fraczekp

<p>@1300 bucks the new 24-120 is almost twice as much as the old one. Yes it's new, yes, it's f/4 and probably the MTF charts (for those who care - as I don't!) will be picture perfect but wow, what a price jump. One of the great selling point about the old lens was the reasonable price. I guess I am suffering from a sticker price shock.<br>

As to the 85mm. Well the AFS is well deserved and there is the nano coating but we got a 25% increase in cost of ownership. Did we really need the the changes so badly to pay 25% more now? Is the lens that much better? I am dying to see as I love my old 85 1.4... But let's see, the verdict is still out.<br>

I can't wait to see some comparisons here in the near future! I hope Nikon is not cutting back on quality as they raise the product prices!</p>

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<p>Just to clarify here - reciprocity wasn't the root cause of the failure and that's what my original post is about states - my original post states that film exposure isn't linear. The error was due to incorrect calculations of EVs as outlined by Ben. Christopher stated that shots take at prism values were slightly under exposed -- and what should have been the best way to go is to take the prism value and consider reciprocity failure for shots over x seconds (based on film's low light sensitivity).<br /> My personal experience with low light situations (night shots, astro photography etc) made me trust the prism meter quite a bit and read the film's pamphlet to know when longer exposures are needed.</p>

<blockquote>

<p> I thought the film speed scale was linear, and so this should have worked. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not really. See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_failure#Reciprocity_failure">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_failure#Reciprocity_failure</a>.<br>

What you metered through the prism could actually have been quite correct and a subject to reciprocity failure (additional compensation). I believe that the compensation values can be obtained from the manufacturer of the film.</p>

<p>Maybe a silly question, but did you try formating the card using the camera? I don't own the D1, but I have not seen a camera that will not format card. If that doesn't work, look carefully in the manual or on Nikon's website to determine which cards will be recognized with the D1 -- there might be a size and (yes, it is true although not likley) manufacturer compatibility.<br>

Usually when a card is not recognized the problem lies in the file system present on the card, but in camera format should take care of that. Be advised that based on the camera you might actually receive a smaller partition than the card. For example when I formated a 4GB card in my D100, I ended up with a 2GB partition.<br>

Good luck! Let us know the solution if you find it!</p>

<p>"...I have heard that the 105 DC is sharper than the Micro Nikkor..."</p>

<p>not really, they are pretty much head to head. The CA is where you will see more difference than sharpness. I have them both and if you asked me to give one up it would be the DC one. Although way more harsh on bokeh, the micro one seems like it was built for a purpose - and that is to get close to 1:1 with excellent shaprness and little CA. </p>

<p>Go for the micro one!</p>

<p>semi-evil<br>

D100 w/ 18-55 DX Lens</p>

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<p>semi-evil<br>

D100 w/ 18-55 DX Lens</p>

 

<p>similar to Ilkka I just don't think the DC is a reason to buy this lens. But you should buy it for the smooth backgrounds and great sharpness. Highly recommended.</p>

Late to the party, but yes, the 24-120 (at least my VR one) is a dogg... Nice contrast, not so sharp, but just look at

the distortion at 24mm....

<br/><br/>

<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~fraczekp/images/pad/00Rg3e.jpg" />

oops, correction:

 

Of the 3, the 105 is my least favorite one, although all of them are very sweet lenses.

Pete

 

Of the 3, 85/1.4 AF-D seem to be the fastest, but not that significantly better. 105 and 135 focus about the same on

my D200...

 

If focus will be the deciding factor, you might as well roll the dice -- at least from my experience with these 3 lenses.

 

Bernard,

 

since you have the 85mm, I would dive right for the 135 if you are shooting full frame. Of the 3 it is my least favorite

one, although all of them are very sweet lenses.

> If you buy from a Chicago store, you'll pay a pretty good sales tax.

 

Yep... 9%. Interestingly Helix had quite the good price on 16-85 that was better what I found in the web.... (that was few weeks ago). As suggested before, do the internet comparison first if price is your bottom line.

 

btw.. Helix downtown has free parking so you won't have to add 10-20 bucks parking costs if you drive (and are not lucky enough to find a meter).

Another vote for Helix on Racine and Jackson. Good place to buy locally..

Alex.

 

My advice to you would be to:

 

a) Don't use Auto ISO / "Automatic" mode. Shoot manual at larger apertures 5.6 or larger.

b) Bracket! (yeah, there is a reason why they still offer this function!). I found that in-camera meter tends to overexpose (at least for my liking) as much as 2-3 steps!

c) Shoot Raw

d) if you are using self timer, use the longest delay possible.

e) post process -- I like to remove the red and crank up the blue channels a litte bit. I also end up increasing the contrast slightly (I like the more pronounced dark/light contrast of night shots).

f) experiment - trial and error with some background reading helps!<div></div>

> most likely the D2H and D2X are going to be collectibles

 

:)

 

So far the extra digital bodies I've had became "dust collectibles"

 

I am of the opinion that electronics (especially rapidly changing/developing ones) don'thave same tendency as items that were/can be used for decades. Like software, electronics have much shorter lifecycle than one can predict.

 

Unless your bread and butter is your camera, I have a hard time seeing the concept of "backup". I can settle for "things one can do that the other can't" but the term "backup" implying redundant function and capabilities of both cameras seems like a waste of resources to me.

 

So in my opinion, sell them all, keep the D300.

ok, one more try...

 

Winter Biking

Winter biking...

rundll32 is a core file on windows OS. If you are getting rundll32 errors there can be potentially countless reasons for that... typing eventvwr and finding the event (marked with a red circle and white x) can give you further info, but beware, that info is most likely cryptic. Do you get any other rundll32 errors while performing any other actions (non-camera related)?

 

Few things to see -- check your version of rundll32. You can run "regsvr32 rundll32.dll" command... You should also try re-installing the software you are trying to download the pictures. If the problem persists, search the knowledge base for that product.

Although cheap is not always highest quality, part of the problem you are seeing is that larger cards have slower write times... It's a technology limitation...

 

Your comparison makes sense and can be easily replicated with other media not just SD cards. Recently I update a series of bootable USB flash drives for a client going from 2GB to 8GB slowing down the write time of 1GB file from 8 min to 36 min... Fun!

My 135DC blows me away at f/2 in terms of bokeh...<div></div>

>Joe A.

 

I find your faith in E-Bay/Paypal somewhat amusing...

Using your head is one thing, banking on honesty of buyers and ebay/paypal's fairness and help is another story...

 

http://www.fraczek.net/pages/enterpaypal.htm

 

then google more...

 

Have fun reading!

>>eBay and Paypal will at the seller's side

 

emm.. correction. Their side (whatever benefit e-bay/paypal).

 

I lost money as seller when a dishonest buyer decided to scam $$ from my e-bay listing stating that he never received the product.

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Refub can be a tricky thing. I've gotten refurbs before like the 70-200 that are just fantastic - no flaws or problems. Then I got a 24-120 VR that keeps on giving me problems.... Likewise I got a CP5700 refurbed that had to go back because of a sensor that looked a x-mas tree due to hot pixels at 1/30...

 

If you don't go new, I'd go refurb if you can - you can always send the product back or harass Nikon to fix it right. Just make sure you give it a "good test" before you decide to keep it. I have at least 4 items in my Nikon bin that are refurbs and they work great, includind a D100 that has survived A LOT -- definitely it was a great refurb buy!