raczoliver

Sirui and Benro both make good travel tripods, but just recently I came across a brand called Velbon, and I think they're worth checking out (I may be ignorant and it may be a well-known brand, I don't know). I bought one myself for my travel needs. They have travel tripods that are very light, fold very small, yet can easily be extended to eye level. Check out especially their UT and UTC series to find what you need specifically, there are too many choices to recommend one specific model.

I think most people using the D850 would shoot raw by default, not only for "special sessions when you need a lot of post processing afterwards". However, if you want to shoot jpg and are not satisfied with the built-in profiles, you could make your own profile using Nikon's picture control utility, which if I'm not mistaken is available for free from Nikon's website.

I actually read it all, just thought I would summarize the part of your post that answers the OP's question. I enjoy reading your walls of text, apart from photography, I have also learnt a lot about the English language from you through the years.

Custom function d3 can toggle what to display on the top LCD. ISO or frames remaining.

I am planning to eventually get a large aperture wide angle prime as well, which will probably be the 20/1.8G or 24/1.8G, however, for these trips ideally I would need something smaller and lighter than the 24-120, but more versatile than a prime lens. The idea would be to leave the 24-120 at home for these work trips when I can't pack a whole bunch of gear. The more I think about it the more it seems like the 18-35 f/3.5-4.5G is the most suitable lens for my current needs, even though there may be other options that are (marginally) better optically.

Thank you all so far. The reason I am leaning more towards the 18-35 is because size and weight are somewhat important for me, as I am basically constantly on work trips where the primary purpose of my travel is not for photography, I can't even bring a dedicated camera bag, but I still want to take pictures (mostly in cities). Currently, I generally have a single 24-120 lens with me on these trips, occasionally I will also pack the 70-200 (like now), but that is really pushing it. At other times I just bring a 40mm prime, or a 40 and 85 combo. The 18-35 seems attractive because I could pair that with either an 85mm prime lens, or even the 70-200, and would still be lighter and somewhat more versatile than my current combo of the 24-120 and 70-200. If I buy the 16-35, I would probably not want to pair that with the 70-200. In my case the small size and light weight of the 18-35 are very tempting, but most people seem to prefer the 16-35.

Hi all! I would like to turn to those who have experience with either the 16-35 f/4 or the 18-35 f/3.5-4.5G lens about a couple of things before I purchase one of them. I know the specifications and have read several reviews of both, I am sure optically either one will be fine for me. I am more interested in their build quality, specifically the damping on the zoom and focus rings, whether there is a play in them, and how well the VR works on the 16-35. How does the build quality of these two compare to other AF-S zoom lenses? (I own the 24-120 f/4G and 70-200 f/4G as a reference, with the 70-200 being better built and much more pleasurable to use in my opinion.) Is the 16-35 much better built than the 18-35, or is the difference fairly subtle? Thank you!

My FE10 (same as the FM10, but with an electronic shutter) definitely didn't give me the feeling of indestructibility. I have bought 6 Nikon SLRs, 3 film and 3 digital, and the FE10 was the only one that needed service. In my case the film winding crank kept getting stuck. They fixed it twice under warranty, then the third time it broke I didn't get it fixed, since by that time I was mostly using digital, and figured if I wanted to use film, it was going to be medium format anyway. It's my only camera that broke, including really old medium format SLRs and TLRs.

I also feel like there still aren't enough configurable buttons within easy reach. I am coming from the D700, and the exposure mode button moving to the left is a definite step back, so I quickly mapped it to the video record button. It would be nice if I could configure some buttons on the left (for example the mode button, which I now have moved to the right, or the quality button, which I rarely ever use, and if I did wand to change the quality once a year, I wouldn't mind going into the menu for that) for functions that I do use occasionally, but not necessarily while the camera is held to my eyes. For example the image area is one I can think of. First I put that on the Fn 1 button, but then I decided the virtual horizon was more important for me, so I ended up putting it in "my menu" instead, and configured Fn 2 to on the back of the camera to open "my menu". I put a couple more items there which I use often, but couldn't map them to any button. I don't think I'll use the crop modes much, but the 4:5 and 1:1 modes are nice in the studio I think. I compose differently with the unused area masked out, and I personally find it hard to "crop in my head". The placing of the BKT button is very awkward, I would prefer to have it on top, for example instead of the metering mode button. As for metering mode selection, I like the rotary switch on the D700. I now have the joystick set up so that it activates group area AF directly. This way I have the AF-ON button to activate whatever I have the camera's AF system set to (mostly 25 point dynamic AF), and if I need group area AF, I just use the joystick as my AF-ON button. This way I have two AF modes constantly available, activates with different buttons. The downside is that now I don't have exposure lock function available, which I would occasionally use with center weighted metering and aperture or shutter speed priority exposure modes.I guess I'll have to go through a couple of configurations until I find the ideal one. I know I could do multiple configurations and save them in different banks, but that is just too much for my brain to remember. One thing that confused me was that by default, the command dials were behaving differently when setting exposure and when setting exposure compensation. A turn to the right on either command dial decreases exposure, while in conjunction with the exposure compensation button they did just the opposite. So I had to reverse the command dials for exposure compensation. It's something I take care of once and never have to change again, but the default configuration just didn't seem to make any sense.

I set my camera up so that the Pv button with the command dial changes the exposure delay setting. It is quite neat to have that option.

I have been quietly following the news and discussions about the D850. I'm in Tokyo and I wandered into Bic Camera at Shibuya this afternoon. To my surprise, they had the D850 in stock. They said they only had one unit available. I'm not sure if that was really the case, but now they don't have that one for sure, since I took possession of it. Maybe the next person that walks in to inquire will also be told they only have one. I was going to wait until the initial frenzy dies down, but since I was sure I would buy one sooner or later, I might as well make it sooner, and hey, Merry Christmas to myself, if I have to spend it working, away from my family. It's going to be a couple more days before I have access to my computer, but I'm really looking forward to it.

I would think they'd have some kind of protection built in if damaging the sensor was a possibility. My guess is that battery life is the real limiting factor here.

One more vote that the auto exposure bracketing function is turned on, especially if the built in meter also suggested that the first shot was underexposed.

It shouldn't harm the lens, you just won't be able to get an in-focus picture, that's all.

<p>I should have clarified that of course you can also control exposure with the flash output and its distance from the subject, so once you get the exposure right, do not change those, otherwise you'll have to adjust your aperture too.</p>

<p>I think we need to clarify some things, which it appears are not so clear to you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you are trying to use an ambient light meter with strobes. That won't work. The modelling light only gives you a rough estimate of what the lighting will look like, but not the accurate light levels. The strobe is going to be much more powerful than that. You either need to use a dedicated flash meter, or even better, take trial shots with a digital camera and see what the right exposure is, before you burn your film.</p> <p>Since the strobes only illuminate for a very short time (much shorter than your shutter speed), aperture and film sensitivity are the only means of controlling your exposure. Shutter speed is only relevant because above a certain shutter speed (1/80 sec on the F3) the rear curtain will start moving before the front curtain is fully open, hence at any given moment, only a portion of the film will be illuminated. If you use flash at these shutter speeds, a part of your picture will be pitch black. The fastest speed at which the front curtain opens fully before the rear curtain starts to close is your maximum flash sync speed. Keep your shutter speed at this speed or slower, but not much slower. More modern cameras have a higher flash sync speed, but with the F3 it's 1/80 sec.</p> <p>Remember, if there is not much ambient light in the studio, the only things that will influence exposure are your aperture and the film sensitivity. Shutter speed is out of the equation, since the flash will only illuminate for a very short time, which will be shorter than your shutter speed, at any setting, so how long the shutter lets the light in is irrelevant (well... it would be, if there was absolutely no ambient light. Since there usually is some, it is desireable to keep the shutter speed as fast as possible in order to eliminate the effects of ambient light, being careful not to exceed your camera's flash sync speed). Since once you load the film, the sensitivity is fixed, you've only got the aperture left to play with.</p> <p>If you have a digital camera available, set the ISO to the same as your film sensitivity, and check what aperture gives you the best exposure, then use that setting on the F3. Or get a flash meter, which you'll need to connect to the strobe with a sync chord, and it will fire the flash as you take the meter reading (If I understand correctly. I'll admit, I never acually used one, since it is rather unnecessary with a digital camera). Do not take an ambient meter reading using the modelling light, unless you are planning to shoot using only the modelling light (it sounds like that's not what you are planning to do, which is good.)</p> <p>If this is too basic for you, I apologize, but in your question it sounded like you were trying to use an ambient light meter.</p>

<blockquote> <p> If the tripod foot is used as a resting point on the palm of your left hand</p> </blockquote> <p>I recently saw a video where someone did that by the side of a swimming pool, on what appears to be a Canon 1D series camera with a very long and possibly expensive telephoto lens, and somehow lost balance with his left hand. He jumped after the camera in a futile attempt to save it, but by that time of course it was too late. It was actually floating pretty nicely. Why he wasn't using a strap is beyond me, but it just didn't look like resting the tripod foot on your palm was a very steady way of holding the camera.</p>

<p>I am not a professional photographer, so I don't know what the standard practice is, but I think a fair way to do it would be to charge a total of 2000+X, and either let both clients pay half of it, or let them fight it out amongst themselves.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Someone (I forget who) recently claimed that prime shooters tend to fall into either the 60mm/105mm/150mm family or the 85mm/135mm/200mm family</p> </blockquote> <p>I think this is where you might have read it, towards the end of the article:<br> http://nikkor.com/story/0059/</p> <p>I used to think that there were those two "families", and I was using mostly 50, 85 and 135. However, my preferences seem to change over time, and nowadays consider the 135mm focal length slightly too long. Perhaps due to the recent birth of my daughter, my subject matter has changed quite a bit too, and find myself using either the 85/1.8G or the 105/2 DC lens for portraits. I actually sold my 135/2 DC and replaced it with a 135/2.8 Ai for now, as I was finding myself using this lens rarely enough that having such an expensive piece of equipment lying around seemed wasteful. The 135/2.8 Ai lens is a sensible solution for me, since one of the main reasons the 135/2 DC was getting little use was because of its size and weight. Interestingly, it is only slightly bigger and heavier than the 105/2 DC, but somehow feels much heftier. I have always been alternating my preferance between the 105 and 135mm focal lengths, currently leaning more towards 105. The 85mm is a totally different thing for me, a more general purpose lens, and I found myself picking one of the 105 and 135 to bring along with the 85, while most people would probably take either the 85 and 135, or the 105 alone.</p>

<blockquote> <p>there's evidence that Nikons make the AF confirmation "more lenient" in manual focus mode, presumably to make it easier</p> </blockquote> <p>This is a little off topic, but I wonder why they would do that. For what it's worth, I think that makes manual focusing harder, not easier. I always wondered why the dot stays on for a relatively wide range of focus ring movement, which makes accurate manual focus at large apertures next to impossible. To avoid this, I actually perform AF fine tune on my manual focus lenses so that the sharpest focus is achieved when both the dot and one of the arrows are lit in the viewfinder. This appears to happen at only one spot, or at least an unperceivable range of focus ring movement, unlike the focus confirmation dot itself, which stays on for a long time while you twist the focus ring.</p>

<p>I bought one from taobao (the Chinese version of ebay) for my Bronica SQ-A, which was converted from a focusing screen that was originally made for a Seagull TLR. The screen was so dim that i could barely see anything through it, so I quickly switched back to my old scratched Bronica screen that originally came with the camera 30 years ago.</p>

<p>You can buy everything on Taobao. If you are coming for long term, you'll probably have a local bank account, so payment is not a problem. Kodak, Ilford, Fuji etc. films are all available, and you'll find chemicals as well. I wouldn't bring anything with me. I use 120 format Tmax 100 and HC110 developer, and don't have a problem getting them.</p>

<p>I suspect you have the white balance on your camera set to something other than auto, with a color temperature of 4650 set, and it is just doing what it's told to do: shoot at 4650K. If you are shooting raw, it shouldn't make too much difference, except you'll have to set the white balance for every picture in post. You can change your camera's white balance setting to auto, that way you'll get more realistic color straight from the camera.</p>