jheimsch

<p>Could it be a flare sort of issue? Newer Pro lenses have more of the surfaces coated as compared to older lenses due to the highly reflective nature of dslr sensors...at least this is what I have read and this is supposed to reduce internal flare and improve resolving. Could be something like this? Write back when you've got it figured out. I like many of the other posters like my ATX 28-80 f2.8 better in the film days.</p>

<p>I have a d700 and this lense as well and don't see the problem much, but do believe that the D700 has a focus tuning feature that would allow you to correct forward or backfocus issues for individual lenses. There are lense tuning targets made to assist with this. Here is one such company <a href="http://www.rawworkflow.com/">http://www.rawworkflow.com/</a> I haven't used this, but have been thinking about it.<br>

Hope this helps,<br>

Justin</p>

<p>Jeff,</p>

<p>Copying to the root directory just means copying the file to the top most level of the card. So if you are placing the firmware in a folder you are doing it wrong. <br>

As for whether or not your camera is hosed, I am not sure. My guess is you are still ok, but I have been wrong before. Maybe others have experience with this sort of thing.</p>

Ooops...that should be Lastolite EzBox Hotshoe (15" size, not the 24") instead of Speedlight...

While this maybe counter intuitive sometimes refurbished is actually better than new. When new, things are clicking along on the assembly line, business as usual with daily production goals, worker fatigue, etc factoring in. When something comes back as a refurb you often get a higher level of technician looking at the product for all the possible root causes of the complaint. Companies don't want to see the product again after expending extra money to repair the problem so they do additional tests and adjustments that might not normally be done during the original assembly.

 

The N80 I bought as a refurbed looked and worked as new and I have purchased several high end workstations for doing fluid flow and heat transfer simulation that were all refurbs. They never gave me any issues.

 

Justin

I just went through this same debate and settled on a softbox from Alzo Digital that is basically identical to the Lastolite EzBox Speedlight 15". At first I was nervous about the quality difference since the price is ~$100 U.S. different, but after looking around in some of the flickr groups I decided to get the Alzo Softbox. When it came I was relieved that it was very nicely made of good materials.

 

Here is a link to the speedlight style softbox from Alzo:

http://alzodigital.com/online_store/alzo_porta_flash_soft_box.htm

 

I ended up getting a kit from this page:

 

http://alzodigital.com/online_store/alzo_porta_flash_softbox_studio_kit.htm

 

Hope this helps,

 

Justin

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I believe MPix.com will print a special 4X5.3" picture that has the native format of small digicams. They are more money than Snapfish, et al, but are usually rated highly for image quality.

 

Hope this helps,

Justin

I was curious as to how Nikon NX was handling the ICC profile conversion after

saving as a jpg. I saved the same image twice after having converted the

picture to the output color profile; one time embedding the ICC profile in the

save as prompt and the other not (both from the originally manipulated .NEF).

Then I opened them both up in Photoshop CS and proofed them using the correct

ICC profile. I check both images for out of gammut issues. The embedded file

did not have any gammut issues, will the same photo saved after conversion

without embedding did. My ultimate goal is to upload this pictures to

Adoramapix for printing and typically online photo printing services do not

want embedded ICC profiles...just sRGB or conversion to their paper ICC

profile. Where am I going astray?

 

Thanks for the assistance,

 

Justin

While I agree with your 16-70mm range, Roger, I too would prefer a fast maximum apeture. I am patiently awaiting more information regarding the Tokina 17-50 f2.8 (or was it 16 -50) that is rumored to be coming out this year.

 

Also, I am envious of the Canon 50mm f1.2 HSM lens...not the new Canon lens'price, but I really like my manual Nikon 50mm f1.2; giving it AF-S would make it a real sweat short telephoto portrait lens. Yum!

 

Justin

I loaded the irfan view after reading the above posts and it is slow as can be compared to RawShooter Essential. I know you mentioned you weren't looking for a converter, but in my workflow I use it only to view the images to sort out photos worthy of more time in NX. I'll give the fact that irfan view can load a lot of thumb nails quick, but loading the actual .NEF's from my D200 was painfully slow after selecting a thumb nail.

 

I haven't experience with the other software mentioned, but Rawshooter is free and very quick to yield large, slideshow versions of NEF files. I'd say you can scroll through at 0.25 to 0.5 seconds per picture with Rawshooter in slide show mode and sort out the good from the bad using the flagging and deleting system. Very very nice.

 

Justin

If you still see the softness after you have the camera replaced it may just come down to the sharpening routines of the D70 versus the D80. I know that there was lots of discussions regarding how the D200 was always "soft" out of the camera when shooting .NEF compared to other brands and other lower Nikon DSLRS. This was attributed to the fact that Nikon assumed that more advanced photographers would be doing post capture sharpening to their pictures. Don't know if this is valid at all or just for the D200...but there was lots of discussion surrounding this early on with the D200. May be something similar for the D80.

 

What I believe to be true is that Nikon optimizes it image processing engine within the camera to the target demographic, ie D50 pictures have higher levels of sharpening and more saturated colors by default than a higher end camera.

 

Either way hopefully you are happy with your new D80.

 

Justin

I use Rawshooter to preview my .nef files before working on them in NX. I use the slide show feature flag the keepers and delete the rest. The overall picture quality in Rawshooter is not up to scratch particularly the as loaded white balance, but I am just checking composition, relative exposure and general sharpness. Once I have those selected I do the adjustment in NX. That has spead up my workflow alot.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Justin

If you already have the 18-125 then I would get either a Sigma 30 f1.4 or a Nikon 50mm f1.8. The sigma will use up most of your budget, but is outstanding. This lense really is excellent for wider portraits.

 

Justin

Everything I have read seems to suggest that the "18% Gray Card" is really a 12.5% Grey card as defined by ANSI and ISO standards.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Justin

I have been searching on Mpix to see if they do bordered prints...and I am having a tough time determining whether or not they do. Anyone know?

 

Justin

After you drag the crop cursor thingy over the picture you should double click your mouse within the region that you wish to retain. After that your crop will take effect.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Justin

For those of you using Nikon Capture NX and were having a hard time without

the larger size preview available in Capture 4.X I stumbled across a neat

trick. If you use the magnifying glass tool you can click it on the Browser

images and they will get bigger. They still aren't nearly as big as the

images in the older version of Capture, but at least now they are at least

useable for me.

 

Hope this helps someone else.

 

Justin

Ilkka,

 

A DX 16-70 (35mm equivalent to 24-105) f2.8 or f4 AFS-VR zoom that cost ~$750 or less would be outstanding assuming excellent image quality. To me that would be a far more useful vacation lens than the slower current 18-200mm lens, at least for my vacations.

 

From your mouth to Nikon's ears,

 

Justin

I'd like to second Ilkka's comment. For wedding photography the features that differentiate the D2x from the D200 will go unused....namely the additional cross type autofocus modules. This is a boone for guys shooting motorcross and autoracing, hockey...stuff like that. As the owner of a D200 I am able to track my 1.5 years old's meandering sprints at apetures 1.4 to 2.8 with sharp results ~90 percent of the time. Typically, the good weddings don't have the sprinting bride where really high speed focus tracking will be necessary. Based on another post of yours I see that you are selling off most of your gear to do this. What you will get if you go the D200 route is a pair of cameras capable of making you look good (if you understand your digital camera, workflow and technique) for less than the price of a single D2x, and you'll be able to keep your sweet meter and will have a little money left over for digital storage media (compact flash cards, 80 GB hyper drive, etc), and some SB-800 flashes that will make the flash work much easier to accomplish to a high degree of success. Going into a wedding with a single D2x is asking for trouble.

 

Last thing...I would definitely get whatever camera you are going to get soon and start getting to know it since all three of the camera you mention above have enough menu features to get you good and confussed if you wait until a few days before the big day.

 

Don't know if this helps...but hope so.

 

Regards,

 

Justin

Frederick,

 

I wasn't aware that Julia Roberts was moonlighting at V&A's as a shop girl...maybe she is preparing for a new film. I like the shot and the Julia Roberts double take adds to the fun.

 

Justin

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried looking online for a used G6 or Proshot 1 and didn't find any at the normal places I look (KEH, Adorama, B&H) to no avail.

 

I dug a little further and think I found a compromise that actual defies my initial posts. The Olympus E-Volt 330 and Samsung something or other are two dslrs that allow for live preview on the LCD. That would be the ticket. That is the big hurdle for my Pops, he hasn't a problem with size or cost or those types of objection to a DSLR, its just that his eye-sight is poor and the little viewfinders aren't to his liking. One of those options might do the trick.

 

Anyone have practical experience with a dslr that has a LCD you can use for realtime ttl viewing such as the Evolt 330?

Your comments are appreciated.

 

Justin