« Camera and photographic news »
May 2005
Well, I never knew that! Nikon is part of Mitsubishi.
December 2004
The Nikon D70 (body only) is down to under £600 including VAT now. A nice Christmas present for any photographer. Just as well the price dropped really, I dropped my camera case and shattered the LCD readout display. *Sigh* Going to cost a few bob to for Nikon to repair!
Meanwhile, the drool worthy 12.4 Megapixel D2x is due out next month (January 2005), but at a staggering RRP of £3,500 for the body it's strictly for working professionals until the drop drops substantially. I can wait!
Canon meanwhile released their 16.7Megapixel EOS 1Ds mkii last month. I had a look over one, and the complimentary lenses and I have to say, if anything will ever tempt me away from Nikon, it's this one! Features include 100-1600 ISO, 4fps and images up to 4992x3328. In lay terms, A3 printouts with absolutely no loss of quality. Some decent examples can be found here at Canon Japan.
The EOS-1Ds Mark II's phenomenal full frame CMOS sensor (36 x 24mm) produces files which can convert to 50Mb uncompressed TIFF at 24 bit colour depth - the standard acceptable quality for leading photo agencies and stock libraries. You are looking at street prices around £5,999 with VAT for this beauty mind!
July 2004
Finally got a Nikon D70 from a local dealer, of all places. Should have known it was too good to be true...
The salesman claimed they had none in, nor the Sigma 18-50mm, yadda, yadda. When he realised I also wanted a lenses, flash and a digital camcorder, the out of stock items materialised. I guess he was on commission, eh! (He isn't, by the by)
Anyway, gets it home, has a play and notice that the diopter is set to -2. Obviously been out the box then, because that's hardly a default setting....
Never mind, I have one now, I'll just register... Where's the sodding registration card...
"Not to worry Sir, it's covered by our own warranty" Hmmm
Two days later, I'm downloading all the imagines and thinking, darn, lenses flair. Lens flair on every shot, in doors and out... A few dozen test shots later with various lenses confirms there's a fault as there's a round shadow in the same place on every one.
Makes you think, eh....
"Nope, not a chance of a Nikon."
Dixons have one, with a 10% discount to boot, I'll get it there.
"Oh look, we have one"
(Imagines: "Shaddup, maybe he'll never notice...")
Jaded, yes, but I've worked in the computer industry - not big on trust anymore.
Anyway, I suspect it's a mark on the CMOS, though Nikon UK apparently haven't heard of the like, so it's gone to them for a play and a replacement - if they (themselves) can even get a replacement.
Have to say, hassle aside, it's a gorgeous camera. Hopefully I'll have a replacement in a week or too. Lost without it already!
...
It was a tiny spec of dust of the CMOS as I suspected. Anyway, the camera store helped hurry the repair through on my behalf and got it back in about 10 days.
June 2004
Meanwhile, in RIP-Off Britain...
Yep, on my hobby-horse again. The Mail recently run two articles, one of the alleged dishonest (and possibly fraudulent) sales antics of Comet staff and the other on the extortionate markups multi-nationals are applying to Europe in general and to the UK in particular.
Oh yes, it REALLY gets me going...
Here's a perfect example:
Nikon D70 digital camera kit with a Nikkor 18-70 lenses... RRP £999 ($1,820.68 at current rates)
Dixons: £999 (but there's a special offer of 10% off digital camera's) - None available*
Local dealer £999 (we don't do price match, beggar off) - none available anyway*
Dabs £925 - One available*)
Camera Depot £868.33 - none available for at least 30 days (60 on backorder)
*Nikon can't make them fast enough...
Okayyyy, the best price in the UK is £868
Let's just cross the pond to America (current exchange $1=£0.5487 / £1=$1.8225 )...
The average price is around $1,079 (£592 ) from the likes of Express Cameras, NJ
The best price is: $850 (£466 ) from the likes of BestPriceCameras.com (advertise via Yahoo)
The worst price is around $1,369 (£751 ) from the like of DBuys.com, NY
In other words, no matter how you cut it, at best we are overcharged 25%, at worst, it's over 100% more expensive in the UK for the same model...
Incidentally...
What no-one will tell you unless you ask - All these new Digital lenses have a deliberate design "feature"...
They absolutely tie you to that range of camera (on the CMOS, not the mount).
For example:
Suppose you buy a D70 with a 18-70 lenses and buy an extra Sigma 18-125 for your D100.
Use it on a true 35mm CMOS (like the Kodak 14n) and you get extreme vignetting.
Use it on regular SLR, like the F55 or the F100 - it may not work.
Caveat preemptor or what! (Let the buyer beware)
Ain't you just gotta love replacing all those hideously expensive lenses in a couple of years when true 35mm digital cameras become the norm!
On the plus side, it makes the digital (specific) lenses smaller, lighter and cheaper compared to regular AF lenses.
March 2004
Nikon has released the Nikon D70 (body) for just £799. As far as I can tell, it's a cut down version of the D100, but with better features! Certainly comparing the two side my side on Nikon's website I can't see a thing between then to justify the £400 difference between the two!
Incidentally, according to something I read from Kodak, the 6MP they offer is enough pixels to make fabulous prints up to 75 x 100 cm (30 x 40 inches).
December 2003
I continue to be amazing by how disgusted I am at the prices in rip-off Britain...
After nearly a year the Nikon D100 camera - with a few dealers at least - has dropped to the US prices of yesteryear.
You can now snap one up for a mere £1,200 if you are lucky (£1,400 is more common). I really want one of these, but on general principal I won't buy one until they drop to under £1,000, or we return to Canada and I get one there!
Stateside, the normal selling price is $1,499.0 - just £846 at present rates!
You can find a number of places selling it for a mere $1,020 (£575), but these are invariably scams - grey imports (in Chinese) and/or with bits missing. The feedback invariably has comments to the effect "they aren't in stock, but we have" and/or "you'll be needing this, cost you another $400 mind.."
May 2003
Digital Trippers
Professional and serious amateur digital photographers will like this link. Never though about it before but portable storage is getting to be big business. Enter the Tripper. At present it allows up to 60Gb to be copied on the fly via USB 2 and a CompactFlash card reader which is compatible with type I and type II, including IBM Microdrives. The latter, incidentally, are soon to be released at 4Gb sticks. If I remember I'll get their home page and add it to my manufacturer's section.
Gallery
I'm going out on a limb here!
Gallery is a free picture loader and I haven't actually tried it...
That said, I've seen it used several times and it's brilliant. It's more of a web programmers thing and need's PHP support to work but if you are thinking of putting a lot of your shots on the net, then I've yet to see anything better. I'll be adding it here over the summer and you'll see what I mean
See it here running screenshots for the game Mythica
April 2003
This page is also current getting a massive update. I have split it into a more manageable seven sections, the last two of which I'll add as soon as I did my notes out!
The D100 has fallen to £1,499, but it's still proportionally cheaper Stateside where it can be had for as little as $1,244 form Royal Camera (£790.93). Sigh! Got to love living in Rip-Off Britain - Not!
I can't find a hint of it anywhere and it's not for lack of trying but my "spider sense" is tingling and I think you'll find Nikon will announce a 13 megapixel SLR in mid-summer, presumably labelled a D200. We shall see!
March 2003
KP Professional Sales Ltd in the UK sell the Nikon D100 Standard Kit for just £1,300.00 or the with a Nikkor 24-85mm AFS-G Lens for £1,557.80. Prices are ex vat, unfortunately but they are the best I've found in the UK to date!
I've seen then under £200 on E-Bay but lets be serious here, if you just paid near two grand for a camera...
