nico_.

<p>My 24-70 does that sound in AF-C mode when it is constantly refocusing. Seems normal to me.</p>

<p>No need to blame Lightroom. As Peter suggested: Go to "Camera Calibration" in the Develop Module and select the matching D2X mode instead of "Adobe Standard". You can save this as a preset and have it Lightroom apply upon import. The D2X modes mimic the original Nikon camera profiles very closely.<br>

I think you need Lightroom 2 for this to work. If didn't upgrade yet, it's one of many reasons to do so.<br>

I did love Bibble as well especially for its plugins but I somehow doubt they will get their software in order. The preview has been out for something like 9 months now and I can't see myself going back to bibble and even redo my old settings since Bibble 5 wont translate the old v4 settings 1:1. Shame on them!</p>

<p>Having owned a Sigma 30/1.4, I went for their 50/1.4 when I upgraded to a D700. I looked at the Nikon 50/1.4G, but found it's AF unacceptably slow for lowlight people photography (this is not so with Nikon's screwdriver 50/1.4 & 50/1.8). The consensus seems to be that the 50/1.4G has more uniform sharpness whereas the Sigma's borders need stopping down to become sharp. Center sharpness which I value far more important for a lowlight lens is excellent even even wide open. For a detailed review visit Thom Hogans site: www.bythom.com.</p>

<p>As said before, try Ilford's XP2 and rate it at ISO 250-320. Much nicer shadow detail while highlights are still excellent.</p>

<p>E3 with 8 or 16 gig is fast enough for my D700 in 14bit RAW, but I don't need long bursts in rapid succession as I don't spray and pray. E4 would give faster download speeds, but even then I'm not in a hurry.</p>

<p>The builtin lightmeter is not very useful imho. A handheld meter works much more reliably.</p>

<p>Dear all,</p>

<p>I've had my Epson R2400 for three years now & used it only lightly. Recently it started jamming the print head with full force into the left boundary of the printer & making a very loud, grinding noise. This happens a few seconds after turning the printer on. In this state it's not possible to turn the printer off, I have to pull the power plug. The printer was sent to the Swiss Epson Service centre & they got back to me with an estimate of the repair costs for which I could basically buy a new printer. They want to replace the print head & the carriage assembly. Labour is apparently quite costly in Switzerland (almost half the price of a new printer).</p>

<p>I bought this printer hoping to use it for quite a while & I'm really angry right now. I haven't yet spoken to the Epson technician to inquire about the repair, but it feels like I bought a high price throw away item. I don't have a budget to replace the printer straight away.</p>

<p>Has anyone heard of a similar malfunction? What would you do in my situation?</p>

<p>I had the same problem last year with my D200. It appeared that the flickering was not unheard of since the guy at the Nikon counter immediately stated that they have to replace the hotshoe. Note that my D200 only got moderate amateur use with the occasional wedding thrown in. Apart from weddings I rarely use flash.</p>

<p>Local contrast enhancement via unsharp mask with big radius or pushing up the clarity slider in Lightroom or ACR does this.</p>

<p>Your camera syncs only up to 1/250th of a second. According to the EXIF-data of your example you shot with 1/400. The shutter curtain will not open fully at such a high shutter speed. Only leaf shutter lenses (medium format) are able to sync up to 1/500 (some even up to 1/800).<br>

If you use iTTL flashes (which you apparently didn't), you can get away with enabling FP synchronisation (custom function e1). Why did you choose such a high shutter speed anyway, expecially since the camera was in manual exposure mode? Unless you have a lot of ambient light that you want to overpower it doesn't matter in a studio whether you set 1/250 or 1/125 or even 1/60.</p>

<p>I meant: Click "product editions" on the DXO web site's main page...</p>

<p>Click "product editions": http://www.dxo.com/us/photo/dxo_optics_pro/product_editions. Isn't this what you are looking for?</p>

<p>dan: you are talking about long exposure noise reduction, which has nothing to do with high iso NR.<br>

Larry: have a look at the dpreview test of the d700 for a comparison of the various NR settings.</p>

<p>Press "J" in the develop module.</p>

<p>David: Short of a D2x I haven't tried, but how do the pictures of D2x & D700 compare if you set both to the same profile ("D2X Mode") in Lightroom/ACR? I read that Nikon released these pictures styles/camera profiles for D3 & D700 to match the output to the D2.</p>

<p>I found that the selected camera profile/picture control setting/picture style has a surprising impact. You can easily try this in Lightroom or ACR: load a D700 NEF and compare the camera profile setting "camera standard" with "D2X Mode 2". The D2X profiles appear quite a bit darker IMHO.</p>

<p>I used the 24/2.8 on the D70 & D200 & sold it after comparing it to the 12-24/4 & 17-55/2.8. Way too much flare in presence of strong light sources & too soft until f/5.6. IMHO don't bother with it, current zooms are better (but not as compact). It was ok though on film.<br>

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Although I have no comparison to other versions of this lens, I can say that my sample (with the plastic barrel) is really superb. It's ever so slighly soft wide open but get's bitingly sharp from f4 onwards. If it only wasn't so ugly...

I have both lenses and in general I like the Sigma better BUT: corners don't get really sharp, there's severe front focus on mine when using an off center AF sensor (it's been to Japan and back, Sigma says it's fine) plus it's bulky and heavy. On the positive side it's really sharp in the center from f1.4 onwards. So this is a low light/small DOF lens for me.

 

The Nikon on the other hand is soft wide open but gets very sharp across the frame above f4 which makes it a light weight and unobtrusive walk around lens in good light or with subjects with delicate detail.

Dave, you're right. As Jose wrote, zooming rotates the front element. It's been a while since I sold the lens and confused the two.

This was actually my first Nikon lens. I got it in a kit with the F80 and even though it was quite a bit more expensive than the cheap 28-80 kit, I didn't regret my purchase one second.

 

That being sad, I'd like to point out a few problematic things about this lens. You should be careful about light sources in your frame since it flares heavily. The 18-70 is a huge improvement in that regard. Also, the front element rotates (that's why the silly lens hood) and lastly, out of focus highlights can have a nasty doughnut shape. Apart from that I like the lens quite a lot! The main reason I sold it was it's focal range on digital.

William, in case you are as forgetful as I am: there is a cheat sheet on the back of the bounce card of the SB-800 which among other things contains the button combination for resetting the flash. Just in case you need it again sometime...

Look here (especially at the update in green): http://www.dpreview.com/news/0711/07111604capturenx.asp.

In fact, the current version of Bibble *does* support downloading from card and renaming images as well as adding IPTC tags (though they will be stored in sidecar files and only included in the processed images). It took me a while to learn (and I'm still learning) the program but I like it quite a lot and highly recommend to add or at least try several of Sean Puckett's plugins, see http://nexi.com/147 (my favourites are Ansel and Andy). The Bibble download already includes free versions of a couple of Sean's plugins.

 

Yes, RAW support for DNG is missing, there's no undo function and a couple of other rough edges but it's fast and allows for a good RAW workflow. Of course all of this will change in the long awaited version 5 ;-).

 

For a faster start: have a look at the tutorial videos on http://bibblelabs.com/learn/.

what is a "standard digital camera"?

 

some hallmarks of a good SLR compared to most P&S cameras:

 

- speed: faster AF, bigger file buffer, faster card write times

 

- flexibility: choose lens, flash, file format (JPG,RAW), color space according to the job

 

- user interface: big optical finder, easier access to functions for more control

 

- more control: depth of field is smaller, more customisation options, direct access to control aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation etc

 

- low light performance: bigger sensors mean less noise at high ISO numbers (i.e. low light)

 

note: these are generalisations. you will find SLRs with poor finders as well as P&S cameras with good user interface. quite a few of these points (ui, RAW format) can be implemented in a digicam but the camera companies decided that the market for such cameras is too small. instead they release dozens & dozens of virtually identical cameras on the market.

 

i'm not aware that motorola produces CCD/CMOS-sensors. but even if they do, until now there are no P&S cameras that use APS or four thirds sensors.