patrick_viebey___orlando__

If it helps, I know the battery is chipped and you can have the charger recognize it, but the camera will not. If the chip went south, that may make the camera be wonky.

I found this out by buying a third party battery which the charger liked, but the camera wouldn't even recognize. I think this is associated with the 'metering'.

Having done a lot of repair work in the past, and knowing how often it's associated with battery/power, I'd sure try another battery first. It'll suck even more to send it off, and then get it back with 'all functions normal, check battery'.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Wow. That sucks.

Huh, sounds like the battery has an internal short or something.

Since it's partially working, I'd bet it's not the camera but the battery. If there's a local place that sells D2X, I'd drag the camera in there, borrow their battery, and see if it's happy.

Otherwise, I'd express order another battery. Good to have a spare anyway...

Sure easier to get a new battery than send the camera off...

But still sux!

pat

I think there's a whole range of possibilities here, ranging from using normal lights, off-camera flash, portable flash, and AC power flash.

A lot gets predicated on your experience, budget, and ultimately what you intend to do. So, I'd poke around here, since there's a wealth of info and see what fits for you.

Me personally, I'd look at Alien Bees strobe lights, but again that's filtered against my expectations/experience. Can run off both battery and AC wall power.

BTW: DO NOT forget whatever you do you'll need a good light meter. That's even more important....

Even more important is lots of practice to get things down before you go there.

Photographing cats on location will likely be a challenging (but fun) experience. I can't think of any less patient character (well, maybe your average bride comes close...)

pat

Spinny hard drive things like this are guaranteed to fail. When it comes to things I need to rely on, less moving parts are better.

I guess it depends on how important your images are to you. Mine, it isn't worth the cost.

BTW: I buy my media here. http://www.supermediastore.com/compactflashcard-cfcard-compact-flash.html

4Gb CF for $110. 8Gb for $189. No spinny breaky parts.

No, they're not Adorama or BHPhoto, but I've been very successful buying from them. My experiences has been that they ship what they advertise, no fuss, quickly.

Note I have nothing to do with them (other than bought stuff).

I use Elements for fine tuning, and Bibble for mass modifications/crop/conversions.

Done right, 90+% of my work never needs editing, so I just get one set of changes right to a raw, and then cut-n-paste to subsequent images (including crop, rotation, color correction/wb, sharpening, raw-jpg conversion, etc). Where I really screw up, I fix in Elements (I just don't need PS).

Also, you can now shoot tethered with both Canon and Nikon with Bibble.

I'm gonna try fully tethered shooting with Nikon Camera Control to work the camera, with Bibble for auto post-processing in the next few days. If that works, it'll be the best of all worlds for me. Someday, if that works, I'll get the Nikon wireless, and it'll really rock.

pat

You will always see lots of defects in your pictures. If the customer (in this case, your friend) is happy, isn't that what you were looking for?

But, yeah, giving the raw images to the uneducated can yield unpleasant results.

Maybe I mis-understand, but I'd start with the Learn/Portraits tab in this forum to get an idea how to go about this.

For shots in the park, can't really provide any idea without knowing what's there. There's a creative side to composition regarding using the environment for framing, etc.

Another vote for Elements. Which works most excellent for single pix for me.

For mass production (just did a wedding with 400+ images), a more flow oriented program like Bibble or RawShooter is a huge help to make mass adjustments/conversions. Get the first one right, then just cut-n-paste over to others.

I try to keep at least 2 copies of every image in 2 different storage media. CF+HD, DVD+HD, etc. And, usually a copy in a offline HD while I'm working (as a backup, connect, copy, disconnect, work).

I copy the images from the CF over to the HD, then won't touch the CF until I get it have a chance to quickly review the make sure the images are intact, and saved to DVD. That way if the HD dies, or whatever, I can go backwards, and I don't find out the copies from CF are messed up right after I reformat the CF (CompactFlash).

Memory is relatively cheap (I just bought 8Gb CF for <$200). Lost images are forever...

Also, most image editing programs don't change the RAW image itself, but store the results separately. So, you're not changing the file, but a second file. Which will still be small consolation if your hard drive or whatever dies and kills the images (easily can happen).

Fact of life - computer stuff can and will die in unexpected ways, and destroy data along the way. Protect yourself from any 'single point of failure' as much as possible. Even 2 HD's in the same system can both get zapped (HD controller dies, lighting, theft, etc). You should always have an 'offline' copy of important images.

Hope this helps...

pat

It's an upgrade (minor) from the D2X. Price difference is $500. I'd bet that, after existing stocks of D2X are eliminated, D2X gets discontinued, so it becomes a moot point. A lot of the D2Xs features also will be deliverd in a firmware upgrade for D2X.

Hey, if you're in for $4500, $500 ain't that much more....

A corollary question is whether folks with D2X will sell to 'upgrade' to D2Xs. I, for sure, ain't gonna.

Feels odd to me that this would be related to needing to format the card. Can't hurt to try, though. Maybe even try a different card.

I'd try looking at it in the Windows RAW viewer to see if it shows up there (since there's no changes made by that viewer).

I'd also set up a picture of a wall or something flat with no texture to see if you can't get a better idea of the pattern.

I'd be worried that something in the camera CMOS sensor is going whacky.

FWIW.

There is an adjustment screw on the back. The manual is also somewhere online if you search. I had to do that to get a an answer to one question (I've had one for 20 years).

BTW: Mine near as I can tell is accurate, both reflected and incident, and flash.

I have that flash and lost the manual a long time ago. It's pretty self explanatory, but I can't help you directly. I don't think it has a PC connection, you would have had to buy the specific PC type adapter thingie (I think).

You can make it work in any event by using a hotshoe to PC sync adapter like this one. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=135782&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

General Brand Hot Shoe to PC Adapter

Mfr# SF943 ﾕ B&H# GBHSPCA

pat

Ummm. Assuming he has a business license, it should be filed somewhere, either in the county or state. If it's in the state, it should be public record. FOr example, in Florida, they're by county and online searchable.

How's this for an idea. Assuming you can't find an active business license under that name or his name, send a certified letter to his last known address, informing him of the desire to purchase additional prints, and that if you don't hear from him by <date>, you will assume he no longer is in business or contactable.

You already did 90% of this, I think. This won't save you 'legally', but I think at least shows a 'good faith' effort to find/contact him, so assuming he does pop up later, you should be able to quickly short-circuit any action and worst case reach an equitable understanding.

However, assuming his business address isn't there any more, and you do a reasonable search to find his business or him, I think the odds he'd ever come back is close to zero.

Then, proceed to make the copies. If you want someone professional to do it, you might have challenges, but at least you have a good story. If that doesn't work, chances are there's someone you know who can scan them (or you can buy a scanner relatively cheapely).

PS: This is *NOT* a legal opinion or any form of legal representation. It is simply how I personally would approach it.

Most places will not make copies of anything with a copyright stamp on them, and I MORE than support this, but if there's nothing else to do, you're out of choices.

AB's also have their own radio slave. I have one (well, 4), and like them. The ability to remotely change the output makes it unique, I think.

Makes getting the right ratios much less complicated.

Plugs in using the 'phone' jack on the back of the AB. I stuck velco on the side of the AB and stick the remotes on it.

OTOH, Pocket Wizards by far seem to be the control of choice.

pagt

Not an expert, but I don't know any strobe that works with camera automation? Basically, near as I know, when you go to strobe, you need to use a flash meter, which gives you incident instead of reflected readings (and is so much more accurate). And, of course, let's you balance your different light sources to get the appropriate effect.

You could combine flashs and I guess eventually get 'like' power, but that'll get interesting when you want to use light modifiers like umbrellas, grates, snoots, etc. And, you have daisy-chained PC cables all over the place.

One advantage of the strobe is a 'real' modelling light - 150w. The other advantage of the strobe is a faster cycle time and no reliance on batteries.

Well, ummm, if I really want those pix that bad, I'll just break into your house. <grin>

I suspect if the NSA, etc wants your pictures, you have bigger problems <grin>. Otherwise, it's like an alarm on your house - how much are you going to invest, knowing they can ALWAYS get in (it's just a matter of how hard), so you just make it painful enough for them to go elsewhere.

Ummm. Assuming I understand the question, I think there's only 2 possible answers: 1) Enough light from somewhere, external flash, lights turned on, whatever or 2) Put it on a tripod, even one of those small table-top things or my personal favorite a small beanbag.

Maybe you want to buy cheap, fairly 'disposable' flashs that you won't mind when they break?

You don't need 'smart', but you can probably get something for not a whole lot that puts out more than the on-camera (and/or you use both on and off camera with a sync or something).

For whatever it's worth...

pat

Functionally, there's no different between a PC and a notebook in this regard.

Just keep in mind the speed of your media MUST match or exceed the drive's specs. Trying to use 2x media with a 4x drive will not work. There also is a big variety in reliability in the media itself (in my opinion), so you may need to experiment or just premium name stuff. Yeah, folks may argue, that's just my opinion.

I know the Mythbusters TV show did this once (microing CD's). I'm not sure it's something I want to do with mine.

Worked, but arced all over the place (the 'blue lightening'). Just can't see that as being good.

Here's a simple 'military' method. Create a stack of CD's. Grab your drill and a nice, big bit. Put stack of CD's on something you won't mind hurting like a piece of scrap wood. Drill several holes through the stack of CD's in different places.

You can also buy shredders or stand-along CD 'destroyers'. Me personally, low volume, I just bend them in my hand until they shatter...

re: "1) Equipment (digital) to buy for photography and videography (No compromise on quality, so I want to buy the best in the market)", for photography, I'd then say a medium format camera with a digital back, and a HD digicam (broadcast quality).

There is so much stuff here that hasn't even occurred to you that that all I can suggest is getting one of the many books on the subject (and I know there's a lot of books, since I bought 'em).

It's not a simple as 'collect money, point-n-shoot'.

pat

I like BibbleLabs Bibble product for both price and feature set. Fully works with Nikon RAW.

www.bibblelabs.com

Wow! You are way lucky! I bet there's some NY'ers who will have all the right answers. Should be some great photo ops there...

FWIW, if I remember my one visit like 20 years ago I remember there was a lot of light, but I seem to remember it being kinda harsh and very direct. For sure, I'd make sure my flash was up to snuff <grin>.

I suspect the reading would vary based on the location inside and time of day. Maybe someone has done a bunch of these and has some guidelines?

Good luck!

pat