Loose rivets

Oh. So that puts paid to my plans for repairing my camera.



I rebuilt a badly damaged Sony Broadcast quality camera once. It had been dropped from 20' onto concrete. It was nowhere near as complicated as that.

Ancient Observer

Wow! great url. thanks.
That reminds me why I stopped mucking about with car engines. All this 'lectric clevery isn't there to make the cars go better - it's there to stop home engine builds and anything other than basic maintenance.
I suspect that all consumer electronics is designed to be complex so if a tiny bit goes wrong, you chuck it out and buy new.

I'm not sure why this came out of UCB - it's the sort of thing they do in the back streets of Calcutta.

.............now, where's the menu on this bl**dy Olympus?...........

green granite

Any one fancy a long focal length lens?

Canon 5200mm F14 SLR DSLR Lens on eBay (end time 09-Dec-09 09:57:17 GMT)

Loose rivets

As mentioned, there's a bloke that has a second-hand, but almost unused D90 for sale. Body, batts, charger, etc., I have the lens.


He checks out, and has advertised the unit for some months. I'm just wondering if any Ppruners have heard any bad issues with this model. So many good reports came out when it was new that it became a logical upgrade, but there has been time for horror stories to be written.

Remember, I'm taking a great chance buying anything right now, cos the stars are aligned so that almost everything I touch explodes, but there's no time at my age to wait for a year or two for an improvement.

Bushfiva

D90's a fine camera. If I remember, you already have a Nikon body and reasonably good lenses. I'm not sure the D90 will necessarily make your photos better. Again, if I remember, didn't you buy then sell an SB800 when the SB400 would have been a better match? But anyway, the D90's a very good camera with no real vices. Better dynamic range than many of its competitors, at any price, when it was released. In terms of "can it guide me to a better photo", you might want to look at the D3000.

Loose rivets

Half right . . . I didn't sell it.


My wife thinks I've taken leave of my senses. I've become very good at thinking of reasons for buying things, but not so hot with the use or disposal of same. It's called ski-ing. Spending the kid's inheritance.

This was taken with the D50, and an 18 - 70 67mm 4.5 DX lens. It's a pity we can't put the full package on our photos, this one really has a depth to it at 1920 res.

I've just looked, and the focus is not represented here.

You can almost feel the polish on the marble with a picture that hasn't been 'though the bucket'. was 750k - reduced to 195ish.




Cavendish tomb at Cartmel.

bugsmashergirl

The D90 is a great camera I used to use one, but have recently made the switch to dare I say it Canon!

I sometimes wish I hadnt made the switch as the D90 is a great body.

The two big things for me with the D90 are excellent viewfinder and great resolution screen ok the Canon is great as well but there is just something about the D90 plus the buttons and ergonimcs for me were great (Im a female though and have small hands) so if you have bigger hands you might not find other bodies a problem

Linda

Loose rivets

Just got back from the vendor. Unit looks good, virtually like new. Seems to work and fed into my laptop okay. The trouble is that he has no documentation for it.

I came back with nothing but the serial number.

I explained my concerns were twofold. As a resident alien, I have a lot to lose if I don't 'do due diligence'. Also, Nikon won't register it for warranty without a bill of sale. It may even have been registered by someone. The owner of the shop died, and the vendor lost what little paperwork he had during a house move.

Now, here's a thing. My first Samsung had been registered to someone else before it was delivered to me. It took me about 10 mins to find that out. Nikon don't seem to be so helpful. I spent ages trying to find out about my 18 - 200 lens, which cost exactly the same as the price of this D90 $650. I was able to get a bill of sale for that, but never had any response to my registration - except for a slew of e-mails advertising new Nikon kit. It seems that it would be easier to get in touch with the dead.

Anyone know a way to actually speak with Nikon?

Bushfiva

1-800-Nikon-UX for tech support on all Nikon products, 8 a.m. - 2 a.m. Eastern. If by docs you mean manuals, they're all available on-line as non-printable PDFs if you don't register, and as printable if you do register. Printed manuals can also be purchased.

Loose rivets

No sadly, I mean proof of purchase. Nothing. All the goodies seemed to be there, but not that piece of paper.

Seems a real nice guy, but as I told him, I can't take ownership of anything without receipts. It's surprising how many people become parted from their receipts, so I would have thought Nikon would have had some sort of procedure to cover that.

It seems that I can't even purchase a Mack Extended deal without this paperwork.

Pity, it looked near to mint condition.

800 Nikon UX Just another line to the Dom Rep I would guess. Tried tech just now to see if they would be more helpful. Nope. No way they are going to check out a given serial number. I didn't want the owner's personal details, just whether it had been registered. How hard is that?

I went on to say that if someone dies, and there's a lot of stock to dispose of, the people doing it don't care about serial numbers, or cameras, or even Nikon, in all their godly importance. They just want the kit out. Surely, that shouldn't mean it's all rendered valueless.

Well, that's what I said . . . but it was more for my release than a serious suggestion.

Hang on a moment . . . just got to That's better.

Aerouk

I've been using a Nikon D40X for the last year and a half. It's been great fun using it and it's travelled all over the world with me.

I've currently got the Nikon 18-55 lens and a Sigma 70-300 lens (which has been sent off to Sigma for repair) but I'm really struggling to get other lenses for the camera that offer the AF features and don't cost a fortune. Can anyone recommend any lens/accessories that are must haves?

I understand that the camera is a lightweight/beginners DSLR, have I maybe just out grown the camera?

green granite

Why do you feel you need other lenses?

Loose rivets

I'd been told that the D40 'doesn't support' the same lenses as the main range. Is this true?

Bushfiva

D40 won't autofocus with (very) old lenses. For Nikkor, that means a non-AF-S lens.

Aerouk

I would just like to try more things, like wide angle photography etc.

Bushfiva

If you want a wide angle zoom, your choices are are bit limited on the D40 if you want autofocus. Off the top of my head, the Sigma 10-20 is the only non-Nikon wide angle zoom lens that will autofocus on the D40. If you're happy with manual focus, Tokina and Tamron also work.

I have the Nikkor 12-24 and like it. It's pricey, though. The Tokina 11-16 has its fans but it would be manual focus on your camera. That's probably not much of a problem at wide angles, though.

If you want a lot of bang for your buck, and you want to mess around, look at the Lensbaby web site.

Cheerio

I wonder if you can advise? I am finding that the quality of readily available 35mm C41 processing and printing is getting so increasingly and consistently rubbish, that using decent kit is a waste of time, you might as well be using a Lomo.
The camera is available, the film is available, but the quality of cost effective developing and printing is going to be the thing that finally drives refuseniks like me away. Its a conspiracy!

Maybe its time that I considered dipping my toe into digital.
But is there such a thing as a digital replacement for the quality 35mm compact? Contax T3, Nikon 35Ti etc?

I really would like the following spec.

Can bung in readily available disposable batteries in emergency, and not be tied to a future obsolescent sliver of custom lithium.

Must have a viewfinder. A bulky battery guzzling screen I can live without, but I guess you can't halt 'progress'. Still, I want a viewfinder.

A fixed focus lens of 'Sonnar' type quality, and built to last.

Basically I would like a digital version - same size, same cost, same functionality, same build and optical quality as a Contax T3 or similar.


Do you think these will ever re-appear? I know that Canon have the G10 and Olympus have the PEN, amongst others, but they all fall short somehow. Maybe the next T3 or 35Ti is just round the corner. Things seem to be moving that way.

Failing that, does anyone have any good 35mm process and printing recommendations? Anyone still do it the good old-fashioned way instead of some oik roughly digitising your negatives?

green granite

Digital camera wise, think about a second hand Canon 350D or 400D, plenty available on E-Bay.

As for film processing just Google "film processing labs" and take your pick, I know it means sending your films away by post but it's probably the best way nowadays.

PPRuNe Towers

Camera? I don't know of anything that ticks all your requirement boxes regarding batteries or quality or viewfinder.

Everyone is different, has different needs but at least we can offer a shortlist. You've already mentioned the Oly Pen. I'd offer the Panasonic GF1 with the superb 20mm 'pancake' lens but there's no viable viewfinder to suit you at base level. Both cameras suffer too much shutter lag for my tastes and are, in my view, desperately overpriced considering how much they are leaving out compared to a DSLR.

Other than stepping up to the modern digital Leica range there's no obvious choice without compromises at the moment. It may be you have requirements that suit a halfway house/medium term/interim route to digital. There are interesting offerings from Ricoh, Samsung and a couple of others to consider but the large sensor, high quality compact market is still very immature and it's interesting that in the quality, small sensor world Canon is actually dropping megapixels in the search for better quality.

As to C41 I've got to point you away from PPRuNe. Try a site like Talk Photography which is UK based and has an entire forum devoted to traditional film. There are valuable threads running right now regarding processing.

Film & Conventional - Talk Photography

Rob

IO540

Not a compact but the Pentax K100D and K200D (I have the 200) use AA batteries, have a viewfinder, and are excellent DSLRs.

I don't think there are any compacts around today that use AA or AAA batteries. A real shame because the lithium (non-rechargeable) ones last nearly for ever and are very light.

Arguably the best picture quality compact is the Canon S90. I bought one for my GF and am astonished at the quality. Not as good as my K200D but quite scarily close, in any half decent lightning conditions.