benji

I am not sure about sharpness but I think my photos look better on the web after converting ot profile sRGB.

Ben

Thanks to all those who contributed. I think I am going to give it a try. Also I wanted to attach below a second responds from B&T Leventhal about the autofocus portion of my question.

Thanks again,

Ben Czinski

Ben,

Autofocus will be fair with the combination. Unfortunately, the 300 f4.0 does not have the best mechanism for switching between AF modes. Unlike the 80-2.8 ED, the MF system is not on a clutch so you need to change both the camera and lens to AF or MF... this eliminates any prefocusing opportunities. I suspect that if you manually prefocused the combo you'd be fine, but AF alone is pretty slow...

Fortunately for me I guess, AF is not a priority... however, electrical communication with the 5 spot meters is a priority.

regards,

bruce

--

B&T Leventhal

Owl's Eye Nature Photos

www.owlseyenaturephotos.com

I have a Nikon AF 300mm f/4 ED-IF and often use it with a tc14b on my

f5. When doing this of course auto focus is lost. Has any one with

the above combo(not necessarily with the f5) tried Kenko's 1.4x

Teleplus Pro 300 and compared to the tc14b as far as sharpness,

contrast, color....? Also how is the auto focus compared to the 300

with out a converter?

Thanks

Ben Czinski

Can you use flash compensation on the SB-28 (with F5) in any of the

TTL modes or just the straight TTL mode. When you look up compensation

in the flash manual it says to switch to straight TTL, however, in the

SB28 magic lantern book (pg.95) there is a illustration of the readout

on the SB28 showing both a matrix symbol and a compensation setting.

But in the text on the page before is says to turn off auto

compensation. If you can use flash compensation in either mode I

would guess that an equal amount of flash compensation would look

different when applied to a straight TTL metered scene vs a auto fill

flash TTL metered scene, would this be true? I would like to hear what

mode (on flash) do other nature photographers use, when (if both) and

why. One other note: the flash distance meter seems to respond to

flash compensation in both the straight TTL or Auto fill flash TTL,

leading me to believe that you can use flash compensation in both

modes. Still trying to figure out flash photography,test, test,

test...

Ben Czinski

Joe, one of the problems is that the sb 28 is not indicating any underexposure (blinking). It will blink in other situations say f/32 at 15 feet, but not at macro distances (19 to 24"). The slides, however do darken with smaller f/stops. As far as the chart goes at 19" inches I should shoot at f8 or as it says in fine print "smaller, such as f11". The chart seems to be trying to prevent overexposure which is of course the opposite problem I am having.

As Peter is having the same problem a new question might be are we the only ones. If this is the case then perhaps there is some kind of equipment problem. If it is the same for all then I will just have to dial in +1 to +1.3 for macro work. I would be very interested in hearing from people who have used the 200 4D micro and the SB28 flash for macro work around 1:1 to 1:3.

Thanks

I just received my new F4 200 micro D, my test shots with a F5 and

SB28 on a flash arm over the front of the lens shows I need to go +1.3

on a neutral subject to get a good exposure at around 1:1. Do you

have any ideas what might be wrong the only suggestion I have gotten

from nikon is to go straight TTL and not matrix on the flash. Why

didn't the camera warn me (blink) that there was under exposure at 0

ev.

This thing is driving me crazy and no one seems to know why my slides

(Fuji velvia) are dark. At 5.6 things do not look to dark but by f8,

11, 22 things are very dark. I did some test with Just TTL on the

flash but have little confidence that this is the problem, ( I don't

have them back yet). I was using Aperture priority and matrix on the

camera and making ev changes with the camera. My first test had the

zoom on the flash set at 18 and 20 with the diffuser this always

worked great with my 105D micro. They were dark as they also are at

all zoom settings on the flash including 85 which is the highest. I

just do not understand that sense the exposure is supposed to be taken

form the film plane why I am not getting the proper exposure. Why is

the flash being shut down to soon. It can't be that the flash is to

week as the proper exposure can be achieved at +1.3. If the adjustment

was only + or - .3 to .7 that would be understandable. Could there be

something wrong with the lens.

I hope someone can help.

Ben Czinski

I am using an F5, 300mm f4 lens and one SB28 on a kirk flash arm at

about 7.5 feet. I am shooting small birds, nuthatches... from a

blind. In the evening when I can photograph, my background is about 2

stops brighter than my shaded subject. The bird is typically perched

on a dead limb coming off at ninety degrees from a larger vertical

"tree". At this distance I believe the subject and branch take up

approximately one quarter to one third of the frame with the lighter

background filling the remainder of the screen. On an average day the

back ground would have the desired exposure at f8 (for desired depth

of field) and 1/60th. How would you go about getting the correct

exposure of subject and background using the above equipment and TTL

metering. Manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, spot,

matrex, center, flash settings, compensation on flash, compensation on

camera.....

Thanks for your responses. Yes Bob several threads do show up when

you search for focusing rails but, after running them down I found no

real discussion on them. Just that they can be useful. I guess I was

just trying to find out exactly how practical they are, if a lot of

people use them and the pros and cons of any specific brands that are

available, thanks again.

<p>

Ben

I am just getting into macro photography and started with a 50mm/1.4

with Nikon's pk 12 and 13 extension tubes. This gave good results but

really is quit a bit of work constantly changing tubes or removing

tubes. So I purchased the Nikon's 105/2.8 micro and of course love

it. I photograph wildflowers among other things and find myself

constantly moving the tripod back and forth to frame the subject or

when I was using the 50mm just to get into the area where I could

focus, I would think this is quit common but can find almost nothing

when a searching for focusing rails. My question is what is out

their, is one a lot better then another, do others find them very

useful, do they weigh a lot...pros and cons of using one. I was able

to get a price for a Velbon from B&H ($90), is this a good one?