g-man1

Just did it using a tiny screwdriver, about 1 mm, and a 3mm screwdriver to hole the vertical rangefinder mechanism back, through the hole behind the Leica sticker. Thanks!

Thank you!

Nice video. Perhaps you can retitle it as "M6 Top Plate Removal and Vertical Rangefinder Adjustment using custom tool." I think you'd get a lot more hits if you mention the vertical rangefinder. Thanks for the post, very helpful, and I hope we see more of this on photo.net. Perhaps the moderator can "sticky" this and your previous post with the photos on how to adjust the vertical rangefinder.

Could you take another pic with your customized screwdriver adjusting the vertical rangefinder? Thanks either way. Nice post.

I've learned to match up the engraving to the top of the camera while mounting the lens.

Get a D700 and an old 80-200mm f/4.5 AIS (I have it and kids and with some practice you'll do well).

On my M8 it would appear at exposures at higher ISO (800 or more) COMBINED WITH shutter speeds 1/30s or shorter. I think you'll find something similar on your D50.

keep the d40 and buy a new lens.

You have a column of dead pixels; a defect in the sensor of the D50. I had this on my M8 (twice!). You need a new sensor or a new camera.

Agree with the lens hood, etc.

BTW, I ended up buying an 80-200mm f/4.5 AI. Why'd you choose the series E over the f/4.5? Thanks.

I just bought an 80-200mm AI f/4.5 zoom manual and it's light, sharp and contrasty. It feels kind of dumb to put a $100 lens on a $3000 D700 until I see the results. Wow! Higher ISO in this case compensates for the lack of VR. The handling of the lens takes some getting used to, though, but has it's benefits.

nice post, Peter Shawhan.

the above look like paintings, not photographs.

Also, in manual mode with the auto-ISO function on, you can set any combination of f-stop and shutter speed and MANY (not all) combos will actually give you a properly exposed picture (I love this mode on Nikons). You can also look through the viewfinder and adjust the f-stop and shutter speed and look at the meter indicator to see how close to the recommended exposure you will be (try this with the auto ISO function off).

I think the D40 and D50 may have better low light performance than the D300 and D200 and D40x; certainly not the D700 (I have had all of them except the D40x). Interesting article here:

http://www.pcphotomag.com/cameras/still-camera-reviews--comparisons/sensors-exposed.html

and nice table here:

http://www.pcphotomag.com/images/stories/2008/julyaug/sensors/image-sensors.jpg

 

Note that the D40/D50 have the second largest pixels of Nikon cameras, second only to the D3/D700.

I didn't know Nikons did that. So changing the aperture on a lens on a leica M6, for example, is not the same deal as changing the aperture on a zoom lens on a D300?

This is what I'm talking about

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/scene/06/index.htm

 

Certainly, the factory might make a difference? Whether staffed by whoever this or that (I said let's avoid jingoism).

Also, the shutter sounds crisper and the mirror black out seems shorter -- but the latter may be an effect of the larger viewfinder.

I was led to believe (on-line readings) that it was made in Thailand, like the D40,D50,D200,D300, etc, were and thought Japan (Sendai plant?) was only for the F6 and the D3 -- hence the surprise. I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing, just a thing -- but I'll be honest and say it was a pleasant surprise for me. Maybe not for someone else.

Got my D700 today. I was surprised to see it's made in Japan, and not Thailand.

 

Also, the top LCD is a lot smaller than the D300 and very similar to the D50's; it has no focus information. The D200

had the best top LCD, I think.

 

The viewfinder is very nice, but a tad smaller than my F6.

 

The grip is still not as nice as the F6's -- too bad.

 

The CF card cover is easier to get at than the switch of the D200/300 -- a good thing for now; and it didn't bother me

in shooting today. I wish they covered it with the grippy rubber of the rest of the body.

 

The focussing spots cover a significantly smaller area now and there's going to be more focus and reframe going on

as compared to the D300.

 

It has auto D-lighting so you don't have to decide between low, normal, high, or off.

 

Oh yeah, image quality on screen is superb and ISO 6400 jpegs on screen seems printable without any extra post-

processing.

 

The rest of the stuff (vignette corrector, level indicator, etc.) I've seen on-line before, but again, the made in Japan

label was a surprise. (spare me the Japan/Thai/whatever jingoism -- just an observation).

You have to turn on the image rotation in the playback/slideshow menu as well to see photos flipped on the LCD. Useless feature, really. I just leave the image rotation on and that way see the image properly in photoshop/bridge/lightroom.

D700 available all day today from B&H. I panicked and bought one this morning. Future small body Dx00 cameras will almost certainly have more megapixels -- translating into most likely smaller pixels and worse low light performance. I'm not likely to trade that in for faster focussing, processing, touch screens, etc. that will come with future upgrades. As an example, consider the finepix series of point and shoot cameras: it's been downhill since the finepix f31fd. I hope this is the last Nikon DSLR I'll have to buy for a long time (having blown through the D50, D40, D200, and now D300).

20 mm /2.8 af: you can crop if you have to.

Forget it, just get a 24mm lens for the d80: less frustrating, lower weight, and better all around.

24-85 af-s ; discontinued recently but may be available new old stock; good optics but no weather sealing and amateur duty construction.