iwong

<p>Sorry about the double post and lack of a picture. Upload failed for some reason.</p>

<p>Clear skies are only more frequent in the summer months - here is a view from the Victoria Peak:</p>

 

<p>The best time to shoot skyscrapers in Hong Kong is between the months of June to September/October, where the southern wind from the sea blows all the air pollutants out of the way for clear skies. But these are also the hottest and most humid months for travelling. Take your pick. December through April is mainly just hazy and foggy, with lots of pollution from factories to the north across the border with China mixed in.</p>

<p>The recent trend has been that companies like to announce that they are going to be making an annoucement about some future product annoucements. Phew.</p>

 

<p>I have both the D300 and D700, the 17-55/2.8 and 24-70/2.8. I have tried using the 24-70/2.8 on the D300 to see how they match up, and the results are great. It depends on the venue of course, but I found it intriguing that in most of the cases where you thought you need wider than 24mm (36mm equivalent in DX), it could be solved by using your feet and backing up. Don't take me wrong though, you need wider lenses than 24 (=36/DX) for a pro wedding job, but if you have other lenses to cover the range, you're all set.</p>

<p>I'd say go buy a used D50 as a last resort backup, assuming you already have two late model DSLR's as your primary/backup working cameras.</p>

<p>Besides the CN Tower and the downtown area around the waterfront, there is not much else to do sightseeing-wise as it is too cold to walk outside during December. Toronto is a huge city, if you count all the surrounding suburbs. You really have to go out of Toronto to explore the more interesting things. Will you be renting a car? Public transportation such as subway and connecting buses may be available, but will take a lot of time. If you will be driving out, for example, the little town of Unionville (Main Street and Highway 7) is very beautiful, but depending on if you get snow cover on the ground (less chance in December, but snow fall and accumulation is always unpredictable).</p>

<p>I think Toronto (and Vancouver) has the largest congregation of Chinese outside of China. And in many of the "Chinatowns" in Toronto, you'll find the highest concentration at the Market Village and Pacific Mall block at Steeles Ave and Kennedy Road. There you can find very authentic Chinese cuisine and shopping. This can be a welcome break if you find walking outside to be too cold. But be prepared to deal with traffic and parking problems as the two malls (right beside each others) will be VERY crowded especially on weekends and holidays.</p>

 

<p>It's a whole new different ball game if you start charging people for money for portraits. While I'm sure you have the talents to be a good photographer, IMHO you need to first brush up your skills and techniques before you upgrade to a more sophisticated camera body. A D3X can certainly be used in 'P' (point-and-shoot, or "Program") mode, but it wouldn't be worth your money if you didn't know how to tweak any of the settings to your advantage. Shooting in the field is pressure. While you can leave everything at its default setting and shoot in 'P' mode, but let's say you accidentally bumped something and now suddenly every picture you shoot has a severe blue color cast to them, do you know what possibly could have gone wrong and do you know how to troubleshoot it before it's too late?</p>

<p>If you have aperture openings as small as f/9 or f/13, maybe you shouldn't have used ISO100 (L1.0) on the D300 either. First thing first, defraction limits will cause your photos to soften up and loss of details will result. The optimal aperture for most lenses tend to be in the f/4 to f/8 range, regardless of DX or FX format. Stopping further down will hit the "rules of diminishing returns" where any gains in depth-of-field will be wiped out by defraction effects.</p>

<p>Secondly, when shot at their base ISO's (200), both the D300 and D700 are remarkably noise-free. I have both bodies and often use them together. I would have a hard time telling which image was shot with which body without looking at the EXIF data, if both were shot using their base ISO. The mottling of your background may be just the texture of the background itself?</p>

<p>I use a lens hood to protect my lens when the camera is out. I put on the lens cap when I am not shooting, and take it off when I am. I feel this is the best protection and compromise.</p>

<p>I only use a filter when there is a creative effect that can't be done in post processing, such as a polarizer to eliminate reflections and/or darken a blue sky. Otherwise considering the conditions that I often shoot in, a "protection" filter is just an unnecessary expense, both in terms of to the wallet and to the image.</p>

<p>[Original poster] Some new updates.</p>

<p>This new policy has only been in effect since August 2010, so experiences earlier than that may not be valid any more.</p>

<p>This incident has been widely reported in Hong Kong's news media, so the case of a single corrupt official is very unlikely. Further to that, Chinese customs may be concentrating on the border between Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) and the mainland, as it is a very popular route for smugglers to sneak in electronic goods from the tax-free region of Hong Kong into the mainland. Don't know about flights from other countries landing at Chinese airports though.</p>

<p>A news update today says that the man was charged duties because he failed to declare his iPad. As long as you declare it, you don't pay duties. But the customs officials will still inspect and make sure it is really for personal use. So the onus is on the traveller to declare. Failure to declare, even if the inspection found out that it is not brand new and for personal use, will still result in duties/penalties. Harsh you would say, because many people don't pay attention to those immigration/declaration forms, so traveller beware.</p>

<p>I am heading to Beijing in December. Recently I've heard in the news that some guy was forced to pay import duties on his personal iPad even though he showed the customs officer that it was for his personal use, and that it was opened (i.e. not brand new in box), already contains personal files and data, but was still charged 1000RMB (almost US$200) in duties. We understand that China is trying very hard to clamp down smuggling, but this is way beyond reasonable as the guy wasn't carrying tons of them unopened in box across the border for obvious for profit resell.</p>

<p>The restrictions of course not just apply to iPad's, as we know supply is strained, but to other electronic "goods" as well. Now does anyone who has recently been to mainland China experienced difficulty in bring camera equipment into the country? I am afraid this sort of unreasonable policy might just open a huge can of worms for every tourist who might bring a camera (and maybe a few lenses) who could conceivably be charged several thousand RMB in duties just to shoot some vacation photos.</p>

<p>P.S. He was passing through the Hong Kong SAR land border from trains. Not sure if the policy is any different if you fly in and land at airports though.</p>

 

<p>Camera gear shouldn't be subject to duties, it's only the local taxes that the receiving party's government will collect. In any case, ship by Canada Post and use SpeedPost. Avoid any of the couriers who charges a "brokerage fee", e.g. FedEx, UPS, DHL etc. You can use the upgraded service that includes the brokerage fees, but when SpeedPost is comparably fast why pay extra? Unless you are in a real hurry.</p>

<p>What currency are you talking about? $400 to $650 may be ok for a wide angle lens, as long as it isn't constant f/2.8 max aperture (like the 14-24/2.8, 17-35/2.8, etc.) but $700 for a 400/500mm telephoto? Add an extra zero at your money figure to be more realistic, unless you are talking about used and manual focus, and even that would be a stretch. </p>

<p>It would be wrong to assume that at 17mm and f/2.8 the depth-of-field will be enough to not require precise focusing. Well it *may* be true at web viewing sizes, but not more than that.</p>

<p>Which camera body do you have? Its ability in tracking focus on moving subjects goes up with its price, in general. A D300/300s does that better than the D90, for example. Also, its complexity also goes up, since there are a lot more parameters that you can tweak to adjust the camera's behavior which will affect your keeper rate.</p>

<p>I don't care about video on DSLR's, and will never "upgrade" my system just because of this "feature". Shooting video is an entire different ball game, although I certainly understand the convenience aspect of not having to carry another camera just to shoot video. No matter how fine the resolution (e.g. 1080p vs. 720p) or how high the frame rate is (e.g. 30p), without proper stabilizing rigs, the final product will be decidedly amateurish. Now would you like to carry an extra tripod, or at least an extra video fluid head, to shoot decent video on your vacation? How about a stabilizing shoulder support? Some of these things cost as much as a f/2.8 zoom lens just to start, and it goes UP from there.</p>

<p>If you just want to shoot amateurish video (albeit at a high resolution and high frame rate) there are tons of consumer level, pocketable videocams out there that don't weigh much more than your DSLR kit lens.</p>

<p>Some cameras have this feature built-in, but they are not Nikon DSLR's. They will still have to be done this way, by taking several shots at different exposures (shutter speeds), and merge them together using software algorithms. Ghosting does appear if camera/subject movement is involved. The degree of customizing the tone curve will be very limited when done in-camera versus in post processing.</p>

<p>Tin Cheung's website prices are not reflective on real street prices, as even the in-store prices are sometimes 5-10% cheaper, for official imports. Grey imports are cheaper still. Many of the prominent dealers who show prices on their websites have the same practice - they rather post higher prices on the websites and have lower prices in store.</p>

<p>One thing that makes comparing prices in Hong Kong frustrating is that even among the same chain, prices do vary among different branches. Beware also on items that are not in stock. If you manage to find an item that is say 10% cheaper than everybody else's, make sure it is not backordered.</p>

<p>I am sure you have done homework on the airline's carryon policy as well as checked baggage allowance. One thing you can get away with is equipment you carry in your pockets do not count as carryon. I know most airlines today have draconian carryon policies - how the hell do you limit yourself to only 7kg of carryon stuff - the carryon case itself, empty, can sometimes weigh more than half that - what more can you carry inside? Just wear an oversized coat, with lots of pockets, and put your lenses, portable hard drives, P&S, and your travel documents, in the coat pockets. You only have to do this after you go through security (to avoid appearing strange looking with bulging pockets), and at the waiting area at the boarding gate. After you board the plane, put back all the stuff in the carryon case and sit comfortably.</p>

<p>From my experience, gate agents usually only raise issues with passengers with oversized carryon bags/cases, and require them to gate-check it, but rarely weigh them for overweight unless the passenger appears really struggling with the piece.</p>

<p>There are two many factors at play here to cause a subject shot at f/1.2 to be out of focus, more than just the slight geometric error introduced in focus-then-recompose. For example, if you shot handheld, or your subject is a human and not a fixed object, then a slight movement of you or your subject will result in out of focus. The depth of field is so paper thin even the slightest movement of the subject's head will cause the focus to be off, such as the nose becoming in focus instead of the closest eye. Trying to be dead accurate in this situation is futile.</p>

<p>Let's put it this way, Nikon finally does something Canon has already been doing for years, with the G?? series. Unless Nikon breaks new ground I don't think I'm interested. The Coolpix might have a wider zoom range but it's the wide end where it's lacking. If Nikon does something that starts at 24mm equivalent and max aperture at f/2.0 or thereabouts, whoa, they would finally do something Panasonic has already done for several years, with the LX3/LX5...</p>

<p>Nikon should capitalize on the relative obscurity of the Sigma DP2s or Leica X1 and come up with a large-sensor compact that has top-notch image quality from a fixed lens or a narrow-range zoom lens that is fast.</p>

<p>Until such thing exists, I'm happy with my Fuji F30 compact.</p>

<p>Digital has helped boost photographic equipment sales in the past decade, including bodies and lenses, and Nikon (and Canon, etc) can charge as much as they are allowed to get away with, and that's just normal business. Back in the film days, only a few of my friends own SLRs and even fewer are real enthusiasts (e.g. shoot more than a few rolls per month.) Now with digital, almost everyone has a DSLR. You can imagine how many more lenses the companies can sell due to this growth. This is just demand and supply.</p>

<p>To see Algonquin Park you really do need to plan ahead and book a camp site and stay for a few nights. Although the park is within driving distance in a single day from Toronto, the park is huge. It is bigger than some European countries and maybe as large as some states in the US. All the camp sites are usually booked full a few months before the arrival of summer so you have to book real early.</p>

<p>Canon and Nikon stuffs are not any cheaper in HK than in other countries, except maybe Australia and NZ. US and Canadian prices are sometimes cheaper, but sales taxes tend to even out the differences, depending on which state/province. So you mostly end up paying the same everywhere. The major thing you have to watch out for is warranty. Does the item you buy in HK have international warranty? You have to ask the staff. Sometimes grey import items are available, but only the store warranty is provided. For a complex AF-S lens, I would look for an international warranty with at least the same length as provided as if it were purchased in your home country.</p>

<p>If you do decide to buy in HK, Tin Cheung as mentioned above is a reliable shop, along with the chain stores like Broadway, Fortress, Citicall, Chung Yuen etc. Wing Shing and Man Shing at Mongkok are frequented by locals, and recently have grown in reputation to be the "B&H of Hong Kong". However, due to a large influx of mainland China tourists, customer service levels have declined. Absolutely avoid any shops in busy tourists areas like Nathan Road, TST that don't display a real shop name but have prominent neon signs of "SONY", "Nikon", "SAMSUNG" and "TAX FREE" which are mostly scams and employ bait-and-switch tactics.</p>

<p>From the original two pictures in Amsterdam, it looks like it is cloudy so an exposure of ISO 200, f/8 and 1/200 shutter speed sounds about right, maybe a bit underexposed. If the aperture lever on the lens fails to stop down, it would have stuck at f/2.8, causing the overexposure. By manually forcing an underexposure by -2.0EV, it brought things back to sort of normal. This is definitely a lens problem.</p>