dpbours

<p>It totally depends on what you are shooting...</p>

<p>The 24-70, will you be using it mostly on the 70mm end, or more around 24 - 35mm on your DX.<br>

If the answer is on the 70mm end, go for it;<br>

If the answer is around the 24-35mm, get the 17-35mm 2.8.<br>

Still, it depends on what you are shooting. Architecture and landscapes, you don't want a lot of distortion. Cityscapes and street shooting, I would not care that much about it.</p>

<p>And whatever you shoot, I would not care about an 8mm gap.<br>

If you wonder about the 24-70, get a second hand Sigma for 250,- and see how the range of 24-70 works for you.</p>

<p>I think you'll be quite happy with the 1.5x DG. If I see one in a store I'd like to try it as well with my 70-200 2.8 of Sigma.<br>

My German is not that good, but funny to see the results of the test and the price difference between the Kenko and Canon teleconverters. And yes, as a Nikon D700 user I am still happily surprised with the sharpness of my Mamiya twin lens that is over 40 years old... See the shots at the medium format tab: http://dpbours.dphoto.com/<br>

here a good example: http://dpbours.dphoto.com/#/album/8e679u/photo/2316892/</p>

<p>I fully agree with what has been said by Reid and the others.<br>

If the park is a closed environment with an entrance, there probably be some 'house rules' on littering, laying on the grass and perhaps also photography. In the end, Reid is right you don't want to piss anyone off too much, but be clear about your rights.</p>

<p>I always explain the rights I have. I have been requested in the past to delete pictures in which the rights discussion was murky at best. I refused to delete and after a discussion with a police officer nearby, the issue was settled and I didn't delete anything.<br>

Love the D700, which has the option to hide pictures after you have taken them...</p>

<p>There are people saying the old PRO 300 (non-DG) - not mentioned in the above list - worked with the 80-400 VR with the VR working: http://www.digiscoped.com/teleconverters.html</p>

<p>Some people claim the newer PRO 300 DG works with the 70-300 VR (also a 4.5 - 5.6 lens).<br>

Other sources on the internet (though I'm not sure how reliable), also claim the PRO 300 DG to work with the 80-400 VR and VR functioning.</p>

<p>This could mean that either the 80-400 lens of the seller has an issue, or the teleconverter has. The reason it does not work properly on an 18-70 is that teleconverters in general are used for lenses of 50mm and above, and preferably 90mm and above.<br>

I would not go for this second hand teleconverter.... The story just isn't right.</p>

<p>Did anyone ever use a Metz 54 or Metz 58 with a small frontal secondary flash?<br>

Just wondering about the effect it would have... I'm considering this type of flash.</p><div></div>

<p>It is quite confusing, so I went over it again;<br /> <br /> <strong>Kenko N-AFd 1.5x DG AF Teleplus SQH Teleconverter for Nikon (Mfr # * K1.5AF DGN)</strong> <br /> Works with some kind of circuitry, which they call the gate-array IC. That is the DG-part. Is said to be fully compatible with Nikon AF-D and AF-S lenses. 5 lenses in 4 groups. No mentioning of not focussing on some lenses.<br /> <br /> <strong>Kenko TelePlus MC4 AF 1.4X DGX Teleconverter (Mfr#*MC4AF1.4DGXN)</strong> . The old version. You don't want this one. 4 lenses in 4 groups and no circuitry and works with specific lenses. <br /> <br /> <strong>Kenko 1.4x Teleplus Pro 300 DG Teleconverter for Nikon AF-D (Mfr # # K14PRO300DGN)</strong> <br /> This is actually a teleconverter for both AF-D and AF-S as far as I am concerned, new circuitry and 5 lenses in 4 groups. There is a second teleconverter with more or less the same picture, but a different code: (Mfr#*PRO3001.4XDGXN).<br /> <br /> The code <strong>Mfr#*PRO3001.4XDGXN</strong> is actually the newest version. This version is called the PRO300 1.4x DGX (an extra X). To confuse us, the old MC4 with only 4 elements also had an X in the manufacturer's code.... This new teleconverter has 7 elements in 4 groups!!!! Funny thing is, the manufacturer did not yet give it a code as far as I could find.<br>

<br /> At B&H I would first call them to make sure it is actually the new type with 7 elements. There you have your difference. I attached an actual picture of the newest teleconverter.<br /> <br /> The Pro 300 and Pro300 DG already got good reviews. And I'm sure the DGX will be great. <br>

If you find anything below 190 USD, you can be sure it is a 4-element version. I'm mostly interested in the 5-element 1.5x version if I'd go for cheap... Seems to be some kind of in-between experiment of Kenko... 99,- USD for a 5-element DG teleconverter...</p>

<div></div>

<p>The Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 DG 1.4x AF Teleconverter surely has the connections. You don't see them because the connections are at the almost opposite site of the little AF-driver. They are at the inside of the red dot you're looking at frontally of that picture. <br /><br>

Whether it are 8 or 11 contacts, I don't know... To make the confusion complete, the 1.5x is said to basically handle all lenses, but it has 8 contacts: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/389042-REG/Kenko_K1_5AF_DGN_1_5x_DG_AF_Tele_Converter.html#features</p>

<p>Anyone knows the effect of 8 or 10-11 contacts? My Nikon and Sigma lenses have 10 contacts.</p>

<p>@Oskar<br>

The focussing screens cannot be replaced in the D700.That was possible in the good old film days.</p>

<p>But yes, manual focus would be my pick as well...</p>

<p>An interesting discussion, but above all I feel sorry for your loss here Richard. Good luck...</p>

<p>The other way around is possible as well. I did product shoots, which were fine. When I provided some samples of the work done to the client, the person giving me the job settled for the samples only and did not pay me for the full job.The samples were small, but it was good enough for his purpose as it seems.<br>

There was a contract and everything. But well, the moey just wasn't enough to go to court for - and the client surely knew that.<br>

Afterwards I found two designers who were 'used' in the same way by the same client. A good lesson for me to next time put much bigger watermarks on my sample shots ...</p>

<p>And yes Matt is right, if the DVD's are the only place where you have all your NEF's... Not safe. They get old over time and at some point they won't work anymore. I use two external harddisks that make exact copies of one another the whole time. When I go away for a longer time, I keep one in my house and one in a friend's house.</p>

<p>Adobe Bridge on PC or Aperture on the MAC? Or perhaps even a simple program like ACDSee or Irfanview can do a batch conversion to thumbnail. They don't take over the exact folder structure though.<br>

But the folder structure can be taken over by the good old xcopy command at the command prompt: xcopy E: C: /T /E . The /T makes sure the directory structure only is copied. /E also copies empty folders in the structure.</p>

<p>If you want a thumbnail overview of your shots from DVD, you couldn't save them anyhow on the already burned and closed DVD. Just do a full conversion of what's on the DVD's into the same folder structure on your PC.</p>

<p>Yep, the D700 does make a change in your life. I did have the D200 and in the end hated it for even iso 800 being sometimes useless. I now have the D700 and I'm even happy with the outcome of iso 3200 shots.<br>

Yes, save the money you wanted to spend on a lens and go for the body. That lens is overpriced anyhow as it is. Nice to have 1.4 at 24mm, but at what cost? Try the Sigmas..</p>

<p>The HP5+ has a very fine grain. The Pan F has almost no grain.<br>

The grain of Fuji neopan is fine as well. But you can push your rolls a bit. The iso 400 can be pushed to 1600 and the 1600 can be pushed to 3200. That'll surely put a bit of an edge on your grain. I haven't used the other two film brands.</p>

<p>They are all great Nikon photographers, but do they also put all the settings in their books?<br>

I'd love to see more books like the ones of Chris Weston and Heather Angels, where each photograph is accompanied with a story of the shooting circumstances, the equipment details and the settings details. I love reading how they got to it.</p>

<p>Ah, an after a little search I found a list of Nikon-shooting professional photographers:<br>

http://www.nikonlinks.com/resources_photographers.htm</p>

<p>If anyone has experience with photographers or their publications?</p>

<p>Chris Weston has a series of two on that;<br>

Macro through a Nikon lens, by Heather Angels.<br>

And Chris Weston does Wildlife through a Nikon lens.</p>

<p>I've got both and they give good information on the equipment in the books.<br>

I'd love to know myself if there are any others detailing lenses and settings of Nikon in that sense.</p>

<p>You can shootdirectly to a laptop with the Nikon Camera control software, which you can download as a trial for 30 days. Here a description of the process:</p>

<p>http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1207</p>

<p>And from what I understand, you can also set the number of clicks in the software beyond 999.</p>

<p><em>"use it often and it won't collect any dust."</em></p>

<p>Works in most countries, though from personal experience I'd rule out Sudan ;-).</p>

<p>Why would you put it on display?! I'm just baffled by that one.I'd buy a nice old one to put on display ;-).<br>

I'd just keep it in the water-tight bag you perhaps already have to carry it.</p>

<p>If the camera is in a good condition other than that, I'd keep it.<br>

The no of clicks, whether it is 100,000 or 150,000 is comparable to the MTBF - Main time between failures. If you'd look at the average TV, the MTBF would be somewhere between 5 - 7 years. I got a TV here that is 15 years old and works fine.<br>

The no of clicks is what is should do at a minimum! Could do double as well, if you're lucky...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Yeah, this is a hard one to answer with the information provided.What kind of body? and if your body has the option, will you use continuous focus tracking? some lenses are very fast, but will start hunting on continuous focus tracking.</p>

<p>I also guess you have not the best 28-70 of Sigma, since mine is razor sharp on a D700...</p>

<p>And something else on the internet - then you know this cardbus card works:<br>

<em>"I have been using an LS-4000 with a Dell 4-pin connector, a<br /> StarTech.com 2-port IEEE-1394 Firewire Cardbus, and a LaCie 3-port<br /> Firewire 800/400 card (actually Texas Instruments firmware) with no<br /> problems. My software is both VueScan and Nikon Scan (the latest<br /> version)."</em></p>

<p>Reading further on the internet, it has more to do with the specific Firewire chipset your laptop is having. The Nikon scanners can be quite picky about that. There are recommended Cardbus adapters with Firewire:<br>

http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/006n9R</p>