bob_flood1

One of the functions the camera executes when it formats a card is to write zeroes to the memory spaces. Any memory space that doesn't behave exactly right during this process is "marked" in the camera's memory, and the camera won't use that space to save a file. If you don't format the card in the camera, a bad memory spot may result in a corrupt file when formatting the camera could have avoided that. It's a really low probability event, but formating in camera is free.

Inside the valley, the locations already described at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells are the ONLY accomodations available, plus camping. Outside the valley, you can find rooms in Beatty NV (east of Stovepipe about 3/4 hr) or Pahrump NV (southeast of the valley about an hour). Everything else is farther away than you want to fool with (Las Vegas is 2.5 hours). For my nickel, inside the valley is best, Pahrump second, Beatty a distant (very distant) third.

 

In a valley like DV, there's a fair amount of time from the sun going over the mountain until it's truly dark. Artist's Point, Zabriskie, Salt Creek all photograph well in this in-between light. The valley has met 2 of the 3 classic requirements for very good wildflowers this coming spring - a good rain after the flowers went to seed in the fall, and at least one good soaking rain in the winter. If we get a decent rain around late Feb to early March, the flowers in the 2nd half of March will be excellent.

 

Stovepipe and Furnace each have a gas station (a new definition of expensive, but the only game in town), a general restaurant, a convenience store, and a general purpose motel. Furnace also has a higher end hotel with a golf course.

 

If your scheduling allows it, avoid the weekends. DV is a popular place for weekend visits from the LA and Vegas areas and can be really crowded when the flowers are above average. Weekdays are hugely better.

 

If the rain is good, there will be widespread (but amazingly shallow) water at Badwater with extraordinary reflections of the Panamints at dawn. In 2005, I got shots with boaters - kayaks and canoes in Death Valley - in literally miles of water. Great stuff.

 

Ubehebe Crater at the north end of the valley is an interesting departure from the rest of the valley's geology. The Racetrack is cool but David is right - the trip will use up some tires. If there's rain, it's too slick, and if it's dry, the crunchy surface will cut the sidewalls. There's no cell phone service and AAA doesn't pull you out.

 

DV offers a lot of really interesting places to shoot, and it's like no place else. Have a great time.

I sent my D80 to Nikon under warranty because the autofocus started to focus on the wrong location. Try an experiment - put the D80+lens on your tripod with a detailed, well lighted subject 15 feet away. Focus MANUALLY very carefully and get it the best you can. Move nothing, turn on the autofocus, and press the shutter enough to trigger the autofocus. Does the sharpness get worse? Mine did. If you don't have another lens to repeat this with, perhaps you could borrow one from a friend? Or try this with a different lens at the store? If it happens with 2 lenses, it's the autofocus in the D80. If it only happens with your 18-135, it's the lens.

 

BTW, Nikon fixed the problem in my D80 just fine.

I took a look at the manufacturer's web site. This new machine is significantly different from the ones commonly encountered. It has 2 x-ray tubes to take shots vertically (the beam is aimed down thru the conveyor belt) and horizontally (the new machine has a big block of shielding material on one side because of this). Both tubes will actually fire several times using different voltages to produce different energy x-ray beams. This is a very sophisticated machine - it should be able to use those different energies and angles to identify explosives by their density very well. A clear improvement in its intended function.

 

The BAD BAD BAD news is that film will be exposed several times per pass instead once per pass. I would expect that these multiple exposures in the new machine can each be a smaller exposure than the typical single shot we see today, but even so, the cumulative dose is bound to be higher than we've been seeing in the past 10 years or so.

 

I think some practical tests are in order, and people like the folks in this forum should contact film manufacturers to make them aware that we are concerned, very concerned. If these machines work as expected in their first installation, they will be EVERYWHERE within a few years.

Ditto on the polarizer, floppy hat, plenty of water. Sunscreen can be a problem - it'll help you avoid a burn, but it can make a mess of your camera. The floppy hat works better. A longer lens probably isn't a very good idea - it could be useful if you happen to get a good view of a condor (uncommon), but otherwise, the Grand Canyon is not a place you go to shoot wildlife.

 

Get some exercise - hike in the hills before you try the canyon. Even if you don't plan to go all the way to the bottom, you should go part way down - the perspective is very different. And the farther down you go, the hotter it gets. Not likely to see 100+ on the rim - the south rim is about 7,000 ft and the north rim is 1,000 ft higher. But sun will alter you skin something awful even if the temp doesn't get to 100. Rule of thumb: plan for 2 hours climb back up for every hour of walking down.

 

Dust - we got all you want here in the west. I put a shorter lens on one body and a longer lens on the other and don't change lenses unless absolutely necessary.

 

With 2 bodies and multiple lenses, a backpack will probably be the best compromise. Gear is less accessible when you're in a hurry, but it's all a lot (a LOT!!!) easier to carry. Mine is an older Lowepro Trekker from the mid 90's, and it's been durable as a brick. Large shoulder bags can be had for the same $$$ as a backpack, and you have quicker access to the stuff in it. But I recommend against changing lenses a lot - dust WILL get inside if you do.

 

I'm partially disabled and get onto planes first, so I've never had trouble finding space in the overhead, but you should heed the advice of those recommending that you make an effort to get on early. I've watched a lot of disgruntled flyers trying to find a place to stash their gear.

 

If you post again later on with the locations you are staying, you can get a lot of good advice from this crowd about where to shoot and what to expect, where to avoid, etc.

Based on the experience of a friend last winter, my wife and I will be staying in West Yellowstone in mid-February, and taking the Snowcoach to the Old Faithful Lodge on one day and to the Yellowstone Falls on another. I also plan to spend the better part of the a day at the wolf and bear preserve in West Yellowstone. Snowshoeing or x-country skiing is not an option for me - I'm partially disabled and wouldn't be able to cover much territory on foot.

 

Based on his one weekend there, my friend is a huge supporter of the Snowcoaches. The drivers are photographers or knowledgeable enough about photography to understand what you want, and they are willing to stop whenever someone wants to get a photo. I can't wait!

One prospect would be Photoshop Elements. It's not free, but it's not too expensive, either. It should be able to handle files from both cameras. It will have editing capability you aren't looking for, but that's for THIS trip - you might like having the edit capability on some future trip (it's always fun to speculate). My copy of Elements 5 uses about 15-16 GB of space. A small portable USB drive can add 80 GB of storage (backup, backup, backup!) for under $100 if you shop carefully.

 

Sounds like a terrific trip - hope it's everything you are looking forward to.

I was discussing the lithium battery issue with a friend who will be flying with his camera gear fairly soon, and he asked why the new regulation. I told him the published explanation is that, if a lithium battery shorts out and catches fire in the cargo hold, the hold's fire suppression system might not be able to cope with the intense heat of the lithium fire. My friend asked, "so making sure that the fire starts in the passenger cabin instead would be an improvement?" Fair question.

My one trip to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons (so far) was in the first week of June, 2004. No snow on the ground at road level, only some on the north slopes of some higher elevations. We had sunshine the entire week except one day where it rained fairly hard for about an hour (thunderstorm) with very light snow flurries for about 10 minutes near the falls.

 

So I'd say there's some chance you might encounter some snowfall, but it's not likely to affect travel. However, you should bring some warm clothes - even under normal weather conditions, it will get cold at night.

 

Have a great trip - it's a remarkable place.

The statement about Chinese manufacture of these batteries is accurate. Where the Chinese obtain the internal materials is completely irrelevent to the hazard. The final battery assembly will be labeled "Made in China" regardless of where the lithium originated, and it's the electrical contacts and how they are protected from shorting out that matters. And it is accurate that 100% of the fires attributed to lithium batteries (in US government facilities) in the past 2 years were manufactured (final assembly) in China. If you want to find a prejudice in that, you need to discuss it with the Chinese to find out why this is the case.

 

The reason for the restriction is that the airlines have determined that cargo hold fire suppression systems cannot be counted on to put out a lithium fire (highly localized, intense heat is the problem). This applies to all commercial aircraft, from all countries. So if your country hasn't banned lithium batteries from checked luggage, I strongly recommend you ask your regulators "why the hell not??!!"

 

The real risk in the US will be non-uniform enforcement that the TSA is notorious for. And that seems to be a function of how much training each local TSA operation cares to provide its workers.

 

And BTW, Bert, even the most secure facilites in the US defense system don't have anything like the absurd security features you seem to believe in. But you are right on one thing - Europe did have a serioius problem with totalitarian control about 65 years ago. But no more. You're welcome.

Saw this in dpreview and thought it needs to see some daylight here. FAA

policy on lithium batteries changes 1/1/2008. See this link:

 

http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

 

Basically, lithium batteries will not be allowed in checked luggage at all, and

carry-ons will be limited. The way I read it, a passenger can bring as many

batteries under the 8 gram equivalent threshold as s/he wants, and up to 2

lithium batteries under the 25 gram equivalent limit. Please shout out if you

read that differently.

 

Finding the "equivalent gram" data on camera batteries may be difficult, but

the web page says that lithium ion batteries under the 8 gram threshold are

under 100 watt-hr capacity. I checked the battery in my D80, and it's 7.4

volts at 1500 mA, which is about 11 watt-hr. That tells me that our camera

batteries should not be a problem as carry-ons. The real danger will be in how

well the TSA trains its staff early in the year, and whether those on-the-job

people know how to judge the acceptability of batteries under this rule.

 

FWIW, the lithium battery-fire problem seems to be another gift from China.

A "lessons learned" evaluation of fires caused by lithium batteries conducted

by the Department of Energy found that 100% of those fires in the past 2 years

were caused by batteries manufactired in China, and none were due to batteries

made in the USA. Check the label when you buy.

First, this is not a malfunction - the D80 is doing what it's supposed to.

 

What you are seeing is the LCD display's way of telling you that the brightness of those flashing sections is a problem. The exposure of that frame is likely to be trouble getting a usable image because the range of brightness to too hot to handle. This flashing display feature can be turned off if you don't want it (somewhere in the menus, but I don't recall where). But I find it's a good "heads up" that I need to try a different exposure.

 

Hope you enjoy your D80 - I sure love mine.

I have a stand-alone CD burner made by Alera Technologies. It's a 110-v, 60 cycle device, no battery power. It has slots for various cards in the front and works very nicely. (For size, imagine a portable CD player that's 1.5 inches thick and has an AC adapter.) Given the standardization of the CD-ROM format, it's reliable as a brick. I've only had one bad CD come out of it in three years of use, and that was due to operator malfunction.

 

It allows swapping CDs as each disk fills and swapping cards as copying is completed - very nice. CDs are available pretty much everywhere, so spares or additional supplies should be available for purchase as you travel. Duplicate storage would require copying from the cards twice, which is inconvenient, but do-able.

 

Important limitation: my copy predates SDHC, and the Alera model I have will handle SD cards up to 2 GB, but not larger. I would expect current models to not have this limitation, but if you are interested in a CD burner, be sure to ask about limits on the memory capacity of cards it will use.

 

BTW, I've prefered CDs over DVDs because of the lack of format standardization among DVD hardware and software. If you don't find this to be an issue, obviously a DVD burner would have advantages over a CD burner.

 

Not matter what, buy good CDs or DVDs - if you care about your photos, don't go bargain hunting for storage disks. If you plan to use DVDs, be sure to buy cases made for DVDs (not CDs) - they are different. DVDs are much less flexible than CDs (and need to be), and removing a DVD from a CD case can cause the disk to flex too much and potentially damage the data-carrying surface.

I agree with Eric - the body is a recording device, but it's the lens that matters most for image quality. And you can get an awful lot of lens for the price difference between a D80 and D300. I have both the D70 and D80, and find that the difference between 6 and 10 mpix isn't all that important unless you want enlarge quite a bit or crop significantly. If you don't have any Nikon lenses to use with your DSLR, the D40/D40X choice may be the way to go, leaving money available for good glass. The D80 is the way to go if you have some Nikon lenses you want to keep using (I have several, and they do great on the D80). IMHO, a higher priced camera body should have features that are unmistakeably important enough to spend the money on instead of lenses.

Daniel, I think your choice to wait is probably a good one. I have both the D70 and D80, use both (I don't like switching lenses in the field), and like them both. But for the money needed to get a newer SLR, I recommend you buy for the future, and the D80 is soon to be the past.

 

10 MP doesn't offer much advantage over 6 MP unless you want to enlarge a lot or crop a lot (if you have the lenses for it). The D80 sensor is noisier than the D70, especially with underexposure. So the D80 meter is biased toward the high side, which is the opposite of the D70. BTW, I have found that DxO's noise routine does wonders (and I means WONDERS) with the D80 noise.

 

And no matter how many MP you have or how the snazzy in-camera software, your lenses make or break the image quality. Better to invest in glass than MP.

I've been considering the MB-D80 battery pack/grip not just for the second

battery, but also for the change it brings in camera handling. I went so far

as to ask Santa for one, but when she did some web hunting for suppliers, she

also came across some reviews & testimonials about evenly divided between "love

it" and "hate it."

 

Can users of this device offer their experience and opinions on weight, ease of

gripping (horizontal and vertical), what it does to fitting the camera into a

bag, tripod mounting, etc?

If you are looking for a bullet-proof process, there isn't one. Lowest risk, IMHO, is to buy the film there (the exchange rate works against you, but film has to be a minor cost for such a trip) and ship it back DHL. Schedule the return shipment so that the film will NOT NOT NOT arrive on a weekend. The biggest risk of radiation exposure in shipment comes from the package sitting next to who-knows-what for a weekend in a shipper's warehouse. DHL doesn't accept radioactive shipments, but they don't serve all cities, and farm out deliveries to non-DHL cities to other carriers that do. Still, they are the best bet, if you take care to avoid weekends.

In the original image, lens distortion has foreground trees at the left side of the shot leaning left and trees at the right side leaning right, and trees in the center are vertical. I don't think Thomas got the shot wrong - it shows a level lake (as always) with a curved shoreline. William's fix makes it look "normal" but has probably distorted the scene from what Thomas saw at the time of the shot. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

But that still leaves the problem of how the original shot looks - that far side of the lake doesn't look right. One solution is to include more of the lake - enough to show the curvature better. But if that doesn't work, William's fix looks better than the original.

My D80 focused great for 6 months, then the images got softer. I tried an experiment. I used a target with lettering on it to judge sharpness, and shot a variety of images focusing manually and using each autofocus mode. Enlargements on my computer screen showed that manual was better in all cases. Still in warranty, I shipped it to Nikon, and they adjusted the focus and had it back to me in just over 2 weeks. It works great again.

Well, you make the call. From the strip, drive out I-15 North to US 95 North, all the way to Beatty, NV. Turn left onto 374 (follow the signs for Death Valley and Stovepipe Wells), and you'll hit the main north-south road in the valley before you get to Stovepipe. (From the strip, it takes about 3 hours or a few minutes more to the point.) Turn right (north) and follow the signs for the Ubehebe Crater (about 40 miles). (All good roads up to this point.) The road is unpaved beyond the crater, so your're looking at 30 miles (+/-) of dirt road to ge to the racetrack. If it has been raining (this is the time of year for it), I don't recommend the dirt road at all (the Dunes near Stovepipe would be better, and Artist's Point south of Furnace Creek would be great during or after the rain, in my VERY biased opinion).

 

Of course, if you go, you have all the same roads getting back. You'll have to decide if you want to try to do all that in a single day. I've been over to DV a half dozen times since we moved here, and always as single day out-and-back trips. But I don't mind getting back quite late and I have 4-wheel drive for those dirt roads.

 

But I really do recommend Death Valley as a photo trip if you're in this part of the country. If there's rain, check out Badwater - there's apt to be a widespread 1 foot deep lake in the valley to reflect the Panamint Mountains (with snow on them), plus lots of other good locations (Dante's View, Salt Creek, Zabriskie, etc).

The 1st D80 I looked at had the worst case of barrel distortion at 18 mm and pincushion at 135 I'd ever seen, but the one my wife gave me for Christmas has neither problems, and none of vignetting you describe. It's become apparent to me that one of the characteristics of Nikon's consumer vs pro lenses is that a much wider variation in quality is allowed out of the factory for the consumer lenses.

 

I don't know how Nikon will view this, but if the vignetting is reproducible with no attachments of any type on the lens (not even the shade that came with it), it could be considered a defect under the warranty. Contact Nikon and ask them. I know of no way to "fix" such a problem, so it's likely that the only solution is replacement, and you might just get one under the warranty. It's worth asking. And if you get a good, it's really at GOOD one! And there might actually be something about your lens that's in error and can be fixed.

 

If you try this route, it would be good for the forum if you come back and update on what happened.

A little detail - because the sensor is smaller than a 35 mm negative, the sensor sees less than all of the image circle from the lens, i.e., the central part of image. Since most lenses exhibit better sharpness at the center than at the edges, the D80 would use the better part of the image of your lenses.

 

Sigma makes some good stuff and some ordinary stuff. Unfortunately, so does Nikon. The first D80 I looked thru (at Circuit City) had an 18-135 with the worst barrel-pincushion defects I'd ever seen. When my wife gave me a D80 with an 18-135 for Christmas, I thought "uh-oh" cuz she won't understand why I don't want the lens. But my 18-135 is excellent, better than the 18-70 that came with my D70.

 

Bottom line: buy the lens from a store where you can put it on your D80 body and shoot in the store or thru a window and examine the images on the LCD at max enlargement. Defects that you will care about should be evident and help you make a good choice. Try Nikon and the other brands the store carries. When you find one you like, don't let them put it back on the shelf and give you a boxed one. And if the image quality of the one you try isn't to your liking and they have more on the shelf, try them - you are apt to find one that'll be OK.

 

I really think that a major part of the much higher cost of the pro grade lenses over consumer lenses is in the tighter specs for what allowed out of the factory at the end of the production line.

Is your D70s in good repair other than the damage from the drop? I suspect that, if you don't repair it, you'll get $25 for it. But if you invest $250, you could get $400, leaving you with additional money toward that D200.

 

As to the D200 vs repaired D70s decision, I have always told my boys to buy for the future - when you buy for the present or the past, you buy again soon. It's always cheaper to do it right than to do it over.

I know a few folks who have gone rim to rim in one day - it doesn't allow for wandering around at the bottom of the canyon, but it's do-able.

 

There's a 5,000 ft elevation difference between the rim and the canyon floor - that means it's about 25 degrees hotter at the bottom - you'll need to take the advice of those urging you to take lots of water. I've never met ANYONE who complained of having too much water on that hike.

 

After the Grand Canyon, it'll take a major part of the day to get from the south rim to Bryce, and you could probably see what you want in the remainder of that day. If you don't get your fill, you could start the next day at Bryce and then move on to Zion.

 

Mark's recommendation about the Narrows is right on. If you go in May, before most schools are out, and hit the Narrows on a weekday, you won't have near the company you'll find on a weekend in June. The outfitters in Springdale will take care of you. And Angel's Landing is a significant climb, but you sound up to it. Just don't go if you don't like heights - there are places (near the top) only 3-4 feet wide with 800-1200 ft drops on both sides (but they have posts & chains embedded to hold on to).

 

Bryce vs Zion - one last-minute aspect is the weather. If you have a day that looks rainy and another without the rain, go to Bryce in the rain. The colors are even richer when wet, and you don't want to be in the Narrows if it rains (flash flooding can be fatal).

Spent yesterday and the day before in Zion Canyon, and the color was great.

However, it wasn't at its peak yet. If anyone is thinking of going, next

weekend and the weekend afterlook very good.

 

Friday was cloudless and very clear, but the smoke from the southern California

fires arrived Friday night, and the smoke was thin but evident all day

Saturday. It won't persist, though, not for as long as next weekend.

 

One warning - the park is working on the parking lots at the visitor center,

including some tree trimming. A large fraction of the space is closed off, and

the remainder fills up early. By mid-day, new arrivals have to park outside

the entrance somewhere and walk or get the town shuttle into the park.

 

But it's going to be well worth a trip for a couple of weks, anyway.<div></div>