Rick Waller

I wasn't going to reply since most of you have already made the point about an N90S being an excellent camera.

 

But the comments about buyin on Ebay just floored me. With all due respects, are you guy's nuts???? You are really going to send a check for $450 to a total stranger for a piece of delicate electronic/optical equipment sight unseen? Yeah, yeah, I know that many folks make terrifc deals on Ebay and all of that, but I will be damned if I will send a check to a stranger based upon his description of an item. If you want to deal with a stranger, at least shop the Photo.net classifieds, where at least you may find the seller to be a familiar name who has posted for years.

 

I suggest B&H or Keh if you wish to buy used gear. We KNOW that these folks are reputable and will take the stuff back if not to our liking.

 

CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!!

When shooting animals (including the human type), if you don't get the eyes, you don't get the shot. Can you see this cute kid's eyes?

 

A bit of fill flash would have helped enormously.

This works great!!! $10.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bh1.sph/FrameWork.class?FNC=ProductActivator__Aproductlist_html___221936___OPHHXL___REG___CatID=277___SID=F73452C64B0

Interestingly, I live in New York and have bought virtually all of my equipment from B&H. For some crazy reason, B&H was selling this lens for nearly $1899 in February. I bought mine from a local camera shop for the $1699 price and returned the one I bought at B&H.

 

I found the 1699 price all over the place in Feb and when I asked B&H about why they were so uncharacteristically high,they had no answer.

 

Mine is a US model and by the way is exceptional.

Get in touch with Dave Roberts at Tokina. droberts@thkphoto.com.

 

He is "Mr. Everything" at Tokina and he will give you his input. I am a big Tokina fan (especially the 300/2.8), but I have heard complaints that Tokina takes a long time to complete repairs. Not so in my personal experience, but I had spoken to Dave on the phone first and whether that made a difference, I do not know.

 

I do urge you to email or call him. He is one of the good guys!

 

Web site is

 

www.thkphoto.com

Actually, I think it was an excellent choice of swimsuit!

If you guys figure out how to tackle MLU on an F100, please consider moving on to replacing the 5 black focus points on my F5 with the red ones in my F100. Now THAT would be a worthwhile fix.......

I do in fact use the lens hood on the 70-200 as I do on every lens I own. I suppose that it helps to some degree, (never tried it without the hood), but just be prepared for the flare. What does help is to remove the "protective " filter on the front, although the flare results from the bouncing around of light within the elements inside of the lens too, so the filter is only a marginal help.

 

I don't wan't to discourage you from buying this lens IF the VR is useful to you. I wanted the VR for hand held use, so I was willing to trade off for the increased flare. But If you are not in a big need of VR capability, then I would recommend sticking with the 80-200 which has come down in price in the used markets since the introduction of the 70-200. The 80-200 has much better flare control and I really have no idea why, other than Nikon obvioulsy cared about flare control in the earlier lens and didn't in the newer modael, unless there is something inherent in VR that makes flare unavoidable.

 

I doubt it; sounds like Nikon just didn't make flare control a major priority when producing the 70-200.

I agree that the lens is an incredible performer opically and VR wise.

 

It does have one glaring (no pun intended) problem. It flares like crazy. Do not even think about shooting an image in which the sun is in the frame. Big Time lens flare!!!!! Far more than found with the 80-200 or other lenses and it occurs at almost all focal lengths and apertures, but stopping down intensifies the problem.

 

Otherwise, a great lens.

here you go:

 

try this:

 

http://popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=377

Popular Photo and Photographic Magazine publish annual reviews of all available films. You can probably snag it off of www.popphoto.com

Add my voice to those singing the praises of refurb's. I bought a Nikon "B" version (their version of factory rehabbed) of the F5 from Pro Photo in Oregon several years ago as a backup. It was and is virtually indistinguishable from a new one at a great savings. Came with a warranty and everything. Looked absolutely brand new. As another above said, I wouldn't doubt that it was better inspected before being re-released than any "new" F5 ever is.

 

For the record, I just jumped into rangefinder photography when I was recently at B&H and stumbled upon a similar deal from Contax. B&H has a bunch of reconditioned "used" G2's and lenses that are in absolutely brand new condition. In original boxes with new manuals and paperwork and a complete one year Contax warranty. Bought a G2+ 45mm lens + TLA200 flash for $799. I added a 28mm and a 90mm lens for a total expenditure of $1488; a saving of about 50%.

 

This stuff is literally brand new - just perfect. I now have a breathtakingly wonderful "travel" kit that ALL TOGETHER weighs less than my F5 with my 28-70/2.8 attached. It may say "refurbished" on the box, but it was virtually brand new in the boxes.

 

I would trust a factory refurbished camera from a manufacturer way before I would trust ANYBODY on Ebay or even KEH for that matter.

www.thomasdistributing.com

 

best battery source I know of.

This can't possibly be true. Let me tell you why. I have not yet ordered my D1X and Nikon never introduces a new model until the week after I bought the product that I have coveted and saved for for 3 years.

 

I plan on ordering the D1X in mid fall 2003, so if all goes as normal, expect the D2 sometime in mid October 2003.

Taquin - Saying that the Tamron is the best in the superzoom 28-200 or 300 market is faint praise. I will defend the Tamron 90 to the wall, but as for the 28-300......well let's just say I think it (any of them, by the way,) make excellent paperweights.

 

:)

If you are looking for a macro lens, you will find that the Tamron 90 is one of the finest macros available in that focal length. I own Nikon 105 and Nikon 200 macros and I can tell you from first hand experience that the Tamron is an exceptional lens easily able to go head to head with the Nikon 105. The Nikon 200 is my favorite not because of better sharpness but because of the longer working distance and narrow angle of view.

 

Tamron macro crap? I am a dyed in the wool Nikon man and I can tell you that that conclusion is utter bullsh*t when it comes to that particular Tamron lens.

Ah, Desmond, I sort of misread your point. You mean it was designed to be snipped away.

 

Yeah, right....That is what I would say too if I were the engineer responsible for this outrageous piece of dogsh*t battery cover.

 

I doubt strongly that it was designed that way.

Desmond - I was being sarcastic. The SB80DX is a fabulous flash - truly state of the art.

 

BUT - the hinge on the battery door is a joke. A major league piece of crap. I am constantly amazed at how Nikon can make such excellent products and always seem to muck up some little detail.

 

The part about it falling of is most assuredly not a good thing, but trust me on this....it will. The question is not if it will off, but when it will fall off.

 

 

Reminds me of the insulting body cap Nikon encloses with its flagship F5 camera. The old fashioned "good" body caps are not used - they cost extra. Pay $2000 for a camera and they supply you with a flimsy piece of crap. Same for the end cap on the 80-200/2.8. Not the usual screw in type (which may cost Nikon about 50 cents - maybe - to manufacture) but an absolute piece of crap that is useless.

Yes Larry - that is the Tokina I was speaking of. I have used the 80-400 VR Nikon and let me assure you that the viewfinder and AF in the Tokina is WAY brighter and faster than the 80-400. You are at 5.6 with your lens - the 300/2.8 + 1.4 TC loses only one stop which is way brighter than 5.6. By the way, I find that the 80-400 VR is so noisy when it autofocuses that it can literally scare away critters you are trying to photograph.

 

If you have ever looked through a 2.8 lens, you can have an idea as to the brightness and as I said, even with the 1.4 TC on the Tokina 300, AF speed is fast enough to shoot sports with.

 

Again my friend - try out the Sigma and the Tokina and the Nikon to get a feel for what is out there. The benchmark will unquestionably be the Nikon 300/2.8 AF-S II, but it is literally twice the price as the Tokina.

 

The Nikon is a great lens - one of the best I have ever shot with, but is it worth twice the price over the Tokina? You will have to decide that one yourself, unless you are married in which case I can pretty much guarantee that the answer will be "no it is not" no matter how you feel about the subject.

I agree and forget using the built in together with the SB80.

 

Also, look into the Better Beamer if you are shooting with lenses 300mm or longer. It is an attachment to the flash that projects the flash farther using a fresnel lens and allows you to pick up at least 2 f stops.

 

Have a look in the archives about this product, or email me back for the site.

I want to comment on your consideration of third party 300/2.8's, having recently undergone the same search. As for 3rd party lenses, allow me to recommend the Tokina as better than the Tamron and the Sigma. Optically, the Sigma was quite a good lens. I really had little problem with that aspect and it does have the USM motor driven AF which worked as advertised. I dismissed the Tamron without having shot an image. I did not care for the feel of the lens nor the mount and frankly, my other forays into Tamron (with the notable exception of the superb 90mm macro) have been disappointing.

 

Then I shot the Tokina. First thing you notice is that this thing is a real piece of equipment. It is every bit as substantially built as the Nikon or Canon version - I daresay better built. You could drive nails with this lens.

 

In addtition to feeling terrific in my hands and being more compact and easier to handle than the Sigma (subjective to be sure), let's face it. We buy lenses for the glass. I compared the Tokina to the Sigma and to my eye, while the differences were subtle to be sure, I thought the Tokina was sharper and had better color results. There was just something about the Tokina chromes that jumped out at me.

 

Now the decision about AF speed. No question, the Sigma was faster. But...I did not find the Tokina to be objectionably slow. I shoot sports often with this lens and have found that I have no trouble shooting football or soccer or baseball from the sidelines AF wise with the Tokina.

 

When I weighed out all of the facts, I kept coming back to Tokina. I just liked the lens better. So I bought it and have never regretted my choice.

 

As an aside, the Tokina mates very well with the Kenko (same company - Tokina, Hoya and Kenko) Pro 300 teleconverters. The 1.4X works exceptionally well - very sharp results with very little edge degradation. The 2X wokrs well too, especially in the center, but the edges are a bit soft and the lens/tc combo becomes a f5.6.

 

I am told that Sigma makes a fine set of TC's as well to mate to their 300, but I did not evaluate them personally. I would expect similar preference to the 1.4 over th 2X for reasons of physics, but I have not had the personal experience.

 

Hope this was of some help.

Next time, just buy the Sb80Dx instead. The battery door is guaranteed to fall off by itself in 2 months of normal usage.

 

:)

look here:

 

http://www.keh.com/shop/product.cfm?bid=NA&cid=06&sid=newused&crid=5336869

 

A 50/1.8 AF for $89. You will not believe how good this lens is!

If you can swing the bucks for the Tamron 90 you will have an excellent macro lens. But, as Robert suggested, for everyday shooting, try to scrape a few more $$'s together and look to buy a used 50/1.8. You can get AF versions used for under $100 and the results will dazzle you in terms of sharpness, contrast, color, etc.

Dimitri - While I won't argue with some of your comparisons between your beloved F4 and the F5, I will tell you that, if you meter using the internal camera's meter, it is worth sacrificing the lack of viewfinder curtain to gain the remarkable metering system in the F5.

 

When I use my F5 for long exposures on a tripod, I simply hold my hand over the viewfinder to block stray light - a minor annayance at best for a meter that is so seldom wrong that it constantly amazes me.

 

I have used the F4 for years and swapped them in for the F100 and the F5. I miss nothing on the F4 with these new bodies with the notable exception of the lack of mirror lock up on the F100. What an amazing blunder on Nikon's part. Otherwise - I love the modern bodies. As for the control knobs - they are quite intuitive and I found that while I missed the easier straight forward knowbs on the F4, it took me about 2 hours to become completely comfortable with the control knobs on the new bodies.

 

As I said - other than the lack of viewfinder curtain, an omission easily overcome, I think you might try another look at the F5. Faster and more accurate AF coupled with a meter that is almost surreal in its efficiency are two good reasons to go for an F5.