The Nightmare is over!

[bfitzgerald]

3 D90's later..all 3 having problems (quite notable as well) with AF straight out of the box. Hassles sending bodies off, being without a body for weeks on end. Emails, phone calls, fighting with a seller to get a refund/credit (which I got eventually), a flash that got stuck on the hot shoe. The list goes on, I could almost write a book about it "My Nikon nightmare"

I gave up trying to buy a D90 body because after 3 tries if you can't get one that can hit a target in broad daylight, it's just not happening. So out of pure frustration (and the obvious need for a reliable working body for tasks coming up very soon) I bought a D7000 in a desperate last bash to get a body that worked.

I can happily report (so far) that the AF is right on target. There never was anything wrong with my lenses, they are all spot on with this new body with 0 AF adjustments. It just nails it..
Huge sigh of relief. I can tell you this was not a lot of fun at all, I'd not wish it on the most ardent die hard SLT fan

Might actually take some photos now as I don't have to peep every shot to make sure it's not in focus!

[bakubo]

Good luck! I hope the D7000 works out.

[Dr. Harout]

yes, good luck from my part of the world too.

[Greg Beetham]

That is good news…at last, it behaves like a normal DSLR I trust, no delay in starting up or shutting down and no time gap between when you press the button on a flash fill shot and the camera actually takes it, and no time delay in the VF of course.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

Well Greg so far all is good (and I've hammered it testing wise)
I've come under fire from a few die hard Nikon fanboys who say it's impossible to get 3 dud D90's. The truth is folks yes I am fussy, but as per previous shots..all were the same, well off for focus. I can't deny it's hugely unlikely to get that, but there are no doubts in my mind Nikon at least "had" fairly major QC issues this model included. Shame actually it's a nice camera and very good in every other way.

But not getting a good one well I had to take action.
Nikon's flash is quite consistent across the board..least that is how I've found it even on the D90. FV lock helps too if needed..not sure if Sony have discovered that gem!

[Greg Beetham]

What’s FV lock Barry? I think there are a couple of other still shooting type gems that Sony hasn’t discovered yet, like focus trap release and auto ISO in M mode, but then those are more concerned with still type photography, it’s not easy to focus on good features for still cameras when you are building video cams primarily.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot. ... -lock.html

Simple but useful. Canon have FEL same thing
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/edu ... nsation.do

The D7000 has things I don't really need such as 6fps, dual cards handy..but not essential, video again I'd take a clip the odd time but it's way down the want list. I suppose overall it's pretty well featured hard to find much to niggle about really.
It's also cheaper than the A77, and has superior low light performance. Saying that I would not have paid £1100 for one (first release price) £700 odd that's decent. I can see why it's a big seller for Nikon, but I don't doubt they had QC issues with this model at one point. This one looks fine though..AF is spot on target no adjustments needed.

Couple of neat things the "Q" mode quiet shutter pretty damn quiet really, proper MLU mode too, very snappy performance D90 was quick, this is very fast bang it's there.
I think if someone was yearning for an A700 OVF type camera, this would hit the spot very nicely for them. Jpegs are good too

Amazing it only got a silver from DPR, and yet the A55 got a Gold award. Still that's DPR for you. I agree with their comments the exposure can be a bit over in harsh lighting (D90 was better here) that's not a huge deal though. They've obviously not used the camera that much because you can map the ISO to the back wheel (which I do) so comments on the ISO button and stuff are mostly ill informed. Saying that the metering button you probably won't use that much where it is.

Very customizable you can even map the DOF button to something else too. Having tried a Pentax K-5 I have to say this is probably a better camera overall, bar the uber sealing some like on that body. The AF on this unit kills the K-5 stone dead (that had AF problems like the K-r in artificial light)

This is for you Greg it's Sony Trufinder v OVF video

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPmatcZ99Qw

[Greg Beetham]

Yes that FV lock looks handy for balancing background lighting with foreground flash subjects which can be tricky too get right. The Minolta AEL button when used with backlit subjects works pretty well but won’t work on a night time with low level lighting in the background type situation. The one time I experimented with the flash night scene mode with subjects the exposure was much too long for hand held, I would have done better too guestimate the ISO and f-stop myself and let ADI fix the flash strength, which it mostly doesn’t do a bad job at. I usually always set the flash at -1/3 or even 2/3 though as it’s easier too lift the brightness a midge if necessary than to deal with glary bits.
After watching the video on EVF’s I’d nearly be persuaded to buy a camera with one until I remember about the power wastage and the various lag times it causes, I loved the bit about the full contrast blacks, I think they are trying to convince people that it’s a good idea to abandon the concept of the camera reproducing the dynamic range of the eye in a photo because now the camera only has to reproduce the range you are allowed too see…you just gotta love mediocrity.
Greg

[pakodominguez]

http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot. ... -lock.html

"fact that the flash metering system measures only the center of the frame. This means that if the subject is not in the center of the frame, the brightness of the subject will likely be wrong."

Really?
I never expect a so simplistic performance in a system supposed to be "superior". The Canon thing looks also weak. Better to learn how to use the flash in manual mode...

[Greg Beetham]

I’m not familiar with Nikon exposure modes at all, maybe he had centre weighted selected instead of matrix but to me that would be a step backwards, I find that with the Minolta derived segmented metering and focus area select the camera will expose for the focus point but I always use the centre point myself (push the [ok] button first to confirm) for focus and exposure setting with half press of the shutter button and recompose, then it doesn’t matter if the subject is out of centre as the flash exposure has been locked. If you use spot metering the exposure will change for whatever is under the spot at the time of release so the exposure can’t be locked with a half press, only the focus is locked, possibly the AEL button could be used in combination with spot metering, I think I did try it once but I can’t remember what effect it had exactly.
Greg

[bfitzgerald]

I've used spot metering on the Minoltas with fill flash and that worked pretty well for me at times. I don't have a problem with the Sony flash system, though it's fragmented in some ways (cannot achieve full functionality with lower priced bodies, no ratio with on-board unit)

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app ... fv-lock%3F

Again Nikon's explanation of FV lock similar to Canon's. I'm still getting to grips with Nikon's flash but it's consistent in most cases I've tried. You might be able to get the same effect with AEL but I will have to try that one myself. I believe it also eliminates the pre flash which caused some people issues (though I had very few with the 5d myself). The Metz flash I have can work on it's own with no pre-flash just using the thyristor if I set it to that. Also worth remembering spot metering is linked to the actual AF point with Nikon.

The most obvious advantage of Nikon's flash v Sony's is that you can control from the camera groups of flashes (even with just the onboard flash) to a fine degree either TTL with compensation, or select a group/s in M mode and control the output very easily. I'm still picking things up on this one but consistency wise..well my last bash with flash and it's really very consistent near enough fire and forget with Nikon. Even just on normal TTL you will seldom get a problem and almost always get a good exposure without having to fiddle with the flash or the settings. I'm not talking about advanced flash technique just grab and go want something decent flash exposure wise..really almost all shots were very decent.

Of course more advanced flash work will need more investigation and I'm getting more into it as time goes on. I tended to fight the flash on the 5d a bit (less so film bodies) with flash, had to tweak around with output and exposure to get what I wanted. Even on the D90 is was just pretty much where I wanted it without the stress!

Few folks are unhappy with Canikon and flash. I don't think Sony are bad..but they're not up there yet. Pentax have some ok functionality..but don't have the consistency with flash metering (Metz are popular on Pentax ie override the camera metering)

[pakodominguez]

Few folks are unhappy with Canikon and flash. I don't think Sony are bad..but they're not up there yet. Pentax have some ok functionality..but don't have the consistency with flash metering (Metz are popular on Pentax ie override the camera metering)

Minolta Flash system was "perfect" on film (I have slides perfectly exposed in very challenging conditions) but on digital is not. And Sony haven't really improved enough.
Some times I use the HVL-F43AM on the NEX7 and everything seams fine. Some times I use it and I have to switch to manual mode cuz TTL just doesn't work at all.

[Greg Beetham]

I was thinking of that guy explaining about FV (the first Nikon related link) Barry, I was wondering in my post what exposure mode he might have been in when he was talking about flash control being centre weighted (with the subjects offset to the left and a very deep background in the centre in the final composition). But after reading the last link I get the impression they might be using spot metering (or close too it) for setting the initial flash value.
Greg
Ps Pako I get the impression Sony didn't want the flash system (the KM one) to be working at peak performance, so that people would be happy when Sony 'fixed it' by changing the i-shoe over to their own shoe design.

[pakodominguez]

Ps Pako I get the impression Sony didn't want the flash system (the KM one) to be working at peak performance, so that people would be happy when Sony 'fixed it' by changing the i-shoe over to their own shoe design.

The shape of the hotshoe doesn't maters. The flash itself is a little bit dummy, controlled by the camera. There are some metering issues in general with Km and Sony DSRL, well documented, about the cameras underexposing when a spot of light get into the frame (like a small window, or the reflection of the flash in a mirror)

Sony change the hotshoe because they already have many accessories for Handycam that use that interface, since they want to get the Video-DSRL market, it is their way to go...

[bfitzgerald]

I'm not sure stills shooters will approve of that choice. Anyway I think Canon have the video DSLR market right now, I'm not sure if that's going to change much.
And even if it did and Sony dominated it at some point in the future, it seems obvious to me that the needs of stills shooters are secondary to Sony.

For that reason I find their approach uninteresting and their products less appealing than rivals.