toby_snelgrove2

This is a "Duhh". Not only get an extra battery, take a back-up camera.

I am doing a wedding in 2 weeks and could not image having lots of battery life, digial

storrage space, and a back-up camera. I was going to use my Minolta 7d, but, after

being able to sell 4 of my Minolta lenses, purchased a D300 as back-up to the D200. If

you are a pro, you customer expects "no problems".

Best of luck

Toby

Two things: Was at Burning Man in Aug. - dust everywhere - never really affected the

sensor (never took the lens off) but dust everywhere in the 18-200. Dust only really affects

the image when it is on the rear elements.

Secondly, i took it into Nikon for a cleaning ... and they did an element cleaning for free,

but would charge $300 to get the dust out of the focusing and VR mechanics (the dust

negatively affected the ability to focus on 170-200mm). Damn.

As was said, all zooms stirs dust. You have more of a risk with dust when you change

lenses, especially if you leave your camera on when doing so (static attracts dust)

Cheers toby<div></div>

You know, I just had the same problem with an extreme III ... worked for months on my

d-200 and just quit. What up with that, eh!. The only saving grace is that it works with my

mac as an storrage device.

Toby