udai_pawar1

I got a Nikon D70s last week from an Uncle who lives in the US (I'm in

India). He bought it from B&H Photovideo. The Charger has conked off.

It did work the first time I tried it, and I shot a lot of pics on

that one charge. But now it just isnt working. I tested the cable/plug

and they are fine. The LED doesnt come on at all, and even if I keep

the charger connected for a couple of hours theres no charging (I did

this to test whether its was only the LED that was faulty)

Which of the following options do you recommend...

1. Send it to the US, and claim warranty from Nikon US. (As Nikon

India tells me that digital products have only a warranty in country

of purchase). The problem is the delay involved as I was keen to do

some stuff in the next few weeks.

2. Buy a new charger from the gray market in New Delhi, (as Nikon

India somehow is charging 10 times the correct price). The gray market

one is at a $15-20 or so premium from the replacement price of $40

(B&H). Advantage is that I'll get it very soon. But the dealer has

only got a charger for the D70, model MH-18, not the D70s version

(MH-18a).

Will the new battery (EN-EL3a) that came with the D70s charge properly

on the older charger for the D70?

3. Go to a local electronics repair guy and open up the charger and

check for burnt resistors, fuses, etc. As Nikon India says they dont

service adapters and chargers. But would this void the warranty for

the complete camera package? Any idea what possible problems could be

inside.

looking for any suggestions. ALso how can i get in touch with someone

directly in Nikon corp if that could help?

Thanks a lot

Udai

Dear Brooks and Garry,

I just discovered the themes a week ago (May 2005) and am hooked.

Brilliant stuff - concept and execution.

You have inspired me to attempt some of them myself, though all i will

have to try is camera hotshoe flash and a few of the $20 slaves. But the themes have inspired me to believe that I'll be able to do something nice with them.

Thanks for all the great work!!

Udai

(Kanpur, India)

Thanks for all the replies. I still have a couple of days to decide.

Would anyone have some sample pics using the 18-70, especially in the wider focal

lengths?

I am seriously considering going with that and using the money on a SB-600 and other

accessories.

OTOH, the 18-35 + 24-85 AFS combo is still a bit attractive, given that i dont want to

discard film altogether, and as of now, the next time I buy a camera, it'll be an upgrade

(perhaps f80/100) for my FM10, which i still plan to keep using. Also the 85mm on the

high side would give slightly more telephoto range.

Though I tend to move about to the extremes of this range (i.e around 24-35mm and 75

-100 for 35mm), so changing lenses frequently may turn out be a problem, which is

another plus pt for the 18-70mm.

Thanks again,

Udai

p.s. what abt the idea of matrix-ifying the 75-150mm series E... .coz I am unsure abt the

sigma 70-200 . Whether I should go for that, or wait to save up a bit more and go for a

used 80-200 nikkor.. Both are expensive and might too big and heavy for the kind of stuff

I do (esp if I'm carrying around two cameras)

I started out with a full manual FM10 3 years as my aim was to learn from first principles.

Have had a nice time with that. Now I am planning to supplement that with a D70.

Had thought of F100, but then decided Digital offers a different set of opportunities and

methods for learning. I basically do general street sort of work and travel photography. My

usual travel kit the last half year or so consists of a borrowed F65 added to the above, so i

carry two cameras with me...

-FM10 + Nikon Series E 75-150 f/3.5 with Kodak TriX400

-F65 + Nikkor AFS 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5(borrowed too) with Kodak Supra 400

-I also own a 24mm 2.8 AF which i carry along.

My aim is to replace the F65 with my own D70. (But It would also be great if I could just

carry one camera, though I dont really mind carrying two, esp coz i love the 75-150 lens

which wont work with the D70 and also love the look of the TriX)

A secondary aim is to be able to extend the working focal length range of the above setup.

Not too much, but say around 20mm on the wide and 200-300 on the tele side would be a

nice step up. This seems a harder aim, given the problem of 1.5x for digital on the wider

side, and a lack of a clearcut choice other than the expensive 80-200 model on the tele

side.

I am confused about what lens to buy though. I had thought that it would be ok to go on

with the kit 18-70mm lens given the good reviews at bythom.com and kenrockwell.com,

and other places.. however there are people who argue otherwise. But the 12-24mm DX is

too expensive for me and so is the 17-55mm DX. Are there any alternatives in the

intermediate price range?

1. An option i thought of is to get the D70 body only and get a 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 and

24-85 mm AFS f/3.5-4.5. This is still a tad costly, but if I get one of these lenses used, it

should be about $700-800 or so, which I suppose would be a decent investment, given

that I can use these lenses with the 35mm too, and both the lenses are rated as quite

decent.

2. Or perhaps instead of the 24-85mm, the 24-120mm VR or the 28-200mm??

3. Of course I can stick with the 18-70mm.. which is a versatile range, and would give me

some cash to try out a flash(??). But then how good is the lens compared to the others

above, and especially comparing to my current setup.

Though both options are not as wide as I would like to be (equivalent to atleast 24mm of

135) But I guess I'll have to wait for some time for some cheaper alternatives to come

along. For tele, I guess the only affordable option new is the 75-300 D ED. or some of the

70-210 models used?

So what would you recommend? Some constraints..

1. I live in India, and would be ordering through a friend in the US, so cant try out the

lenses in a store for myself.

2. Same prob, eBay is quite difficult. For used goods, I thought adorama would be a good

place to buy online? Any opinions on that?

3. Though a decent range is available in India too, mostly its gray market stuff, so I buy

stuff from abroad. However this limits flexibility so I would want to ask for less risky

items. And I dont mind paying a slight premium if there is a chance to get better image

quality, given the fact that I dont buy stuff too often.

Thanks a lot,

Udai

p.s. any idea when the D70s would be available. Its not on the online stores yet. What abt

physical retail shops. Is it there yet?

p.p.s Do i need to worry abt replacing the 24mm/2.8 with a D version. Or its not that

important

Hi

I have a really old Sekonic Studio Deluxe (l28c) which I've never really learnt how

to use (and the lock feature doesnt lock the needle down). Though I use only my

new spotmeter, I am keen to see if the Studio Deluxe is ok...

how can i test it... i have no proshop nearby to compare the meter with... (no gray

card either to spot off)

is it possible that meter works ok otherwise but has gone bad in low light

levels coz i've seen that its sometimes at the min setting (which is somehow not

zero, should i do a zero adjust to get ti to zero?) in indoors at night...

though in the afternoon i do get f/16 at 1/125 sec at 100asa in broad daylight..

so how do i check it enough to see if its workable enough to learn incident light

metering

thanks

udai

thanks for all the replies...

for curling, i had indeed weighted down the roll - right now, during storage

in the plastic sleeves, the negatives are forced to be straight, but on removing

them, the curl up right away... well there is no prob in working, so should i

just let them be? or is there some safe way to straighten them... the prob is

that there is also a slight curl along the lenghtwise axis and i'm afraid that

will affect focus...

contrast wise - the prints seem fine though... i used a flatbed scanner that seems to

have a stray light prob that seems to make some areas in the dark much

lighter than the print is... but i did feel the first time i saw the negs that

maybe they were slightly underdeveloped .. didnt seem black enough

all over the place... i suppose next thing i should do is experiment with

varying contrast... these are on Soft grade paper too

i am curious, are the Variable Contrast/Multigrade papers and filters of

different manufacturers standardised.... i.e. can u buy VC filter

pack of one manufacturer and use it with VC papers of other manufacturer?

if so, which ones are the best ilford, kodak? or are they all the same...??

for this roll, should i try ever washing it again... using distilled water and

wetting agent? or some spcl chemicals that remove embedded dust.. coz

i checked the negs - tried a bad frame and could gently remove some

tiny particle that was held to the surface, but some did seem embedded

a bit and perhaps only scratching could remove em...obviously i

cant scratch out each frame.. :-)

thanks for all the advice... this forums a neat place...

udai

i tried to burn the sky in by 2-4 times more light.... but never got the edge right,

either too much out so the sky was in a diff shade... any advice for something

like this..

lots of dots here too<div></div>

Hi

I'm in love with developing/printing on my own... never will enjoy shop made prints

the same way... finally after a lot of time preparing, gathering stuff, repairing and

resealing defunct college darkroom, i got my first prints..

i had planned and shot lots of zone system and other b&w tests so that i could learn

b&w basics, zone system testing, and darkroom processing at the same time, but

for some silly reason (nonworking aperture ring i didnt notice), i just ended up

blowing 5 rolls... though I learnt to develop with one, and then couldnt resist

a tri-x 400TX i'd shot 2 months ago and was waiting to see... id 11 1+1

I've attached some scans (a bit lowres) - the real thing is very decently sharp and the

contrast and and richness in blacks in really good... please do give comments.. (abt

the photos themselves too are very welcome too)

PROBLEMS ( u can refer to the scans)

1) white spots - really disappointed coz i really like a lot of the pics and am feeling

bad i didnt learn more developing... i did rap for air bubbles many times... the first

roll i had deved was in normal water and it got lots of bad water drying marks and

streaks... so here i did last two rinses in distilled water (photoflo not available in my

city, no proshop in radius of 500km i think :-)) .. and did the snap thing to remove

excess water.. .. no squeegee... interestingly the emulsion side dried with the water

in tiny but very numerous litte droplets all over the place (more intense and bigger

than thite spots though)... but after drying, there was no differential swelling and

looks uniform...though no streaks oneither side

now i'm really desperate to have these shots as i really like them ... so whats the way

i get rid... is there any way to reclean the film ever... may be dust, but i did try to put

in a a lower dust region... but how do i check anyihng.. what should i do in the worst

case.. is there some software or something??? there must be some soln :-(

2) white thing lines.. nonconsistenly in prints...

3) negative just dont uncurl

4) burning - p4.jpg has a sky which i tried to burn with a stencil of the building, but

as u can see the boundaries are major probs... any adivce with this kinda stuff

OTHER QUESTIONS

1) is any red/amber light good for safelight (remember i dont have bnh a phone call

away)... coz i've bben working blind for prints now...

2) what does changing print time actually change... blacks blackne and greys/white

grayen.. but is it a shifting/chaning of zones that is happening??? does the contrast

(actual, not apparent) remain the same?? are we moving around in the 'latitude'

aspect of the negative

3) do i have to develop a paper immediately after exposing or can i put it back in the

package, expose another and develop together .. i.e. how long does the latent

image in photo last before developing

thanks a lot

udai

p1.<div></div>

Hi

I have this series E 75-150 which in the short time I've had it has given great

results. I got it off ebay germany during a summer internship in the country,

and though it had seemed unused, it had a prob with the aperture which the seller

reimbursed me to get repaired after i told him abt it...

then i returned home to india (in the middle of the hot and humid season).

I checked after a few days and the (normally) very loose touch lens seemed

quite tight (while moving the one-touch)... i attributed it to the humidity

and heat affecting the lubricant or something, as after that season got over, now,

its back to its normal loose feel...

but i shot some rolls and now the aperture prob has returned... basically

if u remove the lens and check, the aperture ring has no effect on the aperture,

basically as the spring for the aperture-pull down lever doesnt seem to 'spring'

back... so it doesnt stop down to the set aperture... but stays open

now good Nikon service isnt the easiest to find in India.. and the german repair

shop was not very clear on the exact problem.... so I was curious if anyone has

any contact in Nikon (japan??) technical support who I could ask directly abt

what kind (major/minor) problem it is... basically its a discontinued model and

so if its a major prob i dont want just any service center to service it... if its only

minor then i could possibly find a reasonable service center more easily

thanks a lot

udai

Thanks to everyone for replies abt an unknown film I had wanted to start using (nova.

35mm). After going through 'the Negative', tons of websites and tons of posts and

getting thoroughly 'agitated' i decided to just go and shoot and see what happens...

Part of the aim was to get started with B&W photography, the zone system as well as

get the dev times for this film and get started with my new Pentax Spot Meter.

So I shot 4 rolls of Nova 125 ASA film today (wanted to do 5 but too tired). In open

shade, focussed infinity with a nice textured white towel with a few thin black lines

that are just about distinguishable. Tried my best to note properly, though i got

confused once in a while so had to click once again for a few frames to be sure. And

to ensure consistency in lighting in a sequence( coz clouds were bit wierd(.

Each roll has

- 11 exposures - From Full Closed - through the zones, to Very Over

- 9 exposures - at 1/3 stops from zone 0.1/3 through zone I, II ending on III

as I didnt know what reference to use to get EI, (each site recommends

a diff zone to move abt... problem being i dont have a densitometer so

will have to do it visually, dont know how right now :-) - in the worst

case can i use the spotmeter as a densitometer, if so how?

- Human Face with skin at IV, V, VI to see the difference and also with red filter.

- Sky and foliage with sky at IV, V, VI to see the effect (red filter here too - clouds)

- a Tree bark with some shadow and some highights abt 5-7 stops of range only,

coz was cloudy day mostly. The deep shadow at I, II & III to see the difference.

(I think the highlights were 14.2/3 EV and a dark shadow of 8.1/3 EV)

(Now on one roll i forgot to do the EI test) Overall I shot 4 so that I could develop at

different times to find the 'correct' time for N development, and perhaps see some

effects of contraction and expansion if thats possible...

Now I searched digitaltruth for times with ID-11, basically only got for 100ASA film

but hope that will work. Average Time for developing for abt 15 filmtypes came

to be 7.25 min (stock), and 10.25 min (1+1). Now for this time atleast I will work

with 1+3. Looking at other data, on average the 1+3 dev time is 1.79 times the 1+1

time. So my starting time is about 18.3 minutes.

I will be using ID-11 at 1+3 (400ml in a 2 roll plastic tank , but needs 375 for just

1), and decided on swishing this time (read a lot of the posts!! - Plan to do 24

swishes for first 30sec and 8 swishes at start of every minute. ). Indicator stop bath,

Ilford Rapid Fixer (havent decided on time yet.. how should I?).

So now I'm almost ready. Spent abt 3 hours light sealing the old college darkroom

(not much left, is it essential to be perfectly light tight..? There are some hidden leaks

which i can notice only abt 5-10 mins after shutting the light and are really dim). Am

waiting only for a thermometer and some containers.

So what i wanted to ask was...

1. Is what I've done so far and what I've thought of reasonable?

2. What times should I develop at...Should I do 16.3, 17.3, 18.3, 19.3 or something

like that, or something like 20% less than 18.3, or 20% more, etc. Primary aim is to

get a working Normal Dev time. Secondary aim is to see atleast some effects of

contraction, expansion if possible ?

3. After developing, how do i analyse and interpret all the exposures above... what all

should i try to see....

Quantitatively I have to get EI and Dev Time. How should I go about this?

Same for Qualitatively. What should I look out for, try to understand conceptually, abt

the zone system and visualisation as such.

4. I dont have any wetting agent and dont know what to squeegee with. As I'd

mentioned i'm in India and my college is decenttly far from any major metro city so

am stuck, with what to do after i finish washing the roll. Can I just hang after its wet,

should I use a soft cotten cloth?

5. I plan to use distilled water for developer both stock and diluted and for fixer too.

Is it essential to use distilled water for the stop and the washing too? Also, I suppose i

can restock the fixer and stop after use right (in different bottles of course, I got lots

of nice 500ml amber glass bottles from some chem lab)

6. I had many other questions too but forgot... Any specific things I should keep in

mind??

Thanks a lot once again..

Udai Pawar

p.s sorry for the very long post

Thanks for all the ideas.. I suppose the best way is to try and see what happens,

which is what I'll do next..

Roger, wow!! 4000km must have been a nice ride... What u were riding... well

since u've asked it that way, it might have been an Enfield (Indian Harleys ;-)

I'm from New Delhi, though I study at another city called Kanpur.

Thanks

Udai

Hi

I am just starting out with developing B&W.and have some questions.

I bought a simple plastic tank with two reels... it has this funnel kind

of thing through which you can also insert a rod that locks onto the

spiral reel and allows you to rotate it around for agitation...

I have read a lot abt agitation which mentions something like " invert

the tank 5 times in 10 secs " or something like that..... how do i bring

this parallel to the rotation agitator... i.e. how should i do the agitation...

in number of rotations, time of turns, etc..

thanks a lot

udai

p.s. one mroe... i got multicontrast (AGFA) developer but am unsure whether i

can put in back into the bottle and reuse it. thanks?

Hi

I am just starting out with developing B&W.(Currently refurbishing the old dark

room in college).. I live in a relatively remote area in India and dont have easy

access to the a good choice of film and chemicals, but recently bought some

ilford and agfa chemicals as well as ansel adams the negative and am ready

to start developing and printing.

Here there is a generic brand of film available (called nova or something) which

is decent and due to real low cost is something i can keep playing around with.

But due to its unknown nature, I am unable to find any development times for

this film.

What is the way to start and arrive at a reasonable development time for an

unknown film.

Thanks a lot

Udai

p.s. i bought 3 1-liter packs of Ilford ID-11, 1/2 lt of Agfa multicontrast paper

developer, ilford 1/2l rapid fixer and tetenal stopbath with indicator... I plan

to use id-11 at 1:3 dilution as then it would fit nicely into my developing tank

(375 ml is for 1 reel, and 1:3 dilution id-11 would mean 400ml, which i can

then throw away)..

is all this ok? thanks again....i hope that it should last enough till the end of

the year...how do i maximise shelf life... i have a some amber glass bottles i

got from chem lab - a few are 2.5 litre and others are 1/2 liter

Hi,

I have one at a shop for 179 euros... since I cant afford

the minolta (400) i was keen to know what your experience

with the meter has been?

thanks

udai

Hi,

I am a new member and would like some help. I am a Physics student

and my interest in light and also cinematography got me interested

in photography. I have an FM10 with the default lens (35-70 3.5-4.8)

and recently bought a 75-150 series E f/3.5 from Ebay (in germany, I

am actually from India, doing an internship in germany, and henced

used ebay germany, for about 100 euros (including packaging and

mailing from Austria).

Now when I received it, the condition looks really good, no scratches

dirt or any scuff marks... But on attaching to the camera, I find that

the aperture ring has no effect. (Verified with using the DOF preview

and turning the ring, it does not stop down from 3.5 no matter what

the ring position)

Now taking off this lens, I compared with the other lens. There is the

little aperture release lever on the lens mount side on both lenses.

Its position depends on the aperture on the ring, and this is pulled

up/down by the camera body during a shutter release or DOF preview.

Now in my own lens, this is springloaded. I.e. off the camera body,

it will stop down to the aperture set on the ring, if you pull up the

lever (normal position in camera body for metering and viewing), its

wide open. If you release again, it springs back to the set aperture.

Now with the new (75-150) lens, this spring action seems to be

missing, i found that if I manually pull on the lever and turn the

ring, it does stop down to set aperture, but the spring and returning

to position action is missing...

My initial guess is that the problem is due to the spring. My

question would be how major do you think this is. Could it be

something that is easily and cheaply repairable.. Or should I try

to get a refund from teh guy (though he didnt offer any guarantee,

and I dont know how ebay works, are you allowed to return purchases???

I havent mailed him yet but thought I'll do so as soon as I find out

how severe teh problem is...

Looking forward to your responses.

Best Regards

udai Pawar