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eajames

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    Nikon USA DSLR Warranty (Has anyone ever had a problem with Adorama)

    in Nikon

    Posted

    I purchased a USA D200 from BHPV. It came with a white piece of paper that said "this is your warranty; if you loose it too bad" ...or something to that effect. I registered the camera by snail mail using the form provided (this form was in a small colored envelop and asked a bunch of questions that led be to believe that I will be getting a bunch of junk mail any day now. I tucked my original receipt in the box with my precious piece of white paper, and crossed my fingers.

     

    Do you get a ~4 inch by ~3 inch piece of white paper?

    Lens for Sharper pictures

    in Nikon

    Posted

    Sharon, oh well...still, the possibility exists that your lens mount is not parallel to the film

    (sensor) plane. It's probably not the answer but it would be worth checking out with your

    best tripod using shutter delay.

    Lens for Sharper pictures

    in Nikon

    Posted

    As the saying goes, "my sharpest lens is my tripod". I shoot over 75% of my pictures using

    a tripod; the majority of my keepers are from these tripod-supported shots. Sure, it's not

    always feasible to use a tripod, but it's impossible if you don't bring one along:) I have

    four in my quiver; being able to choose the lightest functional support for the occasion

    makes shooting with support easier - especially if your leaving the heaviest one at home:)

     

    If your sharpest lens (the 17-35mm) doesn't provide sharp images perhaps your lens

    mount is out of wack - read Bjorn Roslett's article on the this lens entitled:

     

    "The Tantalising 17-35 mm f/2.8 AFS Nikkor" at:

     

    http://www.naturfotograf.com

     

    Good luck!

    Temperature/Moisture Control Safe

    in Nikon

    Posted

    Here's another vote for Pelican cases and rechargeable silica gel cartridges. Pelican cases

    have the added benefit over a temperature-controlled system: they are portable. Before

    coming in from the cold I just put my gear inside its Pelican case and warm up without

    worries of condensation. You must, however, re-dry the silica gel periodically, and

    religiously. LowePro has designed some of their bags (e.g. the Omni system) to fit inside

    Pelican cases/LowePro hard cases. I keep my large format lenses in two Gnass lens cases -

    these fit well inside my backpack and when I get home they fit side-by-side inside a Pelican

    case. It's difficult to imagine a more functional and cheaper alternative to protect your glass.

    Nikon 50mm lens question

    in Nikon

    Posted

    I own a boat load of Nikkor AIS manual focus prime lenses. Recently I purchased my first

    AF lens - the current 50mm f1.8 AF D for use on a D200. Though I paid a premium here

    in Alaska ($124) the lens is superb and worth every penny, and then some. The amazing

    thing is that the 50mm 1.8 performs on par with my 85mm 1.4 AIS (color, sharpness,

    contrast); in fact I prefer the bokeh of the 50mm. I'm still getting used to the 75mm

    effective focal length - at this point I can't say if I prefer it over my 85mm with film. I'm

    siding with the 75mm reach for working distance and composition, but I like the 85mm

    with film for selective focus (shorter DOF at a given aperture, and sharper at f2 and f2.8 -

    by the time you stop down to f4 on the 50mm your background and foreground are often

    too in focus for my liking). I've read here that some use the 60mm Micro Nikkor to give a

    more traditional focal length for portraiture.

    Is there a D200S on the horizon?

    in Nikon

    Posted

    I've just pulled my head out of the analog photography sand by purchasing a D200 and now thanks to Aaron and me the D200S, to be announced the day after my 14-day return period ends, will be a full frame machine.

     

    What the heck: by the time I figure out how to push my raw files through PS CS2, a D-Three Hundred will have hit the market. Oh yeah, and come Feb 07 CS2 will be "obsolete":)

    Best lens for rock climbing

    in Accessories

    Posted

    Lilly is right on with her recommendations. The 24mm provides such great depth of field that you can often get away with hyperfocal-distance prefocus - one less thing to worry about up there! Some leaders might not feel comfortable with you being 24mm close, however.

    NAS bites again - Nikon Ai 105mm 2.5

    in Nikon

    Posted

    N.A.S. = G.A.S. minus all other non-Nikon G.ear that your A.quitision S.yndrome has filled

    your closet with). This malady is not to be confused with C.C.P.

     

    If Mark were truely afflicted with NAS he would recognized the enormous focal length

    disparity between 100mm and 105mm; querying others about a no brainer like this is just a

    stark-raving waste of band width:)

    Really Right Stuff BH-55 LR (Lever Release) Ballhead

    in Nature

    Posted

    I had a BH-55 but didn't like their lever. The RRS lever has a few degrees of up and down

    (rotational) wobble that can interfere with secure closure - I never trusted it. I recently

    bought the new B1 with lever - the AS lever has a double safety that prevents inadvertent

    release, and has no rotational wobble. The AS is also significantly lighter than the RRS

    head.

     

    Shun, your African tripod woes remind me of a similar mishap of mine in Yosemite. On

    the first night of my trip I was photographing the YOS Falls by moonlight. I walked back to

    camp in the middle of the night and come morning I discovered that my Kirk clamp nut

    had come off and was somewhere between the meadows that I had been shooting in and

    the Backpackers Camp beyond Curry Village!!! (About 3 miles in distance.) I decided to

    change the nature of my trip and mailed my tripod and tent to my home address and went

    light and handheld for the rest of the trip. So far this is not too unlike your misfortune;

    hears the kicker: the next day while walking past the LeConte Memorial, I happened to

    look down and discover the clamp nut sticking out from underneath some leaves. I

    walked a few more steps and found the long washer that had fallen off after the nut

    unscrewed itself. The tripod was half-way home to Seattle by then. Sadly this isn't my

    worst Yosemite tripod story, but I'll save that for another time.

    Nikkor MF 85/1.4 or 1.8 ??

    in Nikon

    Posted

    What an excellent post Christiaan - any comments on the 2.0's bokeh?

     

    I have a 1.4 and love it at smaller apertures, but the bokeh is generally harsh. One thing

    that is often missed in these bokeh discussions is the distance from focal plane and the

    nature of the out-of-focus area. For a given motif/scene the bokeh of my 1.4 may be

    acceptable to excellent, but generally it is "harsh". For what it's worth, most of the

    pictures on the "mutts" page of my website where taken with the 1.4. (The picture of the

    dog in the truck and the shot of the dog on the snow slope were taken with a 180mm AIS,

    but the others are from the 85mm f1.4 AIS - with the possible exception of the two dogs

    playing in snow.) It's hard to evaluate the bokeh in these tiny JPEGs but the bokeh in large

    prints ranges from "mellow and pleasing" (e.g. sleepy pup) to "harsh and unsettling" (e.g.

    dog on doghouse).

     

    I would love to shed the weight if the 1.4 and carry just 52mm filters, but I can't give up

    the performance of this lens when it's stopped down.

     

    Cheers,

     

    Eric

     

    www.purebredmutt.net

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