wilfred_wong

i'm afraid that tripod is not always better than VR. on a boat or moving vechicle VR is way better than tripod.

 

I don't think nikon will make a TC with no magnification but VR. i think the VR units are in the best position on their lens. a TC like tube which add VR to any lens will make quality lower (as they 've extra lens elements) yet VR would not be as effective... and most important, that would hurt their VR lens sales and probably hurt their VR reputition.

what kind of pictures you usually take?

if you use mode 2 (adobe RGB), the name will start with "_"

some fuji's P&S DIGITAL camera are quite responsive.

 

i used to use F75 as film compact

 

i've used 2 Leica P&S too. results are VERY good :) esp when flash is used (look very natural)

my sister recently used her leica again since her digital compact 've some problem.... and she's surprised that how good the leice film compact is.

 

price? well, for the leica compact and the date imprint back.. you can probably get a D50 kit ...

 

"something like Olympus mju"

then why not a Oly mju ?

I'd suggest a D50. the D50 came with a kit lens with is cheap yet reasonably good. you can use all AF lens that you use with F70 but lose metering if you use AI/AIs lens.

 

SB28? no, unless you don't want to use ttl flash.

F3 or FM3A

 

If you like AF body... DSLR are not good enough? If you shoot action, digital is the way to go considering the $$. If you don't need speed... why get a bulky and heavy camera??

 

If i want to buy a "LAST" film camera... i'd get something that works with minimal things...some manual bodies works without batteries...itsn't that great? this is what digital cameras can't do..

 

PS. i do 've a F90X and a F75 (my last film camera), and dad's F4s, FT3 (i like it a lot) and F2 sleeping at home.

no body mention about ghost and flare? my 35/2 is bad at that... make it not a good candidate for low light shooting esp on the street (street lights cause a lot of ghost). that makes me want to get a 35 1.4 or 28 f2. but D70/D100 or S3 (which i want to get) can't meter with them (and that kill the good flash system too).

 

i wish those who 've 30 1.4 can say something about 30 1.4 ....esp in ghost and flare.

I'm using HS-10. it's snap-on AND screw-in metal shade, yes, it can be installed/remove either way. it has a metal thread so you can screw-in to the lens, it also has a button to change the shape of the metal-thread so it can be removed/snap-in easily.

from my short test /w a relative's 24-85 G, it's a bit sharper than 24-120 VR, but not much and hardly noticable. it's longer end is much better than wider end.

 

distortion on 24-120 is ok to me. i never complain about it.. certainly better than my 18-35.

 

i used to use 24-120 on F75 (got it in order to use VR since F90X, F4 can't use VR), don't worry TOO much about VR comsuming power... 24-120 won't take that much power..

24-85 is a lot smaller and lighter and cheaper.

 

if you ask me to choose between 24-85 and 24-120 VR, i'd pick the VR. But would i do the switch? probably not... well, maybe switch to digital :)

i'm afraid that ipod is not a good choice as portable storage. things like that from epson would be a much better choice.

 

i don't know how to fix your flash, but i can tell SB800 is a good flash. if you shoot wedding/events, a good flash is a good investment... and SB-800 is compatible with most nikon digital and film body. unlike your SB-28DX which is not iTTL compatible and cannot use with cams like D70.

i wounder how large your print your images? i couldn't imageine that dust spot in complicated texture is that obtrusive... or photoshop couldn't help (i do fix dust spot, for scan or NEF, in photoshop and even if i've really need to fix the complicated area..say, trees, that isn't an issue to me) .

 

btw, how you usually store your camera? in camera bag most of the time? well, i notice that it's easier to 've dust problem when i travel to cold countries, and when i travel, i usually 've the camera in bag...and of course i couldn't try to dry them when travelling.. so i somehow guess moisture/water droplet combined with dust might be bigger problem(at least to me)

 

i know, comparing slides and nef is a bit "apple and orange" but the result are the same -- images.

tiny dust is hard to blow away...might not be easily seen before scanning. and i think you know how long it takes to scan a slide at best color/resolution.

your lens might 've dust too... if you are that picky... you've to test and clean the lens first, but then... dust can get inside your lens too....

 

i dun 've a dust free room to do all the works.

and i live in a fairly dusty city...

 

mabye i've low standard? probably. but to me, dust is just one of the imperfections in reality...as long as the sensor is not REAL dirty. i sometimes feel this issue just like people worry about filter affect sharpness, best prime better than best zoom etc...

 

To me, a cleaner sensor won't give me better pictures. dust spot can't ruin my favorite pictures. after all, even dust exist, it will be hardly visible unless it's in light area, say, the sky.

 

anyway, i do think dust is a problem on D100, cleaned the sensor lot. sometimes it's not easy to clean. but on the D70, i just use blower and 've no dust problems so far.

 

anyway, if dust is there but not noticable, i don't care. if dust is visible... that's not the end of the world, and can be easily removed in photoshop... no matter how clean the sensor is, once you get outside, dust will attach from everywhere, at least they'll stay on your lens, if not getting inside the body.

 

i've far more dust problems with films and scanner. even K64 slides i got back from Kodak 've dust too..and IR dust removal on film scanners does not work with K64.

Ilkka, nikon certainly sucessed in that. I got my 85 1.4 mainly 'cos the 85 f2 can't meter on D100/D70. i ditn't get the 1.8 'cos 1.8 and f2 are real close... dun want to buy a direct replacment so i got the 1.4 instead.

 

i sometimes miss the small size and lightweight of the 85 f2....

looks like i can't escape from the D200.

i've the remote which i got for my F90X sleeping at home. looks like it will be somehow useful after i got the D200... given that they don't 've a newer remote with extra features that i really want.

 

D70 remote? I 've 2 (got the 2nd one when i thought i lost it), it's great to attach it to the body strape so that it can always there when i need it. it's not convinent that the sensor location at the front, but that still works for me, i dun need to trigger far away from behind, and my hands can move. using VCR control? i gueses you don't travel with your D70?

I use custom curves solved and that solved my problem.

 

shooting with +1/+2 ev makes highlights easily blow out.

 

google it and you'll find a lot of info.

you might need NC4 to upload the curve, you can make use of its 30day trial.

how come i'm the only one who miss the D100 when using D70?

 

yes, the D70 is better than D100 in many ways, but.... i dislike D70's AWB(which often give me green cast), i like D100's rich color, the pleasing blue(D70 usually give me a bit too cyan sky), a no weird CCD blooming when shooting with the sun in the frame at high shutter speeed.

i miss the mirror prelease too.

for some unknown reason.... i just feel the the D100's file is "deeper".

 

ok, i think i'm the only one who like the IR remote on the D70 (i attach it to the strip so i've a remote shutter release with me all the time...useful when i do long exposure)

 

i dun think nikon'll produce a V grip for D70.

 

if you like V grip a lot , why dun u consider a D2H/D2HS? how about a S3?

i think you better post an example.

 

in many low light situation, it's very often very high contrast as well...

 

basically, the higher ISO you use, the easier you get blow highlights.

 

if you shoot RAW and process with ACR, you can get more detail in highlight (better than Capture 4)

 

i'm afraid this is true for all digital cameras. just different camera 've diffent tolorence.

 

i sometimes underexpose a bit and pull details from shadows, at the cost of higher noise.

a Future proofing - i'd keep multiple format

 

b.use some offline storage like DVD. just keep multiple copies.

 

 

NEF is one of the major RAW formats and unlike Canon RAW converters, Nikon do support all older RAW files(so far). so i'd keep my options for different RAW converters unless they change that policy and drop supporting old files. In fact, i convert most of my files using NC and some with CS2. NEF files ain't that big actually. Fuji RAW files are much worse (their 6MP P&S F810 produces ~12MB files and S3 pro files are around 25MB) and i do plan to convert them to DNG since i dont like Fuji converters and also don't want to 've too many different converters. But NEF is so widely supported that I 'd 've fewer choice if i converted them all to DNG and delete the NEF.

As much as I like my F90X (same as N90S), I'd suggest you to get a F100.

 

The camera itslef is durable, but the rubber finishing is not(at least in hot and humid weather here).

 

It's not FULLY compatible with newer G lens. Some G lens like AFS 24-85 G are quite good yet cheap.

 

You cannot use VR lens with N90S

 

you cannot do exposure blanketing or flash compensation (unless your flash can set flash compensation) without the MF-26. Even the cheapy F80 can do. Talking about MF-26, its rubber finishing is even worse than F90X itself and i gotta use black tape to prevent those rubber making my nose dirty. With the MF26, you've 2 more batteries to replace.

 

To me, it's a very good camera(and it was a really great camera), and i love mine, just there might be better choice now.

The 17-55mm DX almost 10% cheaper than 28-70 f2.8 too (at least in my city)

 

50-135 f 2.4 might be great , i might want one if it's avilable... however, being a 70-200 owner.... don't really want to see one as I might then want to dump the 70-200 VR.

 

actually i'm more interested in a f4 version (for travel use)...too much to ask for AFS 50-150 f4 DX VR?

i'd first try to find out if it's lens 'r problem or camera problem.

 

If it happens to one lens only, it'd be the lens' aperature problem (like sticky aperature).

 

otherwise, i think it's necessary to send the camera to repair. For better understanding about what's wrong... i'd check if it's metering problem. try to shoot manually using sunny 16 rule, or with the help of other light meter/camera. if it exposed ok that way, then it seems a metering problem.

No. You need to add a MF-26 back to do that on F90X.

First, why a coolpix? There are many capable camera in the range if not just limited to coolpix. Some take great jpg, some good at low light, some are ultra compact, fast shutter lag, good movie, super zoom etc.... I now mostly use Fujifilm F810 which take superior RAW files (compare to other small cameras). It has good movie mode (but produce HUGE file) but i'm not very happy with it's jpg and i hate XD cards. What do you think is most important to him?

 

Sorry to hear that your friend has such problem. I know someone have the tumor in her heart (it's a really rare disease). Lost one eye's eyesight, very poor vision on another one, lost more than 50% ability to move her right arm after the stroke.... The tumor removed very sucessfully, and the wound recovered fast. but the worst thing came: depression. She now eat soooo little (now weight no more than 80 pounds), stay in bed all day, refuse to take med, refuse to see Dr. refuse execrise.... Her families are so helpless and now kinda giveup. Do the best to support him..and aware any other possible problems...Good luck to your friend.

AFS lens focus much faster than AF. But i doubt your F65 can use AFS lens. Better check the spec. for outdoor dog pix, i like the AFS 70-200 VR most.

the 80-200 is a good lens but focus very slowly.

 

for indoor... it depends..but i like the results from my 85 1.4 most (use ~iso 400 and large aperature with flash give very natural result)

i took picture with my (and sometimes others) dog with a lot of lens... 24-85 2.8/4 and sigma 18-50 2.8 (for DSLR only) is quite useful. i once shoot a large dog with 50 1.4 wide open and the result is very good.

 

80-200 2.8 is great and not too expensive. but slow focusing..

how about the 85 1.8? it focus relativly fast, 've large aperature for indoor shot, inexpensive and small.

still, the AF system on F65 is difficult for running dogs...

the software from Lexar is a very good one. it does rescue image as well as checking card errors, format cards that camera/windows are unable to read. I'd try that software whenever i 've problem with any card. I think they 've a trial version on their web.