charlie_garcia

Oliver I know the difference in format, I wouldnt be looking into these if I didnt. I was just

making the comparison of both of them being manual focus workhorses that havent gone

out of style in their own ways.

Daniel the best water housings in the world are made in Australia by a company called

Aquatech. You can find them at www.aquatech.com.au Im saving up for one for my D2H.

 

If you want to stay with Nikon, you're in the same boat Im in. The surf photo industry is

pretty much all Canon and all the used housings going around are for Canon's. If this is what

you want todo and dont have alot of money invested in Nikon just jump ship and goto Canon,

I cant afford todo it now but I really wish I could.

 

Check out my site www.pbase.com/charliegarcia for some South FL surfing.

I am a long time 35mm and Digital Nikon guy wanting to get into medium format. I am a

student who doesnt have alot of money to spend. Ideally I want to purchase a Mamiya 7ii

but my budget of about 300-500 dollars wont let me. Then I came across the Pentax 645

manual focus. This seems to be the best deal out there for someone who wants to jump

into medium format on a budget. Is there anything out there better for the price of this

camera?

 

You can get them cheap on ebay and it seems to me that they have a long list of

accessories and lenses. An auction just ended the other day for a 35mm lens for a little

over $250. Thats a big difference for a wide angle than Mamiyas price of 1500-2000

dollars.

 

Is there anything I should know about this camera ahead of time?

 

It seems to me that this camera is to Pentax MF what the Nikon F3HP was to Nikon 35mm.

Am I wrong?

I use the D2H with the 300 F4 AFS and the TC-14 to shoot surfing professionally. I also

own the 70-200 VR and it isnt even a fair comparison. The 300 F4 blows the doors off of

the 70-200 with or without the TC. Its not even worth it, with the 300F4 and the 1.4 TC

you can barely tell the difference in image quality. Only real difference is the AF searches

a more. The images are waaay too soft IMO with the zoom. I've never used the TC-20.

 

Nikon needs to make an updated version of the 300 F4 with VR and better sealing similar

to the 70-200 VR.

 

You can check out some images at http://www.pbase.com/charliegarcia

 

All the surfing shots were shot with a D2H and the above mentioned combo.

I own a D2H and primarily shoot surfing proffesionally. For this I use the 300mm F4 AF-S

coupled with the NIKON 1.4 teleconverter. On my F100 i get 420mm at 5.6 and on my

D2H i get nearly 650mm at 5.6. If you would like to check out the results of this combo

goto www.pbase.com/charliegarcia. all of the surfing shots were taken with the 300 f4

and teleconverter.

 

As for the 70-200 vr with teleconverter, i dont really recommend it. the images that i

have made with it all come out a little too soft. vr also doesnt work as well.

 

hope this helps and check out my site!!

Phil writes "But 3 million in focus pixels will out sell 6 million out of focus ones every time and the focus speed on the D1 still kicks the D100s rear. If it gets a little dark, then the D1 really shines."

 

thanks Phil, finally someone who knows what hes talking about!

the D100 is way too slow FPS wise. i shoot alot of sequences and id rather get the shot with a lower image quality than miss it altogether with the D100 or D70. i went from a slow 2.5 fps N65 to an F100 and MB-15 at 5fps and the difference is incredible, the F5's 8 fps is just crazy. and i saw a D1 on ebay last week and its buy it now price was $625 and the thing was mint. it didnt last but a couple of hours on there. they're out there you just gotta find them.

Oh yea I almost forgot ill be using this camera mainly for sports and PJ. Thats the whole reason why for me the D70 and D100 are out of the question. I've used the D100 and its too slow.

I guess my question is whats the extra thousand bucks going to get me if i were to get get a D1H rather than a D1? Is it worth it? Like I said before a D70 or D100 is out of the quetion.

Im not really all that concerned with resolution. if i want resolution ill shoot Velvia, scan the slides and get better results than ANY digital SLR. From what ive read the D1 and D1H are extremely similar, the later just being faster, the pixel count is about the same. I need speed more than anything else and from what i understand the D1 is alot like the F5, same meter, same AF mechanism, ect. And it is a professional level camera, pros are still using it in the field like i stated before. Im not really too concerned with pixel count like every other digital kook is, i dont plan on making posters. Megapixels dont make a camera.

Im a 22 year old college student who would like to go digital on a

budget. Used D1's are going for well under a thousand bucks on

ebay. some of them are in really good shape. I do not have more than

a thousand dollars to spend and i want a professional level camera.

The old D1 seems to be my only option. i do not care for the new D70

or the D100 and the D1h or D2h are too much money. Ive seen many

PJ's still using D1's in the field. Is a D1 worth it or should i

wait for people to start getting rid of their D1H's?

I love my F100 and my 18-35 and my 300 f4 af-s but i now feel that i should have gone a different route and gone with Canon. I shoot sports and action and i am an aspiring photojournalist. The Canon stuff thats coming out now, especially the digital stuff is just killing Nikon. Nikon needs to get their heads out of their asses. The D2H was out for a mere couple of months before Canon came out with the 8MP, 8.5 FPS Mark II. That camera laughs at the D2H. I feel like I made a terrible decision in choosing Nikon. Even the Canon film cameras are better, the EOS IV HS is 10 times the camera the F5 is, and Nikon isnt going to make an F6. The only thing Nikon has a leg up on Canon on are their flashes and maybe the Nikon build quality, and even that is crap. My F100 isnt sealed and dust slowly collects inside the camera. I hear the Canons are water resistant!!

sorry for the rant. im just losing hope in Nikon.

yea Todd i definitely didnt design in a viewfinder its merely a simple fisheye setup and i am looking into just getting it done. this is the only thing ill use this camera for. you're also right about me not taking my F5 in the surf. if i was gonna do something idiotic like that i would never have asked the question. my f5 will stay on the beach...for now. thanks for all the replies guys.

First off let me tell you guys what ill be using this camera for. The

camera will be used in a water housing to shoot surfing. my setup

will be pretty simple. i made a custom housing out of 8 inch PVC and

some Lexan plexiglass. ill be using a fisheye (zenitar) at F8 with

the focus set to infinity. i need a fast shooting manual focus

camera, the cheaper the better. i just purchased an F5 and im on an

extremely tight budget hence the zenitar fisheye. i really dont know

much about the specifications of any of the manual focus nikkors but

i need something that shoots faster than 3 frames per second. F3

maybe? any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

thanks a million

what the hell is bokeh????

well if you have a grand lying around do what i did and get the Nikkor 300mm F4 AF-S. if you add the TC-14E teleconverter you get 420mm F5.6 with autofocus. I purchased this lens for surfing photography and it performs marvelously, especially if the break you're at has a pier or jetty. not to mention the fact that if anyone tries stealing it from you, you can beat them over the head with it and not worry about harming the lens. it IS a tank of a lens. just get one of these and dont look back!

I am a serious amatuer and i have roughly $1500 to spend on a lens.

The sole pupose of this lens will be shooting sports, particularly

surfing. the main lenses im looking into are the AF-S Nikkor 300mm

f/4D ED IF and the new AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF

which isnt out yet. i'll probably purchase a Nikon AF-S

teleconverter with either of these to give me more flexibility,

depending on how much i have left over. The AFS 300mm F/4 seems like

a steal for 910 bucks. i've already thrown out the AF VR Nikkor 80-

400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED as a viable option due to its S-L-O-W AF speed. I

know little about the new 80-200 VR except that Nikon made it to

compete with the Canon 80-200 IS. Any other suggestions? All input

is greatly appreciated.

 

thanks

 

charlie

I recently saw this lens for sale at B&H for $300 and wondered what

anyone thought of it. I did a search to no avail. So here I am. The

lens itself has ED glass and internal focusing AF-S. the next in

price AF-S lens is well over a thousand bucks. looks like a good

deal but it does have that letter G thrown in there and eveyone knows

the Nikkor G series are crap. so whats the story with this lens?

anyone?

yea sorry guys im just an idiot. i figured it all out with your help. im just a dumb newbie...but not for long. seriously thanks though.

thanks for the replies. i fixed the hazyness by removing the eyepiece and doing as described. however, my camera still wont autofocus. this im pretty sure has something todo with the Sigma lenses. when i install the lens i get a flashing FEE on the display screen that soon goes away, and then it doesnt work. i did i search and found a guy having the same problem with an F100 and a zoom Tokina lens. Should i return these lenses or what?

 

thanks

Just got my new "reconditioned" N65 today and when i attached the

Sigma lenses that came with it the camera would not completely

focus. i followed step by step what the manual said to do but it

still doesnt work. the viewfinder looks really hazy and i can barely

make out the green viewfinder numbers and information on the bottom.

as for the actual viewfinder i cant see it. the only thing i can

make out is a thin black line that runs horizonally through the

center of the viewfinder. what is this? its not in the manual. i

dont know if i got a f@%#$D up camera or if its these crap lenses.

the instruction manual said that when using Non-CPU lenses to set the

exposure mode to manual. i did this and it made no difference.

someone please help me out. im frustrated as all hell.

Oh yea another thing I forgot...Filters. I dont have any filters. im planning on buying a basic UV filter and was looking into some of the color filters. are there any out there you guys would recommend?

im a 20 year old college student and im going on a surf trip to

Hawaii the day after x mas. I have an N65 and two crappy Sigma zoom

lenses i got on ebay, one's a 28-80 and the other is a 100-300mm.

Asides from going surfing I do plan on taking alot of pictures. I'll

be shooting everything from guys getting worked at Pipeline to

scenery to maybe even Pearl Harbor (if i can stay out of the water

that long) well you guys are the pro's and im new to all this and was

wondering what film i should take and maybe even a good cheap (under

$200) Nikkor lens i could get. Im currently looking into the new D

series Nikkor 50mm 1.8 due to its low price, low weight, and good

picture quality. i heard its an awesome all-around lens.

 

any other recommendations? film recommendations? I was thinking

somewhere along the lines of Kodak Supra 400 for surfing pics and

Supra 100 for everything else. I heard film makes a big difference.

 

i also have one of those fisheye converters. i got it on ebay for

$50 and have shot two rolls with it on my moms Pentax and although

its not too sharp its fun to mess around with.

 

any input would be greatly appreciated.

I was just on B&H and looked up the price for a 20 roll pack of Kodak

Supra 400. The USA made film was $120 while the imported one was

$50. Why? Is there a diffence is quality? Both films are guarenteed

fresh. B&H says the products are both identical, however i find that

hard to believe when theres over 100% price markup.

 

thanks

 

charlie

Its a 100-400mm Vivitar AF lens on ebay for $160. If it helps i

currently have an N65 and I take action sports pictures.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=801737300

 

Thanks and any feedback would be great.

 

CMG