danielho

Get a better charger. Your batteries will have a longer life and your inner-geek will

thank you. My choice is the Maha Powerex MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer.

Something like $55 on Amazon.

John, on the D200, you hold down BOTH the trash pail button and the mode button

(both labelled format in red) for a few seconds until the display blinks "For". Then you

click the buttons again, and bam...you're done. Card is formatted with no fuss, no

muss.

 

I do this every time I put a card into the camera.

I think it depends what you are going to be doing with it and your requirements of a

dSLR in terms of manual features. The feature differences have been outlined above.

 

For basic shooting, and travel...I'd pick the D50 with the kit lens for the sheer lightness

of package and ease of use. The D70s is "more" of a camera, but for some situations,

sometimes more is less.

I use the 18-200 VR, but I actually like the kit lens that comes with a D50. For travel,

it is light and performs well...

 

You may want to go wider, and for that I'd suggest you take a look at the Tokina 11-

16mm f/2.8 AT-X. It is fast and sharp. IMHO, this is better than the Nikon 12-24mm

<gasp!> Street price is sub $600.

Joe,

 

Did Nikon say what the issue was? Is it a specific batch or...?

 

Just curious. I used mine today, as it happens, and it still seems relatively tight.

 

Thanks,

--Daniel

Wow Ken, you ARE crazy. :-)

 

Thanks for the tip though...actually not a bad idea.

 

That said, I think all 18-200 VRs are still under warranty, so a quick trip back to Nikon may be easier, no?

 

Has anyone had this issue fixed under warranty?

 

Cheers,

Daniel

I haven't seen the SlingShot either...and am surprised that it is so popular. Have to go check one out.

 

--

Daniel

No problems in Toronto. Lots of spare batteries too.

 

There IS a wait for the 18-200 VR though.

 

--Daniel

Conrad...hahahaha...so true!

I have one...Made In Japan...metal mount. There is only one version. Go for the plastic mount one for $!00 less and see if he can produce it! :-)

I made the same change on a computer not too long ago...and upgraded to 10.4.4. (the most recent). Everything was fine. Go for it...

Thank you all for your responses. It has been very helpful. I've done more Googling as well and thinks that my "guy in the camera shop" is thinking about R glass on a Canon body....which is to say, not exactly what I was looking for. :-)

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I think I'll try with the Visoflex coupler that I have around her somewhere. Otherwise, oh well, back to putting Nikon glass on Nikon bodies and M glass on M bodies. Crazy, eh?

Mine is relatively stiff and doesn't creep. It shouldn't be all loose right from the beginning even if it may lossen up a bit over time. I'd return it and see if you can find one that you are happy with.

I've had the lens for a few weeks now and have only run about 500 shots through it. No complaints from me.

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Nicely constructed lens the produces good results. You can always complain about a bit of distortion. But for what the range, it is like a miracle lens with good glass and VRII.

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The distortion at both ends is much less than I would have anticipated. Not enough that I would notice if I wasn't looking for it...and for presentation photos, this can be corrected if required.

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If you have specific needs that required fast glass, macro, pc, etc. you'll need to look elsewhere. However, it is highly recommended as a general purpose lens. It is excellent for the range it covers. It spends a lot of time on my main body these days.

Gerald, The Nikon spec sheet says that the ISO Sensitivity is:

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100 to 1600 in steps of 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV with additional settings up to 1 EV over 1600

I was talking to a guy in a local camera store. He tells me that

there is an adapter for about $300 that will let me adapt my Leica M

glass for use on a Nikon...with manual everything, of course.

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When hit Google for this, it doesn't look like it is possible.

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Am I missing something here?

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Thanks!

I got one and like it a lot. Yes it has distortion at both ends, but nothing outrageous...also if you are picky, the distortions are fixable using Photoshop.

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Overall, very good build quality with good materials, good usable range, nice fast autofocus, and excellent VRII to compensate for camera shake.

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It lives pretty much full time on my main body. It makes a great "walking around" lens as well as great for travel when you only want to bring a simple kit.

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I'd suggest going to a store with your camera and a memory card to try it out. Only you'll know if it will work for you. For the money, I think that it is a great lens.

If you are pretty sure it is the control board, you can do what the recovery company would probably do anyway...that is to replace the electronics.

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For a proprietary drive like the Big Disk, the easiest and probably the most cost effective thing to do is to buy another drive. Assuming that the data hasn't been corrupted by the circuit board dying, you should be able to swap the drives out of the new unit and put your older drives in . If all is well, you will see your data.

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This will obviously void the warranty of the old drive and the new drive. But the cost of the $350 drive is nothing compared to the cost of lost data (priceless) or the cost of recover (expensive).

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Your mileage may vary...and if you aren't comfortable with swapping drives you may make things worse. However, this is what I would try.

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How did the drive die? Was it a power surge?

Paul, for the most part...you'll need/want a faster lens. However, the VR feature does help. Look at the photo that I posted of my cat (above). This was taken handheld using available light indoors at 200mm.

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The VR II does work, and works quite well...I have no complaints.

Mark,

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OK, this is something that you can try. Find a DVD WRITER and try using that to read your discs. I seem to have better luck reading iffy discs with dvd writers than any other device. My guess is that this is due to better tracking as well as stronger lasers.

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Even if you don't have a DVD writer and have to buy one to try it, they are so inexpensive these days that it is worth a shot.

Louise, the D50 is a fine camera and the kit 18-55 is a decent lens. While it is more plasticky than the 18-70 that comes as a kit with the D70, it can produce very nice results.

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What are you planning on doing with the 180mm? I'm just asking as you seem set on it and you're leaving a gap in the range between 55 and 180 which I find quite useful.

Mark, I may be asking the obvious, but could you open the files on these discs before? You said that you could open the jpeg files.

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I find it hard to believe that 20 G of CDs all died at the same time... Have you tried opening these files on another computer? Will the Mac open the jpeg files?

Brad, this issue is hard to diagnose with even the level of detail that you tried to give. The easiest thing to do is to try and replicate this problem using still objects and posting some shots for us to see...

I'm seconding Aravind's suggestion. I have the 18-200 and think it is a fine lens...love it. It is a great lens for the money and performs very well.

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If you want to shoot portraits, the 50/1.8 is cheap and produces nice results. I also like 60/2.8 micro too and it gives you macro capability...but the 50/1.8 is cheap!

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FWIW, I use the 50/1.8 for portraits a lot and produces nice results. Oh, did I tell you that I love the 18-200? :-)

My sample is made in Japan. The build quality is very good, not "pro" lens quality...meaning that you can't hammer a nail with it. However, it is a pretty substantial hunk of glass.

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The barrel is plastic (high quality polycarbonate) on the outside but the innards are metal it seems.

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The quality is actually a LOT nicer than the 12-24 or the 18-70 DX lenses.