alan_chan4

<p>I cannot help but feel that the person you hired wasn't a real photographer. Quite possible he's displaying other people's pictures on his website then prey for victims (just so common these days). I won't waste time dealing with him anymore. If you plan to seek legal action, do it now. I bet he's counting on people would give up quietly and there are many other victims.</p>

<p>It's probably a Mamiya M6 or M7 which is a different beast from SLR. It can be used at lower shutter speed due to the lack vibration. 1/15s is not impossible with skill since the FL is short to start with. For landscape, a tripod will benefit greatly due to the huge amount of details but for portrait, why not?</p>

<p>Depends on where you are. Many Pentax distributors sell spare parts at reasonable prices. If you wish to have your flash working in no time, just contact the Pentax parts department and ask for the flash shoe. However, you will need to sent the flash in for warranty claim. Also, Pentax flash shoe is thinner than other brands so they are more fragile but might not be a bad thing because it is far cheaper to replace the flash shoe than the camera top.</p>

<p>Just buy a replacement shoe from Pentax and replace it yourself. 4 screws off and that's all.</p>

<p>It will be a simple repair. Just sent it to service centre.</p>

<p>Hi! I just got the Epson 1400 and installed the Precision Colors dye ink (not CIS) and re-routeed the waste ink to ext bottle. Everything is working fine but as been said before, this printer drinks ink. I have noticed how much ink is being deposited in the ext bottle and makes me wonder, should I just leave the printer on and let it sleep (1.2Watt?), or should I turn it off (0.2Watt?) when not being used. Is the print head parked the same either way? My Brother MFC will self-clean so clogging is never an issue. Does 1400 do that? The puzzling part is that the printer doesn't seem to clean the nozzle every time being turned on, just some times, and I have not figured out a pattern.<br /><br />I have been profiling (Spyder3Print) with a few glossy papers that I have and "Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy / Photo RPM" seems to work best. Some old Fujifilm Premium plus Glossy 250gsm swellable papers have serious puddling issue with this printer when not using "Photo RPM" which helps a lot but still puddles slightly with some darker colours but this is as slow as I can make it to print. When doing alignment, it becomes clear the paper is unable to absorb bigger drops of ink and bleed (like non-RPM mode). Also, I have found this issue is greatly affected by room temperature. If it drops below 20C, it can be quite bad. Maybe that's the reason swellable papers are being phased out? Can swellable paper age?<br /><br />Also, anyone using Canon PP-201 (Plus II) or PT-101 (Pro Platinum) papers with this printer. How are they compared and any extra tips on using this printer? My biggest concern is fade resistance but I do like glossy and don't print often enough to justify expensive pigment printer, or run the 1400 with pigment ink which is said to clog more often if left unused. These 2 papers are on special right now and I might stock them up if they don't age like swellable with good fade resistance with dye (I know that's not ideal). Any advice is appreciated.</p>

<p>A little fantasy is alright for the boring life...</p>

<p>Can't tell w/o the full size scan but it could be dust spots or dead/hot pixels of the CCD. When it scans, the whole strap of CCD moves horizontally to produce the whole scan. That's why they appear as horizontal lines. It could also be the mirror but less likely. OEM softwares usually have the ability to mask off hot/dead pixels but Vuescan can't.</p>

<p>Their double elements close-up filters are good and pricey. Whether they worth the cost depends on what lenses you have.</p>

<p>If you don't mind buying online, you will find much better deals at maxsaver.net. Quality wise, I prefer HOYA over Kenko filters even though they should be the same (but they are not based on my experience). I recommend HOYA HD CPL if you can afford.</p>

<p>I just hate anything Gold from Kodak. For portrait, don't forget Fujifilm Pro 160C/S & 400H too.</p>

<p>Between non-IS 2.8 & IS 4, I would take the IS every time. Another consideration is the weight & size. The 2.8 is substantially bulkier & heavier than the 4 IS. If you really want the f2.8, at least check out the actual lens b4 buying just in case.</p>

<p>Yeah I have contacted B&H for exchange. Another $20 to the cost. :(</p>

<p>Thanks George for the tips.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. Yes I can see both sides of the rivets so replaced them with screws & locknuts could be an option when needed. Since I am in Canada, shipping them back for replacements won't be cheap, and my instinct suggests this might be the norm for Manfrotto lightstands so pushing for exchange might yield nothing. Not that I am really concerned, just that I haven't seen enough lightstands to know better. I thought the more expensive Avenger would be better made than the Manfrotto brand. Guess I was wrong.</p>

<p>If you are using Windows, everything will look oversaturated except colour profile aware softwares like Photoshop etc. But for this to work, you will have to profile the monitor using i1D2 or Spyder3 etc. Firefox is able to display profile embedded jpegs correctly by default. To force it to display all jpegs correctly even those w/o embedded profile, you have to set gfx.color_management.mode to 1 (default is 2).</p>

<p>This is probably a silly question but I have 2 lightstands - Manfrotto Nano and Avenger A625B (both Made in Italy). Both have a few rivets look like this. Is this a practical concern that they might just break away after years of harsh use?</p><div></div>

<p>Could it be the batteries being used were killing the flashes? 5 dead flashes in a row is very rare.</p>

<p>I have been using i1d2 with w7 64bit w/o issue. Have you downloaded the latest version?</p>

<p>i1D2 is not very accurate in keeping the targeted brightness. You can work around this but adjusting the monitor brightness to 120 in advance mode, but run the rest of the calibration by re-choosing "no change". This way, the calibration result will be much closer to 120.</p>

<p>This is what you need.<br>

http://www.pbase.com/tobbenh/40dshutter</p>

<p>Yes it is normal for this zoom and commonly known. Mine was like that too when new.</p>

<p>It is so sad professionals are buying off the shelf gears for their jobs. Real pros built all their gears from bits and pieces. They should melt, cut, ground and coat their own lenses. Pros with L zooms & Zeiss primes? They should be ashamed.</p>

<p>On the plus side, the flash memory will probably survive. :)</p>

<p>Any cloth will do imho, I even use toilet papers. Often it's the dirt that scratch the lenses, not the cloth or paper. Except for lenspen, I avoid wipe the lens dry. Personally I hate Kodak Lens paper (or any lens papers) which are ineffective and difficult to use. These are based on 2 decades of personal experience.</p>