jon_sak

Barry Vangrov you have just touched upon a disadvantage of the D50. Your old lenses can mount on the D50 body and can only use focus confirmation. The light meter in the D50 WILL NOT work with E series lenses and older. You have to use AF-D lenses or later for the meter to work at all. Also don't forget the crop fator of x1.5. A 50mm lens frames photos like a 75mm lens. So all you wide angles lenses will not be so wide angle on the D50

"Your PC is about 7 years out of date. I would recommend a minimum of 512 MB of RAM, preferably 1 GB, and at least a 2 GHz processor."

 

Hold you horses, we only know he has very little ram.

 

Would mind giving us the full specs of your computer? RAM, PROCCESSOR, USB 1.0 or 2.0, Wnidows 98, me 2000 or XP and Hardrive size.

Erik Loza and to everyone else here who thinks its about attitiude. I was a student researcher during my undergrad and since I had a photogrophy background I was always relegated to taking photos. I never had any trouble then. Well, what different today that was different in the past? I always had a "white student looking" person with me when I did photography. Now its just "middle eastern looking me" with no "white partner" I didn't want the conversation to come to this but the probing answers alluding to "attitude" have led to this. Say what you may, but I can feel the difference now that my work is no longer associated with a university or proffesional work. Standing in a crowd of 8 photogrophers and getting singled out for questioning is a pretty good sign that "speaking and attitude" are not the deciding factors to be stopped before a word has left your mouth.

 

And guess what, I'm not middle eastern but people keep on asking.

"They all move aside. In fact, I was given special permission once in Mexico to shoot a vista by the security staff at this zoo because all this junk I lug around probably made me look like an important magazine photographer or something."

 

I think the magic word here is "mexico". I too have travelled through central america, asia and south america and guess what. I could carry and use anything anywhere anytime. I am strictly talking about the good'ol USofA. I get harrassed everwhere unless it appears that I am taking a picture with people I know in the photo (ie tourist/event pics) I know the world is not experienced in "absolutes" but I don't look like an old man hobbyist or an art student and those are the people who generally get the breaks in a world filled with private/wannabe security people.

Michael Erlich the cost to get two nikon VR lenses that cover a focal range of 35-350mm would cost at least $1800 USD retail. The 24-120mm VR is at least $300 USD and the 80-400mm is at least $1000, most of the time they cost more. I don't think that we are talking about the same price range. The nikon 8800 with VR can be had for less than $700 USD and don't forget that it can make full advantage of the nikon TTL flash system. If he decides to get a D50 and cover the same focal length he would need $869 USD for the kit being offered by B&H. That kit includes the 18-55mm DX Zoom Nikkor and the 55-200 DX Zoom Nikkor. These are very, very different price classes.

Thats why he should look at the nikon coolpix 8800. It has built in VR

Before I begin, I agree that nikon and canon have absolutley no incentive to sell in camera VR bodies, they sell VR in thier lenses. From thier prosepctive, why make less money? Canon and nikon do well with consumers and proffessionals with separate camera lines. The same cannot be said for KM. They need to sell anything and thier consumer P&S cameras have sold poorly. The only chance they have is to get into the increasing DLSR market. So they give out lots of goodies with thier DSLRs. I hope pentax gets into this technology as they actually have some older lenses that are on par with nikon and canon. Imagine actully using a manual focus f1.2 on a image stabalized pentax DSLR.

 

As for tripods into todays paranoid environment, tripods are DEAD with consumers and advanced ametures. I have been harrased many times with a tripods and monopods, with varying excusses (never head the same reason twice yet!) Those folks talking about technique and such need to understand that tripods can't go anywhere anymore, especially if you don't fit the local stereotypes. VR lenes and in camera VR are going to be great convienences to people who love the hobby of photography because photogrophers in public places are suject to arbitrary harassment. People just want to take pictures, not go through a legalese argument. On a side note, there should really be a resurgence of light rangefinder bodies for both film and digital due to size convienence.

Wait and look before you leap.

 

Do you have nikon AF lenses already?

 

If not you will be unpleasantly surprised at the start up cost. Before I begin, people will say that you can get a d50 with a decent zoom lens and a 1gb CF card on B&H for less than $700 USD. But there is a lot more to it than that if you do not alreay have some nikon AF lenses. I would actually recommend you get the 8800 with vibration reduction. If you have been using a 5700 I assume you don't absolutley need depth of field (blurry backgound of focused subject) The VR lens on the nikon 8800 is very helpful and can definately produce images as good as a D50 when you stay under iso 200. Just do the calculations on the price of "35-350 mm equivilant F2.6-F4 VR lens" to be used on a D50. Its an astronomical price. The downside to the 8800 is that images at iso above 200 are pretty bad, but everything is a compromise.

You should be careful to pay attention to whether they are MD or MC. You should also see if they are rokkor-x, rokkor or just plain minolta. For some reason on ebay the rokkor-x stuff gets 10%-15% more then the others, as does the earlier MD lenses. Even if you won't be using film anytime soon I would keep the minolta body and the f1.2 lens. You won't be seeing any f1.2 lenses made by any manufacturer anymore. So if you want some lowlight handheld shots with a film camera you can just use this one minolta kit (it won't take up that much space). I use nikon for AF and digital, but I kept my minolta xe-7 and f1.2 lens just for that reason. You should dump the rest on ebay and make a quick buck. All the other focal legnths that you have can be bought for the canon AF system.

Everybody here quotes B&H as the pricing gospel. Yes $629 USD is a good deal for a 5D with the 18-70mm and 1GD flash card. But $549 for an a200 is an awful deal. I have seen retail chains and online dealers sell it for under $500. Also if you go used you can find some good clean a200's for closer to $400. I would say the A200 is a better deal if you can get a price for under $500 because it has a f2.8 at the wide 28mm and anti-shake. The 5D is f3.5 with the included zoom lens. You have to decide if you need iso above 400, faster autofocus and interchangeble lenses beacuse these are the main advatages of the 5D. Depending on what you shoot you can definately use the A200 under iso 200 and get similar results to the 5D. I am primarily a nikon user for digital and I would recommend the nikon 8800 if you want a prosumer camera like the A200 with anti shake. Nikon has a better flash system, metering and white balance options than minolta in my opinion. But the 5d is good for the built in antishake, with nikon D50 you need a VR lens to get anti-shake. Also at this time the DSLR market is going to get some interesting products comming out in 2006 from olymous/panasonic and minolta/sony. I would wait to see what they bring out as it could quickly devalue DSLR's that are out there right now if you intend to resell. A used A200 or nikon 8800 will always have ludite buyers on ebay etc. They are not going to get much cheaper than they are right now, so I suspect you might be able to near break even on a resale of an a200 or 8800.

"Adding an additional battery grip that offers no other function than an extra battery slot seems a bit silly to me. Would seem a lot easier to me to just carry the extra battery and swap it in when needed"

 

The answer you seek to my silly idea is "foreign travel" I have done some archeologicla work in mexico and vietnam and I have found AA batteries to be the easiest way to have power anywhere anytime. Yes the camera is light and small, but when you can't charge six EN-EL3 batteries in a living in a tent for 2-4 weeks AA's don't seem that bad.

I was thinking about gatting a d50 to use my VR lens. I assumed the battery drain is quite high when that feaure is used. Am I incorrect?

Well, is the D50 ever going to see a battery grip made by nikon or a

3rd party comapany anytime soon?

I have a minolta scan dual III (2800dpi) and I have been hapily using

it for a few years now. Recently I picked up a epson 3490 (3200dpi)

to scan recipts and documents. To my surprise it came with masks for

35mm negaive slide and film. So I decided to try it out, but I

figured that I would never actually use a cheap flatbed for scanning.

After giving it a test run I am finding it hard to distinguish the

output of files. The Epson 3490 appears to be just as good as the

minolta scandual III and in some scans a little better. I know the

scandual III is an old model, but I thought flatbeds didn't scan film

at thier full dpi. Are my observations coorrect?

"Your old Minolta manual focus lenses and any accessories you might have won't work any better on a Minolta DSLR than on a Canon or Nikon DSLR, or a DSLR of any other manufacturer"

 

Your old minolta lenses WILL work on a olympus e-300 or E-1 with the proper adapter. The crop factor is more than 1.5 however. I would hold out just a bit longer before buying a DSLR. Sony is now working with minolta on a DSLR for 2006 and olympus and panasonic are doing the same. Check out this website http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/index.html

Why get a 5900 if you are already a DSLR user? Can you sacrifice the features available in a DLSR, espcially when travelling to new places? Wouldn't an 8400 be better suited to you experience level?

Thanks everyone I just found the nikon flash compatibility chart. It says that the sb-24 can do standard TTL with the 8700. I wa not asking about 3D Multi-Sensor balanced, Multi-sensor balanced or Matrix balanced. I'm not sure why thier info is so much differnt from what some people said on this board. Heres the linkhttp://www.nikon.com.sg/TechSupp/KB/TOPFAQ/Flash_Comp.htm

Craig Bridge, why won't the pseudo TTL on the 8700 work with the sb-24? I see the sb-24 has all the contact pins needed to make it work. I currently use a sb-22s and it works with the limited pseudo TTL on the 8700 why wouldn't the SB-24 be able to do the same it also has the same number of contact pins on the shoe as the sb-22s

I just received a nikon sb-24 in trade for some other stuff and was

thinking about keeping it for use with a nikon 8700. Nikon does not

directly recommend this flash for use with the 8700, they recommend

the SB-800/50DX/30/22s. I am aware that higher voltage ranges can

harm these types of glorified point&shoot cameras. As far as I know

the 22s has a voltage range of 4.9-5.3V which is certainly safe to use

with the 8700 as recommended by nikon. I have been told that the sb-24

has a voltage range of 3.8-5.4V. Is this correct? The sb-24 is quite

old and I would not want to damage the 8700 because I used the sb-24.

Does anybody have any expience using this flash with this camera? Are

there any risks of damage. At this point I think it will be OK, but I

wanted to be sure.

Does it have to be nikon? I was also going to suggest olympus. Olympus is going to make a DSLR in conjunction with panasonic in 2006. Olympus lenses appear to be fairly good investments when compared to nikon. Also adapters are available for the E-1/E-300 to use any, yes ANY, brand of 35mm manual focus lenses on thier digital bodies with full metering and infinity zoom at a 2x crop factor. Also does it have to be 6MP? If you are turning in assignments that are not critical to your portfolio you might be able to get by with a fuji S1 pro. They cost half what a d70 does used.

I just checked with a friend and found out that such an adapter does exist. They allow for infinity lens focusing, NO glass elements, operate at shooting aperture, aperture priority AE or Manual Exposure metering and center weighted metering. For those who took my question seriously and aswered it, Thank you. For those who gave me flack, well it exists, works and has reviews on the web. I really don't know what else to say to you nay'sayers.

Clinton please excuse my terminology. I once bought a sigma screw mount manual 400mm f5.6 lens that said APO on it. I guess I should have just said 400mm f2.8 MD/MC mount without the words APO. Lets not turn this into a "tid for tat" kind of post. I am curious whether an adapter can be made for the olympus E-1/E-300 to use the old manual MC/MD lenses. I am just curious, I am not posting for the sole reason of making clinton angry.

 

So does anybody know if the E-1/E-300 will meter in apeture priority mode without a lens attached or with a adapter to m42 or minolta md/mc?

Yeow Teng Kuah, thats what I was thinking. Running it in Apeture priority mode, but does the meter shut off on the olypus if it does not think a lens is attatched? Of course you wouldn't be able to use your full minolta kit effectively, but those APO f2.8 400mm would be a nice on the E-1/E-300. I think that is a decent enough reason to use an adapter on the E-1/E-300.

I was reading an old post on photo.net and noticed that someone

suggested that the current olympus digital mount on the e-1/e-300 was

large enough to accomodate an adapter for using minolta mc/md manual

focus lenses without the need of an optical element? If someone

machined the actual adpater is the lens mount large enough to fit an

MD/MC lens? How would the E-1/E-300 meter under these circumstances?

 

Before people say to me "just buy a DSLR", I would like it to be know

that I already have. I was just curious about the techincal

limitations of such a suggestion.

So, a 283 will work with two 9v and not damage the flash or affect performance?