs, M.2 PCIe/NVMe storage and lots and lots of RAM to handle 300GB panoramic images taken with a D850. Good luck.

aaron, Things you need to look for to make sure your lap top is future proof include separate graphics processor with 2-4 G of internal memory, A late generation Intel i7 or i9 processor, M.2 PCIe NVMe storage. 24 GB or larger DDR4 memory For speeds sake avoid the older SATA interface. Many of todays SLRs are producing 70-120 MB or larger files that you need some power to handle. The current MAC books are very up-to-date and pricey. My current photo editing tool is a PC desk top that is a very powerful i7 but uses SATA interface with a large SSD that I changed to several years ago. I am in the process of updating between business trips with my own build. I think SSDs are the current standard for editing purposes though I use large 8 T spinning drives for archiving. I know professionals who use their Macbook or PC laptop for editing and have a calibrated monitor they plug into at home. With my laptop on the road is an HP i7 with SATA interface SSD and 20GB of older DDR3 memory I triple back up everything with peripheral SSDs and if I am shooting events that require massive space I carry a third drive and use the lap top as a way point rather than a primary storage site. Check out The Ultimate PC Build for Photography Needs by Nasim Mansurov. Every year he goes into the details of a good photo editing PC. I believe the same rules apply these days to laps tops. You should not have to compromise because its a lap top. Good hunting.

I were God all lenses would have tripod collars. Is this a dedicated Dx lens?

Kevin I have the 17-35mm and the 16-35mm Vr . Back in its day the 17-35 was the best of the wide angle zooms. I still enjoy mine. Now its still an OK lens but is dated. In the wide focal length range I have started to purchase high quality fixed focal length lenses. The current DSLR and mirrorless cameras make all lenses better but get more out of the more current lens selections. As well the fixed focal length lenses still as always perform better. The wide angle Sigma and Zeiss fixed focal length lenses for DSLRs in the 14mm to 21mm range are very good. That's the direction I would go in that focal range.

Love the tripod collar and look forward to seeing the Bokeh. Right now I can't imagine having this lens, but it would be a blast. After all it does cost less than a new car.:) Is there an actual review with images?

Paul, For the D3s I bought David Busch's Nikon D3s/D3x Guide to Digital SLR Photography. Its more intuitively written and easier to follow than the factory manuals. I have the paper and digital down loaded factory manuals on all my Nikon stuff. The factory manuals are easier to navigate in the digital PDF version while using Ctrl f to search because the indexes (forget the table of contents) are not very good. Even still, sometimes I feel like I am going in circles with the Nikon factory manuals. Technical knowledge sometimes obviates communication skills and I think that is especially true with modern electronic user manuals. I have become very accustomed to and comfortable with the Nikon DSLR menus but recently purchased a Fuji mirror-less camera that immediately challenged me. I was quick to discover every mistake that could be made. Good hunting.

Thanks Guys, Great points. I think I will look for something light, durable and less technical and leave more complex PSs and the calculus flash cards for preschoolers I had planned for another time. On the other hand they will no doubt be writing programs in a year or two. There are a couple of Vivitar, Polaroid and Kodak PS cameras that may do the trick. They look fairly small. I should probably go to Walmart first as David suggests to see what's available and handle the product while considering the great suggestions that have been offered me. Some of the suggestions are higher than my price point but I may have to rethink things along these lines. After all it's either my nieces or my parrots who will inherit my burgeoning fortune. I will keep monitoring this string for advice. Thanks again everyone. All the suggestions have been helpful.

Ricocheterider, along those lines if you use the Sunny 16 rule with 100 ISO film you will need 6 stops of light reduction to get to a 1/2 second exposure while keeping the aperture at 16. There are variable neural density filters (twin polarizers) and solid ND density filters. Either type of good quality will set you back 150-300 dollars or more. The screw in 77mm fixed density filters in my experience are more even. I use them primarily for waterfall photography but some use neutral density filters to shoot in broad daylight with a wide open aperture to control the depth of field and use a flash to light the subject. Its kind of cool actually. The alternative is to use square or rectangular resin or glass ND filters that fit in a filter holder. You can spend a lot on or a little on rectangular filters. The Hitech/Format resin/plastic filters are very affordable and are probably as truly neutral as any of the resin filters including Singh-Ray that are more than double the price. The Hitech glass filters are more pricey. I use a Cokin P-mount holder that barely accommodates a 82mm diameter lens. For the application of waterfall photography I really prefer screw in solid ND filters. I would shoot the slowest film available starting out.

Any thoughts on inexpensive general purpose cameras for a 4 year old. I have twin nieces who are perpetually happy and giggly. Last year I got them, matching of course, analog pink princess watches for Christmas. No they were not expensive. This year Uncle Two Oceans is getting them cameras. You can generally find something in the 30-40 dollar range that is a point and shoot so I am thinking along those lines. I know their parents are really going to thank me. I started out my journey at eight with a Mamiya 6X7 bellows range finder camera and a Gossen incident light meter and a small metal tripod. I was making contact prints at 10 years in my bathroom. I figure with a point and shoot they will begin to learn and have fun with composition. Thanks in advance.

The state of the art is that all ball heads will sag a little, even aspheric ball heads. It really comes down to personal preference. I have been admonished that a certain brand is the best but what I believe is that each brand has its merits. I love my Kirk BH1 because of its smoothness but I firmly believe that there are stronger heads. The Arca Swiss heads I own do not flop very much because the aspheric design prevents much progression once locked. The interesting thing is that the German study that I can no longer find on the internet showed that the Manfrotto hydrostatic head made of cast aluminum sagged the least and had a fairly long connection (cantelever) between the clamp and the ball compared to other heads. Now days if I choose to use a lens larger than a 300mm f4 lens it will be on a gimbal. If I am doing everything right with my ball head set up of this size or smaller it will not sag even on an acute angle, at least enough to be clinically significant. If I put an extension tube on my longer lenses and point them down at my feet on a ball head I will be holding on at all times because the tripod-head-lens assembly will be metastable at best. Of course I can always bring out the vise grips. Now that my interest is piqued I am thinking about looking at other premium brand ball heads to compare with what I have owned now for years to include Markins and Really Right stuff though Acratech and KLM and are interesting. Folks who use those heads are generally happy with them and none of the designs are particularly new. Perhaps something with rhinestones. Anyway what I currently have has worked so well for so many years I view any improvements as incremental and had lost my curiosity. But then I can always use a spare head or six.

Mary, I like more familiar designs like the Arca-Swiss Z1g moonball that maintains similar architecture and an aspheric ball on a larger scale compared to the smaller AS B1 and Z1 designs and is slightly lighter than the Burzynski but has a huge capacity. It has managed to stay in production as the B1g and now the Z1g where as the Burzynski is evanescent and for some time now. I do like the Burzynski's unique design. Good hunting.

The only camera I flop my ball head with is my tiny Fuji X100f that I use with a simple arca style bottom plate. It does not have much cantilever effect. With bigger gear I figure if I am going to spend thousands on a body then it should have a proper L-bracket so that it can sit upright on the tripod head with its weight bearing directly down. I started with a gigantic Bogen hexplate L bracket that at the time I thought was amazing because it made my basic N70 film camera look really cool and eventually transitioned to arca style plates/L-brackets and have not looked back. As far as monopods go I have a large Bogen that I use once about every three years. I just like the stability of a tripod. The event photography I have done recently is equestrian dressage from a fixed location using a tripod and action head. Nothing very dynamic where a monopod would work better.

Dieter, I remember that review because it was in German and it found that a Bogen/Manfrotto hydrostatic ball head held the best but they all sagged. But what I remember most is that there seem to be a level of magnitude overkill in the level of stress testing. I use a Kirk BH1 because I like its very smooth action and also have a small BH3 as well as the Arca Swiss BI Monoball that has an aspheric ball that works very well in extremely cold weather and a Arca Swiss B2 that is actually a pan tilt in ball head form. I have not bought a new head in over a decade but FLM, Novoflex, Really Right Stuff, Markins all make really great heads that I would love to own. I am certain if you set up any of these heads correctly with a load they are engineered and rated for, that they will not sag. For my big lenses I use action heads with nothing locked down, either a side kick or a full sized Wimberly. I like the familiarity I have developed with my stuff but I still have tripod envy when ever I see some one with something like a Really Right Stuff pod (I use Gitzo) with a Zenelli carbon fiber head. After all Moose Peterson uses one and I am certain no doubt that I would be a better person if I owned one. All-in-all any and all of the heads I mention are used everyday by pros and take good pictures. If you hang enough weight off of any of them they will sag. Stay frosty.

Daniel, I have had the Nikon PK 11a, 12 and 13 and PN11 tubes for over 20 years. They are well made but now days limiting.They only work with lenses that have aperture ring so G and E lenses will not adjust aperture. Auto extension refers to aperture and not autofocus in the case of Nikon brand tubes. I think Nikon has lost interest in macro/close up because they have not updated their extension tubes , their 200mm f4 AF and have not made their high quality dual element diopter lenses in many years. The Kenko extension tube set I have allows aperture and auto focus with G lenses for certain. Their Ok and that all. I have always used manual focus and the most slender tube when using tubes with a wide angle 20mm 2.8. I have not tried tubes with my much loved Zeiss 15mm 2.8 that is manual focus. With telephoto lenses shooting short distance action images mainly of insects with the Kenko tubes allows me to autofocus. I have been disappointed with my results with extension tubes on very short focal length lenses but have thought about giving close focus wide angle another shot. Remember you lose light and infinity with tubes and with very wide angle lenses you can literally lay your subject on the front element of the lens to get it sharp. The Tokina 35mm 2.8 that is available used is highly regarded though I think I probably just need to work harder at it per Albin. I have a pelican case full of dedicated macro/close up gear including tubes, reversing rings and high quality diopters but constantly go back to my 300mm f4 AFS with and without tubes because I like how it isolates the subject and completely removes the context. The exact opposite of what you want to do. Have you considered a tilt shift lens? Good hunting.

Vincent, please forgive me. My response was intended as tongue-in-cheek conversation when NHSN did not get a response regarding his interest in Billingjam that as a member of the bag of the month club I consider in the elite category. Mr. NHSN saw the humor and was audacious enough to one up me. I am a son of the south with a pair of camouflage Crocs but camera gear aside I do have a fondness for a good Bordeaux, fine Swiss, German and Japanese watches, well made pocket knives and most importantly nice camera bags that ooze quality. There is plenty of seriousness on this site to go around. I will leave it at that. Good hunting:)

I once owned a Billingham Hadley. Poppy told me that I looked very dashing wearing it with my jabot. Unfortunately I lost my Vacheron Constantine tourbillon in the Tarn when one of the pockets on the Hadley failed to stay closed. I had to send my vallet home to bring the spare. I felt naked and victimized.

JMA, I would think that if the SB 5000 gives 100 full power flashes with 4 aa cells that the SD-9 with 8 additional cells will give 200 flashes added to that. My understanding is that full power is full power manual. I am not sure TTL will get you to full power.

JMA, The B&H site says 100 full power flashes. I am not sure if that is using NiMH or alkaline. If your using using alkaline aa cells at low discharge rates you can expect roughly the same charge capacity as NiMH aa cells. If you are shooting a high discharge rates like with your SB 5000 you can expect the NiMH to have over twice the capacity of the alkaline and this is because the NiMH the capacity does not diminish but the alkaline capacity will diminish when you shoot at high discharge rates. A little bit of advice would be to never keep alkaline cell in the device. They have a natural tendency to leak. If I travel and absolutely need aa cells I may buy alkaline on site and leave them in my hotel rather than carry them home. I know that is expensive but I don’t trust alkaline cells as far as I can throw them. My preferred cells are Eneloop that were first made by Sanyo and now in Japan by Panasonic. They have a low discharge rate when just sitting around. Eneloop batteries hold up better. I have had hundreds of Lenmar, Everedy and assorted NiMH aa batteries mostly that hold a few charges and then fail regardless of whether they are the low discharge variety. This has happened so many times I feel like a lemming. NiMH should last a vary long time if their quality control is done right. I have used Eneloop for over 10 years and all of them are still working. I cant understand why other companies don’t do a better job. I don’t know anything about Duracell rechargeable but I have stopped trusting any rechargeables on sale at the check out counter. Both NiCAD and NiMH cells have a 1.2 voltage regardless of size. Most modern day electric devices accommodate the difference between alkaline and rechargeable. Rechargeable batteries don't leak and are sold inside rechargeable appliances. I have some lithium ion / lithium polymer cells. They have a tendency to overheat. There have been some bad outcomes with lithium rechargeable and if you fly regularly you know that the airlines have been paying attention. Good hunting.

DJ, Its hard to make a bad macro lens and any and all of the Nikon lenses as well as the the current 3rd part lenses are very good. For macro/close-up I use manual focus exclusively unless I am underwater. I would consider a Nikon 200mm f4 AF or a Nikon 105mm f 2.8 AFS. But the older 105mm f 2.8 D and the 60mm f 2.8 D are very good and work well with Nikon auto extension tubes for even closer work than 1:1. The extra working distance of a 200mm and non macro/close up 300mm lens with tubes is very useful and something I prefer in order to isolate the subject plus with those lengths you get a tripod collar, but if your trying to work different angles then longer lenses are more difficult to use but never out of the question. So over all I prefer long. Extension tubes work well and the Kenko brands allow autofocus and aperture. The very old Nikon auto tubes only work with aperture and that is fine if you manually focus. Diopters really are OK if you purchase high quality dual element achromatic versions. The two companies that I would purchase from are Canon and Marumi. I have both as well as the ancient Nikon dual element close up lenses. Don’t but the cheap 3 for $20 close ups. I can use the 77mm Canon and or Marumi on my 70-200 or my 300mm f4. The advantage is that they are very convenient when you want to get in close and you don’t lose light like with extension tubes. Just so you will know they are not cheap and you can find a good used macro lens for the price of the Marumi close up filter. One disadvantage is that you lose infinity but you can always unscrew the diopter. Sigma, Tokina and Tamaron make outstanding macro lenses. True macro is 1:1 and less than that is called close up, not that it matters unless you like to argue. I do some under water and even though some housing accommodate 200mm macro lenses I prefer the 105 for this specific punpose. Some of the housing companies make dedicated high quality wet diopters that install on the outside of the housing with a fixed or swing down bracket when you need to get closer. The alternative is to put the diopter on before the dive and add some extension to the lens port so that the combination will fit in the housing but then your lose infinity. Again its hard to make a bad macro/close-up lens. Good hunting.

C. P. M. I do half of my photography these days in North Dakota where the temperature in winter never gets above 0 F for three months -28 F with -60 wind chill in February of this year. My D500 and D850 with XQD and SD have never missed a beat. But, I can say that for all my Nikon gear. As well in the panhandle of Florida where I have lived for 5 years it stays in the nineties with regular 90% humidity in the summer for three months a year. It was 100 F yesterday in Ponce de Leon., FL. I think I am spoiled rotten with the reliability of my Nikon stuff. When I happily shot with two Fuji S2s that would take Nikon lenses I had frequent power failures that I could never ascertain that were repaired without incident by removing the batteries and reinstalling them. That is really hard to do underwater. The Hitachi 2G micro drives I used back then were $250 and were reliable in the S2 in 2005. I don’t have any problems with XQD cards and why would I want anything less than a fast XQD. Speed is after all the primary reason for XQD. I have many SD cards of all speeds and 4 XQD cards that are slamming fast. I can leave slow to my SD cards and I do. Even my very fast SD cards are relatively slow compared to XQD. When I shoot landscapes I don’t exercise my XQD, I use SD. For moving animals and inanimates its XQD all the way. I am looking forward to a flag ship Nikon mirrorless with dual CFexpress or XQD.........in DX (just kidding). From what I can see Canon has not done a better job with memory cards and everyone else with speed cameras use SD. I would gladly shoot other companies cameras especially Fuji but have stayed with Nikon because I grew up with them and chose to stay with them because of their ruggedness when they were technologically behind Canon. Right now Nikon seems to be doing the most to assure the fastest memory card so I think life is pretty good. I just hope they will make their bodies compatible with CFexpress sooner than later. The interface and form factor are similar after all. Mirrorless cameras that can shoot 100 + MB files at 20fps are and will be demanding a lot from memory cards. My understanding is that the XQD and CFexpress PCle interface is the future. It’s is now the standard for desk and laptop computers. There is already too much to learn but I can’t imagine that anyone on this forum is stupid for the cameras they own. Especially you. Stay frosty.

When can we expect firmware updates to make Z6, Z7, D500 and D850 compatible with CFexpress.

Shun, Nikon has always had a flagship camera and for the last 13-14 years has always made an S version of the single digit body until the D5- D6. The flagship cameras have never sold like the consumer bodies by well over an order of magnitude but that was never the intent of a flagship body. Figuratively speaking, the flagship body proved that Nikon is the best camera company in the world because it makes the best camera in the world. I believe that the D6 rather than a D5S iteration may be Nikon's plan to speed up the transition to a mirrorless flagship camera in a few years rather than milk the DLSR market further down the road. I hope that the Nikon's continued development of new high end F mount glass is an indication that newer mirrorless bodies will be fully compatible with new F glass. Good hunting.