john_chew

Tim, Jan and Kent,

Thank you for your well-considered advice. I hadn't thought about getting a second body,

but doing so would not only (as you say) give me a wider range of lenses to choose from (I

confess when I bought the D40, I thought the two kit lenses would be all I'd ever need),

but it would also reduce the low-level anxiety about what to do when the D40 needs

servicing.

@Jan: Yes, there are some Scrabble subjects that don't mind being photographed at 3-5

m, but some do. Worse, since I am well-known among the players and will see some of

them at several events in a year, if I intrude on their personal space when they're under

stress even once they don't forget it and it affects both their ability to play and my ability

to work with them. So I stand far enough away that they can't be sure I'm aiming at them,

turn off the AF assist lamp and sound, and do my best to blend in with the crowd.

@Tim: I've thought about a monopole, but I haven't had trouble with the tripod so far.

Also, though I hate to say it, with the tripod I have in a pinch used the D40 as a webcam,

automatically shooting either one wide shot of the room, or a narrower shot of the

finalists' table, each minute for a higher-than-necessary-definition impression of what's

going on in the room. (I wish someone would come out with an IP camera that could be

set to push an image at fixed intervals to an FTP server, with no PC attached.)

Thanks again, John

I recently lost my (Bogen) Manfrotto 3201 tripod with three-way head, AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm

f/4-5.6G ED lens (that came with my D-40) and an old Tamron 90 mm f/2.5 lens that would of course not

autofocus with my D-40, when I asked some friends to carry my gear home for me and they inexplicably

left it in the trunk of a cab. I've given up on recovering them: the police say the best I can hope for is that

they will show up in a pawn shop, but the odds are pretty low. I'm left with my D-40 and the 18-55mm

kit lens it came with, and wondering if I should try to find exact replacements for the rest, or if perhaps

there are better choices now.

I take two kinds of photographs, in roughly equivalent quantities (about 10,000 per year total). The first

are photos of my two children, who are now 4 and 1.5 years old. The last time I tried using the Tamron

lens, my kids were too wiggly and the manual focus was a little frustrating, though the few shots that did

come out well were delightful. I almost always use the 18-55mm now for the kids, but think maybe about

buying a Sigma prime lens for when everyone is patient.

The second kind of photos are photographs of Scrabble tournaments. I travel extensively organising top-

level tournaments such as the World, U.S. and Canadian championships, and while the photos are

primarily for event web sites, when I post an interesting shot the media are often interested in using the

original file. Scrabble tournaments are indoors, not always terribly well lit, and you can't get too close to

your subject without disturbing them. The interesting games are often played on a riser (stage), so a good

tall tripod is handy. On the bright side, the players are not going anywhere, and their actions and even

their facial expressions are fairly well telegraphed and easy to predict. I usually try to shoot from at least

10m away, and rely on the tripod and getting lucky with maybe one shot in a rapid burst of ten. I adored

my old tripod, but found the 55-200mm lens a little slow and a little short.

Any helpful advice is appreciated.

I learned today that you can get just the same effect if you leave your Tiffen UV filter on your

D40 and its 18-55mm kit lens. FWIW, this thread is where Google sends you if you ask

about: photography candle green weird.

Thanks for the clear explanation of what's going on and how to prevent it.

nikon.com and nikon.co.jp are awfully slow right now. Is everyone else reloading them every

few seconds too? :)

Nikon Canada's main service centre is at their head office in Mississauga, near Toronto Pearson

International Airport. I have had mixed experiences with them. I started with a Coolpix 4500, loved it,

shot baby photos with it until it wore out a few days before a vacation, took it to the service centre and

a fabulous service rep named Ty put through

a rush order and had a tech call me back the next morning to say the camera was toast

and a month past warranty so he'd give me something like 2/3 of its value as a trade-in

toward a new camera. I bought a Coolpix 5400 from him (the swivel-mounted preview

screen is great for getting kids' attention), which he overnighted from the warehouse for

me.

Two years later I wore out the 5400, again right before a holiday, but was told that

Ty didn't work there anymore, and his replacement was less than helpful. It took

about $300 and three weeks to repair the camera (they didn't say, but I think the

problem was dirt in the lens drive), they lost the lens cap (not helpful, given the

nature of the problem and likelihood of repetition), and when I complained, the

rep told me that I could complain all I wanted to, but it was a discontinued item

and they just didn't have parts like lens caps for it anymore (except presumably

the one that fell behind a tech's desk somewhere), and no, they couldn't order one

from Nikon in any other country.

So I went down to Vistek.ca, looked around, and bought my D40, with which I have

been quite happy. I do hope that the service rep that I dealt with will have lost

his job by the time I have to take the D40 in for service though.

Despite my negative experiences though, I would encourage you to deal with

Nikon Service directly. Black's has friendly but not especially knowledgeable

staff, and as others have said, going through them adds unnecessary complication

and delay.

Good luck!

Two years ago, my CoolPix 950 fried its logic board a few months past warranty. I was

loath to replace it, because my three-month-old son seemed to love it as much as he

loved me or my wife, but I needed a camera to take with us on holiday. I showed up at

Nikon in Mississauga at closing time on a Friday afternoon and asked Ty what he could do.

Early Monday morning he called me back to say the camera was a writeoff, but he'd still

give me several hundred dollars in trade-in value for it toward anything I liked, and order

in anything that he didn't have on hand in time for my trip. Wednesday morning I went to

pick up a CoolPix 5400, and Thursday morning I was in the Yucatan. Ty saved my holiday

and I sure hope he's still working there, because I'm going back to Nikon tomorrow. The

5400 has two years and 10,000 images on it, and needs to be either cleaned or replaced.

This time I'm loath to replace it because while I'd like a better camera, I don't want to give

up the swivel-mount preview (indispensable for child photography) or video capture, and

it looks like that's not possible. As long as Ty works for Nikon service though, whatever

camera I buy will be a Nikon.