hannu

I recently wanted to but a 4T closeup lens from a store which still listed it in it's catalogue. They didn't have any in stock, though, and when they queried the local Nikon representative, the reply was that they don't anymore import it or other close-up lenses due to RoHS.

So, I bought a used one on 'bay, as use of old items is indeed not banned in any way.

I use the same setup as Lilly W, works great and does not slide off.

HOWEVER in my experience the adapter is also easily broken. I tried to use an old right angle finder with the adapter, placing it on the camera only when needed, and the adapter broke one of its "arms" after a few attachments. You need to be very gentle when attaching/removing the adapter to the camera.

Was the quote from Nikon directly or some 3rd party repair shop?

These might be worth checking out:

http://www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=7&forum=DCForumID26

http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/repair.htm

Hi Daniel,

try googling for "eräopas" ("wilderness guide") and Inari or Ivalo, you should get some hits with phone numbers. For instance this one, http://www.webinfo.fi/elamysmatkat/

I haven't used those services myself so I cannot offer any recommendations.

<p>Nice pictures, certainly. The non-orthodox material of the lens reminds me of one made of a brown beer bottle (in Finnish, but the pictures are self-explanatory):

<a href="http://www.teknofokus.fi/Foto/Optplo/ppohjalns1.htm">pg 1</a>,

<a href="http://www.teknofokus.fi/Foto/Optplo/ppohjalns2.htm">pg 2</a>,

<a href="http://www.teknofokus.fi/Foto/Optplo/ppohjalns3.htm">pg 3</a>,

<a href="http://www.teknofokus.fi/Foto/Optplo/ppohjalns4.htm">pg 4</a>.

I recently borrowed a meter from a workmate and measured the radioactivity level in mine; about 3.5 uSv/h when measured as close to the lens elements as possible. To put it into perspective, it is about 30 times the usual background radiation in the place where I live, but of course I will not hold the lens to my body 24/7.

And yes, the lens is brownish yellow through and through, and it does show in the pictures. As soon as there's some sunshine here I plan to try the UV treatment.

I got mine recently, too, and have so far taken it for a walk two or three times.

The main nitpick I have is the battery consumption, which seems much heavier than on the D100 I used until now; on the D100 I managed to do up to 1k pictures on one charge, with the D200 it seems to get nowhere near that. Have to get spare batteries before going to a real excursion.

The joypad is a bit mushy and hard to control accurately. I might have preferred Nikon to omit the diagonal movements if that had produced a more assertive feel to it.

But the ability to do matrix metering with my manual lenses, like the 200/4 micro, is such a big bonus that I cannot really complain too much! And the clarity of images, as well as color rendition, compared to D100, is simply excellent.

I wonder if it's another "leak" strategy but this links points to a

press release in Finnish <a

href="http://www.europe-nikon.com/uploads/nfi/PressRelease/105mm%20_VR.pdf">announcing

the 105 AFS VR Micro-Nikkor!</a>

Promised availability: end of March

> To my surprise, I did not have any problems with the SLR, lens, lcd screen or the batteries.

Lucky you -- my D100 seized up (blinking "Err") in the relatively mild -20 or so deg C the other week, even though it has worked fine at around -10..-15 previously. Fortunately it recuperated after being taken back indoors to warm up (slowly, in an airtight bag to avoid problems with condensation).

In my opinion the camera body did not get cold at -20, no problem operating it with bare hands, but my Gitzo sure did. Tripod leg warmers aren't such a bad idea...!

Hi Federica,

maybe a bit late to post, but anyway:

I was in Prague last September for a couple of days. By all means go to see the Castle area, and climb the bell tower of St. Vitus -- there are many steps to climb, but the view is worth it. The castle also has some very interesting ribbed vaulting; I managed to get a couple of shots without a tripod by pressing my camera against a column (2 sec exposures with Sensia 100 and a 20mm f2.8, I was happily surprised to see them come out reasonably sharp)

If you're into architecture Prague has a wide variety of it, from medieval to baroque to art noveau to communist to modern. Any decent tourist guide will tell you where to find the most shining (or outrageous) examples of each.

Nothing, because I wouldn't have any use for it.

Now if they came up with a 16mm (i.e. 24mm equivalent) f2.8 with zero distortion (I like architecture photography) under $500 I'd be very tempted.

I had a Minolta Scan Dual II and was not at all satisfied with its slide and film holders. I changed to a Nikon Coolscan IV which has in my opinion good film strip feeder and an ok slide feeder (one at a time feeder comes with the scanner, auto-feeder is an extra accessory as far as I recall)

Digital ICE helps a lot at times, though some people say it decreases resolution.

Scanning film is a slow process which demands a lot of patience, like Lex said anything that improves productivity is important, be it scanner speed, computer interface speed, automatic feeders, dust/sratch removal, etc.

Oh, and do realise that a 3000 dpi scans at 16 bit per component takes up roughly 4500x3000x6 = 81 megabytes. You need some place to put all those pixels into.

Get a used lower end scanner for $100, scan a few rolls, and then you know better what to look for :-)

I had one (bought for about e250), thought I wouldn't need it after I got a 400/5.6 and sold it onwards to a friend who is very satisfied with it. The most stupid photographic deal I've made so far! The image quality is very good, but the manual focus throw is very long (and stiff in my copy).

I think $550 is too much, as a used 300/2.8 MF or a new 300/4 AF-S (another great lens) can be had for about 1000 euros.

Bob,

A f4.5 with a 2x teleconverter will be too dark to use in anything but the brightest light. Unless you have the patience of an angel, prepare to be frustrated. A 1.4x TC would be usable but even so patience is required (I sometimes use a 400/5.6 MF which is almost the same length/stopwise, and need to take my time to focus it)

And, add another vote for an E screen.

<p>I have the Burzynski collar and am reasonably satisfied with it. It's sturdy and has an Arca QR plate built in, but is not convenient to use handheld, so fast switching between tripod and handheld is difficult.

<p>See URL <a href="http://raaka.rikos.org/opinions/opinions.html#bz_80_200">http://raaka.rikos.org/opinions/opinions.html#bz_80_200</a>

Just in case you haven't already,

try with a fresh set of batteries. A while ago I thought I still had a lot of juice left in a set, and SB-600 would power up, but would not fire no matter what. Changing to a fresh set helped.

<p><i>Assuming that this must be a common dilemma, I'd like to hear what others have ended up doing about the "wide gap". Are there any non-Nikon lenses I should look at?</i>

<p>I bought Nikkor 20/2.8 and Sigma 14/3.5 used, then 12-24 new and sold the Sigma (it has bad flare problem due to bulbous front element). The 20 I use mainly for film but it's too cute to part with.