keirst

<p>Nice to see the old thread revive. 28mm is my favorite focal length in 35mm photography. I've come to prefer the 28mm/1.8G AFS Nikkor for my DSLR 28mm, it has the opposite field curvature pattern to the Zeiss 28mm/2 ZF.2, whose corners arc toward infinity, noticeable even when stopped down on some landscape photography with close foregrounds, which can get a bit soft. I prefer the 28mm/1.8G's forward arcing field curvature which tends to sharpen near foregrounds on the bottom edge and corners. But being a G lens, it only works with full control on cameras that support body control of aperture in manual mode, like Nikon DSLRs, and the late Nikon SLRs like the F5, F6, F100. It will work in P or S mode on earlier SLRs like the F4, N8008/F801 and N90/F90. Manual focus pretty much sucks with the 28mm/1.8G lens too, the focus throw is far too short, and the down-geared clutch focusing system seems a bit sloppy. But AF on my D800E is perfectly reliable and fast though.</p>

<p>I did buy a used 50mm/2 Makro Planar ZF.2 a couple years ago that had a loose contact pin, due to a bad spring behind the pin. Intermittently, it would lose contact with the camera, causing it to act like a non-CPU lens. The reputable dealer took it back and refunded the cost. None of my other ZF.2 lenses has had a problem, but anything electronic can fail, usually that's either early in its life or after a decade or two.</p>

<p>It's funny that the artisan who did the engraving did nothing to oxidize the bright brass. A WWII vintage camera would not have bright metal in the grooves anymore.</p>

<p>Hah, Totenkopf is the name of the mysterious German scientist behind the robots in the 2004 SF movie "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," starring Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Totenkopf is portrayed by a digital avatar based on Sir Laurence Olivier. Polly, Gwyneth's character is a journalist who totes around an Argus C3 rangefinder in the film (albeit a far more sophisticated one than a real Argus C3). Like the movie serials from the early 20th century that inspires it, Sky Captain is a B&W film, though it has extensive CGI. See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/<br /><br />The film's a hoot if you like films that don't take themselves too seriously. It's pure entertainment, not a masterpiece of cinema, just fun. I wonder if the camera is a prop (though I don't remember seeing it) or somehow connected to the production.</p>

<p>AF Fine tune is really for calibrating your camera's viewfinder focus to your lens, and unless you can't dial in enough units of correction on the camera to focus accurately, the lens doesn't need to be adjusted. You can also check AF fine tune versus the Live View focusing to confirm that -8 AF FT units works for your lens at typical subjects' distances, though of course you're the focus motor and judge of focus, but the Live View will bypass small errors introduced by the prism viewfinder and focus on the actual sensor. Live View is not affected by AF Fine Tune.<br /><br />Be aware that AF fine tuning optimized at a close focus target may not work well for long telephotos at large distances. You may want to find a static target in the wild to use as an AF Fine tune target. Pick something that will be close to your anticipated targets for the subjects you're interested in.</p>

<p>Actually, I did put an F4 screen in an F3 screen frame, and I still had focusing problems that I never had with a genuine F3 screen. I also recall reading somewhere that Nikon recommends against mixing the screens because of optical differences. However, if it works for you, good. But If I were you, I would check the performance at many distances to be sure it really works properly before shooting anything critical. I ruined some shots I'll never get back, due to an F4 screen in an F3 frame in an F3HP body.</p>

<p>I think you will find that F3 and F4 screens are the same size but optically different enough that focus will be inaccurate with an F3 screen in an F4 or vice versa. I had horrible problems with an F4 P screen in my F3HP, with the screen causing the camera to focus too close, especially on distant objects. Id expect the opposite would happen in an F4 with an F3 screen, the camera will focus behind the intended subject. My advice is make sure you use the proper screen for your camera.</p>

<p>You may need to AF Fine Tune your lens and camera. If the camera is focusing behind the target, you need to try negative AF fine tune values until you find one that works. See: http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart</p>

<p>Lenses usually have flare not flair.</p>

<p>Probably a short circuit somewhere in the camera is draining the batteries. If you’ve had previous problems with the body perhaps Nikon should be nice to you and replace it as a lemon.</p>

<p>Could be a bad spring on the pin contacts on the body side of the TC. If one of the pins is loose, it might make intermittent contact and sometimes work sometimes not. I got a used Zeiss 50mm/2 MP ZF.2 lens once that had a loose pin. In vertical orientation it worked right and the camera communicated with it electronically and could set the aperture. In horizontal the pin would fall away from the contact on the body and the camera would think it had a non-CPU lens and set the aperture to f/22, the ring position for camera control of aperture. AF lenses have additional pins for AF control. If one of these is loose that could explain the problem with the TC. Look at the pins under magnification, and see if any of them wiggle or don’t look at the same height from the mount.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I’ve never got Sofortbild to work with my MacBook Pro and my D800E. Maybe it woks for some people, but not me.</p>

<p>Lightroom 5 is incapable of having cameras record to the card, it only imports the photos to your computer. You can set it up to record to an external drive though. You can also combine LR with a capture program like Smart Shooter, which can record to card and computer drive, as was discussed in an earlier thread: http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00cqyC<br /> The program is cheaper than Camera Control 2 and available for OS X and Windows. SS seems more stable on OS X than CC2, but has some imperfections, as discussed in the previous thread. SS download here: http://kuvacode.com/</p>

<p>I’m waiting on how well the 20mm/1.8 does at really real infinity, that is astrophotography. I wonder how much coma and chromatic aberrations that it will show wide open to f/2.8 for the stars</p>

<p>You can still buy LR5 stand alone, and Adobe promised they will continue offering updates to it. Go to http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html and scroll down to the bottom of the page, go to the right, then follow the button link labeled "Lightroom 5 standalone, Perpetual license – mobile capabilities not included.” Upgrade price is $79 for LR 1-4. Not too bad a deal at all. <br /><br />The mobile feature isn’t that useful, but allows cloud sharing to an iPod Touch or iPhone or iPad for showing and has basic editing functions, but not a full RAW developer (plus you can’t calibrate the screens of iOS devices ,so critical color correction is impossible on mobile). I’ve never edited anything on my Touch, but I did share some photos to it in case I want to show someone pictures whenI’m out and about, though I’ve never actually remembered to do that. It’s a feature many people could live without.</p>

<p>OK, LR5 can shoot tethered but doesn’t support remote control or live view. You must change the settings and focus the camera on the camera itself. Images are brought into LR bucan’t be saved to the camera card. You can set file naming etc. in the Tethered Capture Settings window under File>Tethered Capture>Start Tethered Capture.<br /><br />Smart Shooter previews are too low fidelity, and the live view display of my D800E in the application doesn’t change with changing camera settings, which is very annoying especially in low light. The live view seems stuck on daylight settings and stops the lens down partially. This could be a bug or miscommunication issue, and a lens with an aperture ring might be best for use, at least with the state of the program now. Live view image in SS often does not match the captured image. So the best solution seems to be using SS to control capture, having it write to card and the computer disc in a particular folder, and having LR watch the folder and automatically import files saved there (controllable by a settings window and an on/off command available under File>Auto Import. This gives you the full quality of the RAW file to evaluate, and thumbnails. Metadata and keywording can be updated automatically during LR import if you set it up right. This 2 application cooperation, despite flaws, still works better than Capture Control 2 and View NX2 with my camera.</p>

<p>I’ll check tomorrow morning (I’m in Boston) on exactly how the tethering works in LR5. I haven’t played with it since LR4.<br /><br />I think you can get LR5 stand alone still, and get a discount if you own a previous version. You can also get it as a package with Photoshop CC, and they were running a $9.95/month special in the spring on that for photographers who had a previous PS license, or education affiliates (students, staff & faculty).</p>

<p>You can preview images captured by Smart Shooter in the program by double clicking on the file name, but only during the active shooting session, so Lightroom or another photo RAW editor/organizer is necessary to supplement it. Smart shooter previews of my D800E files don’t zoom to 100% either, so it’s not perfect. Hope their D810 implementation gets improved.<br>

I’ll have to try its focus stacking shooting feature some time. Smart Shooter can at least control an AF macro lens and then I’ll have to use ZereneStacker to process the files.</p>

<p>Lightroom 5 also does blind tethering, no live view.</p>

<p>The D810 isn’t supported yet by Smart Shooter, but probably will be. The D700 is for everything except bulb mode.</p>

<p>You might try Smart Shooter, which has a free demo for a month (limited # of captures) and is $50 for a license. It seems MUCH better than Capture Control 2 with my D800E. Capture Control 2 has the bad habits of crashing or losing connection to my camera or saving images with the wrong name or to the wrong place on my MacBook Pro. See: http://kuvacode.com</p>

<p>Deet can also damage these kinds of plastics, if you have bug repellent on your hands it can get on the grip and make the grip go softer and tackier than it was.</p>

<p>And all 0.58x finder Leicas lack 135mm framelines.</p>

<p>Costs much more than a Pentax 645Z camera body with the same sensor, but this might be nice for owners of existing Hasselblad gear.</p>

<p>I’ve had this misfortune of owning a couple optics that were not good at f/8, at least not into the corners. The 35mm/2 AF Nikkor comes to mind. Mine had not even 1 good corner at f/13 unless focused near its minimum focus distance. Only a few lenses are really good center to corner wide open, like the 55mm/1.4 Otus and the 135mm/2 Apo-Sonnar, but depth of field can be a battle with my 135mm, so I rarely use it wide open. I’m not interested in the Zeiss 55mm.</p>