wisp

I dunno,

honestly the more interesting of the filters are the 77mm ones anyway (IMHO). I would either hold onto the 72 for when you do get a lens that takes them or try them out with your Tokina stopped down a few stops - not sure what the massive vignetting does to matrix metering, but if the lens is stopped down enough, it should matter that you are using a 77-72 step down ring (I assume though, that the adapter ring you bought is a step-UP, not a step-down)

HTH

I assume you have googled for these? I was redirected to this page when I accidently pasted into my address bar instead of the google pane:

http://www.tiffen.com/filters.htm

It covers pretty much everything you listed.

ND filters:

Tiffen NDO.6, Tiffen NDO.3, Tiffen NDO.9

'star' filter (renders points of light as, I imagine... 4 point stars):

Tiffen star 4pt 2mm

(prob similar, but guessing):

Tiffen North star.

Not really sure, but special-effects filters of some sort:

Tiffen pro-mist 2, Tiffen soft/fx 4, Tiffen enhancing filter.

Pretty self-explanatory:

promaster 77mm UV and a Hoya 72mm skylight 1B.

Nice score - sounds like a good deal to me - particularly the ND filters.

or PhotoRec: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

gotta love the security firms

The leaves and general habit make it look like a Lonicera sp. but the flowers are entirely wrong (and somewhat difficult to see)

Do you have any larger shots or shots with more detail?

What do you have shutter priority set to? One of the custom setting blocks - don't have my manual in fornt of me, but the factory default for AF-C is for shutter priority - I have changed mine to the hybrid "FPS+Focus" priority, which seems to be some fuzzy compromise between maintaining the FPS you have selected and getting in focus shots.

If you have it set to FPS only (equivalent to 'Shutter Priority') - the camera will fire as soon as you press the shutter release, whether or not the shot is in focus.

I would check this first.

There was in article in Make magazine last year that modified a 'disposable' digital - you mail it in and they send you a CD of photos - they basically hacked this $20 camera and added a USB interface to it to allow for downloads. Then they used the camera in a rocket :P

The size of capacitor that will be in a digital camera for the built-in flash is not going to kill you or evn hurt you. If it is fully charged, it might make you curse. The capacitors in your microwave are ones to watch out for - you can arc-weld with those (I have... accidently). If you are really worried about the cap, when you find it, attach a big resistor across the leads - it will drain slowly.

I always amazed by how reluctant people are to open things up and screw with them - if this guy is thinking about donating it to astrophotography, he prob isn't using it that much anyway in its current incarnation. Why not try to mod it? What is the worst that could happen (see note about how weak the capacitor is likely to be above). Warranties exist to be voided.

(standard disclaimer: YMMV, AYDYDAYOR, IANAL, etc etc etc)

In response to Alan: "The shadow areas of an image have much less "data" than do areas in the midtones and highlights. (This is why "expose to the right" is often recommended.) You don't gain any data if you change the exposure in RAW, you just move it around. An in camera exposure that placed the shadows in the middle areas or higher of the histogram, would have much more data associated with it. By shooting your scene with different exposures, you give each area, shadow through highlight, much more information to work with."

I don't think this is quite right. I have been experimenting with CS2 a bit - not specifically in HDR, but in trying to figure out why, with some of my photos, it insists on the automatic settings of - exposure and + brightness, when to my eye - the shot looks exactly the same if I turn both off. I was playing with this the other day and happened to have the 'highlight highlights' feature on in the RAW import - the - exposure, + brightness option had DRAMATICALLY fewer blown hightlights than the option of leaving both the exposure and brightness as shot. I am now in the habit of listening to photoshop when it adjusts the exposure in this way.

My take away from this with regard to HDR is that the sensor may have greater dynamic range than the 8-bit file that it defaults to (changing the bit depth to 16 has absolutely no effect on this), so although it may not produce as dramatic an effect as with 3 truly separate exposures, there may be some validity to performing HDR with 3 'developings' of a RAW file.

then so are nudes and so are flowers.

mountains? cliche.

really anything with water is kinda overdone... waterfalls? come on - seen one, you've seen them all.

I did do the few seconds test - I agree with averyone: it is the hood not being fully rotated.

The reason I didn't start at this test was because I got sidetracked by the fact that when I first saw the effect, the sun was at right angles to the lense and seemed like could have been casting heavy shadows - I realize now that was silly and that is exactly what the hoods are designed for, however hindsight is always 20/20 as they say.

Thanks for all the information.

I feel like Dan Quail.

For the past 2 weeks I have been spelling 'lens' as 'lense' - apparently it is an alternate (rare) spelling, but since it wasn't intentional, that hardly counts...

ah, potatoe/potato

thanks for all the comments - I learned something in photoshop fixing this and might remember to check the hood when I am shooting at 12mm :) - the fixed version is in my gallery.

I may have figured this one out - it was really bugging me that only the right side (and mostly the upper right) was vignetting - a filter wouldn't do that...

So I looked at the lense and looked at the lense hood, which is a bayonet mount and is a bit 'difficult' to lock into place (it goes fine, but there is a reasonable amount of resistance to click into the locked position).

I did a test shot or two with the hood slightly out of the locked position (12mm, F4) - I got vignetting in that corner (the long part of the petal hood protrudes into the upper right corner - I bet I would also get the same vignetting in the bottom left, but I haven't done any shots where that corner wasn't in shadow). The same shot with the hood fully locked results in no vignetting (at least with my limited test shots from my computer desk).

So my current thinking is that this may have been the issue - the hood must have been slightly out of the fully locked position... damnit - I like that shot :) - time for some photoshop clone and feather...

Anyway, Bruce - you may want to check the hood. YMMV - I'll continue to check this out under different conditions.

Thanks for the responses.

On a recent trip to Santa Cruz, CA, I took some photos at natural bridges at

sunset. One of them is below:

http://www.photo.net/photo/5542669

In the upper right corner of the frame (and perhaps the lower right, difficult

to tell in the shadow) there appears to be vignetting.

The sun was almost at a right angle to me (on the right) at the horizon, so one

of my first thoughts (which I quickly discarded) was that I was seeing a shadow

from the lens hood - is this even possible? (it seems like that's what they are

designed to do and the light making up the photograph shouldn't be effected by

that, but maybe I am wrong here)

Any thoughts on what could be going on here? There is no trace of this effect

on the left side of the frame.

The lens is the Tokina 12-24 DX F4 @ 12mm with a Hoya SHMC UV(0) - I just added

the filter recently - although this lense is not supposed to vignette with a

standard filter, it looks like it does - I am seeing the same effect under

different lighting conditions (but only on that side). Is this a defect? I

just purchased the lense a few weeks ago.

Thanks in advance

I would like to replace my twist-style locks as well.

Could someone give a link? Yes, I can google - just thought if someone had experience with a particular retailer they could share.

I will check Bogen's site

"It will if the shooting mode is set to Cl or Ch - Continuous shooting (low or high speed) while the release button is depressed. It even recognizes the bracketing program and will pause the continuous shooting for 1 sec after a bracketing sequence is complete so it's dead easy to lift your finger off just at the right time."

Wow - that is actually very cool. I love when companies actually deliver intuitive design - I need to give this a try today. I think this would be useful for HDR - arguably need a tripod, but depending on the lense used (such as a wide angle), the angular vibration/movement might not impact the shot (significantly).

Thanks alot for the info.

PS: Somehow I misread your original post and thought you didn't have access to the manual - normally I don't quote manuals verbatim like that as I find it to be kind of obnoxious - hope it didn't come across that way.

"Only one photograph is produced each time the shutter is released, meaning that several shots (up to nine) are required to complete the bracketing sequence."

p75:

"If Custom Setting e5 (Auto BKT Set) is set 'AE Only' or to 'AE & Flash' and 'On' is selected for Custom Setting b1 (ISO Auto), the camera will vary ISO sensitivity without varying shutter speed or aperture, regardless of the setting chosen of Custom Setting e6"

So it sounds like you can do it, but the D200 will not 'burst' all the shots into a single button press

I found with the 433AF, I had to remove the TTL pin from the flash shoe entirely to get it to work with my D200 - somehow it advertised itself as TTL even when set to manual or A. You can also buy a $30 std mount that is missing the TTL pin.

I have no experience with the 611.

My 'Must Have' was something I had to build myself: a GPS adapter for my D200 - yes, I could have bought it, but it would have been a less than optimal solution and not nearly as much fun. (separate post on this if anyone is interested)

My other 'Must Have' was a wide angle zoom - as cost was a factor, I got the Tokina 12-24. I would never have considered a 'DX' lense for anything except wide angle, but in some ways, I am a luddite.

I've seen a number of posts around the internet (including on this site) about

GPS adapters for the Nikon DSLRs (D200, D2X, D2Xs, etc...) and I finally have

mine working, so I figured I would share it. Not the prettiest thing in the

world, but it meets my needs and doesn't leave enough cable to hang yourself in

like the Nikon cable does.

<br><br>

I'm a hack when it comes to stuff like this, so I will say one thing - the D200

circuitry is INCREDIBLY resistant to hamfists like myself screwing it up. Of

course, YMMV and anything you do to your camera is up to you. I have a little

write up <a href="http://blog.willowisp.net/?p=26">here</a> (site is 'hosted' in

my living room, so please excuse the poor response time)

<br><br>

Hope this helps someone out there - I will be posting a complete wiring diagram

within the next day or two.

put new batteries in

turn the camera off and on (same with MD) and if that doesn't work, disconnect and reconnect the MD - this happened to me once with my FE2 (and MD11... I think MD11, not MD12) - don't remember exactly which of the above fixed it, but don't worry - it is recoverable.

I have a D200 - same issue with non 'D' lenses (this is actually the important part for the 3D, not whether it is CPU or not (except, all 'D' lenses are CPU lenses, just not all CPU lenses are D lenses))

I haven't noticed any problems in exposure - Color matrix metering is almost perfect most of the time -IME (in my experience) - obviously this is dependent on subject, but...

are your photos exposed properly? - if you have no issues with the exposure your camera is giving you, I wouldn't worry about it. You lose more than a stop going from 1.2 to 1.8

my $0.02

retested - the lens only overexposes when in an 'auto' mode - when fully manual, the lens gives the same exposure results as other lenses (under the same lighting conditions with the same settings) - this leads me to believe that there is nothing mechanically wrong with the lense. I also cleaned the contacts with Caig DeoxIT - no change.

I am really stumped as to what could be going on here - when I look at the EXIF data for the images, the correct focal length and aperture are displayed (what I shot with)

Is it possible somehow that this lense is incompatible with matrix metering? (ok, so I tested this: the lense exposes properly with spot metering (on an approx 18% gray subject) - it is overexposing with matrix metering) - any idea whether this is a known issue with older 3rd party lenses?

thanks.

IIRC, the lense was wide open when this was happening (light was low) - I'll check again. I tested manually locking down the aperture - the action seemed fine (and fast) - no stickiness.

I assume from the responses that a CPU contact is an unlikely cause. I'll experiment a bit more, but I am kinda stumped.

thank you for the responses so far