stephen_doldric

I use it for outdoor 5k road races all the time.. Aperture and shutter are important, but clouds and variation make manual difficult at times. I set my aperture to f4, then walk my shutter speed up as fast as I can go with an ISO I like. If it's bright out I'll get 1/1200th of a second, cloudy and I'll get 1/500th or so. My target ISO is usually around 400. That way if things brighten up the camera will have room too to go to ISO 100 if things darken a bit it has room to go up in ISO. Plus I can see the current ISO in the viewfinder so I can optimize shutter speed based on current ISO. It's actually quite brilliant, I get the aperture I want, I control the shutter speed and the camera helps keep up with changing lighting situations. I'm using a d700 and a d750.

<p>If it works, just keep using it. I have a D40 from 2008 and the only service on it has been cleaning the sensor a few times over the years. Its keeps chugging and in spite of my other gear, I continue using the D40. If you haven't used the d7000 a lot you might not even need a sensor cleaning. You can check by shooting a few shots of the sky or blank wall (yellow seems to be good) and see if you see spots on the image that you don't want.</p>

<p>I was under the impression that if you registered your lens online at NikonUSA via adding them to your gearbag that you were covered and didn't have to send the slips in (the old yellow card). Looks like maybe the new card they got rid of that requirement.</p>

+1 for what Kent said, but in all seriousness Canon makes some really good stuff. Perhaps you haven't made it to the higher quality Canon gear.

<p>I bought this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IQ7PT5A?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00">Manfroto (amazon link) </a> <$300 US and I am very happy with it for the price. It includes a manfroto 498RC2 ballhead. I'm 6' 1"" tall and no issues with height. Its folds up, but I would not want to pack it around. Its a good car tripod. Very solid. Its exactly what I needed, a solid, good tripod with ball head that doesn't break the bank from a brand name manufacture. I suspect there are higher quality ball heads and someday I might replace it, but its not junk either. Its better than anything I have ever had before.</p>

Yup.. Agreed. The one thing I wish is that the shutter were quieter. It's better than the d700' but still not as quiet as it could be.

Forgot to mention my take on the shutter speed. only 4000, but in practice I haven't seen any issues. Base ISO is 100 vs 200 on the d700 makes up for that. ISO 100 also makes outdoor model/portraits easier since I can shoot with say f4 where I was only able to get to f5.6 with a studio light since I routinely run into the sync speed issue.

<p>I bought a D750 about two months ago. I had already parted with my D7100 and had no backup camera, just the D700. My 7100 just didn't have high enough ISO for me coming from a D700 and the buffer was too shallow for my shooting. My plans were to use both the D750 and the D700, but in practice there isn't anything that the D750 can't do better. Two card slots, with fast cards and it chugs right along for my road race shooting or as a backup for critical events. At first I thought the 24mp size was going to cause me grief, but I heavily use the DX (1.5) and 1.2 crop modes. Completely awesome. Walking around with the D750 is like walking around with an FX and DX camera. Minus the big wad of cash missing from my wallet. Low light is also completely awesome. The compressed focus points give me no issue in practice. I'm coming from a place where I thought there was no replacement for a D700. Portraits and street photography, outstanding! I'm not a huge fan of the way the grip feels, but its not a big deal. Heavy use of custom menus and I don't mind loosing better button layout of the D700. The folding LCD screen, haven't used it yet. but plan on it.</p> <p>Anyone else make the jump to a D750 from a D700? I figured its good to get feedback over time for anyone else considering doing the same thing.</p>

<p>Down low on the floor behind the front seats seems to be the coolest place in the cabin. Not sure about that vs the trunk. I tried a regular cooler in the trunk and measured the temps inside it and it really wasn't up to the task. Seemed to make very little difference over a prolong period of time. For a few hours yes, but not several hours.</p>

$1050 us will get you a used full frame d700 from keh.com in ex+ Condition. Though you won't have any glass since what you currently have is dx. I know it's an older body, but it's still a fantastic camera and I use mine all the time. I'm not parting with it until it can't be repaired anymore. I also have the d7100 and it too is a great camera. Both have excellent 51 point auto focus whic is a huge help for sports. I got rid of a d7000 because I didn't like the 39 point af. My in focus percentage is much higher now. Next up after you upgrade your body, you will want to look into better glass.

<p>I tried using a D90 as a scanner for prints and I was never able to beat the quality of my Canon LidI scanner. Learning curve and setup will take time, I'm sure you "could" equal the quality with enough effort and the right setup, but I would recommend using a scanner. The scanner is slower, but the quality better.</p>

Upgrade to a d7100 if it solves a problem for you. I upgraded from a d7000 and am very happy. The two issues for me were better autofocus and the dial lock. the buffer is still shallow on the D7100 so it depends on your type of shooting. 24mp for me wasn't a selling point, but rock solid af was.

Those are great photos Ellis. I'm not defending or recommending the b1 as I don't have one or plan on getting one. Just sending out a link I found with some practice experience. I agree, with you though that TTL is just another tool in your arsenal. I use it when I think it's going to work better for me. Though I'm in Bill C's camp for johns problem I think that it would be harder to control variability between shots in a mass production setting like school photos if you use TTL. Things like controlling backdrop exposure will make you go nuts.

Here is a good comprehensive review on it. I don't think it's intended to be a studio strobe though based on its power source being batteries. http://sophastudio.blogspot.com/2014/06/buds-review-of-profoto-b1-air-off.html

Sridip I still love the system, but I agree it's only a matter of time. My time happened and I was just lucky. That was it, 100% luck in how it ended. I'm sticking with it, but being more carful and adding a tether. Black rapid should consider adding in a tether with each strap they sell.

Yes, I am rotating hard drives to back up my main computer offsite. However I also dump new work to DVD or blueray right after a shoot. My primary backup is a hard drive, it's cheap fast and effective. However you can't beat DVD or blueray for some failure scenarios. Ransomware, accidents such as syncing up between drives and backup tombs being unreadable by your backup software. Oh and the magnet truck parking out front of your house... (Not serious).... DVD/BlueRay has the advantage of being write once therefore it's harder to delete it accidentally, though longevity is an issue. I use verbatim for my disks since they have a relatively good reputation. Though my DVD/BlueRay disks stay on- sight and I rely on hard drives for the rest. It think DVD/BlueRay is a good augmentation to not just rely on hard drive platters, but it's a combination approach of a few technologies that is the best choice. I recently got a BlueRay USB 3.0 external drive (Samsung) and I love it. 25 or 50gb disks. Still slow, but a nice compact way to backup a lot of data. Set it burning then go do something else. Also ref hard drives. I had an old hard drive with years of spinning on it that I stopped using and put into storage. I recently plugged it in and it wouldn't spin. Tried a few times and waited a few days and then it spun up. My theory is the bearings get old and sticky. Had to loosen them up to get it working. No real point here other than hard drives also can fail you if you stick them into long term storage.

Straps are like camera bags. There is no perfect bag for all situations. Ditto with camera straps, just not as severe as camera bags in that you can usually find a strap you can live with. If you have seen any other of my posts I'm a huge fan of black rapid straps and defend them quite regularly. Mainly in the attachment point department. But they are also so awesome for event and action shooting. Best strap I have ever used. This story ends well, but just barely. I must humble myself just a bit as this could have been a very bad story for me. I usually check the mount point (the tripod mount) fairly regularly ant it's never loosened up. So this week on vacation I must have been getting too comfortable. attached to my black rapid was my D700 and my 28-300 super zoom. I Shot Highland games all day long. Got home and as I was siting the camera down on the bed the black rapid strap at the screw in point to the tripod simply detached. Astonished at first I couldn't figure out what just happened. The screw and threads were just fine. So it loosened up during the day. Lack of disaster was pure luck and nothing else. My fault for getting lazy and complicit, but also a realization to everyone who thinks it's a bad way to connect to camera bodies. Since I love the system, I'm not ready to give it up, but my very next purchase is the tether kit which connects the strap to the body as well. Holy cow was that 100% pure luck in the timing.

<p>I figured I might get some push-back and of course support. I think like any lens including the 28-300, it is a purpose built lens. Its built for a use case. Just because it covers a large range doesn't mean it replaces everything I already own. My other glass stays for its intended purposes. For me the purpose is to have a lens that I can have mounted that will get me more shots because of the range even if the quality is not the same. Sometimes its better to have the shot than have nothing.</p> <p>Why on a D700 when I could have purchased a point and shoot for the same or less? Because the D700 does low light very well and has a quality about it that is hard to duplicate. Its a full blown DSLR with the only compromise being the glass I'm sticking in front of it. A point and shoot super zoom has all the limitations of a point and shoot which also includes the glass.</p> <p>Anyway, I'm not trying to get into a flame war. Initial impressions for me is that it will solve a problem for me. For many its a lens of too many compromises and I respect that. Its not going to cut it as anything more than a general purpose lens. I would not shoot a wedding or indoor even with it, but I'll leave it on my D700 for all the times I'm not purpose shooting something else.</p> <p> </p>

<p>I did it, I broke down and bought the 28-300 while the rebates were active. I've been eying it for a while, but what finally drove me over the edge is that I have a D700 that is my primary body and I'm always stuck trying to decide 24-70 or 70-200. I know, if only everyone only had that problem. In particular I was shooting a major local 5k road race the other day. It was unpaid, so I only wanted to bring one body with me. For the finish line and in the middle of the course its easy, use the 70-200 no questions asked. Its the right lens for the job, and wow, fantastic results.</p> <p>For the start line I love the 70-200 <strong>some of the time</strong> to get some pre-race photos that you can't get up close easily, but you really can't do a good job with only that lens. Its the wrong lens for the start of the race. So its swapping on and off the 24-70 or bring a second body. Same thing with around the house and family photos. The 24-70 and 70-200 are pro glass and its hard to use them as vacation or family glass.</p> <p>So now the race strategy for me is to put on the 28-300 to start the race. Its slow glass, but I know how to work around it. I'll have wide angle for the start of it and then enough range for closeups where people are not running. Then after I move to the middle or finish line, switch to the 70-200 do the rest of my work with good glass. I might loose some shots to the slow glass, but I think I'll make up for it with more overall good shots.</p> <p>I've shot about a dozen photos on the new lens (raw) and without any post processing the results are strange. Thats the best way to describe it. Not bad, but strange in terms of the distortion and vignetting. There is a fair amount of vignetting at 300mm. Process them in Lightroom and turn on the auto distortion control, and wow! Much much better. If you buy this lens and want it to preform, be prepared for some form of post processing. If you can accept that I think the post processing makes this lens a decent lens when you consider the range you get out of it. Without processing, its a lens of serious compromises.</p> <p> </p>

<p>Be a bit careful with the SanDisk Compact Flash Extreme - 120MB/s read -- 60MB/s write. I would have bought that over the Lexar, but there are a lot of reviews about data corruption on B&H's website. Most of them in April and early May, so hopefully that batch is flushed out of the system by now.</p> <p> </p>

<p>I thought I would share this for anyone interested in the data I collected. Its Compact Flash and a D700, but the concept applies to SD, CF and other camera bodies. I've noticed that SD and CF card between Lexar and Sandisk, the Sandisk cards always seem faster. At least in the same rated speeds. But what I found was really happening is the<strong> rated write</strong> speeds are different. Just because a card says 30mb/s or 200x the manufactures are quoting the read speeds. Lexar seems to typically have slower write speeds per a given read speed.</p> <p><br />***<strong> If you take anything away from this before you buy a card find out the write speed, use that for your comparison shopping</strong>. *** Also the D700 is caped out with the ability to write somewhere around 45MB/Sec (unconfirmed) so any card faster than the camera and it doesn't matter, hence I stopped at the 800x (120MB/s Read) lexar with a max write speed of 300X (45MB/s).</p> <p>Here is my set of cards and my informal speed test:<br> <strong> </strong><br> <strong>Lexar Platinum II 16gb 200x CF Card</strong> (slowest)<br />30MB/s read --- ~22MB/s write<br />20 seconds to write full buffer to the cardd (r=17 on D700 NEF 12 Bit Raw)</p> <p><strong> </strong><br> <strong>Sandisk Ultra 16gb 30MB/s CF Card</strong> (Fast)<br />30MB/Sec read --- 30MB/s write<br />12 seconds to write full buffer to the card (r=17 on D700 NEF 12 Bit Raw)</p> <p><strong> </strong><br> <strong>Lexar Professional 32GB UDMA7 800x CF Card</strong> (Fastest)<br />120MB/s Read -- -45MB/s write<br />8 second to write full buffer to the card (r=17 on D700 NEF 12 Bit Raw)</p> <p>** D700 12 bit raw active D off buffer displaying r17 in viewfinder</p> <p><br />So why does this matter to me? Am I machine gun shooter? No, but I do shoot a lot of 5K road races. As the race progresses there are usually large clumps of people. I typically fire the shutter without using continuous, but even then I run into buffer full situations. On the Sandisk this happens sometimes, on the Lexar Platinum 200X a full buffer is a way of life. I just got the Lexar 800x after shooting a 2000 person race having swapped in the Platinum 200x card. The Lexar 800x (really 300x write) I can almost go full gun 3FPS without it ever overrunning the buffer. Thats awesome for what I do! </p> <p> </p>

<p>I agree Optical disks are not very good, but I think they have a place in backing data up. The biggest reason is they are write once and not subject to all the viral encryption schemes and name your other failure/accident modes of a hard drive. Don't get me wrong I still use external hard drives as my primary method of backup and rotate those offsite.</p> <p>Right after a shoot I copy the shoot to an external hard drive, burn a DVD and throw it on the stack. Then I use whats local for my workflow. If I accidentally delete something I can get back to it regardless if I'm fat fingering something because its on an external hard drive or on a burnt DVD.</p> <p>Edward, thats great data to see! Thanks for posting it. Good to know with care, they have a long life.</p> <p>Also I found a free product, CD BurnerXP, which has some limitations, but it has a disk spanning feature, you point it at a large set of files and it figures out how to best split them between several disks without splitting a single file. They are written simply as files.</p>

<p>You already agreed to shoot for free, and apparently edit the photos for free, so thats what you have to go with. Especially if you want to work with her again. Its also your reputation as a second shooter with other photographers as everyone talks. Giver her what you agreed to without changing the terms after the fact.</p> <p>A better verbal free contract might have been, I'll shoot for free and edit the photos for free and if you like them and want to use them pay me as a second shooter at "your" normal rate. If you don't want to use them, then the shoot is free. And then stress the free shoot offer is a one time deal while you both decide if both of you can work together.</p> <p>After this charge to 2nd shoot the wedding, then charge a per photo editing fee. Enough that on the editing she might even decide to just give you all the photos to edit and make some money of editing as well. Maybe $2.50 a photo - sounds low, but on 100 photos thats another $250. It really depends on how long you are spending on editing 100 photos and what kind of editing you are doing. It could be simple adjustments and you can do 10/hour or it could be 4 hours per photo. So price it like your time is worth something.</p>

Hiding? I respect having the ability to honestly ask and discuss photography without putting it out there for your clients to later stumble on. Go green.

<p>I'm posting this in Nikon form vs Digital darkroom since I need Nikon specific advice.</p> <p>What is everyone using to tether? I've seen in videos of shoots that people have a small LCD monitor next to their camera. Then I've heard of others using an eye-fi card and somehow seeing it on an IPad (I shoot RAW). Followed by my own experience where I have tried tethering via HDMI to a TV and also computer Monitor. My TV and Monitor both produced retched results using the video out on the camera. Could just be the wrong monitor or crappy TV.</p> <p>The only success I have had is tethering is to a laptop using Lightroom, but on Nikon it won't also write it to my flash card, which I would like. Also I don't want to lug around a laptop just to see the images on a larger screen during a shoot even if they end up in Lightroom later.</p> <p>I shoot RAW and use a D700 and a D7100. The ideal solution for me would be an external monitor about the size of an iPad or smaller where the images still get written to the flash cards in the camera. "Pretending" price isn't an issue, what options do I have?</p>