ben_hutcherson

No, I don't mean the two button reset(two green buttons at the same time) as I do that habitually on something new to me. That only resets a relatively small sub-set of the available settings. I mean a 100% reset to how it would have come out of the box new.

I feel like I have encountered this procedure somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. I pretty much live on used DSLRs, and of course after I've had one for a few months they tend to end up how I eventually want them configured. I have my standard settings that I use across the board(generally BBAF, aperture setting via aperture ring, a few others, plus figuring out how things like 3D tracking work on a particular body since that's the mode I use 90% of the time for most situations). It seems with each new generation of body, though, there are fewer and fewer things that actually get reset with a "two button reset."(the regular hold down the two green dot buttons). Sometimes on a new to me body I would love to just revert it to how it would have been out of the box. My most recent acquisition was a D4(literally two days ago) and I'm still working my way through. I have some familiarity with bodies of this generation as a D800 was my first "good" DSLR and I know it shows the D4 AF engine and the like, but I'm also a bit out of practice as my main pairing now is the D850/D5. I'd have loved to have done a reset when I got my D5 also. Especially with the pro bodies I know users often take advantage of their pretty extensive customizability to make them work for them, and it's great that the option is there but they also do SO much now that I want them to be customized the way I want them to work... I've been Googling this morning with no luck. I have Thom Hogan's D5 guide and thought it discussed it in there, but I can't seem to find that at the moment.

I'm looking for XQD cards specifically-not CFExpress(I have plenty of those and know where to get them) but XQD. This is to help support a recent D4 purchase where CFe isn't an option. Basically I'm open to anything anyone may have-Sony or Lexar(I think those are the only brands that made them) and anything from the 16gb freebies that came with the D4 all the way up to 240gb or however big they got. If anyone has one of the Sony USB XQD readers of any generation they would want to sell, I'd also be interested in that. I have a Velok brand one now that does CFe and XQD both, but don't care for it for several reasons so would like the proper Sony unit.

Okay, I just found a setting that allows flash to be turned on/off completely. I turned it on set to manual/front(I'm assuming that's front curtain sync). I'll try again in a bit and report. I can't say I'd ever encountered the ability to disable flash sync...

I'll update this thread as I experiment a bit, but I noticed something odd a little while ago and I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this. I do a decent number of what you might call macro/product photos. Most are just sharing photos of things I collect, but sometimes to list on Ebay or other sites. I have a well-worked formula for this with my Norman strobes. Normally I use a Nikon DSLR(lately it's been my D810 but whatever I have at hand) and either a 55mm or 105mm Micro depending on exactly what I'm photographing. Since I tend to not move the lights/umbrellas that often or only in specific cases, I know the exposure and how to get a properly exposed photo. Basically it's set the camera to flash sync speed, set to base ISO, and set the aperture to give me proper exposure(usually f/16 to f/32 set on the lens depending on magnification, and will turn down the lights if I want to minimize diffraction or turn them up if I want more DOF). I connect the strobes to whatever camera I'm using with(relatively) ancient at least by 2023 standards with Quantum 4/4i radio slaves. They work, are simple, and have never let me down so I'm not really looking to change them even if there may be "better" options out there. I decided today to use my month-old X-T5. I've used this camera a decent bit-to the tune of about 3500 frames in various situations-since getting it and it has worked fine. I don't have a dedicated Fuji macro lens for it, so used my K&F Concepts F mount adapter. This is a "dumb" adapter, but does allow manual aperture control. Actually it even has click stops so you can sort of use G lenses with it, but I normally just use it to open the aperture for focusing and composition and the close for shooting. I've not used it a lot, but do know everything works fine with it provided I do my part. In any case, I set everything up using an 55mm f/3.5 AI Micro, set it to f/16 as a starting point(I usually start here then use the histogram to nail exposure by trial and error-I'm not in a hurry most of the time with this), camera at ISO 125 and shutter speed dial at 250. I stuck a hotshoe mount Quantum transmitter in the shoe, tested the set up manual(flash fired with the test button on the transmitter) and proceeded to photograph. To be clear, I have used this exact set-up with these same components as recently as Sunday, only changing out the camera body for a D810. The camera would not fire the flash from the hot shoe. I've experimented a bit more. I do not have a dedicated Fuji flash, but I put my SB-900 set to M in the hot shoe and it wouldn't fire. I plugged the Quantum trigger into the PC port and no luck. I plugged a Metz 76 MZ-5 into the PC port. Nothing. I've tried switching over to the only native lens I have-the 16-80 f/4. Also, in all of this, I've tried a variety of different shutter speeds, although nothing above 1/250. I realize the camera has no way of know that a flash is connected, but I've also never had a camera where the basic "dumb" flash connections like the PC port and the center/rail connections on the hot shoe didn't fire the flash. Am I missing something here? Is there a setting to enable flash function buried somewhere in the menus? Or do I have an issue with my camera? For reference, again, camera was bought new in box(16-80 kit) from B&H Photo with an order date of 5/15 and delivery date of 5/17.

I've watched on and off for a 200mm Micro for a while, as it's supposed to be outstanding. ~$900 seems to be the going rate-quite telling for an AF-D lens to still be that pricey IMO-and even though I'm certainly not averse to spending that much on a lens it's been a lot of back and forth for me to see it makes sense for me for that particular lens. I LOVE the 105mm f/2.8D Micro. In fact in actual macro use I tested it a fair bit along side the AF-S VR version I briefly owned and found the D lens better from about 1:4 on down(although I might be tempted to try it again since IIRC the D850 can do automated focus stacking with AF-S lenses although I could be confusing that with a different camera). If the 200mm f/4D is even equal to the 105mm, I know I would be extremely pleased with the results. My problem is that the 105 is often snug for me in my typical studio macro situation, and even down to 1:1 I don't normally find the lens getting in my way or obstructing the light(that is a real problem with the 60mm f/2.8D and every other ~50mm macro lens I've used). I know that's drifting far from the original topic of the thread, though. To me dedicated DX lenses are a good thing for times where I want a small and light kit, even though for someone who shoots FX and DX side by side there's also a good argument against dedicated DX lenses. Going back around again, that's why I settled on Fuji for small and light, and am continuing to use F mount for everything else.

At the beginning of May, I was shopping for a mirrorless system to supplement my F mount lenses(which aren't going anywhere) but specifically wanted DX for size and weight reasons. I actually took a serious look at the ZFc and the Z50, with a nod to the former as I like my Df a lot and a few respected reviewers compared the two cameras favorably but in particular with a lot of the annoyances that are commonly cited with the Df controls addressed. In the end, I went...well...a lot more expensive and in a different direction since I was less than impressed with the DX Z-mount lens line up. The 12-28 was announced while I was looking but of course availability was a few weeks away(and I wanted it for an end of May vacation) so ultimately went a different direction. I know there are a lot of FX format Z mount lenses, and there's a good argument for investing in that direction for if I do eventually move to Z mount FX cameras, but my principle concern was size and weight(which is why I was shopping for DX in the first place) and many common Z mount FX lenses don't have much(if any) size or weight savings over their F mount counterpart, and of course an FTZ gains nothing in that department. There is a company that makes a well APS-c mirrorless line, and in fact has a big focus on it and more importantly to me offers a lot of models conventional button and knob controls. After a lot of back and forth research, shopping, etc I finally bit the bullet and bought Fuji X-T5 and 16-80 f/4 kit. I've bought a cheap "dumb" F mount adapter that I've mostly used with AI/AI-s lenses although want to research the more advanced adapters that are supposed to allow some control over my G/E/AF-s lenses. Although I used the camera a lot around home, after taking it out and shooting nearly 2000 photos on a trip(I know not many for a lot of you but generally a lot for me) I have a lot of annoyances with it. It's definitely positioned-both by price and specs-as a higher end body than the ZFc-and many of my issues are "it doedn't work like Nikons." Still, though, I find myself constantly annoyed that my Nikons seem to just do what I tell them(i.e. release priority means release the shutter when I say to, not try to AF and then refuse to fire if you can't) where the Fuji seems to always in the back of its mind seems to second guess me and sometimes fight me to get it to do what I want. There's also how touch instant MF over-ride is compared to what I'm use to on AF-s lenses, and that if you bump it accidentally and, for example, are using BBAF(which isn't "true" BBAF like Nikons and can still jump to the shutter release if you hit the buttons in the wrong order) you have to release and repress to restart AF whereas if you let go of the ring on an AF-s lens it will return to AF. There's also the fact that 15fps looks impressive on paper, but the camera gets REALLY warm even with a handful of relatively short bursts and seems to slow down/get sluggish until it cools(even in single shot mode, and yes this is after the buffer has offloaded to a UHS-II card). That's compared to my D5, which could shoot at 12fps all day and not break a sweat. I've also questioned, and it's still an open question for me, how much value 40mp offers in an APS-C camera(which is around ~80mp by my back of the envelope math with the same pixel pitch on a full frame sensor) and if it's really just churning out big files without a ton of added detail over a the earlier 26mp Fuji sensor or Nikon's excellent and now well loved 20mp sensor that I think first showed up in the D500 and now seems their DX go-to. I know I have to basically do everything right, including my best lenses used at their sweet spot and generally on a tripod to see a meaningful difference in detail between my D850 and D810 or even D800. I say all of that for a reason, though, and not to bash the Fuji-which is a great camera at the end of the day. I never felt like Nikon was great about fleshing out their DX DSLR line-up. Yes, you had the plastic fantastic kit lenses and some occasional decent even if consumer oriented ones like the 35mm f/1.8, 10-20mm AF-p and 10-24, but a lot were plastic fantastic kit lenses, so-so super-zooms like the 18-200 and 18-300 that were built to high-end consumer standards, and the nice well built lenses like the 12-24 f/4 and 17-55 f/2.8 seemed to languish in their early to mid 2000s form that worked okay with 10-12mp cameras(like the D200 and D300)without an update that paired them well with newer 20mp+ cameras. This is the second DX Z mount lens Nikon has announced in as many months by my count, and even though this one seems a consumer lens(not a pro-grade weather sealed one like the well regarded 23mm f/2 Fuji) it's also faster and half the price of the Fuji. Even though I generally prefer metal mounts, I don't get too bothered by plastic especially in an otherwise good but budget minded lens. I seem to recall a Lens Rentals blog post that said something like "Yeah, we see more broken plastic mounts, but they're also easy to replace and less likely to damage the lens or camera." If I'd seen that Nikon seemed to at least be fleshing out their DX line-up a bit more, I might have been inclined to give the ZFc a more serious look.

I'll just toss out that I bought a 300 f/2.8 VR1 not too terribly long ago and I was surprised at how(relatively) inexpensive it was. The VRII version from what I understand has the same optics and pretty much the same performance other than VR being a newer generation and better(and VRII used examples seem $2K-2.5K vs. ~$1.5K or so for VR1). The lens absolutely is incredible, and I find it quite useable with the 1.4x and 1.7x. That gives a lot of versatility in a single lens, and these big fast lenses are nearly perfect for TCs since they are already super sharp(so don't take as big of a penalty for using one) and also can keep good AF performance. Although I have used it handheld, I find it more at home on a monopod at a minimum, which is one downside once lenses get this big. Handholding will probably tire you pretty quickly. Although I decided on the VR1 version based mostly on price/similar performance I've found I've kept VR off more often than I've had it on. If you do anticipate using VR a lot and are interested in one of these lenses, the VRII might be worth it. The VR1 I think is the same generation VR as is in my 70-200 f/2.8 VR1, and it does a perfectly acceptable job but is loud(there's no question whether or not it's working) and seems a bit clunky to me and almost like the gyroscopes and such are taking their dear sweet time to spin up and start working. I can only hear my newer VR lenses if I listen for them. Also, the VR1 version has the "rotary" type VR switch that a lot of people don't seem to like(I don't mind it other than it being somewhere different from all of my other lenses). Just tossing this out as an option.

If you look at your above photo, the ring resistor is the inside of the big toothed wheel. The copper piece touching it at 6:00 in your above photo is the contact you're concerned about in there. If you put a bit of cleaner(alcohol, lighter fluid, etc) on the ring and then turn the shutter speed dial back and forth to move the ring around you should at least clean it some. It may not be perfect but should be less jumpy.

What you've accessed there is the ring resistor, which is the "brain" of the meter. This is a wear point and can cause inaccuracy, but my experience is that problems here more often result in a jumpy meter. If I'm there, I'll usually put a small drop of carbon tet(not recommended unless you know what you're doing, as it's quite toxic) and work the ring around. What the rest of us were talking about is accessed through the front, and it's likely this will still need attention. As for making it accurate-there are a couple of trim screws under the leatherette but they should be used with extreme caution. Ultimately, though, loss in accuracy probably comes from an aged CdS cell. Sover Wong and a few others can replace them. In all honesty, though, if the meter is still roughly linear but off by a stop or two, most of us I think just compensate with the ASA dial and call it good. There's a reason I pretty much only use my F2SB(DP-3) and F2AS(DP-12) these days. Although they lack the "charm" of a moving needle, the silicon photocells seem to have held up better and they also use a different arrangement than the carbon ring resistor, You can see the in the dark, too, without needing the uncommon F2 prism light whose number escapes me.

I'd remove the finder and play with coupling pin. You should be able to move it back and forth. If you can, get it back over to the center and push it up into the mirror head. You should hear a sort of springy click when you do that and see 5.6 appear in the window on the front. This "cocks" the mechanism to be re-indexed. In a normally functioning F2 prism(DP-1/DP-2/DP-3) or an F Photomic FTN this tends to happen automatically when you mount and index a lens, but the manual does describe the manual reset procedure. To properly "follow" the prong on the lens, the pin needs to move both side to side and up and down so that it stays engaged with the lens. The whole assembly rides along a rail by a pair of rollers. The prong has a spring that pushes it down all the time, with its motion limited by an additional arched bar that keeps the pin extended the proper amount. The parts CAN get gummy with age, and in particular the up-down motion of the prong. It seems to happen more often IME with the F prisms than F2s but it can happen with them. Unfortunately too from what I remember(and it's been a couple of years since I've been inside one) the mechanism isn't quite as easy to get to in F2 prism as it is in an F2 prism. I use to pull these apart at the first sign of trouble and service the pin mechanism completely. What I'd always do is run all the moving/sliding parts through my watch cleaning machine and then put them back together with a sparing amount of watch mainspring grease(less is more-you don't want so much that you'll attract dust). All the ones I've serviced this way are still fine several years later. I realize I'm mentioning using tools and supplies that I have for other reasons, and used them because they were convenient and I knew appropriate for the job. In all honesty disassembly, cleaning in something light lighter fluid, and then using a light grease would probably be fine. Watch mainspring grease is expensive-if I didn't have it I'd probably use something like model train grease, which you should be able to get at any hobby shop, or even just a very light automotive grease(which is going to be the least expensive option of the above). If you remove the visible screws on either side of the prism, the Nikon name plate should slide off and give you a good view of the mechanism(and access to it). Once you've done the test I've describe above, you can pull it off and probably get a better idea of what's going on. You MIGHT be able to get it working well enough without further disassembly by sparingly putting lighter fluid on the spring and sliding parts, working them up and down, and then again putting a tiny amount of grease on them.

CFExpress use the NVMe protocol over PCIe. To the best of my knowledge the XQD cards do not use NVMe. NVMe supports a Secure Erase command which the controller on the CFE card executes. The controller sets every bit on the card to a high state. Since the flash memory is NAND, this reads out as zero. I do not know which protocol XQD uses, but I suspect it does not have a Secure Erase command nor does the controller support such a command. I was under the impression-and don't 100% hold me to this-that XQD cards were AHCI over PCIe. I have quite a bit of experience with AHCI PCIe drives. Macs started using them 2013-ish and the last new computer revision that used them was the 2019 iMac. I don't currently have anything with an easily accessible AHCI PCIe drive(most everything 2015 and newer got a firmware update from Apple that supports booting off NVMe and I've upgraded mine using this style drives to big, fast NVMe) but I recall secure erase being available.

Well, maybe I'm not sending a PM since apparently my mailbox is full and I can't. If they are still available I do want them. Can you email me at bhutche0@gmail.com

Sending PM

Mup being accidentally selected was my thought when I read this. The shutter isn't actually open the whole time. The mirror is raised with the first press of the shutter button, and then the shutter fires with the second press. This would explain otherwise normal behavior, as exposure should still(more or less) be correct although IIRC in auto exposure modes the exposure is locked to the reading taken just before raising the mirror.

I might suggest that the F3 is not necessarily the best choice if you're after a camera to fix up. They exist in the same 1980s pr-one-foot-in-the-past-one-foot-in-the-present world as the Canon New F-1, and as such are actually a lot of electronics stuck on top of a mechanical camera. They are great cameras, but if you don't have experience troubleshooting electronics you might find that your efforts are futile. There is some limited mechanical work that can be done, but dead electronics essentially mean a dead camera. The other side of that is that the electronics are usually reliable, but again if they go they likely are gone. If you want to get an idea of what a waist level is like on 35mm, I'd suggest a Nikon F2. You can sort of get the experience by just removing the prism and looking down at the focusing screen(all single digit Nikon film cameras save for the F6 have removable prisms) although to do it properly you do need one of the now apparently quite expensive WLF hoods. Just be careful on these cameras as the focusing screen is-relatively-easy to drop out if you turn the camera upside down without a finder installed. When I was actively buying then, usable F2 Photomics could be had for a little over $100 and an F2A was usually under $200.

I don't have hard numbers, but I can say it's quite literally been over 10 years since I've seen a Pentax DSLR in the flesh. The person using it I know is a dedicated Sony user now. None of the stores I'm familiar with carry Pentax/Ricoh, so I wouldn't be able to handle one before trying, and I've not seen one pop up in a used case in a very long time. Granted seeing any ILC out in people's hands is not that common these days, but I still feel like I see a lot more Canon and Nikon DSLRs than I do anything else. Sony is not an insignificant presence, and I see more Sony cameras than I do R/Z cameras, but DSLRs still seem to top all. The last wedding I was at(last summer) was photographed by a locally known and respected pro, and he was using a current-ish Canon 5D and a bunch of L glass.

B&W mode on a color camera is not at all the same thing(and not something I would ever seriously use..). The Bayer array that allows a typical “color” sensor to generate a color image works by selectively blocking color information from some pixels(and stealing light in the process). The RAW processor then has to piece together actual color information from bits and pieces available, a process that works well but always introduces some artifacts. Turning this image back into B&W then just involves removing the color, although of course having the color information there allows applying contrast filters in post. Getting rid of the Bayer filter layer not only puts more light on the sensor but also cuts a lot of processing between taking the image and getting a final B&W image. That usually translates into cleaner images with smoother tones.

In my mind, there should be a difference in results between going through a Bayer array and then undoing the interpolation(which is what converting to B&W in post does) and just not having the Bayer array at all. Granted the advantage to the former is that you can add filter effects in post, but the latter should give you cleaner results. You just need to revert to using filters as you did/do with B&W film. The results I've seen from the Leica monochrome cameras are impressive. I'd have a hard time even paying new Nikon money for a dedicated monochrome camera. With that said, if I ever had a chance at a reasonably priced newer Kodak monochrome I'd buy it. To me the DCS 760m to pair with my 760c would be great, although I've not used the latter very much. I say those specifically because they can be had for reasonable priced-the monochrome versions just aren't that common.

Back when the world closed in 2020, one of my put-off projects was an F3 I'd picked up that capped at high shutter speeds(I want to say over 1/500). Using one of the old fashioned Calumet shutter speed testers with a CdS cell on the front, I spent a few days on and off adjusting curtain tension on that camera. IIRC, from the service manual, once 1/2000 is set all of the other speeds will fall in line. I was under the impression that they were electronically timed but don't recall the exact mechanism for how it was achieved. Whatever the case, I finally got that one sorted out. It's mostly sat on the shelf but it was still all correct when I last checked it a few months ago.

I have a WLF for an F and honestly I've never seen any use for it. 35mm focusing screens are tiny, and I find it awkward to use. These aren't medium format cameras where the smallest WLF is nearly twice as tall and twice as wide as a 35mm. The 6x chimney finders are useful in specific circumstances-or even more specifically for parallax focusing on the appropriate focusing screen. I have those for both the F2 and F3, but they're also not something I really use outside the house.

When I read this question, my immediate thought was to check EC. When I set it in something other than M on all of my cameras(or at least the ones I use regularly-that list is now the D800, D810, D850, D5, and sometimes the Df and D3s) the exposure bar graph in the finder reflects that EC has been set. Truth be told I don't use it that often as when I need to use EC I typically find it easier to go into manual and just over-ride the exposure as I see fit, but it's there. About my only exception to not using EC is when I anticipate routine exposure variation through a shooting session(I'm normally an aperture priority guy). Having manual take into account any applied EC makes sense, and it would actually be kind of pointless to even have it if you had to remember to shift the exposure null point. Back in the days of cameras with minimal automation when EC dials first started appearing, they often stacked on top of the ASA dial and essentially were just a quick and dirty adjustment of the ISO(where actually changing it required deliberate action like lifting and turning). On a lot of cameras, if you were at the extreme end of the available ISO settings, you'd lose some range on the EC dial.

Funny enough and by pure coincidence, I was playing with my DCS 14/n earlier today. Much like the Finepix S3, the DCS 14/n is an N80 with a sensor and other stuff grafted onto the back of it. Unlike the D100 and Finepix, though, the DCS 14/n is actually a full frame camera so has the full N80 viewfinder. The N80 on paper is a promising option(provided the back catch isn't broken) especially given that it has full AF-S and VR support(I think the rule of thumb on VR is that it works with any camera with 5 AF points or more). It's lightweight, which is good, but to me it's always been cheap and rattly feeling. It's quiet, which is also good, but to me also has sort of a tinny, cheap sound. There's an N80 sitting on the shelf in my office next to quite literally 100 different film bodies(at one point the only Nikon film SLR I was missing was the FM3a-I've since sold my F100 and my Nikkormat FS so now there are 3 I don't have) along with a couple of other cameras built around it. Maybe I'm too use to using my D850, D5 F2SB, and F6 but using the DCS 14/n was sort of a miserable viewfinder experience. I kept playing with the diopter thinking it was set wrong, but it's really just that the finder isn't that crisp. It's dim and low magnification-basically it's everything bad about consumer-level SLRs despite the fact that in its day it was actually a relatively high end body. @ShunCheung My comment about E lenses was that the F6 does not support them. Given that the firmware could be updated, though, I was always hopeful that Nikon would somehow or another add support for them. At least being stuck wide open, given how good a lot of E lenses are, isn't the end of the world. The F6(and F5) are smart enough too to be aware that they can't change the aperture so at least if you do put one on, the exposure will be correct. I've used my 24-70 f/2.8E on my F6.

I've received an RMA from B&H, so the SD9 will be on its way back to B&H later today. I'll have an occasion tomorrow to test the SB900 with the SD-8A tomorrow. It's not a make-or-break situation(rarely do I actually have one) so I'll be able to see if the SD-8A is good enough for my uses or not. Something tells me that with the overheating issues of the SB-900, the(slightly) slower recycle of the SD-8A might be a bit of a benefit.

Just to book-end this a bit further- I hadn't realized that the older SD-8A would work with the SB-900(in fact I might not have bought the SD-9 had I realized that, even though I know the SD-9 is better). I pulled mine out, crossing my fingers that I hadn't left batteries in it that corroded(it had batteries but they were fine). I put 6 of the NiMH batteries I'd been trying to use in the SD-9 in it and connected it. The SD-8A is definitely working with the SB-900. A full dump recycles in about 1 1/2 seconds, which is right in line with what the manual claims. The red light on the front of my SD-8A lights and I can hear its capacitor charging. I guess I've done enough full power pops to have run the in-flash batteries down as it's recycling in ~3 seconds without a pack connected, but the fact that there's a noticeable difference tells me that the issue actually is the SD-9. I'll see what B&H comes back with. Honestly I don't see any real downside to just returning this apparently defective SD-9 and continuing to use the SD-8A when I need faster recycle. Given that a full power dump is really pretty unusual for me and I don't really want or need to bother with an external pack that often, I think the SD-8A is plenty for me. The only slight downside I see is that, if I understand correctly, the SD-8A won't work with the SB-900 as a CLS slave since the SB-900 needs the PC connection to the SD-8A and the PC port on the flash is disabled in that mode, but that's also a niche case. I don't use CLS all that often-off-camera is nice but if I need multiple lights I'd rather just haul out my Norman kit and call it a day.