ray

never had any problem with mine (almost a year old now). used it heavily for the last

wedding season ... never skipped a beat.

correction: the download is 8Mb for the Application (and a small readme file) or 140MB if you

want sample images to play with.

Looks like there is competition for Aperture on the horizon. Adobe just released a beta

version of Adobe Lightroom, which attempts to do a fair amount of what Aperture does.

<p>

There is a <a href="http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/video/">20

minute video</a> and a 111MB beta download (for Mac only at the present time) for you

to play with.

<p>

<a href="http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/">http://

labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/</a>

<p>

Two features jump out:

<ol>

<li>No need to import images into a proprietary database. You can leave your files where

they are.

<li>The demo ran 16Mp Raw images on a Powerbook (laptop).

</ol>

<p>

On the other hand, no apparent means of versioning, no support for XMP (yet), definitely

no ability to quickly loupe through thumbnails (without replacing your current displayed

image), no select/stack ability (where Aperture really shines).

<p>

However, when this product finally comes out in late 2006, it would be nice to have some

competition for Aperture and other tools in this space.

<em>You are probably better off as a sole-proprietor than as an LLC, but talk to a tax law

pro to get the answers you need... a lot depends on where you live in the US.</em>

<p>

Conrad is right in his post above. If you are a sole-proprietor (which you are by default if

you do nothing), then you are opening up all your personal assets (your personal checking

account, house, cars, investments, etc.) if you get sued by a bride who doesn't like your

pictures (or if your equipment failed during a wedding). Not so with a LLC -- you create a

veil between your personal assets and your company's assets (which I assume is limited to

the contents of your camera bag and perhaps a computer).

<p>Talk to an accountant, but given how simple it is to become a LLC, it makes no sense

(especially in a litigious society) to be a sole-proprietor.

You need to talk to an accountant or a lawyer to get some basic business start up advice.

<br>

In short:

<ol>

<li> Get a business license from your local government

<li> Get a federal tax id (to separate your business # from you SS#)

<li> Incorporate as a LLC. Check with your accountant. In my state (VA) this is the most

convenient -- all the protection of a Incorporated company yet none of the paperwork. I

just file an additional schedule and attach it to my regular 1040.

<li> File with your local government to get a Sales and Use Tax ID number. With this

number, you can purchase resellable items and not pay a sales tax. Obviously, you don't

want to be stuck paying sales tax on items that you are turning around and selling

(albums, print images, etc.).

At the same time you're responsible for collecting sales tax on all tangible items (albums,

prints, etc.) from your clients and forwarding this to the local government every month or

quarter (depending on what type of coupon book you get). Please consult an accountant as

this varies by state. I believe in other states you have to collect sales tax on the whole

bundle (service + tangible item).

</ol>

<br>

<em> Do I need any of this red tape stuff? </em>

<p>Only if you don't want to get audited by the IRS!

Having owned and used a number of professional bodies from Nikon (F5, D1x, D2h, D2x), I

should point out that out of the box a new camera will have fairly stiff sub-command ring.

This means that you really have to use the muscle on your index finger.

This loosens up with use. It sounds like your "slightly used" F5 barely got a work out. This is

not a bad thing I suppose.

Send it in for repair under warranty. Nikon will remap that pixel to an adjacent pixel and you

will be all set.

<br>

Dead pixels are common in a variety of devices: Cameras, televisions, LCD monitors, etc.

Most manufacturers publicly announce what they consider to be their threshold for replacing

(vs. fixing via remapping). For example Formac's <a href="http://mail.formac.co.uk/webapp/

support_enduser_faq_detail.php?faqID=14">replacement policy</a> is a minimum of 5 - 7

stuck pixels.

Art Leather's Montage Art Book is precisely this. You can print the full page image and they

can laminate the pages together. Alternatively, you can ship them a CD (or even loose cut

images) and they will do all the page assembly, lamination, binding, etc..

http://almkt.com/products/mab.php

yes, such as when the camera is tripod mounted. Shooting a tripod mounted camera with VR

turned on will create a blurry image.

Replacement is a pretty standard way to deal with broken digital equipment. When my iPod

starting acting up, Apple simply replaced it with a new iPod. No complaints, but goes to

show that repairing is often more expensive than replacing.

A short wedding in the US runs about 6 hours. Most weddings, about 8 hours. This does not

include travel time to and from the wedding. Obviously, it's important to price the wedding

packages accordingly, as we can only shoot one wedding/event a day.

You accidentally dragged the shutter. Set your shutter speed to 125 or 250 and retake that

flash shot. You will be fine; this is normal behavior for slow shutter speeds and flash. The

sharp image comes from the flash and the blurry ghosting comes from the ambient

exposure.

Btw, this happens on film and digital, so it's nothing specific to your new toy.

Tony hit the nail on the head. Both cameras are excellent and at the end of the day the

photographer will make or break the image.

Go with the camera that is more comfortable to look through (viewfinder quality), easier to

hold (with the appropriate lens on) and in your budget.

Go with the Journaled Mac OS Extended file system. The performance hit is not noticeable

unless you're trying to squeeze every last ounce of write performance out of your system.

Even then, I'd rather have a system that can recover from a crash.

I believe that on the boot disk, you don't have an option -- it has to be journaled.

Completely worth it.

Sounds like double profiling. The printer driver has to be set to "no color correction" or

something similar. Are you setting the color space in PS *and* the printer driver? If so, that's

the problem.

You'll be fine. My 4000 sits on a table which sits on a carpet. I'm pretty sure it's not dead

level, but level enough so that a pen won't roll off the desk.

I think Epson is referring to a significant tilt. When we moved the 4000 in to my office, we

had to tilt it 90 degrees to get it in through the door. This caused ink (probably from testing

in the factory) to leak out the back (the exhaust vent). I wiped it off quickly and it's been

performing flawlessly since.

Usually, but not always. I've been to some pretty dimly lit churches, where the shutter speed

was about 1/4 to 1/8th of a second. Even the tripod mounted camera picked up motion blur

from the subjects at the altar.

The 70-200 VR is an essential tool for wedding photography; but it's not a cure all.

Be very careful, as you're headed down a very slippery slope. You are going to be the

ONLY vendor who is not going to get paid. Will the florist show up with flowers without

upfront payment? Will the caterers show up with food and cake without upfront payment?

Will the reception hall be rented out without upfront payment? Will the DJ show up without

upfront payment?

The fact is, after the day of the ceremony, the ONLY vendor left without payment, is going

to be you.

I have brides who haven't called to even see their proofs for up to six months after the

wedding. No idea why. Fortunately, I collect my money upfront, so this is nothing more

than a scheduling annoyance.

If family members take acceptable (in their eyes, not yours) pictures, you may very well

never get paid (especially with an out of state client).

Lastly, you're about to spead the word of mouth, that you show up for free. That's a hard

rep to beat.

From Dulles, drive south on Rt. 28 past Herndon. On the left hand side (near Route 50) is

Sully Plantation. Beautiful old buildings, acres of foliage. Oh yeah, it's free. About 15 minute

drive from Dulles on Rt. 28 south.

The extra file size of the TIFF buys you nothing extra (other than the time saved of having to

batch convert all your RAW files to TIFF). I recommend shooting RAW (if you workflow

permits that) and then converting to TIFF or JPEG depending on the images final destination

(web, small print, large print, etc.).

The RAW file, by definition, has the most amount of information and the largest tolerance for

image editing.

I think you can safely ignore Epson's expire by date. Just remember to shake the cart before

putting it in -- this will prevent the pigments from settling.

I've owned both lenses and I kept the 70-200 for it's additional versatility. You can see

Bjorn's comparison of the two lenses <a href="http://www.naturfotograf.com/

lens_zoom_03.html#AFS80-200f2.8">here</a>.

I use a Quantum 2x2 battery back with the SB-800 and even after a full burst (as in Manual),

the flash recycles in 1 second. In fact, Quantum warns not to push the flash too hard as the

continues fast recycling at full power will burn out the flash from heat.

In anycase, very effective and no SB-800 (or any flash) should be without a Quantum 2x2 if

you do any kind of nightime or fill-flash photography.

<em>I am just disappointed that this seems to be normal and accepted. </em>

<p>

I'm not sure how you expect Nikon or anyone else to keep dust out of the camera? Even if

Nikon were to make the camera in clean room environments (which would result in the

camera being sold at Leica like prices), you would probably get dust in the camera the

VERY FIRST TIME you took a shot! Merely using a zoom lens will push and pull air (and

dirt) into the camera body.

<p>

As others have said, take two minutes to learn how easy it is to clean the sensor (takes me

under a minute to wipe down the sensor) and get back to photography. I can assure you

that your camera will come back from Nikon with the dust spot simply moved to another

location.

<p>

Out of curiosity, how on earth did you deal with dirt before digital came along? Did you

send your slides back to Kodak because they had dirt on them after processing?