andrewroca

<p>A few years ago, I went to an exhibition were one retailer had large amounts of Nikon stock marked refurbished.<br>

My brother purchased a 70-300 that appeared to new and the packaging seemed have been unopened and he's been very happy with it since.<br>

We suspected that this very amount of refurbished stock was the result off a very large UK photographic chain had gone bankrupt (UK bankruptcy law is much more aggressive than US with no chapter 11 equivalent) a few months before, after a long period of poor sales.<br>

The theory was that Nikon had supplied cameras and lens to the chain on a sale or return basis, and once the chain finally failed, Nikon got their equipment back, but not knowing how any equipment had been handled by the shops, Nikon couldn't sell any of it as new, so it was checked and then sold off as a batch of refurbished stock to the retailer my brother dealt with. <br>

I would second the advice about getting a new card, I have before had a card that was bad from new.</p>

 

<p>A quiet week I did get to spent some time at reserve at Slimbridge, the winter migrants haven't arrived yet but a distant Marsh Harrier gave the residents a scare.</p><div></div>

<p>Hello , last weeks full moon triggered a smallish tidal bore on the River Severn early on Thursday morning.</p><div></div>

<p>I've been working though unprocessed images an found this. A captive bird at the International Bird of Prey Centre at Newent.</p><div></div>

<p>One from my Welsh trip of a couple of weeks ago, one of the Lakenheath aircraft training in the Welsh hills.</p><div></div>

<p>A trip to Formby near Liverpool, it is one of the few places Red Squirrels can still be found in England (thankfully Wales and Scotland still have populations). They were quite active early in the morning but things went quieter as midday approached.</p><div></div>

<p>I went up to the Mach Loop last week and this turned up.</p><div></div>

<p>I went to Costa Rica (a destination I can fully recommend) a couple of years ago and found that much of the time even with a full frame cameras (D800,D3S) and a 200-400 (previous model) in both the rain and cloud forests the lighting conditions were difficult. I resorted to using a large flash (SB900) to provide some fill to lift the birds/reptiles clear of the background. The bigger standalone flashs can zoom their beam out to quite useful distances something a cameras internal flash will struggle with. Using the flash in daylight didn't seem to stress the animals (they carried on with what they had been doing without a pause) and none of the guides seemed to mind, there was a local ban on the use of flash at night on tree frogs which seemed fair. <br>

So before spending thousands on new cameras/lens I would suggest trying out one of the larger Speedlights to see if that helps. <br>

Any subject with a very bright background is hard to get right, you can use a fill flash or override the cameras exposure, both of which need practice and experience. </p>