John Di Leo

Yes, but to put that another way, when the shadow of your rig is the smallest on the ground, you're close, if not there. It will not be a "circle" because the camera body is there casting its own rectangular shadow. I use a mod of that to align. If you are using a small telescope, as I am, there is a finder scope on it. To use this technique, the finder scope must be aligned with the big tube of the scope: Do this well in advance, easiest to align on a terrestrial object, I used a chimney of a house a block or so away. With an aligned finder scope (or nearly so, but closer the better) slew the rig so that the sun's image is projected through the finder scope, I use my hand as a "screen." The sun will be in or very close to your VF. A very useful accessory is a right angle finder. For Nikon they come in two sizes 19 and 22. The older ones are 19, and cheaper, and stepup up rings are avaulable. I don't know if such an accessory exists, but a small finder scope that fits into the hot shoe of flash, would be useful, but again, does that exist? Re making your own rigging for the filter, make 1000000% sure it is secure from being bumped or wind or whatever! Even a few milliseconds of sunlight through magnification will permanently damage your retina. There is NO recovery.. Also, all filters must be between the sun and your equipment...not behind Sun---------Filter----------lens-------camera---------eye.......not any other arrangement there are filters made to go into eyepieces( and maybe viewfinders???)--AVOID! Any imaged sun, esp magnified, has the ability/likelihood of burning through the filter and then permanently damaging your eye. There are many vendors of solar filters in various sizes. I cannot remember where I bought mine, but it has a blue ring on it, and slips over the end of the small scope I am using. It fits well, but I reinforced it with velcro as an added safety measure. Orion Telescopes: Search Results on 'solar filter' and Products – Thousand Oaks Optical I was testing the setup the other day on my driveway. It was in the 90s and very hot. Since we are all looking for clear skies and the money shots will happen when the sun is overhead, and it's mid-August, I am going to bring a large umbrella for some shade during the run up to totality. Seems like a useful piece of equipment.

With respect... you're not going to see corona without the disc occluded, the disc need to be blocked to see corona. There are special devices to do this--but these are not something you can get from Amazon. The best time to observe corona is during a total solar eclipse. Upping the shadows in Lightroom is not going to do it. Those are artifacts in the exposure above, not the corona. You need a tripod for totality, if, for nothing more than efficiency. I, too, went out the other day and shot some test shots. Aside: exposures and iso are very forgiving if you have stability. No disrespect intended, but no matter how good you are at catching birds in flight, the sun is not that subject. During partial phases, handheld can work mostly because you have all the time in the world to get it right/do over. Totality is different. You are shooting at far slower shutter speeds, as well as some faster speeds, to get different things, ie prominences, corona are far different exposures. Think about what you're trying to do (in at most 2.5 minutes). You have to Find the sun in your viewfinder---this is not easy at all. You are using a very narrow angle lens, the viewfinder is BLACK because of your sun filter--like looking through with the lens cap on; your eclipse glasses are off, to see anything in the viewfinder. That means your other eye is open or winked, but pointing directly at the sun. If you can do it, now try to find the sun at the zenith---that's where the sun will be for most of the USA, or nearly so. It is not a suitable test to try at any time of the day; you must try it at the time of the eclipse. You neck is 90 degrees to your body and you are "holding" a biga$$ piece of equipment that weighs a few pounds. And trying to keep steady. Good luck with that. I suppose you could try laying on the ground, but to avoid a tripod? One thing to point out and the above exposure shows it. Usually I can check exposure of the sun by focusing on sunspots. They are often pretty apparent, though not above. My shots showed the same, a blank disc. I looked at the sun's limb for sharpness, and as above, it looked sharp, but no sunspots. There are two reasons that could be: The focus distance from the closest part of the sun's surface to the Earth is different from the distance to the limb-to the tune of OVER 430,000miles, the radius of the sun. Depending on the lens/telescope you're using this may mean a slightly different focus setting. So, if you are focused on the limb--as the above image is, and as mine were, any sunspots might be out of focus and not show up well--at least the potential for that is present. I have seen images where focus was on a sunspot and the limb is not 100% sharp--BTW a very cool shot is of the moon's limb advancing on a sunspot. The other reason you don't see sunspots is maybe none are there on this "face." That turned out to be the case. The sunspot number is way low- it was zero- and on the astro/solar sites with live views of the sun, I saw a blank disk, like above. Now, that said, the moon's distance is about 240,000 miles. To put that into perspective, the radius of the sun is nearly double the Earth-moon distance. So, should one focus on the moon's limb for Baileys beads and Diamond ring, then refocus on the sun's limb for prominences...advice sought on that, but the main point is: Do you really want to handhold that, keeping the sun centered (no easy task), and changing shutter speeds? Yesterday, I went in the other direction completely. As I mentioned earlier, I am using an old Bausch and Lomb 1200 f/12 telescope. For my test, I had it on a manfrotto tripod with a swiss arca ball head, D810 with a Nikon DR-3 right angle on the viewfinder. I tested at about 130pm. It was very hard to find the sun in the viewfinder at that time of day. I gave up and, since I was just testing my setup, I waited until later when I wasn't shooting at zenith, or nearly so. I also re-aligned the whimpy finder scope--which has NO solar filter at this time. Tested the setup, looked ok, but I was concerned that this was a lot of weight for the ball head. I dug out the case for the B&L and got the mount for it. With only one trip to Lowes, I adapted it to the tripod and equatorial wedge I had for an old Celestron C8. Brought it outside last night to check on collimation. That is Jupiter next to the moon--played with the collimation, which was pretty good, looked at the crescent moon, and saved the focus setting. the advantage of a real mount is the ease with which you can "slew" the scope and lock it's position; there are knobs. And it is sturdy out the wazoo. So that's what I am going to bring. But all of that to say, to think you are going to handhold a total solar eclipse, could be wishful thinking. Or you could be terrific at it. I know I am not. PS That is a cool shot even with the banding

with that much stuff why not a rolling Pelican case?

This link has some helpful stuff Canon DLC: Article: A Total Guide to Totality: Solar Eclipse Photography

My 2 cents, just as a quick response, first: have you witnessed a total solar eclipse before--ie, NOT partial ? if no, I would say spend more time watching it and less time trying to photograph it. If you are a novice at both the eclipse and taking pictures of the sun/moon, my opinion is that it is far more worthy to watch the spectacle, and getting a couple of token snaps than fiddling with the camera and losing viz time. At best you have 2.5 minutes. Time economy is essential. ---you have another chance in the USA about 7 years from now, after that it will be necessary to chase them to the ends of the earth--- If yes, (someone correct my math if necessary) a 200 on a Dx is like a 300 on a full frame. A 2x converter (of good quality) would produce the eq of a 600 and I think that would be fine. Even a 1.4 would produce a very useful image. There are many shots out there with a normal lens, just depends on your composition desired. They all work. But, you can judge for yourself...take a picture of the moon with your setup with different configurations--the 200 by itself, with a 1.4, with a 2x. That is how big the sun's eclipsed disc will appear--the moon and the sun are the same apparent size otherwise the eclipse would not look like it does. So, the moon can serve as a proxy to test your rigging. I have thought for full frame a 600-700 to maybe 1000mm ish lens would be best, but that is just my opinion. There are people who will shoot this with 2000mm +plus lenses/telescopes. Aside: the equipment that comes out for total solars is breath-taking stuff. The longer you go, the more likely you are to see prominences, but there will be less corona. I think 600-1000 balances that nicely. Re: the mirror lens. Do your research. A 600 6.3 sounds tempting, but that assumes the IQ is good. The net is full of reports of crappy copies of the cheap mirror lenses. I will be using a cheap mirror reflex lens myself, a Bausch and Lomb 4000, 1200mm f10, I think. It, too, has checkered reports. Astromart Reviews - B&L Criterion 4000 - a scope with Junk Bond Status Mine has quality enough for me, I think I got a good one, but there's a lot of junk out there. In your situation I think the converter on a good lens would be better than taking a chance on a new lens at this stage. The eclipse is less than a month away. You have one more full moon to check your setup. Getting close.

Chances are with the hooping and hollering and the excitement of the moment you might not have to do much "docenting" during totality, so you can enjoy the spectacle! Docenting during partial will be easy, until you start with the shadow bands, that's when my adrenalin really starts flowing. I will be traveling with a couple of people who are total novices at this, but they are not interested in taking pictures; they just want the experience, and I can educate them what to look for on our ride to the eclipse. I am going to illuminate my display, but I will plot out the exposures so I am not overlapping as much as I would with 1 stop brackets. E.g., If I bracket centering on 1/500 and then on 1/250 and then on 1/125, etc there will be a lot of overlapping same exposures that, if in post stacking/hdr is desired, will be redundant--I think. It may be better, and more time effective, to plot out exposures so that less overlap will occur. So, shooting at 1/500, with 5 exposures 1 stop apart, for the next exposure bracket, rather than going to 1/250, I would go to 1/125, then to 1/30, then to 1/8, skipping stops in between because I will be getting the intervening exposures because of the bracketing. On the way back up with the exposures, I'll catch the exposures I skipped on the way down, IOW 1/15, then 1/60, then 1/250 etc. There will be same exposures globally, but the time of exposure will be different, so there will not be redundancy of images. This would mean a bit of a closer observation of the camera display screen, or rotating two clicks instead of one, but it would also mean that the shots would take less time to accomplish, granting more time to simply observe. Obviously still a work in progress, but the digital environment offers far more possibilities over film. I like your idea of shooting continuously during 2nd and third contact rather than trying to "catch" the exact moment. Haven't decided on ISO yet. The Mr Eclipse site is a good source of info though. And as long as you have focus and a steady mount, eclipse photography is forgiving. Timing myself, bracketing 1 stop, 5 exposures, using a 2 second delay on shutter, going from 1/500, 1/125, 1/30, 1/8, 1/2, 1/4, 1/15, 1/60, 1/250 takes about 75-80 seconds on first try just sitting in front of the computer. Going to work that down as much as possible. There will be a need to check alignment along the way, but only once, I think. And the fixed mounting of a tripod will help decrease times. Thanks for the tips and will follow this discussion until time to leave. It will also be worthwhile as eclipse time approaches for members to offer insights on weather at particular sites, for best skies. This far out predictions are worthless except for historical trends--there is a historical cloud cover map out there that generally says midwest is better than southeast, but that can obviously change

a useful piece of kit is a good sized piece of cardboard. This can be used to shield the camera after you've removed the solar filter and before you're shooting bailey's beads and Diamond ring, and after third contact before you re-attach the filter. Also, don't necessarily go for the longest lens. The tighter your image, the less corona you'll catch. Personal preference I suppose, but I think I'd go for the 600 and not use the converter. 1300 will be pretty tight and will cut off corona. The corona can easily extend a couple of solar diameters (or more) 360 degrees around the sun. I am using a 1000 and I would not want to go longer.

Yes, senior moment. I know manual, which with a fixed aperture, would be similar in shutter priority. It will be manual. ISO should not change. SS will be the only variable. Won't be that huge using the solar filter, which is removed just as John Harper says above, ie, not at mid totality. I guess all 'chimping" is not created equally. If it can be called "chimping" to quickly look at the image to be sure focus is good, then I am going to do that for the first image or so, quickly. So, I guess that could be called "chimping." After that, knowing focus is achieved, there is little reason to chimp. IMO it is far more worthwhile to get the exposures done rather than looking at the LCD after most/all snaps. Another thing to consider is that for most of the USA the sun is going to be pretty much overhead. That means the LCD will be pointed groundward. That means, if you want to chimp every shot, you are going to be on the ground looking up into your LCD, with the eclipsed sun-which will be in your field of view, distracting you. The one thing you do not have is time, and I think, anything more than token chimping is stealing you away from the eclipse. Crouching under a tripod is not the way to spend the eclipse. Things should be set up to the extent that nothing will need changing other than SS. Of course, if your LCD articulates, that would make chimping tempting, but mine does not, hence rigging a shaving mirror to see the LCD for the first shots. Remember, you only have about 150 seconds. In truth, there should be nothing to adjust other than the shutter speed, and where the camera is pointing, if you're using a long lens. So, chimping should be unnecessary agree, I think we're talking about a matter of degree. This is my fifth total, the "action" is what draws me there. I will not chimp to the extent it jeopardizes the experience. I will get my shots quickly to have some eclipse to just watch. These questions arise because this is my first with digital rather than film...dottin' i_s and crossin' t_s. It should be remembered that eclipse images are pretty forgiving during totality. Under expose and get more prominences, over expose and get more corona. John Harper, what do you plan for your spread of bracketing during totality? I'm thinking either one of two stops??? Three pictures in each bracket? 5? The downside of more pics is that they take more time to take. 5 exposures would take a minimum 2.5 seconds. The upside is more image. When bracketing there will be lots of overlapping exposures, so maybe fewer would work fine, and could be increased in post by using neighboring shots? Remember to illume your display. Clear skies, all!

I learned a new term: chimping! any small opening will project the image of the partially eclipsed sun, a piece of cardboad, or a small hole made with your fingers, they all work. But, at totality there's be no need. I plan on having a setup that I can chimp if I feel the need, but, two things: 1) I will likely be shooting toward the zenith of the sky, so I will have a right angle attachment for the viewfinder 2) because the LCD will be pointing downward, I will try to set up a shaving mirror, hung somehow so that I can easily view that I got a picture--that's all I want to know at that moment. I will NOT examine the just taken picture real time---time is way too precious to do that, and I want to just watch it, ie, have enough time AFTER the pix are taken to just stare at it, and catch Diamond Ring at 3rd contact. I have a question though. I will be on shutter priority and will bracket, probably 3 exposures 1 or 2 stop(s) apart. Maybe play with HDR after?? Yes, there will be "doubles" of many exposures. I am using a mirror lens about 1000mm and f8 (or 10?). Because this lens/telescope has a "fixed" aperture, is there any setting in the camera (D810) I need to address? being on shutter priority, I'd think it really wouldn't matter...the f stop is what it is, but I don't know that for a fact. Insight appreciated. and TIA

whoa, a view camera. You must be mobile. While you can plan on a particular location, you have to realize that 100 miles up or down the path may present much better ops. People ask me where am I going to see it, and 6 weeks out I can only say somewhere between Nebraska and South Carolina. I will decide probably about 48+ hours pre eclipse and head there. You must have good maps. If you check the astronomy sites you'll see many ads for maps of the pathway. ( I wish GoogleMaps had a dedicated screen to it!) I bought the Fred Espenak Solar eclipse road atlas. It's good, but in B&W and a bit hard to see. It'll do though. I am looking for some obscure backroad somewhere, but, a rest area on an interstate will do-if placed properly! An advantage of an obscure area is the quiet--you may be able to appreciate the changes in wildlife sounds, though I really never have and have been listening. You want to have a spot where you can, if possible, see a 360 degree horizon, because there will be a sunset looking sky all around you and you can see the shadow coming at you. Also, you want to be able to see a bunch of ground so you can see the 'shadow waves" which are pretty cool. Get your glasses, so that you don't have to worry about that later. Get the cheap cardboard ones from Astronomy magazine. They are safe. I've witnessed one with both a large group of strangers and with a small group of friends. I think i like the big group of strangers more, slightly, because it is such a communal experience that everyone is sharing Clear skies! Can you tell I'm excited about this?:)

I tried to edit and it timed out. I wanted to make two important points. In the video he says to "set your lens to infinity." 1st some lenses will focus beyond infinity so if you just throw focus all the way, you may be out of focus. To address this it is important to mark the focus setting for the sun pre-eclipse. This can be done by setting up your camera, tripod, lens to be used and filter, and focusing on a sunspot, of if none are present (unlikely) on the sun's limb. Mark that focus point with a piece of tape. You do not want to be fiddling with focus during totality. 2nd some things to be shot are on the moon at 243k miles and some are on the sun 93 M miles away. Depending on your lens the focus for the moon and sun will be different. The difference will be slight but enough to notice. The bigger your lens the more noticeable the different focus points will be. I will be shooting through a 1000 mirror reflex lens (with my refurbd d810) and there is definitely a difference in focus points for sun, moon, stars, planets. There are some aspects of the eclipse that occur at moon distance, like the ragged limb of the moon (mountains) backlit by the sun, and producing "Bailey's Beads" at the beginning of totality and some that are from the sun's distance, like the Diamond ring Effect, prominences, and the corona. While the corona is wispy and soft focus may not be that big a deal, prominences--the "flames" shooting from the sun's surface, need to be sharp. What I have done is to shoot the moon distance things up to second contact, hoping to have an op for the Diamond Ring effect, then changing focus to sun distance and shooting the rest. For this eclipse the longest anyone in the USA will have is about 2mn 40 seconds. So you have to be ready to shoot and choreographed so that you can get all your shots in a minute or so, and then just stand in awe to watch it unfold, but ready for the Diamond Ring at 3rd contact. Totality is an unbelievably remarkable event--as imposing visually as it is spiritually, maybe not the right word, but a Majesty of the Cosmos experience like no other. A partial eclipse does not hold a candle to a total. A total is worth a significant journey, a partial, not so much.

Thanks for that, Shun...There's an ongoing thread over in Practice and Techniques...nature about the eclipse that is informative also. August 2017 solar eclipse preparation

My refurbished D810, referenced in another thread, finally saw first light with me this past weekend at the annual Running of the Bulls here in New Orleans. Definitely still learning the proper settings, but here are a couple with my 24-70. I think I will be pleased. and and for Dieter, another one of the Palouse taken with my d700 a few years back

Good info above; this is my 5th, I think. I am using a 750 f/8 Bausch and Lomb telescope with tripod on a full frame. That website for Mr. Eclipse is chocked with excellent info. I may have another camera set up with a wide view. A couple of bits of advice: 1) find the sun in your viewfinder well before Diamond Ring. The longer your lens the narrower angle of view and you do NOT want to spend valuable seconds hunting for the sun. Of course use a filter for your search. 2) re ground effects. As mentioned there are the pinhole camera effects form leaves in the trees, but any "pinhole" will do, like making a small opening with your fingers and projecting that. If you use a piece of cardboard, have another piece to project upon. But the OTHER ground effect are the shadow bands...they are VERY cool, video would catch them best I think...they move fast. From Wiki... Shadow bands are thin wavy lines of alternating light and dark that can be seen moving and undulating in parallel on plain-coloured surfaces immediately before and after a total solar eclipse.[1] They are caused by the thin slit-like solar crescent illuminating the Earth's atmosphere moments before and after the eclipse totality.[2] Their movement is caused by atmospheric winds.[3] In 2008, Dr. Stuart Eves suggested that shadow bands might be caused by infrasound, which involves the shadow of the moon travelling at supersonic speed, which in turn produces low frequency sound that humans cannot hear. Due to this, he theorized, the movement of the moon creates a shock-wave in front of the shadow, which causes shadow bands. Dr. Eves said, "If proven, it would be something of a revelation that eclipses are a sonic as well as an optical phenomenon." Professor Brian Jones stated, "The [accepted] theory works; there's no need to seek an alternative."[4] Shadow bands have been noted throughout history: In the 9th century AD shadow bands during a total solar eclipse were described for the first time--in the Völuspá, part of the old Icelandic poetic edda.[citation needed] In 1820, Hermann Goldschmidt of Germany noted shadow bands visible just before and after totality at some eclipses.[5][6][7] In 1842, George B. Airy, the English astronomer royal, saw his first total eclipse of the sun. He recalled shadow bands as one of the highlights: "As the totality approached, a strange fluctuation of light was seen upon the walls and the ground, so striking that in some places children ran after it and tried to catch it with their hands."[8]

^^^May have been old (new) stock.^^^ But to finish the story, I think... Yesterday I received the camera back from NIkon. I believe they went over it well because: It looked cleaner the buttons seemed crisper there was an actual name on the return address from Nikon there were service--not owner's-- manual printouts for clearing data to factory defaults and adding copyright info--complete with hand hi-lighted areas. the shutter seems quieter all firmware was updated granted, many of the obs can be imaginary, but I think not. They were subtle, but there. IOW I think they did another refurb, or maybe the first refurb. Also, they replaced the charger, and it works! So, keeping fingers crossed, but I think I am good to go and I look forward to many years of trouble free service. Refurb? Caveat Emptor. I thank everyone here for their insights, advice and support.

about$400-450 (at the 2496 price, more now), which is significant for me at this time. Other than the exquisite hassle of it all, the only thing that concerned me was the shutter count. However, the MTBF for the d810's shutter is somewhere around 200k. I know how much I have shot with my d700, so I feel confident I won't be coming close to the 200k mark--if the averages hold out, and if it needs replacement, the cost would still be in my favor. It was enough of a pain tho for me not to buy refurb again. ymmv.

This has been an excellent discussion and it is much appreciated. Let me give what the follow up is so far, as of today 6/23/17. I was able to contact the previous owner. She said she is now on her "4th" d810 and continues to love the camera. Why 4th? Because she said that whenever "any issues arose with the camera" ( and I took this to mean real or imagined) she would simply bring it back to Best Buy and because of their "excellent return policy, would simply exchange it for a new one." Don't know if any restocking or other charge was involved, but the cameras were of such quality that she stuck with them. She also said that she doesn't remember any disasters or catastrophic experiences with any of her prev d810s. So, that was good news. Still, my concerns remained. The longer I thought about it the more irritated I became with Nikon, though. I called up the 800 number, gave my service req number, and asked to speak with someone who could replace this supposedly "refurbished" camera with a new body. I was connected to a customer service supervisor. I got nowhere with the request to get a new body. I found out that there is no shutter count above which refurbishing was not performed. OK, I also found out that there was no service history for this serial number with Nikon---had they been forthcoming with that bit of info from the beginning, this ordeal would have been prevented; that's what I wanted to know from the get go, as the camera "appeared" fine even though the shutter count was more than I expected. They offered to look at the camera again, if I sent it in, and after some discussion, they offered to pay for 2nd day delivery to the Los Angeles facility, with insurance coverage. Fair enough. The supe said that when I get the service ticket number to contact her and she would see if she could move it through the process faster than the "usual one month turnaround." What I did not have was the supe's email address, so I was stuck with using the trail of emails to alert her of the camera's arrival. I got no response that she was in receipt, but I did receive an email from the technical support supervisor, and copies of two tickets. Before I sent the camera away, I did some shooting with it to try to uncover any problems; as far as I could tell, it was working properly--and I was, unexpectedly, blown away with the dynamic range of the camera! There was no shadow that lacked detail...pretty amazing. I did also discover that the firmware was not current, more fuel to suggest whoever "refurbished" the camera, was not the sharpest lens in the case. I admit that it could be the firmware was current at the time of the refurb. But, the tech supe said that upgrading the firmware "is not a part of the refurbishing process." Caveat emptor, y'all. So, according to the NikonUSA website, my camera is being shipped back to me. On the ticket the complaints were distilled to: Malfunction charger, previous user data not wiped clean, out of date firmware. What I wanted and what I discussed with the supe from Cust Svc was a re-refurb of the camera. I want to believe that was done, whatever that means. The question was asked about the price of the camera vs a new one, considering the headaches and uncertainty involved. I think the difference is still significant, esp since the price has returned to nearly $2800, but I will not buy refurb again. I think I would buy used, but I am hoping that question is moot. Again, thanks for the discussion on what refurbished means, and more importantly, what it does NOT mean. Dieter said it well: I believe it's best to consider "refurbished" items as used with the benefit of a 90-day warranty and the potential burden of having been in need of adjustment/repair in the past and to test them thoroughly during the return and warranty period.

First, I truly want to thank all for the helpful comments during this “process.” To Dieter: As I said, I hoped it would be “nearly mint,” but recognized that might not be. I was not expecting the camera to be flawless cosmetically and I was willing to accept its minor imperfections, if I could be sure the camera was operating as it should and truly was given an extensive going over that I did expect on an item being sold as a Nikon Refurbished product from a Nikon reseller. The camera does have the two small indents on either side of the serial number—thanks for that tip. So, It IS a Nikon refurb, and not false advertising. As I stated I tried to get a service history from Nikon on the camera and they would not provide. Why? I can get the service history of a car on line if I know the VIN, certainly analogous to the serial number. Why so secretive when it comes to a camera from Nikon? If they all do that then, why do consumers allow that practice, but that’s a question for another day. :) It begs the question of concealment? >>Nikon occasionally offers reconditioned products either directly to customers or through dealers. These products have been carefully reconditioned by Nikon Inc. to meet all factory specifications. Refurbished products may have signs of previous use (minor body wear or other cosmetic indications) but contain all original cables, batteries, manuals* and other accessories and are protected by a 90-day limited warranty.<< Nothing there I disagree with. My question is totally related to the statement’s veracity regarding the camera I received and Nikon’s seeming stonewalling my inquiry into its history and their sorta cavalier advice to send it back to them via UPS insured—Turns out that is just under $180 as advised by UPS today. I can’t just throw money at this. At this point I have no confidence that a Nikon technician even looked at the camera, much less restored it to factory specs. Buying the camera I had to trust that above statement, however, now, after delivery, I have reason to distrust it. I know the shutter count is higher than I anticipated, but I also realize that nowhere should I be led to believe that the shutter count should be below a certain number. I was willing to accept even that, but I just got NO satisfactory customer service response from Nikon. I would expect a Nikon technician to plug in the charger to be sure it works. What a flashing orange light indication of sloppy work sending out something so simple, and so simply checked. That the battery wasn’t charged…no biggie, I can charge it! Oh wait…no I can’t. That's cutting corners or just sloppy. I don't work like that and I don't expect NikonUSA to work like that either. the customer and ultimately Nikon also suffers. And yeah, the prev owner info still in the camera has serious legal implications for me, the prev owner and Nikon. It is inexcusable. And, as Shun says: >>In the case for this OP, perhaps John is better off getting a new D810.<< I think you’re 100% right. I’ve been a serious hobbyist for over 50 years, using only Nikon SLRs, with Nikon lenses and accessories, including those for astro. I always bought new. That’s not cheap. Adding to the frustration of being treated thus so far by Nikon customer service in the fact that this is an amazing camera, more than I expected. I’m learning about things it does that I did not know, like exposure bias for highlights? Wow, I didn’t know that actually existed, but it’s on the 810. To Robert: www.camerashuttercount.com I don’t remember if I uploaded an nef or a jpg Again, I appreciate the “solace” and advice from everyone. I am going to call Nikon now and plead my case, after that prob Buydig.com I truly suspect the camera might be fine, but at $2100 I don’t want to suspect. Thanks again

yes, the serial number was there on the refurb slip; it matched the camera. It looked legit, and in my emails to Nikon I gave the serial and there was no questioning of it-- OT, I checked Roberts camera, btw, in fact sold them some stuff as they were visiting a local store, but never heard back about a d810, and found this one. IIRC you rec'd them. I can say I have no beef with Buydig.com. They performed well. In fact, the first call I made was to them, complaining about the charger flashing and without batting an eye sent out a vivitar battery and charger to keep, and said contact Nikon for the warranty on the charger. If it were fishy, I would like to think I'd catch it, but this is all Nikon through their NikonUSA website customer service.

a couple of weeks ago I posted here for advice about buying a used/refurb d810. All of the advice was good and I took it, but I offer this as my experience thus far. I found a d810 refurb by Nikon from BuyDig.com at an acceptable price. I ordered and I received it within a week. It came in the official "Refurbished by NIKON" white box, had the Nikon warranty slip, a neck strap, battery, charger, two clips for HDMI USB cords, and a Nikon slip telling me I can download the manual and the nikon software from the NikonUSA site. Fine. There were a couple of very small and very minor chips on the bottom and the body's lens mounting ring showed some slight scratches. No big deal, but NOT nearly mint as I had hoped. OK, again, no big deal. I put the battery in, took a pic with the nearly exhausted battery and discovered the shutter count was 44,601. I would have preferred fewer, but chances are the shutter will be fine for a long time. I'm liking this camera. I put the battery in the charger---> rapidly flashing orange light indicating either the battery or the charger was bad. On the camera's menu--with the 2% remaining charge on it--I went to Battery info and it was read as "NEW." And 2%. A quick google search confirmed that it was likely the charger bad, but it could've been the battery also. I could NOT play with my new toy at delivery because of a failure. Disappointment #1. The next morning I went to a local camera store, they looked at the battery and charger, told me the charger was bad. They were kind enough to charge the battery, so I could at least test out this significant purchase made because I trusted NIKON's QC. The camera appeared fine in the limited testing I did, but going through the menu, under copyright info was listed the previous owner's (or maybe A previous owner's) name. Now I am getting suspicious about what I bought. I went to her, prev owner's, website and saw the type of work she did, and felt somewhat comforted that her subject matter was baby shots, engagement and family portraits. This led me to believe that she, if she was the only owner, probably took good care of her equipment. This is Disappointment #2. It is obvious whoever claimed to refurb the camera at NIKON missed the malfunctioning charger (how can you miss that!) and did not wipe the camera's software clean. Any picture I would take and would try to sell---if I had not caught this--would show a different owner of the photo in the exif data. This is just sloppy on the part of the Nikon tech and Nikon QC. I contacted Nikon, giving them the serial number, asking if I could get the service history of the camera, "just for my own information," and explained what I had found. "Christine C." refused or couldn't give out that info. I painstakingly explained that this camera was in an eval period, I could send it back, but if there was no service history to it, I might consider keeping it, or at least sleep on it for a few days, putting it through paces. No go. I asked Christine how can I trust the Nikon technician who missed two flagrant issues to have adequately inspected the camera for anything. I also explained that I have shot exclusively Nikon SLRs since my Photomic Tn I got in 1968. IOW I am a long standing and loyal customer. Nothing. After 3 days, Christine then advised me to send the camera back to Nikon so "one of (their) technicians could look at it." I understand this, but it really irritated me, as I am going to be without a new to me camera for who knows how long, that I am being asked to trust a technician--didn't I just "trust" one? And the icing on the cake is the shipping and insurance is at MY expense. ON their supposedly "refurbished to factory specs" camera So, it will go to UPS tomorrow and then off to Los Angeles for who knows how long and for how much? I will keep the forum posted and I hope this is not commonplace. BTW, there is no indication anywhere on the packaging identifying the responsible "technician."

Until this week I shot with a d700, now a d810. I travel solo by motorcycle. The 16-35 f4 is maybe my favorite lens. It is a very useful focal range esp for landscapes. I rode through Glacier last year and iirc I used my 24-70 most of the time, not the 16-35. But elsewhere along the trip my 16-35 was my go to lens I also have a Nikkor 20 2.8 prime, an old manual focus. When I got it years ago I used it a lot, now hardly at all. Love the 16-35.

refurb by Nikon with the Nikon refurb warranty. Just above the 2k mark

I did it. Thanks to all here for the advice, I followed every suggestion of places to check, but wound up going with buydig.com, a refurb model. Hope I did enough due diligence checking out buydig, but it's ratings and reports were just as good as others, and really saw nothing negative here. Fingers crossed. Couldn't wait for Photokina, going to the eclipse in August and a big ride in Sept. Just hope all goes smoothly with buydig delivery and my model of the 810.

So, the search continues...I am looking at Ebay, as well as KEH, BH, Ado, and a question arises. Regarding the shutter count... though I know this d810's shutter may have a MTBF of a couple of hundred thousand clicks, I am looking at those counts under 10k, mostly. What about a camera that has a low count, but has had the shutter replaced? Emotionally, I feel that suggests "damaged goods," and at a 2k price, is it worth the risk of emotional "other things happening" on a body out of warranty. The other side, the unemotional side, of the coin is "this is a brand new shutter, so, it's better than taking a chance on one that this hasn't happened, but may in the future." Would a used camera, that has had work, such as a shutter replacement, rule that camera out for consideration or decrease its value in your eyes as a potential purchase? All else as equal as possible in a used camera, would the camera with the shutter replacement be down the list for consideration? The other question is: Is there a way to get the service history and date of registration from the serial number? On those on which I can see the serial number, I am running the number through this site Service Advisory but is there a reliable way to get more info? kmcgrew asked "John, You don't say what subjects you're shooting" lots...landscapes on/off a tripod/beanbag/handheld, family portraits, snapshots, street both daytime and night, occ astro, occ timelapse, macro, interior and exterior architectural. The d700 has been a great camera, but the d810 is that and so much more esp low light and to a lesser, but important, extent enlargement. Also, I carry the camera on the back of a motorcycle for long distance travel stuff in obscure places to it has to be tough.

I would go light and go simple. If I only had one lens to take--and that is a serious option for convenience if nothing else, it would be my 16-35 f4 zoom. Next I would add something maybe in the 55-80 range that could focus close. That would be it. No tripod, but maybe a beanbag-the poor man's tripod. No telephoto. You will be mostly shooting in close quarters so thnking wide is key, I think. It will be hot and dusty, likely, in many places and you want to carry as little as possible and not swapping lenses. I was in Kathmandu a while back and I would go out with only one lens and shoot that one, switching the lens at the hotel, but only shooting one at a time. I did not feel hampered. If you decide to stick with just your current primes I'd say the 24 is a given first choice, then either the 50 or the 85, and I'd lean to the 85. You're going to get amazing shots no matter what you take.