bill_chiarchiaro

Diane asked:

<p>"Does any place rent out digital SLRs that sell between $800 and $1200?"

<p>Check with <a href="http://www.zeffphoto.com">Zeff Photo Supply (www.zeffphoto.com)</a> in Belmont, MA. One of their rental categories is "Semi-pro digital camera kits."

<p>--Bill

Whoops --- "thanks"

--Bill

Dick: Thanks for the pointer to the Zing strap, but that wasn't quite what I was looking for (I have used a similar strap on SLR bodies).

Nadine: That's just what I was looking for! One of the searches I had done at B&H and Adorama used the words "strap" and "tripod." A search for "strap" and "1/4" would have achieved a hit.

Nick: Thank's for the fanny pack suggestion.

--Bill

Has anyone seen a wrist strap that has either a 1/4" (ISO) tripod stud

or a cold flash shoe on its end? I'm looking for a way to hang a

Nikon SB-800 flash from my wrist. A strap with a shoe could attach

directly to the flash; one with a tripod stud could attach via an

AS-19 plate.

I once heard a mention of such straps, but I've found nothing

searching the B&H and Adorama Web sites.

Thanks,

--Bill

Bill,

I ordered a Visible Dust Econo 1.6X Kit on Feb. 9. I haven't received it yet, but I'll use it the next time my D70 needs cleaning. So, if you haven't seen a first-hand report in the meantime, send me an email in a month or so.

Up until now, I've been using the Copper Hill method. I expect that I'll continue to use that in combination with the Visible Dust method, at least for a while, but I'm considering changing to the new version of the Photographic Solutions Sensor Swabs (in combination with the Econo Kit).

--Bill

Olivier asked:

"How do you measure the amount of shots (cycles?) taken on your camera? (mine's a Nikon D70)."

The D70 encodes a shutter count into the EXIF data. Different EXIF viewers do or don't show this (I use 'exiftool', which does). I'm not certain, but I think this count is greater than zero on a brand-new camera, probably already including some factory test exposures.

Also, if you set your D70's "File No. Seq." setting appropriately (see page 159 of the manual), then a glance at the filename of your most recent photo will tell you the exposure count (modulo 10,000).

--Bill

The charger that came with my USA D70 last March has an input range of 100-240V and 50-60Hz. Of course it came with a USA (North American?) style power cord, but that's easy to deal with.

I'll leave the software question to others; I expect that since last March, Nikon has updated what they ship.

--Bill

Back in October, there were two threads about a strange behavior of

the 17-55mm DX when autofocusing for a long time in continuous-servo

mode with the lens set to 35mm:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009jqB

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009pz3

Obviously the original poster encountered the behavior in actual use,

but have others (who use continuous-servo) run into it without

explicitly looking for it?

Has anyone seen that behavior at all in a more recently purchased lens?

Thanks,

--Bill

Ilkka,

Which Kaiser ballhead are you using?

Thanks,

--Bill

Ilkka,

Thanks for posting these images; they're quite revealing.

--Bill

Ditto on the thanks to Todd (and to Shun and Lex). Forum moderation is a heavy load to carry.

--Bill

You might get better results by not using an external subject for setting the diopter adjustment. Instead, aim the camera at a blank area, or throw the lens's focus way off, and set the diopter adjustment to make the viewfinder's autofocus brackets and grid lines be crisp and sharp.

However you do it, do it with some speed. If you take too long in judging the adjustment, your eye can accommodate for an incorrect setting.

--Bill

See:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00AUBk

These lines are mentioned in the D70's instruction manual.

--Bill

I believe the examples shown on outbackphoto.com are instances of aliasing due to high spatial frequencies (i.e. fine detail) in the scenes. April's example shows an artifact even in an area that doesn't have fine detail (the skin on the cheek).

For some more information, take a look at:

http://bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM

go to the section called "Exposure," and look at the paragraph that begins "Where there is a difference..."

--Bill

April,

I have seen mentions of grid patterns on D70 images in certain circumstances, but I can't say if those were the same as what you're seeing. While I don't know for sure if it's the culprit in your case, I'm suspicious of the high shutter speed that you used. High shutter speeds on the D70 can lead to a number of image artifacts.

I'd suggest trying a slower shutter speed. If you really need that wide f/3.2 aperture for depth of field control, then you could try setting your strobes to lower power or moving them farther from your subject. Another possibility would be to use a neutral density filter.

Good luck,

--Bill

Guy mentioned the Adobe PSD file format; the equivalent in gimp is the XCF file format.

--Bill

_ Cálico _ wrote:

"I am under the impression (and I do not own a "G" lens) that besides the missing focusing ring on the "G" lens"

A G lens does have a focusing ring. What it doesn't have is an aperture ring.

--Bill

John,

If you are trying gimp, you should also have a look at ufraw:

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net

It's a raw (e.g. NEF) converter plug-in for gimp, based on dcraw. It has some very nice features, and it's in active development. It can apply the in-camera curve, or other curves, to the converted image, it has flexible white balance controls, and the latest version has added support for color profiling.

I'm using it on Unix computers, but I see there is an MS Windows version available. It is a free program.

--Bill

If you have time, you might consider getting Nikon's SJ-1 color filter set for the SB-600 and SB-800 (a subset of these filters come with the SB-800). The set includes two types of filters for attempting to match the flash's light to fluorescent lights. That way, both foreground and background can be better balanced. There are probably other sources of filter materials for doing the same thing.

I do wonder if the arena's lights are actually fluorescent. I'd guess they're mercury vapor, metal halide, or high-pressure sodium. Still, some sort of filter on the flash could help.

--Bill

Roland,

I'm pretty much set on getting the 500D; it looks like a natural choice for the 70-200mm.

I am still curious about the Kenko tubes, because they might have their uses too. Based on what Joe wrote, it would make sense that these tubes would have all 10 contacts, but there might be more to it than that. Kenko says that "Nikon 'D' information is not transmitted because the lens is focusing closer than it's programmed to focus." Okay, sounds reasonable, but how do they prevent transmission of the D information? By omitting one of the contacts?

AF-D lenses have 5 contacts, as does an AF (non-D) lens that I have. So, I infer that there isn't a contact that's dedicated to the D data. Do the Kenkos have a chip that modifies the data stream? Boy, I doubt it. Maybe one of the 5 contacts on the plain AF lenses is unused.

The next time I'm at B&H I'll take a look at the Kenkos.

--Bill

Here's another possibility, if you can wait for it to hit the market, and if you don't mind the price:

http://thinktankphoto.com/

See the "Airport Addicted Backpack."

--Bill

Argh! I had scanned Roger's message a second time, trying to remember if he had written that his current lens isn't long enough --- and I missed it. I agree that if he needs something fast and longer than 200mm, then the 70-200mm with a converter wouldn't be the first choice.

--Bill

Roger,

I haven't used it for indoor sports, but I'm very happy with my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. I've used it on a D70 for candid portraits, wildlife, and cycling races. The results have been excellent. I've used it both "bare" and with the TC-14E II converter, and the results with the converter are still excellent. VR is questionable for moving subjects, but it probably is helpful in panning shots. It's definitely helpful for handheld, low-light shots of stationary subjects.

The lens and converter together are about $1,850.00.

Flare and ghosting are problems for this lens, but I've yet to encounter them in my own work. Just lucky, I guess...

Some people complain that this is a long, heavy lens. Yes, for the first few days that I used it, my left arm did get a little sore. That's no longer the case; muscles do adapt.

--Bill

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

Joe: Interesting thoughts about using the Nikon close-up lenses. You also wrote:

"The AF-S and VR do work just fine with the latest Kenko tubes (latest means within the last 4 years or so, when they made a running change to the design). Despite what the Kenko website says."

Have you used them with AF-S and VR yourself? Aside from trying them with an AF-S or VR lens, is there a way to distinguish the latest Kenko tubes from the earlier ones?

--Bill

Roland,

Thanks for the comments. No, the Kenko tubes do not retain AF with AF-S lenses, and I assume they don't support VF either.

The 500D does seem to have several advantages of convenience over the tubes (including smaller volume, for traveling light), but I've seen several comments, in books and on the Web, that close-up lenses do cause noticeable degradation in image quality. However, I don't recall any of these specifying whether they're referring to simple close-up lenses or achromatic close-up lenses such as the 500D. Duncan's results seem to belie image quality problems with the 70-200mm / 500D combination.

The 500D is the only 77mm achromatic close-up lens, of any brand, that I know of. Does anyone know of others?

Thanks,

--Bill