Well I spoke with Nikon yesterday. They received the camera on the 19th and it has been in "estimate accepted" status since then. I called yesterday to find out what was going on. The cust serv. representative said he'd look into it and make sure they got the camera in shop asap.
I called back today to see what had happened and another rep said that it was fixed and should be shipping out today. The page still says estimate accepted, but the rep assures me that it sometimes takes a little bit for it to be updated.
If I get it back by the weekend that will be a two week (ten working days) day turn around. Not too bad really. I had heard horror stories of months from Nikon with some repairs. This is assuming that I actually get it by Friday.
I think I'll send the D70s off for a cleaning and a repair on the remote cord port next. Then the d70s is being converted to Infrared.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
D300 repair updated.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Golden
© Robert Donovan
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
What to do while the D300 is being repaired?
Since the main camera is off getting fixed for the next 3-6 weeks I need something to so. Yes i'll still be going out with the D70s but it just doesn't feel right. I know I know, I should be tied to my equipment but damn, I was having fun with the new D300.
So in light of that i decided to sign up for the Monthly subscription at Kelby Training and take some Photoshop classes online. I'm pretty much self taught in Photoshop so i know there is a lot to learn. Figured with was as good a time as any. I'm not sure at the quality of the classes but it looks liek a good deal. All the classes you can take for 19.95 a month. There are all of the Adobe products (well most all), some general photography classes, lighting, and others. Hopefully it will be worth it. I can't really see that it won't.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Nikon D300 auto focus dead
Well today sucks. I picked up my relatively new Nikon D300 and went to take some shots and boom, no auto focus. At all. I tried all my lenses and all combinations of settings, reset the entire camera and still no dice. On top of that it appears to not be changing metering modes or how many AF sensors it uses when I change the lever. I have my old D70s but it is nothing like shooting with the D300. I looked on the internet at various Nikon user forums and it seems to be a problem at least some other people are having. It's still under warranty but Nikon is telling me there is a 3 week turnaround.
Ugh. Needless to say, I'm furious.
Friday, May 9, 2008
First shots with Camera Control
Click the photo for a better rendering (I promise to get some shots sized for blogger correctly soon)
Blue Jay dropping his lunch
© Robert Donovan
D300 through a Nikkor 300mm f/ 1:4 ED lens, 1/640 sec, f/4.0. ISO 800. Tripod Mounted and remote controlled through Nikon Camera Control. Some RAW processing in Lightroom and then Curves, Levels, Noise Reduction and Sharpening in Photoshop CS3.
I'll be trying it with a shorter lens and the tripod closer but I don't want the birds using the camera as a sitting and releasing station. This was also late afternoon and the sun was behind the birds. Early morning / Midday sun should bring the light on this side of them. I'm pretty sure a flash would just scare them away but I'll give it a shot.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Nikon Camera Control 2.0
I just downloaded and installed Nikon Camera Control Pro 2.0 on one of my laptops. I also did a quick test of connecting to the laptop using realvnc and running the software. It works like a charm. There's a woodpecker that comes to my bird feeder I'll be testing this setup out on soon.
I should be able to set up a tripod/blind in the yard and remote trigger the D300 using the Tripod Live View over the Wi-Fi connection to the laptop.
Now if i can get some hummingbirds to come to our feeders....
