tom_boston1

<p>Has anyone seen anything like this?</p>

<p>I am sometimes getting these strange parallel lines in shadow areas of my images. I only see them in dark areas. In this instance, I've artificially raised the levels to make the issue more visible. Frames immediately before and after this shot with the same camera settings show silky smooth blackness in similar regions of the photos.</p>

<p>Poorly seated memory card perhaps? I'm completely befuddled.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>You can get an EIN from the IRS online in a few minutes. Give them the EIN (aka Tax ID) and it will protect the privacy of your personal SSN. Link to apply is at the bottom of the following page:<br>

<a href="http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online">http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online</a><br>

Income that they report on the 1099 they give you for this EIN, in most cases, would still be reported on Schedule C of your personal income tax form.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Shun, that does make more sense to me.<br>

<br />When the sensor is exposed correctly, the brightest white is recorded as "111111111111" (12 1's) which allows the right shift to occur 12 times and the darkest dark is 1/4096 dimmer than the brightest white.<br>

<br />A 14 bit capture allows the right shift to occur 14 times and the darkest dark is 1/16384 dimmer than the brightest white.<br /><br /><br />So I would expect most of the benefit of the higher dynamic is more detail in the shadows. And your earlier analogy of the pushing the 2nd floor higher is perhaps better made as pushing the first floor lower to fit the increased number of steps.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I have both the 17-35/2.8 and the 14-24/2.8. The 14-24/2.8 is amazingly sharp and contrasty. But I use the 17-35 for weddings.<br>

<br /> I also have the 16-35 VR. Tried it once at a reception, but it was too dark for me at f/4. I couldn't see and I really need that extra stop just to see what I'm doing on a dark dance floor. For group shots in short rooms, it would be fine.</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>So, I have questions. I am willing to pay for the repair, so long as at the end of the process I might have a D600 obtained at a discount. The current owner just wants to be rid of it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>How could you possibly be willing to pay for a repair when you don't know how much the repair will cost?</p>

<p>Please write back and say you've absorbed the wisdom of the crowd on this matter.</p>

 

<p>Shun - If a sensor site (pixel) has saturated, why would it matter whether the analog to digital conversion is 14 bits or 12 bits? I would think that putting more steps between the floors gives you more details in the shadows. i.e. the ability to differentiate between 1 or 2 more bits in the darkest shadows.<br /><br />So the answer to Hans' question is possibly yes, the difference between the floors is the same, but there is possibly 1EV darker area in the shadows that has detail with the 14 bit capture.</p>

 

<p>Ray House could have made a more useful post. He's referring to the D80's reputation for having a defective cutoff filter and that these spots are something that is on the bottom of the filter</p>

<p>But if the spots were on the bottom of that filter, you'd likely see these at wider apertures. </p>

<p>The same places that do IR conversions can replace the filter with a full spectrum filter that allows conventional photography, but that's not a cost effective solution.</p>

<p>Note that even if the cleaning fails, the camera will still be useable at wide apertures. Please do let us know how you make out.</p>

 

<p><strong>How to replicate the problem</strong><br /><br />I had similar issues as described here with my D700. Things like</p>

<ul>

<li>Stopped working just before the bride came up the aisle</li>

<li>Flash not firing and autofocus assist light showing up in the photo</li>

<li>Crazy strobing</li>

</ul>

<p>Authorized Photo Service in Morton Grove fixed it for me for about $250. Most of the cost was for labor. I had considered hammering the foot, but something internal was the problem so hammering wouldn't have helped at all.</p>

<p>What was extremely helpful is that I was able to replicate the problem and determine the problem was with the body and not with the flash units.</p>

<ul>

<li>Put camera on the tripod</li>

<li>Mount flash</li>

<li>Activate AF assist lights and wiggle flash</li>

<li>The AF pattern on the wall makes it easy to see how much play is in the foot. Some play is complete normal.</li>

<li>I was able to duplicate my the misfiring issue by shooting frames while wiggling the flash unit.</li>

<li>Repeating the setup with a different camera body did not replicate the problem, even though just as much play was visible in the AF pattern on the wall.</li>

<li>Therefore, it was time to send my D700 in for service.</li>

</ul>

 

<p>Did he say he sets the lens at f/16 and shutter speed at 1/200? (sunny 16 with ISO 200)</p>

<p>Maybe the rule thumb for setting minimum shutter speed to 1/focal length doesn't apply in zero G.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Of course they are still using Nikon gear. They have a big investment in lenses. ;-)</p>

 

<p>Did you say 128 _mega_bytes?</p>

<p>Post the photos somewhere and let someone else find the owners. For a 128mb card, it's not worth the postage to mail it to them.</p>

<p>Best bet would be to take one of the most representative/informative photos and use your story to start an internet meme of the "share this post" variety. ;-)</p>

 

<p>Can anyone tell me if the battery holders for the two grips are interchangeable?<br>

<br />I just realized that when I bought the a replacement AA holder for my MB-D12, for the same price I could have bought the Meike, kept the battery holders, and thrown out the rest!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Try a different battery.<br /><br />If you are using the original battery, it's well past the age when it might not be working correctly. Could be anything from not holding a charge to not outputting the correct voltage and causing this sort of problem.</p>

 

<p>Sandisk 128GB Extremem 45MB/s Class 10<br />Firmware A1.02, B1.02, L1.002</p>

<p>No problem in my D7000.</p>

<p>I usually keep the 128GB card in my D800 but I tried it in my D7000 to see if the camera "accepted" the card. It did.</p>

<p>Normally, I have a 64GB card for raw and 32GB card for jpegs and have number run into a problem.</p>

<p>What kind of camera did you buy? If you bought an old D70 with the kit lens for casual use, than the 2GB Dane-Elec is fine.</p>

<p>If you were buying a camera for wedding use, it probably wouldn't have come with a Dane-Elec card.</p>

<p>Have fun with your new purchase. Go out and take pictures. Don't worry about any problems unless you have them.</p>

 

<p>It would be nice if the comparison between the two cards could be automated. Then you could just blast two cards full of data, stick them in two different card readers, and run WinMerge (or an equivalent utility) on them.<br>

<br /> Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy as the "identical" files on the two cards have a couple of different bits that indicate which card slot it was in, so most simply binary comparisons will flag them as different.</p>

<p>Are you absolutely sure you formatted it in the D3s? <br /><br />Formatting the card in the camera writes the volume name with the camera model. If the previous format was in the D3, then it's more likely you lost track of formatting the card. Occasionally happens to me when I'm formatting several cards at once.<br /><br /> If the camera is randomly writing bad bits, which could be the case, it's unlikely the bad bit rewrote the the volume label from D3s to D3.</p>

<p>It means the card was formatted in a D3 instead of the D3s.</p>

 

<p>I've had no problems with the Extreme 128 GB SDXC (45MB/s). And I never have to change memory cards.</p>

<p>Shun, are you saying this has happened to you two or three times with the D800E since August? About how many frames have you shot in that period? Even if it's only happened two or three times, that seems like a relatively high error rate.</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>I've found that when this happens its always been the card reader that has been faulty,</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Probably true</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The problem is when you put the card into the reader and then plug it into the computer, if it is faulty, it will damage the card and render it either totally usless or unreadable, if you then try it in another reader, it still shows it as unreadable as the damage is done.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not necessarily true. He did say the pictures are visible in the camera.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Now i just transfer my images direct from the camera, and NEVER EVER use a card reader, i've lost too many cards (and photos) using readers,</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Maybe you are not using good quality readers or some other factor is at work here. (ham-handed insertion? virus? something else?) I always use a reader and have never had a problem.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>If i do have to use a reader (wifes camera or parents camera), i always write protect the card first, so no damage can occur.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If you are talking about write-protect, you are using SD cards. There is nothing about the write-protect tab that physically prevents writing to the card. It only tells the computer that you don't want to write to the card and software in the computer prevents the writes.</p>

<p>So if a physical defect in the card reader is responsible for the problem, the write-protect tab probably won't protect you.</p>

<p>For the original poster, transferring the images directly from the computer will probably work. If not, there is image recovery software that may have success retrieving the images. A lot of image recovery software requires the card to be visible as a drive letter (so it won't work for you). But there is some recovery software out there that will physically scan the card even if the card doesn't have a drive letter assigned. (not sure which though)</p>

<p>First thing I do with a new Nikon is change the "No Memory Card?" setting as Shun described above.</p>

<p>Nikon probably figures the demo mode should be the default so that customers can try out the camera in retail stores straight out of the box without store staff needing to know what to do.</p>

<p>I recently played with a Canon DSLR. It's demo mode puts a "No Memory Card" message in the middle of every photo when played back.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Somehow she got into the Demo Mode and took a bunch of nice pictures.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>She got into demo mode because she forgot to put a card in the camera.</p>

 

<p>D7000 + a new 17-55/2.8.<br /><br />The D7000 is close to the dynamic range of the D800 & D600.<br /> It has the additional benefit of having a relatively quite shutter, especially used in the quiet mode. But keep an eye on the mode dial.</p>

<p>TIFF supports 16 bit color but it loses the raw sensor data. Converting from NEF to DNG will preserve the raw data and make white balance correction much easier, especially if the white balance is way off.<br>

The most sensible solution is to upgrade Elements.</p>

 

<p>The biggest change I've noticed is that post-processing takes noticeably longer. So much so that I shoot the D800 more like film instead of machine gunning.</p>