cdhoover

It's an excellent macro + normal lens. These days, good quality used examples are inexpensive and plentiful. With the deeply recessed

front element, it's pretty bulletproof for travel. The 100 apo has an even better reputation and gives you more working distance

for moving macro subjects (that might fly away), but it's a much bigger lens and is about 3x the price.

Haven't heard as much solid experience about the R6; the 6.2 might be a better choice. The R7s seem to be quite reliable, and you might

want to handle an R8 before deciding, since they're around the same pricepoint. It's a completely different feel to earlier Rs, but has a great

viewfinder. With the winder off, it's reasonably compact (still heavy though).<div></div>

Once I realized it was of Minolta heritage, I promptly sold mine, wrestling it into the package

with barbeque tongs in a sterile room, lest it contaminate my other gear ;-)

Actually, I really liked the rich colors using the Leica polarizer that fit into the hood. But the

fact that it was excrutiating to spin the filter drove me to upgrade to the newer 28.

This one crashed into our house during breakfast on Jan 1. He was stunned for a few

minutes, but flew away once the stars stopped spinning. Doug confirmed that it's a red-

shouldered hawk. Fun experience!<div></div>

Doesn't look like they have much RF gear, but Calumet has a store in Escondido, ~1 hr

northeast of San Diego. It's close to the Wild Animal Park (far more interesting than the zoo,

IMHO), so it might be a good day trip.

Jaime Drouin also uses the M-90f4 macro...

http://www.jamiedrouin.com/demons1.htm

Aperture (Apple) and Lightroom (Adobe) are also RAW workflow tools to explore. From the

reviews, however, you might wait for Aperture 2.0 (it seems to run pretty slow even on zippy

macs), but Lightroom is available free as a beta.

Thanks to all who've responded. I'm also new to RAW-format and am pleased to see all the

options.

Jim

You might first try a new battery cassette. This fixed a similar problem for me with an R7

drive.

Photovillage carries a Japanese half case for M bodies for $99.

I haven't tried any of these. Does a case on the M make film changing more of a hassle?

Dell offers occasional specials on the 5D (around $2800). They're usually listed on dealsea

(http://www.dealsea.com)

While shooting a kids soccer game recently with an R8 + 180f2.8 apo, a a d70-toting photog

came up and asked, "Wow, is that an old fashioned camera?"

Not really knowing how to respond, I said, "Yeah, I guess it is."

What an exciting project! I've got the Nikon 4000ED and can also use a friend's drum

scanner. I suppose we'd have to share TIFFs to get a better idea of the end result. Layered

Photoshop images might be even better. Let me know if you need someone to put

together a web site for sharing the results.

Chris

Looks like a simple lens-in-a-tube with tilt feature for a skewed focus plane. I've never

seen or used one, but found it amusing to see that it was available in R-mount.

I used the ocular on a 180 in Hawaii to watch a mother whale and her calf breaching off

the coast. Very handy if you don't have room for binoculars, but not as easy to use as

binocs.

R5, RE and R7s generally seem to be pretty well built. They're convenient (smaller)

alternatives to the R8-class with mostly the same exposure modes. The motor drives for

these are pretty clunky by today's standards.

Wonder if these delays or production issues are related to Imacon's purchase by Hassy?

cdh