Camera trouble
Jan. 17th, 2006 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumSeems I may have a defective camera.
This pleases me, sort of.
While we were at Joshua Tree I noticed my D2H wasn't working right. The auto-focus wasn't working. In, and of, itself this is frustrating, but not fatal, as I grew into camera when autofocus was a luxury, and one of questionable merit. Yes, I have gotten lazy, and the camera itself makes being certain of focus difficult (digital cameras, I am told, don't work if the screen has a split ring, or a fresnel field, so there is no way to be, absolutely certain one is in focus. Not a big deal unless one if fond of macro work; where the proximity to the subject makes auto-focus a bit less than accurate) but I still know how to turn the barrel myself.
But the light meter also seemed to be wonky. I was in "sunny 16" conditions (the way Film speed/digital sensitivity is determined is the reciprocal of the speed/f-16 on a sunlit day. So a 200 speed setting/film ought to be 1/200th:f-16) and the camera was telling me I needed 1/8 of a second at f-4.5 using the camera at 500 ISO.
Needless to say the shot was blown out.
So the camera is missing the one thing I like best about modern cameras... the light meter. Which also means the flash won't give me TTL, and a couple of other things are wonky (no one step adjustment to compensate for backlighting, &c.)
It isn't that I can't use the camera in the same way I use my Hassleblad, or my FG90 (which has a bum meter, and fixing it would cost the same as buying a new FM2, which is a better camera) or the way I do stdio work (because the strobes aren't TTL). I can use a handheld meter, in fact I carry one with me all the time. But it takes away one of the nice things about having so much computing power in my fist. I can't just compose and shoot.
I have to stop and think about everything the light is doing, not just parts I want to catch.
I didn't take many pictures this weekend.
So why am I sort of pleased?
1: I managed to fix it. I downloaded the newer firmware (which I didn't need, because the things which were changed weren't things I was using) and now it focuses, and gives correct exposures/
2: It seems that Nikon has issued an advisory about my camera, if your D2H
camera is experiencing (1) a freezing of the electronic analog exposure display accompanied
by a display of the same exposure settings regardless of exposure and/or camera settings,
or (2) is unable to focus automatically, Nikon Inc. will service it free of charge.
I seem to have experienced a new form of problem as well.
I have sent them a note, asking what I ought to do, as the camera is working, at the moment.
I suspect they will want me to mail it to El Segundo.
Since the warranty expired at Thanksgiving last, this turn of events isn't as bad as it might be.
This pleases me, sort of.
While we were at Joshua Tree I noticed my D2H wasn't working right. The auto-focus wasn't working. In, and of, itself this is frustrating, but not fatal, as I grew into camera when autofocus was a luxury, and one of questionable merit. Yes, I have gotten lazy, and the camera itself makes being certain of focus difficult (digital cameras, I am told, don't work if the screen has a split ring, or a fresnel field, so there is no way to be, absolutely certain one is in focus. Not a big deal unless one if fond of macro work; where the proximity to the subject makes auto-focus a bit less than accurate) but I still know how to turn the barrel myself.
But the light meter also seemed to be wonky. I was in "sunny 16" conditions (the way Film speed/digital sensitivity is determined is the reciprocal of the speed/f-16 on a sunlit day. So a 200 speed setting/film ought to be 1/200th:f-16) and the camera was telling me I needed 1/8 of a second at f-4.5 using the camera at 500 ISO.
Needless to say the shot was blown out.
So the camera is missing the one thing I like best about modern cameras... the light meter. Which also means the flash won't give me TTL, and a couple of other things are wonky (no one step adjustment to compensate for backlighting, &c.)
It isn't that I can't use the camera in the same way I use my Hassleblad, or my FG90 (which has a bum meter, and fixing it would cost the same as buying a new FM2, which is a better camera) or the way I do stdio work (because the strobes aren't TTL). I can use a handheld meter, in fact I carry one with me all the time. But it takes away one of the nice things about having so much computing power in my fist. I can't just compose and shoot.
I have to stop and think about everything the light is doing, not just parts I want to catch.
I didn't take many pictures this weekend.
So why am I sort of pleased?
1: I managed to fix it. I downloaded the newer firmware (which I didn't need, because the things which were changed weren't things I was using) and now it focuses, and gives correct exposures/
2: It seems that Nikon has issued an advisory about my camera, if your D2H
camera is experiencing (1) a freezing of the electronic analog exposure display accompanied
by a display of the same exposure settings regardless of exposure and/or camera settings,
or (2) is unable to focus automatically, Nikon Inc. will service it free of charge.
I seem to have experienced a new form of problem as well.
I have sent them a note, asking what I ought to do, as the camera is working, at the moment.
I suspect they will want me to mail it to El Segundo.
Since the warranty expired at Thanksgiving last, this turn of events isn't as bad as it might be.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 06:29 am (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 06:28 am (UTC)The fall had caused the lens to torque the mount ring.
My having a very good (FE2) secondary 35mm means I haven't needed to get the ring ($90) which he will send me and I can (it is four screws and take care not to have the spring behind the ejector jump out into unkown space) sent to me to make, what I think is the best camera Nikon ever made back in, perfect, order.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 08:49 am (UTC)And Ouch! Thats no way to treat hardware, no matter how rugged it might be.
That is nice though, having a great secondary camera to back you up, thats good enough that you don't get around to fixing the primary for awhile.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-18 05:34 pm (UTC)Small. 8/1 to 4000/1 shutter speed; with a bulb setting, synchs at 250th; will take standard synch cord for studio flash and bulbs, has a manual 250th when the battery is dead, the self-timer flips the mirror up (which is handy for macro work) the meter will read film from 12 to 3200, and you can fake down to 1.5 and up to 256,000 by using the exposure compensator.
With the MD-11 motor drive it will clip along at something like five frames a second and with the MR-3 on it one can have a secondary trigger for vertical composition (the only drawback to that is the button on the MR-3 is very sensitive.
If you decide, from my paeans, that you want one, make sure it has the aluminum shutter, as the titanium one (which has a waffly pattern on the leaves) is light (so the higher shutter speeds are deadly accurate) but a trifle fragile, and using the motor drive will wear them out (to be honest both my F3 and FE2 have motor drives [the MD-4 is great because it will run my F3 on 8xAA batteries so I can run it on NiMh, and not have to buy watch batteries] and I use them almost never. They supply counterwight and make the camera more stable with longer lenses).
TK