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8/9/2010 12:03:26 PM

Oh yeah the pressure test is first before the camera gets in the water. I'm not really planning on using it for depth other than diving under a wave, more just splash proof. The finger part for one would balloon up at any significant depth.

I really didn't like the bags and any case that looked trustworthy was well more than the camera. It shouldn't leak but I would bet on it before extensive testing.

8/9/2010 5:14:45 PM

My friend has the Ewa-Marine bags that he says work like a charm.

8/10/2010 1:28:46 AM

my dog at the beach

Blue Ridge Parkway

Parisian Catacombs

Prague

Prague


my first submission to this thread..not taken with an SLR but a Powershot Pro1

8/10/2010 2:48:00 AM

haha everyone shoots that clock in prague apparently

8/10/2010 7:44:17 AM

so i ordered the cheap Nikon AFS 35mm F1.8 for $190. maybe that'll get me back into this stuff. i really want that 11-16mm though, gah.

8/10/2010 9:17:37 AM

get it.

8/10/2010 10:20:15 AM

Yeah, for real.

I can't find it anywhere for Canon. Nikon's are all over and it's a freakin' sweet lens.

8/10/2010 1:46:53 PM

^^^^yeah it's a classic. you should see the droves of tourists that stand there for like 20 minutes straight in front of the clock waiting for the doors to open up, which they only do on the hour. cameras all pointed and shit haha

8/10/2010 2:18:41 PM

Yup, I just splurged for the Nikon mount one yesterday. Should get here on Thursday

Any opinions on aftermarket batteries? It looks like I can get some cheap ones for $10-15 vs paying $60 for Nikons. I guess you would run a higher risk of battery leaks with them, but I would hardly ever use them anyway. I just want to have a few backups handy for my 5 day backpacking trip.

8/10/2010 3:24:42 PM

How bad does someone want a Tokina 11-16?

I've got one I may be willing to part with.

8/10/2010 3:54:32 PM

I do for the right price. Is it Nikon?

8/10/2010 5:54:48 PM

8/10/2010 6:03:16 PM

Ronny getting all crazy in here...

But, to be honest, I'd like one.

8/10/2010 6:07:55 PM

Ronny's 11-16 is Canon.

And I'll call his bluff on selling it.

8/10/2010 6:40:20 PM

Yep. As much as he seems to love that, I doubt he'd sell it. Or he'd charge a pretty penny if he did.

8/10/2010 7:08:01 PM

Not necessarily.

The range window is cracked (fixed with some gaffers tape since an 11-16mm autofocus lens has little use for it) from when I got wasted at an Appleseed Cast show. Other than that it works great, and I'll entertain offers.

8/11/2010 1:18:07 PM

Lens for sale - mint condition because it has a piece of mint gum holding the range window on. Or was it peppermint? lol

8/11/2010 8:14:09 PM

Ftr I've seen his lens and it ain't that bad.

8/11/2010 9:11:52 PM

Recaptured the largest recorded male for my study site...almost exactly a year after the first capture, with the exact same female, only a couple hundred feet from last year's spot.

He's a tricky sonofabitch to photograph, just would not sit still.

8/11/2010 11:59:33 PM

^ hard to tell the size, how big is it?

8/12/2010 1:20:55 AM

I haven't measured him yet this year, but when I caught him last year, he was 5.25 ft.

8/14/2010 11:19:44 AM

made it through some more safari pics

8/14/2010 2:46:51 PM

two questions:

1.) how do y'all feel about battery grips? i'm thinking of getting one for my D90, but i'm not sure if i'll find it useful or cumbersome...it does only 3 things of value (in my mind): allow for storage and use of 2 batteries at once, allows for the use of 6 AA batteries in lieu of the proprietary batteries, and puts a shutter button on the side for more convenient use when shooting in portrait form

2.) how do y'all feel about aftermarket, non-OEM batteries? my completely untested and unfounded opinion is that the higher mAh rating of even the cheap chinese batteries actually does provide longer life while in use, and i've never had trouble with them wearing out any faster or leaking or anything like that...but i figured i'd get a consensus here

8/16/2010 1:04:23 PM

I have a grip on my 50D and now I feel all bent out of shape if it's not on there.

No problems with non-OEM batteries.

8/16/2010 1:15:28 PM

Quote :

"1.) how do y'all feel about battery grips? i'm thinking of getting one for my D90, but i'm not sure if i'll find it useful or cumbersome...it does only 3 things of value (in my mind): allow for storage and use of 2 batteries at once, allows for the use of 6 AA batteries in lieu of the proprietary batteries, and puts a shutter button on the side for more convenient use when shooting in portrait form"

You forgot the last reason, makes your camera look so much bigger and in theory gets you laid more.

Quote :

"2.) how do y'all feel about aftermarket, non-OEM batteries? my completely untested and unfounded opinion is that the higher mAh rating of even the cheap chinese batteries actually does provide longer life while in use, and i've never had trouble with them wearing out any faster or leaking or anything like that...but i figured i'd get a consensus here"

I'm not sure how it is with Nikon, but for Canon stuff, anything that's the cheap batteries from ebay are junk. Most third party batteries that I had for the 30D never lasted 1/2 as long as the genuine canon ones. Half of them died within a year. The 30D ones that are over 3 years old still last forever, as though they are brand new. Since then, I've bought canon genuine batteries.

Also, you'd guys get a kick out of this.

8/16/2010 2:51:40 PM

When I bought my d90 from adorama it came with an additional offbrand battery and I have not noticed a difference in battery life between the two.

8/16/2010 2:53:16 PM

I LOVE the shot of the lion bathed in orange light. Beautiful!

8/16/2010 9:22:16 PM

Quote :

"two questions: 1.) how do y'all feel about battery grips? i'm thinking of getting one for my D90, but i'm not sure if i'll find it useful or cumbersome...it does only 3 things of value (in my mind): allow for storage and use of 2 batteries at once, allows for the use of 6 AA batteries in lieu of the proprietary batteries, and puts a shutter button on the side for more convenient use when shooting in portrait form 2.) how do y'all feel about aftermarket, non-OEM batteries? my completely untested and unfounded opinion is that the higher mAh rating of even the cheap chinese batteries actually does provide longer life while in use, and i've never had trouble with them wearing out any faster or leaking or anything like that...but i figured i'd get a consensus here"

1. Love my battery grip. Now that I'm used to it, the camera looks and feels naked without it. It makes shooting vertical infinitely easier and more comfortable. I would certainly recommend one. Not to mention, having two batteries is very nice.

2. I have had no problems with my aftermarket, non-OEM batteries. I haven't noticed a difference in the ability to hold charge and have seen no performance degradation in the 2 years I have owned them. I have heard of people having problems with them, but my experience has been positive.

Also, I, too, like the 1st lion picture in your above post OmarBadu.
[Edited on August 16, 2010 at 9:52 PM. Reason : I shoot Canon and have the BG-E5 battery grip fwiw.]

8/16/2010 9:48:35 PM

well, i went ahead and picked up a NIB targus BGD80 battery grip off CL for $30

it will take a little getting used to, but definitely makes the D90 look bigger than it is

8/17/2010 8:43:57 AM

Only video I uploaded so far. A little boring, but this was shot right after sunset so it was quite dark, but the 5d still managed to pull in some light.

8/17/2010 2:39:03 PM

Nikon D3100 announced...now with "DSLR for dummies" mode!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/nikon-d3100-with-1080p-video/

8/19/2010 5:45:08 PM

haha i saw that. Funny they're adding all the auto modes.

So i'm in the market for a new DSLR. I wish I had the money to get something nice but i'm looking in the sub $1000 range with a basic len (18-55 or thereabouts). I do have access to other lenses so I'm not currently going to buy anything else in the lens department but I want a good solid DSLR (1080p video would be a plus). I've been shooting with a D2X and sometimes a D3S. Obviously neither of these are mine but i'm addicted to the crazy ISO of the D3S. It's like night vision.

I was actually considering the new Nikon 3100. Although put off by all the auto modes, it's not like you actually have to use them. I've always been a Nikon fan and seeing i have access to a bunch of nikkor lenses i'll probably want to go that route. I'm going to wait on reviews of the D3100 and then go from there.

8/20/2010 10:01:34 AM

i'm sure the D3100 is as good as any other option (i've never really heard anything "bad" about any modern/recent DSLR)...i haven't looked at it extensively, yet, but i'm assuming there's still no in-body focus motor? if that's the case, then i'd seriously consider skipping it for that reason alone

the D95 (or whatever it's going to be called) is rumored to be coming out soon (given nikon's usual pattern of releasing a successor every 2 years)...i'd certainly take rumors with a grain of salt, but it will very likely offer no significant changes from the D90:

- probably 1080p video that doesn't suck donkey balls (the D90's 5-minute limitation in 720p mode makes it practically useless)
- an insignificant increase to 14MP
- the possibility of a magnesium body
- and if above, then a likely increase in price to something around the $1200 price point (body only)

as i said, i'd take those rumors with a grain of salt, but they're certainly not unreasonable...my point is that the D95 will likely offer very few significant differences from the D90 and with the introduction of a D90 successor, the cost of D90 bodies will go down pretty quickly

the D90 is a great camera for what it is...personally, even if the 1080p video is non-retarded, the magnesium body comes with better weatherproofing, and the 14MP comes with a new processor, i'd still consider it too expensive (though if it came with a swiveling display for those times i use live view - not often, but it can come in handy - it would make it much more attractive to me)

8/20/2010 10:17:17 AM

Thanks. I'm going to wait a bit and see. The in-body focus is a good point to note. Which I doubt it will have (the D5000 doesn't). If the 3100 has the upgraded true 1080p video I don't see why the D95 wouldn't. It might be worth waiting to see the D95 and it's price point. I could spend a little extra for that.

8/20/2010 11:21:34 AM

finished our trip finally - only took about 2 months to get around to it

8/21/2010 9:59:25 AM

Very cool! I like. Just shot some stuff while here at the race track. Running tomorrow and Monday, hopefully drag my knee and get some cool pics.

8/21/2010 10:48:09 PM

teaser shot, more post to follow.




[Edited on August 22, 2010 at 12:15 AM. Reason : 2nd pic]

8/22/2010 12:05:07 AM

I just bought my fiancee a D5000 kit. I know it's not a top-o-the-line DSLR, but it's not a bad start for beginners. I nearly bought her a D90, but I'm not sure she'll get into photography enough to warrant the price. She wants to learn, but the way I figure is by the time she learns how to use the features in a D5000, we can upgrade from there.

8/22/2010 1:30:23 AM

Thats what I did for myself and now I'm pissed that I didn't get a better camera. I cant speak for your fiance though b/c she may not take the time to learn the camera and what you need/can do with it. Specifically, I wish I had autofocus in the body so I had a better choice of lenses. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time but for me its just not realistic to shoot action with a manual focus lens.

8/22/2010 10:23:05 AM

^Yea that is the one thing I don't like about my D40. We have a couple of the prime portrait lenses on the D80, but I can't use it on my 40.

8/22/2010 11:18:07 AM

i normally HATE selective coloring but this



is badass

8/22/2010 11:34:01 AM

i want to do some macro shit

can i do some legit OK macro with extension tubes and a 50mm lens?

8/22/2010 3:53:34 PM

i tried to get it right by playing with the settings but couldn't - i ended up turning it black and white and painting the color back on and upping the exposure a lot in that area

here's the original

8/22/2010 7:32:04 PM

^^ i'll let you know as soon as my 52mm-58mm step up ring comes in (for use with my 50mm 50 f/1.4 and 0.45x macro tube)

8/22/2010 8:05:40 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/23/nikon-d7000-to-be-the-d90s-spiritual-and-actual-successor/

New D90? Might wait on this.

8/24/2010 10:08:33 AM

^ well, it's all still just rumors, but:

- dual memory card slots? meh...i use 8gb 30mb/s edition cards and even shooting RAW with "fine" quality JPEGs, it's not a huge deal to swap out every 300 pictures or so...a bonus, yes...a "big" feature, not to me

- 16MP? unless they've got something up their collective sleeve in the sensor department, i don't see how 16MP is going to provide anything but worse noise at high ISOs (i could be wrong, i'm far from an expert)...processing is where it's at, so maybe they've got a new image processor?

- 1080p video? i'm still unsure as whether they'll be able to autofocus during filming (this seems like a technical issue to me, but maybe the canons that do 1080p video already do this successfully?)...if they can't, the video feature is fairly useless (to me...heaven knows i've never had cause to use the 720p video on my D90 over using my $60 creative vado HD)

- magnesium body? that'd be awesome

- 100% viewfinder coverage? versus the D90's 96% coverage, i'm not sure what this means

- $1200 (body only) price tag? too rich for my blood when i DID get a D90 body (with some basic lenses) for half that

i guess it just depends on what the actual specs end up being...when the D90 successor comes out, the D90s will get much cheaper...i'm just not sure the double cost of the successor will be worth the upgrades

8/24/2010 10:42:07 AM

Quote :

"- dual memory card slots? meh...i use 8gb 30mb/s edition cards and even shooting RAW with "fine" quality JPEGs, it's not a huge deal to swap out every 300 pictures or so...a bonus, yes...a "big" feature, not to me"

it's more for convenience. Sometimes you don't have the 5 seconds to switch out cards. Yeah not a big feature though.

Quote :

"- 16MP? unless they've got something up their collective sleeve in the sensor department, i don't see how 16MP is going to provide anything but worse noise at high ISOs (i could be wrong, i'm far from an expert)...processing is where it's at, so maybe they've got a new image processor? "

I don't know. With the higher ISO ranges of newer cameras noise is less and less an issue. Plus with CS5's new noise reduction unless you're shooting in mostly darkness noise won't give you too much of an issue anymore. Again i'm used to shooting with the D3S which works when it's pretty damn dark. Either way whatever the successor is will have a big jump in ISO which alone is enough for me to spend the extra $$$.

Quote :

"- 100% viewfinder coverage? versus the D90's 96% coverage, i'm not sure what this means "

I think this means that the D90's viewfinder only sees 96% of what is actually being taken, whereas the newer one you'll be able to see everything.

Quote :

"- 1080p video? i'm still unsure as whether they'll be able to autofocus during filming (this seems like a technical issue to me, but maybe the canons that do 1080p video already do this successfully?)...if they can't, the video feature is fairly useless (to me...heaven knows i've never had cause to use the 720p video on my D90 over using my $60 creative vado HD)"

I'm sure like the 3100 it will feature full auto-focus:

Quote :

"Just as we'd heard, the big news is the addition of a 1080p/24 H.264 AVCHD movie mode with continuous contrast-detect autofocus, complete with face detection and subject tracking. That's a major first in the DSLR world"

Which is a big jump from the D90 and other DSLRs.

I'll wait and see but this might be a good buy for me. I don't think I could buy a 2 year old camera.

8/24/2010 11:19:46 AM

^ ah, fair enough...95% of the features with almost equal performance (still to be seen, of course) is worth saving $600 (not to mention getting extra lenses) TO ME, but i definitely get the wait for the latest and greatest

of course, i'm the kind of guy that won't buy a new car because i hate to pay the premium

[Edited on August 24, 2010 at 11:48 AM. Reason : that AF in video mode is very cool, though, i missed that ]

8/24/2010 11:48:18 AM

first off, AF for video is horrible since it uses the same AF contrast software system that P&S uses so it's very slow, scans slowly and just garbage all away around. It's a worthless feature, you are better off hand focusing and try to keep the subject in the plane of sharp focus yourself.

The purpose of dual memory cards is for backup purposes, it used to be more for memory over flow since back in the day (at least for canon) you were capped at a few gigs per card, but now that 32+ GB cards are out for decent prices, it's original use isn't used as much. If I ever use my 1D with two cards, I store Raw's on the CF and low res jpegs on the SD, that way I can pull the SD and instantly have websized proofs ready without any editing.

Sensor technology has improved significantly in the past 2 years along with image processors. The micro lenses are bigger, the signal to noise ratio is better and the gaps between each diode is 1/2 the size, allowing more pixels being packed together while retaining the size of the pixels. Being able to mass produce those technologies and finally trickling down to consumer level products is a nice thing, but yes, 16MP is a lot. They really need to keep camera's around the 12MP range and improve image quality at high ISO, figure a cheap way to produce full frame sensor bodies for less than 1k. :-)

Also should check this out if you haven't seen it. Saw this a while ago, very cool rig and I want that, but fuck paying $4k for it. Although for the price, beats those stupid camera rigs for the same price that are clunky as hell and requires a third hand to operate.

http://vimeo.com/9827192



So here's some pics of Sunday.

Here's me dragging knee at the oak tree. Feeling pretty good the whole time on South course. Temps got crazy hot on the track in the afternoon sessions.



Our little camping area with my cheap walmart tent thingy that had a gazillion pieces. Should have put the race tires on for both days.






Early morning tech inspect found that my front pads were non-existent. Ended up spending 140 on site for some "cheap" race pads, world of difference, but yeah, I would have ate it earlier in the day if those guys didn't do this correctly, specially after a hard braking before turn 1; would have been a gonner.



Damn Pilot Powers, broke tracking out of turn 5, wasn't even pushing it or accelerated through, just held the throttle down and coasted out; still slipped and threw me off. Damn is mostly cosmetic, only real damage is the subframe and missing foot peg for the shifter rear set. Jay and two CR's helped me jerry rig it back on. Only missed one session and continued to drag knee till the end of the day. Wasn't phased or anything.




All in all, for a first track day, I felt good. Even with my wreck, I lived to see another day with no major injuries. Went to see the doctors today and didn't torn any ligaments in my right knee (which was really swollen up) so my fears are lifted with that. I did get some xrays done so I'm waiting to hear back from the doc if I have any hair-line fractures or anything. Doesn't hurt, just a crazy knot in my knee.

[Edited on August 24, 2010 at 10:53 PM. Reason : ]

8/24/2010 10:41:27 PM