WPF - World Photography Forum
Home Gallery Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Welcome to World Photography Forum!
Welcome!

Thank you for finding your way to World Photography Forum, a dedicated community for photographers and enthusiasts. There's a variety of forums, a wonderful gallery, and what's more, we are absolutely FREE. You are very welcome to join, take part in the discussion, and post your pictures!

Click here to go to the forums home page and find out more.
Click here to join.


Go Back   World Photography Forum > Photography Equipment > Cameras


Cameras Discussion on Cameras of all types

Nikon SLR Camera Upgrade Question

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #21  
Old 02-06-06, 10:25
Don Hoey's Avatar
Don Hoey Don Hoey is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 4,462
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leif
And ....
With no immediate D2X bargains on the horizon I have decided on the upgrade path.

I will get a 17-55 f2.8 lens and that will give an immediate improvement to the D100 screen brightness ( for manual focus ) and therefore improved A/F response. This lens decision will also answer any future resolution questions with a 10 or 12 mp sensor as mentioned by NFB. As I have a lightmeter I can still use my M/F Nikkors in the mean time.

I will then wait until Photokina and see if anything interesting is announced. By then the ' Xs ' will have been on the market for a bit, and after the initial flurry I would think ' Xs ' prices will stabalise at a lower level than the currently quoted estimated manufacturer recommended price.
There should be one or two ' X ' appearing on the secondhand market. Prices for these should be lower than those on the market today, and going for the ' X ' will give me the viewfinder eye relief and general spec sufficient to last me as far into the future as I can see.

To go the D200 route I would need the Body, Battery grip ( personal want, too used to holding cameras with motor drive attatched ) and SB800 flash as D200 is not compatible with SB80-DX in D-TTL mode. New best prices for that £1560 excluding postage and I would still have an eye relief problem.

Don
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 02-06-06, 12:07
Leif Leif is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Luton
Posts: 911
Default

I heard recently that someone was offered £1600 by Grays of Westminster for a 3 month old D2x. (They asked out of curiosity.) And I have seen nearly new ones advertised by dealers for about £2,000. So you might get one privately for less than £2,000. But as you say, prices should drop a bit.

Leif
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 06-06-06, 20:31
Don Hoey's Avatar
Don Hoey Don Hoey is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 4,462
Default

Well I changed my mind again. Spent my time away from the forum looking at Airy Diffraction and sensor resolution, loads of lens reviews. Did airy difraction tests on the D100 and generally drove myself round in circles. Downloaded NEF's for D70, D100, D2Hs and D2X and by midnight Sunday a D2Hs was firmly on the cards.

As a new lens was going to eat a big hole in the budget I finally decided to bite the bullet and get a D2X now as Nikon publicity shots were at f13 which is beyond the diffraction limit so figured I could handle that as I might get further down without too much image degradation. The D100 having shown distinct degredation at f16 when compared to its diffraction limit of f11.

Today has been spent proving that my lenses are up to the sensor resolution and rehoning my technique. Having read posts on other forums of how people moving up from 6mp have problems like " why are the pics from my new D200 soft " , I was not going to fall into that trap.

Pic attached of my set up. Memories of Duncans thread re focal length and min shutter speed. When I started with lens at 50mm I was only getting sharp pics at 1/125 sec and above. I have managed to drive that down to a fairly regular sharp at 1/80 sec. I will practice more, but the setup has certainly proved its worth.

The camera ...... what can I say that others that have one have not already said. The viewfinder is a revalation. With M/F lenses on I have the equivalent of a digital F3HP with similar eye relief. Performance - stunning. I have been doing some tests and recognising that some people think it noisy above ISO 400 so I attach a pic taken at ISO800 1/30 sec @ f11, NEF straight conversion to TIFF then smart sharpen and save for web. I am impressed as this image had compression set to 66 to reach this file size. The origional TIFF is 69.99mb.

I have got to sort out converting images to post while retaining EXIF info. Up to now I processed TIFF's in CS and converted to JPEG in Paint Shop Pro 8. ( Something for Stephen to laugh at ) but it worked. PSP8 does not deal well with converting the now larger TIFF's and so I did a save for web in CS but think the EXIF has gone.

Don
Attached Images
File Type: jpg D2X testing.jpg (138.9 KB, 16 views)
File Type: jpg Geranium ISO800 test.jpg (155.9 KB, 14 views)
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 06-06-06, 20:47
Canis Vulpes's Avatar
Canis Vulpes Canis Vulpes is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 51
Posts: 4,398
Default

Congratulations a fine choice Don, a fine choice.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 06-06-06, 20:55
Stephen Stephen is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Wakefield
Posts: 276
Default

Don, first of all congrats on the new camera. The deed is done so there is no more to say on that. Suffice to say its a fine camera, and as you are a committed Nikon man, its about as good as you can get. I would say that its spec will probably far exceed the needs of your photography

As for the Exif data, the Save for Web function strips out all the Exif info and optimises for the web. If you don't want tolose the data then you will have to use the regular Save As function.

For me, I always use Save for Web if posting an image on the net. I'm not too fussed about saving this data frankly. Other than a general interest in seeing what gear was used the camera settings are of little value so far as I can see. They always used to say that Rolls Royce's attitude to questions about engine and performance was that its Adequate. For me the same applies to the camera settings
__________________
Stephen
My Personal Galleries
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 06-06-06, 20:58
Leif Leif is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Luton
Posts: 911
Default

Don: I'm sure there's more than a few of us turning green with envy. Leif
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 06-06-06, 21:13
yelvertoft's Avatar
yelvertoft yelvertoft is offline  
Guest
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: North Essex, UK
Age: 59
Posts: 8,486
Default

There I was, reading post number #21 and thinking "what a wonderfully sensible thought process", and then the D2H's secret, undocumented feature, the invisible attractor ray, was activated. These are remotely controlled from Nikon HQ in Japan. Teams of Nikon employees scour the forums, looking for people who are clearly lusting after new Nikon products. By interrogation these forum viewer's I.P. address, they can activate the attractor ray in the nearest Nikon D2H body. The buyer has no hope from this point on.

Congratulations on the new camera Don, I'm sure you will enjoy it. I'm dead impressed by the ISO800 pic.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 06-06-06, 21:44
Don Hoey's Avatar
Don Hoey Don Hoey is offline  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 4,462
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by yelvertoft
There I was, reading post number #21 and thinking "what a wonderfully sensible thought process", and then the D2H's secret, undocumented feature, the invisible attractor ray, was activated. These are remotely controlled from Nikon HQ in Japan. Teams of Nikon employees scour the forums, looking for people who are clearly lusting after new Nikon products. By interrogation these forum viewer's I.P. address, they can activate the attractor ray in the nearest Nikon D2H body. The buyer has no hope from this point on.
Duncan,

I have not laughed so much for ages, especially in view of the e-mail I recieved from Calumet after my posts on this thread.

Thanks for that.

Don
Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:50.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.