brian_choong

February 19, 2013

Mary Doo, thanks, I know it is a defect (I say it defect and not a single case is because I own two D700, both I also change the hotshoe and both camera also facing the same problem which is the rubber peeling), defect after I replace my hotshoe (replace hotshoe need to remove all the rubber and replace with a new set). But, no choice, nikon people keep on saying not their problem...I have two options, first, send back to them and replace with a new set of rubber, Or I stick it back with double sided tape...

I am glad that you solve your problem, and I may use your solution to solve my very old D70s sticky issue too!

February 18, 2013

I own a D70s and my D70s body is sticky as you mention, if want more specific, it is the body rubber that sticky. I ask the Nikon service centre before, they told me is the rubber, I need to change the rubber. And the I ask why like that, they answer me Natural Rubber is like that...

Actually, I face the Rubber issue on my lens also...it is loosing and surface get white stain alike color, Nikon service centre also also reply with the same answer: Natural Rubber is like that...

Well, now my D700 body facing another issue, the rubber on the body is peeling off...(This happen after I send back to change my hot shoe and they need to change the whole set of the body rubber)...They answer, no way to stick it back, but change it...

I am wondering, is other brand facing such problem or not of the Rubber....

October 10, 2012

Hi Bill, I am D700 user too. It not happen to D700 only, but I think all the Nikon RAW file (Atleast it happen to my D300 and D700).

You may try open the RAW file with Nikon NX Viewer or Capture NX 2, when open with Nikon's software, it will look exactly same as what you view from your camera LCD screen.

What I suspect is, LR not able to read the additional information that Nikon camera apply to the RAW file, mean if you apply standard/portrait/landscape in the camera, LR not able to read it.

So, if you compare the photo side by side with LR and Viewer NX, Obviously viewer NX will give you very nice and very sharp image than the LR

My very own solution is, I get a MAC, and then use the software call APERTURE to replace the usage of LR.

Aperture seem able to render similar result as the Nikon does.

This is my very own personal solution for my self only.

April 13, 2012

This may sound wierd to you, if you plan to get the 85f1.8D, bring your flash along to test the focusing.

My problem is, when I use this 85f1.8D without flash, it focus nicely and sharp, once I mount my flash and shoot with flash, it will be back focus...

January 5, 2012

I use speed light for dinner reception at Hotel ballroom or restaurant

The light there is dim and yellowish

I test to shoot with SB600, SB800, SB700 before

And now I throw SB600 and SB800 and only use SB700

I always use default setting as TTL on the speedlight

SB700 by default the light is abit blue, when the light from SB700 hit with the yellowish light, I can get very nice skintone just by default

Mean while, SB800, by default if mix with yellowish env light, the skin tone will be yellow.

Same things goes to SB600

As a wedding photographer, speed is very important, the on off switch on SB700 is very direct, turn it on or off

But on SB800/SB600, you need to press and hold the button

I know you can set the FN button to off the speedlight, but sometime the on off button really help

My advice, get the SB700, and it come together with the diffuser but SB600 NO

November 15, 2011

Card reader better

One of the reason I use card reader is because I do not want to open and close the rubber that use to protect the USB port

When you open the rubber very frequent, up to one stage, you will not be able to close it properly.

June 7, 2011

Need help from Aperture 3 user

I have been using Aperture 3 for a year already

All the while I am happy with the result

I do not have trainning of Aperture and my workflow is very simple

I create a project, and in the project, I create album for each of my assignment

After that, I import photo to the album, at the beginning, I choose the option of import photo to the aperture library

After sometime, I change the option to import the photo from the current location already

I exported last year album and the keep it in my external storage as backup,

The the current year 2011 assignment I still keep it in the Aperture 3

I am facing a big trouble this morning

Last night I export an album and then I save it to desktop

This morning, I accidentally double click the exported album that at my desktop,

and it launch the Aperture 3, After that, I check the left panel of the Aperture 3

My goodness......all my album GONE, and only left the album that I just double click

How can I retrieve back all my album????

I think last month when I am on my another mac machine

Aperture 3 also, I am using same workflow, and I have two album there

When I trying to explorer the files of aperture 3(trying to figure it out where the image go if I select import to library option), then I double click the aperture 3 library file

My goodness again, it launch my aperture 3

And then all my album / project gone...

Is there any way to retrieve it back as well?

May 23, 2011

After using SB700 for few months with my D700, I am very happy with it

But, last two days when I am shooting a group photo session

The shooting flow is in this way

When the people organized, then I will take 3 shots, the interval of each shoot is about 3-5 second

Then change another group

When I shooting the 4th group, my SB700 not fire

I tried turn the power off, the red light still on

I change the zoom of my lens, the info behind the flash no change at all

Then, because of the critical time, I pull out my SB700, and put on my SB800 to continue

After I finish all my shooting, about 20 minutes later, I check my SB700

The light still on,

I check the tempreture icon behind the flash, it show low

I have to open the batteries cover to disconnect the join of the batteries

Then I close the cover again, SB700 able to shoot again

After sometime, it hang again...

I did not shoot continuous with the SB700 and each shot interval should be atleast over 10 second, and I did not shoot every 10 second as well...

Is this the over heat issue? Or my SB700 defect....

September 26, 2010

I am a wedding photographer, I am using D300 + D700, but, definitely I will get D7000 because of one reason which is Video (To make my wedding slideshow more attractive)

Although it is using SD card and also different batteries, but, the Nikon batteries is really not that expensive.

I know D300s can do better than D7000 of some area, but, sometime, for a normal user, it make no different, and for me, I do not need the high frame rate on my D300 as well.

My opinion, D7000 is with newer technology and sooner, all the coming new Nikon model will be similar as it. If there is something new on the market, why don't get the newer instead of getting the old technology?

July 28, 2010

Thank you very much, I think I think it in wrong way start from the beginning...Never think from the basic knowledge...

Many thanks of the explanation and now I am very clear of what happen now.

July 28, 2010

My friend just got a second hand D700, after he take back home a have some test, he found very strange image result that produce by the D700. Then after that I take out my D700 (I get it newly 8 month ago).

It is seem like the white balance is not consistent on the whole image, same composition, same setting, when I keep on shoot, no matter is continuos shoot CL/CH/S, I also able get such image

Some time the left hand side is yellow, some time is the middle is yellow....

I really cannot imagine I am using it for 8 month and not realize this issue until tonight...

Is there any one facing the same issue?

I shoot under pendaflour light, ISO6400, shutter 1/800, F2.2....

No matter I set the WB to custom, or I reduce the ISO from 6400 to 1600, I still able to get such inconsistent result...

July 13, 2010

Hi Jean

Me my self, my friend (user of D300) and also my another friend D300s facing the same problem before

Please refer to D300 user manual page 268

a2: AF-S Priority Selection

You must access using the menu

Set it to Focus

Sorry, of I forget is section a1 or a2, but I think should be a2

Play around with the setting directly in the menu

Hope this help!

December 23, 2009

I have SB600 and SB800, I mount them to my D300 and D700, and I shoot wedding

I shoot Chinese traditional day wedding, the ceremony goes very fast,

The only setting of my flash will always ttl, and I control the power of the flash on the camera, thats all.

In this way, I do not see any different of using SB600 or SB800 (SB900 should be almost the same)

But, I do think you should get a SB900 first if you planning goes serious into wedding since this is your first flash gun, you can learn more things with SB900, but SB600 is only with few modes.

December 7, 2009

Hi, I have an assignment tomorrow and it is about the slimming center program

The slimming center has one program of shooting the model Before treatment, during treatment and after treatment

The interval of these three shooting is about one or two month and now only the first session

My camera now is D300 and D700, lens I have is 17-55, 85, 50, 80-200

Because of the shooting venue will be at the slimming center it self (customer want it to be)

I will bring a white cloth as background, 2 light stand + umbrella, the model standing distance with me is about 4-5 meters

So, problem now is, how to shoot the model look fat (She trying her best to make her fat in the pass two month and still not that fat now)

If I use D700+50mm, it probably will be as what she is right now no matter how she pose

If I use D300+17-55mm, if I stand far with 17mm, she will be thin, if stand closer, it will be like abnormal look (big head shoot effect..)

November 19, 2009

You issue is really seem like the card reader problem.

I have a bad experience of using a normal (no brand) card reader to read my CF card 2 years ago.

When it start copy, then suddenly my computer prompt me the similar message as you "Cannot read files. Disk requires repair. Reformat memory card immediately."

Gosh...fortunately the photo in the card that time is just normal shoot, and I able to recover the photo by using another card read with some software.

Get a branded card reader (Good news is, it can be cheap), I am using Apacer AM400 only, and it cost me only Malaysia Ringgit 29 only. I am very satisfy of the speed and the steady performance of it.

November 19, 2009

Hi, le tme share my experience with you

I have D300+17-55 previously, and last two weeks I got a new body D700, and that time I have company dinner, so, for the testing purpose, I bring my D700+17-55+50+85+80-200 to the dinner and test it out.

When a DX lens mount to the FF body, in the FF viewfinder, you are like seeing things through a hole, the corner is black, and there is a rectangle in the middle, mean that, that rectangle area is your photo area actually. It is very uncomfortable to use that small rectangle to composite photo. But the good thing is, high ISO performance of D700 do a great job even on DX lens.

Quality? If ISO is not a limitation, D300+17-55 is better than D700+17-55, I did not compare the photo with D300 and D700 side by side, but I feel that the 17mm in D700 do not give me the wide effect but the D300 yes.

After that particular testing, my conclusion is, yes, DX lens is usable in FF body, but I will like to use it for non commercial use only. I shoot wedding, everything need to be fast composite, the small rectangle will increase the risk of composite wrongly.

November 10, 2009

I almost have the same tools as you previously, D300, D70s, 18-70, 17-55, 80-200, 50, 85.

That time D70s really is just a backup for me, most of the time it just sit there and do nothing, because mostly I shoot is wedding dinner which is with quite dim light, D70s just quite hard to control in such environment.

Now, I just got my 2nd body (not backup body), D700, work great with me, I mount it with 80-200 and then use together with D300+17-55. It just complete each other.

I able to capture more moment photo because of I do not need to change lens.

My suggest is, if you just want a backup body, keep your D70s and save more money to move up FF or atlease D300

If you need a 2nd body, get an used D300 or better camera.

September 28, 2009

Hi, currently I am using D300 and 17-55mm mainly

I do have a Macbook pro 13" that use for mobility (Light room 2.X, and NX 2)

I shoot mainly for wedding photography

However, recently I just got an assignment that shoot spa with model photo

I will need to provide photo to the client right after the shoot

I will prepare 2 light SB800 with umbrella and stand

I am new to studio shooting, I know there is something that I can connect my camera to notebook, and immediate after I press my shutter, it will appear at my notebook lightroom (or NX)

So that I can view the result immediately with larger screen.

What should I get? a USB cable? Firewire cable? or...?

What should I set for my lightroom / NX2?

Is there any budget way to set it up?

Else I am thinking of using the stupid way, prepare few cards

After some shooting, then change the card and load to notebook manually....

August 18, 2009

I usually shoot wedding/Pre wedding/event

But, I just got an enquiry of shoot a series photo for a shop (slimming center)

What they need is shoot the shop, how they service, and also the machine that they have.

The tools that I have is

D300, Nikkor 17-55, Nikkor 85 F1.8, Nikkor 50mm F1.8, Nikkor 80-200 F2.8, SB800 and also a steady tripod

I have no experience of such type of photography,

I do not know what else that I should prepare for shooting in such environment

Do I need more flash? or studio light?or umbrella?

Any advice of my assignment?

July 25, 2009

After read all the reply, I understand what I should do already

Yes, I will still get the model that I mention and upgrade the RAM my self

And I think I should wait for the Snow leopard, since just now already near September.

I do not know why people like LR and there is so many pro using it,

For my self, when I shoot half body portrait, I move the focus point to the eye and then shoot.

Sometime, there is some hair on the face or the forehead.

If I import such photo with LR, if I did not do any adjustment, no matter the preview or exported photo, when I zoom to view the face, I found that the hair is just like some blur string.

But, surprisingly, if I view by NX or export with it, I can really see the hair clearly, not blur.

And also deal with my technical skill, some of the photo I shoot, there is blank area in the histogram, I need to use the Level tools to adjust out the blank that I found that I cannot do it with LR.

Then come in to my mind, Aperture 2 allow me adjust Level, which is great!

I want to get a Mac is because of Aperture, there is some argument of which one better Aperture or LR, for me, I will think both also good, just see which one meet your needs only. And 13" is convenient and light for my outstation assignment.

Aperture may disapoint me (I hope not), but atleast in Mac machine, I can have both, Aperture and LR with different OS.

July 24, 2009

Yes, 4GB will be great, but I am thinking of get the 2GB package, and change to 4GB my self, it is much more cheaper I get the 4GB RAM outside.

Will it be working fine?

July 23, 2009

I am planning to buy the new Macbook pro 13" (deal with the budget, because the WITH memory Graphic card is almost double up the price of this 13")

I am using it for my outdoor or outstation photography assignment

I will use it to do simple adjustment of the photo and also create slide show

2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 160GB Hard Drive 2GB DDR3 SDRAM NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

This is the WITH memory graphic and NOT SHARED

My question is, I will install the CS4 to edit the photo

and I also will install the Aperture 2 to edit photo in batch

I know with the spec I have, it is under power

I know I can install the CS4 and also the Aperture 2 in this notebook

But, I need to check the speed of using it with Aperture 2 and also CS4?

Loading the photo to the notebook is not using the on board Graphic card, but, will it be slow response when I apply adjustment to the photo? I mean do I need to wait for few second after I did a tuning of any adjustment like Exposure, level, or contrast...etc?

And how long it will take to export a photo from my RAW file?

Will the photo that I export can get similar result as NX2? (because if I export the photo in LR, I cannot get the same result as NX2 in term of sharpness, without any adjustment but direct export the RAW, this might because of LR cannot read some of the Nikon camera RAW setting)

The CS4 will it be slow in this machine?

I am using NX 2 in windows, and it is really slow....Export a photo take me 5 to 15 second

After apply an adjustment, it take me few second to reflect the changes.

NOTE

I am using D300 and I only shoot RAW

Any advice?

July 2, 2009

Thanks Dave, But the monitor that I looking is not TN panel, it is IPS (dell 2209WA), I know iMac is good, but just wonder can I get same result if I get the IPS LCD monitor if compare to iMac?

July 2, 2009

I am using a Dell D630 notebook for my photo editing

It is with RAM 4GB and XP Pro And I am using Nikon D300 with RAW file

I am facing some problems of the photo editing process

1. Photo quality

I am a wedding photographer that mostly shoot wedding and deliver about 1000 photos per assignment

Because of that, I mostly use the Lightroom 2.2 to edit my photo, reason is, I found that Lightroom is very convenient to use to process photo in batch.

But, recently I am using the Nikon NX 2 to process some of my photo, I am very surprise that when I export the photo using NX2, the quality is much more better than Lightroom.

e.g. A head shot with some hair covering the face, if I export with NX2, I can see the hair clearly one by one, but with LR, the hair it is like a line with a little bit of blur.

I do not make any adjustment on NX2 or LR but just import and then direct export

Did anyone face the same issue before?

Or D300 RAW file is that really compatible with LR?

Or do we have any software that is good for photo batch processing?(I mean at least I can get same or similar result of NX2)

Because by using NX2 to edit 1000 photos, it is really a slow process if compare to LR

2. Viewing the photo

Another thing come to my mind is, if I get a iMac (Apple notebook) with normal range (Because high end iMac is quite expensive, if compare with I get a new LCD IPS Monitor (dell 2209WA) for my notebook Dell Latitude D630

By viewing photo point of view, this two screen will it give similar result? (assume that both monitor well calibrated and not by compare the processing power of the notebook)

March 25, 2009

Nikkor 17-55MM F2.8 is my choice, by having this lens, I seldom use my 50mm 1.8 unless in a very dim light situation. But this lens is quite expensive as well....

It is sharp and wide enough for group photo.

I will not suggest you go for 28-70 F2.8 because you are using D80, because after times the crop factor, 28-70 already been 42-105, by 42mm, when you shoot group photo, it really not enough.

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Posts posted by brian_choong