at

I like it...when properly executed. Just like anything else in this digital era it can be overdone, mis-used, etc.

I have played with it a bit and will continue to explore its possibilities.

Yes....two EPSON models....V700 or 4990. The 4990 is discontinued but still available on ebay.

I bought mine on craigslist. The v700 is still a current product and is an excellent scanner.

I have both and cant tell the difference. Vuescan is also highly recomended. A very simple to use universal

scanning program that seems to work with any, maybe all, scanners....old and new.

The v700 has D-ICE which can really help with scratches and dust. Both scanners are highly recommended...

especially for someone that wants one product for both film and reflective media.

In short....

Scanning prints: 300 to 600 dpi is usually fine.

Scanning negs: highest dpi your scanner supports (usually)..but you might want to balance scan rez vs. scan time.

I used to own that lens...it was one of the sharpest lenses I've ever own. My sample was

excellent. The only reason I sold it was to finance the Nikon 70-180 Micro (a true micro zoom

lens, not a consumer grade zoom that does macro). I still have my Tamron macro's(90mm and 180mm). I kinda wish i still had it. Macro lenses often have simple optical formulas and every 3rd party

macro lens I've ever used exceeded my expectations in regards to sharpness. Some have slightly

different "look" or "color" from Nikon micros but thats a subjective call. You will like this lens alot.

Long live DX !!!! I'm not a "wide angle" kind of shooter. I much prefer the perspective/compression/background blur

of a long lens. I suspect I will always own a prosumer DX body even if I could afford a FX body.

Corel Paint Shop Pro 11 or latest version. It is very simple to use. It has many "one click" features to convert to b+w, infrared, sepia, sharpen, etc. It eliminates a tremendous amount of the learning curve. I use it along

with PS Elements as well as CS3. I highly recomend it for a casual user.

western digital by far has been my most reliable brand. Maybe a couple of dozen drive upgrade over the years and never a failure.

The one and only drive that failed fo rme was a Seagate...but that

was years ago. Also, I never turn off my PC's. They run day and night for years at a time (except for a short power off here and there). Drives hate to be pwer cycled.

IMO...I will send any and every Nikon item back thats still under warranty. Only when they see this continuous influx of unacceptable

hardware will they take permanent corrective measures.....But, now that I ranted a bit...I only say this because my Nikon D200 with less

than 1800 clicks is in the Nikon service dept for the 2nd time for the same problem. So far my D70 died..now my D200 (twice) and I have

seen too many D300 "dead battery symdrome" posts. Basically Im pissed at Nikon (for the moment, we will be friends again soon enough). If your lens bothers you send it. Sorry this is slightly off topic.

Be careful. I once sold a Nikon flash to a lady in Canada for approx $ 200 (usa)...the item was held at a Canadian UPS center

at which she had to pay approx $75 (canadian) to get her package.

Never again will I use UPS to ship to Canada.

Are you sure about that negative size? Did you really mean 2.25 by 2.25? Is so the Epson v500 would work great. 1.25 by 1.25 is no

standard negative size that I know of. Lets say they really are that size you might be able to use the v500 but you would have to

make some type of nagative "holder" that would measure 2.25 by 2.25

and then use the Epson one nagative at a time. Hopefully the holder

wont upset the scanner focus too much. Double check the negative size. Keep us posted.

I have used "XXclone" with 100% success each and every time.

It is a wonderful and free "disk cloning" program.

Consider it the next time you want to clone your disk. I have taken

xxclone copies and transplant them back into the pc and they boot each and every time. I have used this program to upgrade to larger

disks many many times. As far as recovery try googling for recovery

programs. Good luck.

Corel paint shop pro v11 has an infrared feature built it.

A couple of mouse clicks and you get a pretty good IR picture.

I have a couple in my photo.net portfolio. I like it.

i dont see any dark pixels either....check your exposure, may be underexposed. if the dark pixels/area are always in the same spot

you may have dust on your sensor...easy enough to fix. good luck.

....For Mike Nikolic....yes, go to www.photosig.com

They have an erotic section. Sort photos by category. Nice site

for posting but photo.net is a much better site for "how to".

....They're criminals, not idiots....HA! How true. if they could only channel thier energy into something good. I took a regular camera bag with me to S.A. Just be careful, lay low, take your pics

and enjoy. If you're going alone thats great but if you are bringing

your family watch over them first and your camera second. I never took my eyes off my little girl while I was there and still managed to take some nice pics without drawing too much attention to me or my camera. Good luck.

You can cover the contacts on the ring flash (except the center contact) and it should fire. But your bigger concern is the "sync voltage" used by this flash. I think the max sync voltage that Nikon allows is 250 volts dc for the d200 . Its not uncommon for inexpensive (or older) flash units to sync voltages well over 250 volts dc. This can ruin your d200 in as little as one use or it may take several uses before you fry some internal electronics. You can measure this voltage yourself if you have a volt meter. Just turn on the flash, take you meter and set it to its highest DC voltage range. Put one lead on the center contact, put the other lead against the metal edge of its mounting shoe (you may need to reverse the leads). If you read anything over the 250 limit for the d200 DO NOT USE THE FLASH. See http://aaronlinsdau.com/gear/articles/flashvoltage.html for additional info.

From the online manuals on the nikon website they only specify that sync voltages over 250 volts may cause harm. I really thought it would be much less. I use only Nikon flash units. IMHO I would not use 3rd party flash units I've never heard of. Vivtar, Metz, Sunpak are trusted brands...never heard of this flash unit.

One of its primary intentions is to control depth of field. A small

aperture (ie f22) will give you a greater depth of field...objects in front of your plane of focus as well as objects behind your plane of focus will be shaper in focus. Using a large aperture will only render your plane of focus sharp...everything else will be blurred out. This is one of the advantages of a "fast" lens. Nikon's f2.8 AFS

type lenses are an example of this. Shooting at f2.8 allows you to blur out your background so your subjects stand out. As you mentioned in landscape photography some folks like to use a small aperture to render foreground and background in focus. If you have time goggle "hyperfocal distance" and it will explain even more and probably have some examples.

Sandisk seems to have suffered from a long history of counterfeit cards. I have three...never bothered to check if they were "real" or not.

Lexar seems to be excempt from this. This just might sway potential

Sandisk buyers to lexar (have a couple of those too). Buy from

reputable sources is all I can say...but then again I think I read that Best Buy was a victim of this as well.

perhaps another bad batch...there was a battery recall some time ago.

My (then brand new d200) got very warm (the body itself). I exchanged it the next day...I know it was the body as it ate through

all my batteries in a couple of hours.

Well, I dont. We hardly have any photo dealers left...let alone any rental studios. I would contact the Silver Eye Center for Photography. They might be able to help. They are located on the south side.

http://www.silvereye.org/

Sorry about the links..you'll have to cut/paste the entire url

into your browser...its not a complete hyper text.

Still hoping for some input...thanks for your time and responces.

Hello to all....

I am seeking 1st hand knowledge on either the Cullman or Novoflex ballheads

listed below. The ballhead will be used on my travel tripod which is a

Velbon Chaser 3. I already own a Bogen 3021/arca-swiss and a large Gitzo/arca-

swiss. Dont need another heavy weight setup. I am looking for a light weight,

yet strong, ball head.

The Cullman appears to be made in Germany and has many features and claims to

support 27 pounds. The Novoflex is a basic monoball, holds 22 pounds, mad in

Germany.

I have heard many great things about the Novoflex products but not much about

the Cullman. Any input will be appreciated.

Cullman...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/511748-

REG/Cullmann_CU_40180_Magnesit_25_Nm_Ballhead.html

Novoflex...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/484034-

REG/Novoflex_BALL40_BALL_40_Ballhead.html

I have the Tamron 180mm macro and think its a wonderful lens.

If it helps you decide I can take/post a few sample shots.

I havent used it much lately. I love the Tamron 90 and 180 macro's, I have both and am very impressed with them.

PWP is certainly capable. Its interface is different, I'll give you that....but it is most certainly capable of producing outstanding

images. Give it some more time, you might come to appreciate it a bit more. Bibble is also very nice.

For low volume work any of the freeware programs are more than capable. GIMP is free but has a relative steep learning curve. You state that you worked with Photoshop elements and didnt like it so I know you will not like GIMP. Picasa is very good for sorting and quick fixes. Now if you decide that these so called "low end" editing programs wont work for you because you need more control

(example, you need localized control using masks and layers VS. global corrections) I suggest you look at Picture Window Pro v4.0 or Paint Shop Pro v11.

PWP is a fantastic program, very powerfull and retains more of the traditional darkroom concepts (burn, dodge, masks, etc). PSP is pretty good at quick fixes and has some really neat filter/conversion effects (can convert photos to infrared, b+w, etc).

Those two are currently my favorite programs. Inexpensive compared to full blown photoshop cs2/cs3. Dont let other convince you that you must have photoshop. The final pic is the most important issue and PWP 4 can delivery that as well as PSP. Lightroom appears to be great for high volume import, sorting, batch corrections, etc).