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JimmyC
I carry a Gregory Palisade pack, although there are countless other packs that will work just as well. It weighs a little over 7 pounds, and at 4700 cubic inches it is just big enough for my needs. It has straps in the right spots for lashing on a tripod and the arrangement of pockets fits my needs.
Found this site - the guy uses the same backpack as me; should be a good SOI (Source of Information).
Here is our male bluebird (click the pic to see it big):
He likes the worms we put out for him. Couple is here - not sure if they found the box we put out. They may be nesting elseware.
Its always nice to rant about a tough experience - and to let others know so they don’t have the same challenge. But it is nice to Rave for once.
My experience with both Beach Camera, AKA Buydig.com was fantastic as was my experience with Adorama as well. I noticed that Beach and Buydig had the Nikon D200 in stock and I decided to buy from them. I had bought from Buydig before so just took advantage of the account I had already. They are the same shop, essentially. I place the order in the morning and they shipped that night. It went Fedex ground and got here in three days. Atlanta is always a good destination for ground shipping via UPS - so now I know the same for Fedex. In fact it really only took two days - the order was placed on Sunday and it got here Wednesday!
I also placed an order at Amazon for the memory card - they had what I wanted at a lower price then Buy Dig - and shipping was free. That came Wednesday too - so I got snapping on Wednesday. I also placed an order at Amazon on Wednesday for the latest copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 (After getting the camera I saw value in the upgraded version). That came today - two days! Amazon is shipping two days - I took advantage of a promotion of three months free two day service.
There were a few other essentials I wanted - filters, a step up ring to get all my lenses at 77mm (to share filters), a cheap zoom lens and some more memory. I place that order yesterday morning because they were closed for Purim. It was a little more stressful; they held the order for a few hours, got an email message from the sales department that I had to call a specific representative (by name) to verify. I did, got a voice mail message that said they would call back in 5 minutes. He did call back and he verified the order; not sure what the reason was - I think he said I ordered a step down ring rather then a step up ring but I checked and I did pick the right thing. He then tried to convince me to buy a different filter pack - Tiffen vs Hoya; but I told him I had my reasons; we agreed to disagree and he said it would go out. Thats the game folks, just be polite and know what you want before that call. Only issue I have is he didn’t ship it yesterday, I checked the site and it was still in “partially packed” until 3PM today. By 4:00 they had sent me an invoice, however and it did go out tonight, I assume. So judging by UPS Ground experience - it should be here by next tuesday or wednesday.
Buydig.com; Amazon and Adorama all good choices for good price and good service.
It arrived today, along with a 1GB CF card. Its amazing. I took a lot of useless pictures but then went back and read some of the manual. All the options, all the fun. The resolution is amazing as you can see here - I give you a low resolution version of a high res jpg I took of Maia and Daniel; then a crop of Maia’s eye - same picture!:
So last night as I checked Fedex Shipping tracking on the web and my eyes lit up Stephanie said “what?” I replied - “expected delivery date 3/15!” You see, I ordered it Sunday thinking with Purim and other delays, and since I took the inexpensive “ground” method it wouldn’t be here till next week. She said, “oh man, I married the AV Geek.” We aren’t talking point and shoot here – though you can, we are talking control and quality – I’m psyched!
Yea, I admit it. I was the guy in middle school who could thread a 16mm projector and who in all of my jobs is the one who gets the projector running for a presentation, loads up software and troubleshoots pc problems when the IT guys are busy.
I’m also the guy who chose Photography as an elective in high school and college. Who had countless hours of quality time with Dad in the field and the dark room shooting, editing and developing film and prints. I love this art and hope I find the time to really enjoy this camera.
Its been a long time coming but I do feel a little guilty for buying a $1,700 camera. I had considered the D50 - for about a minute, settled on the d70s for about 6 months and then they released the D200. I couldn’t believe the price. It may seem like a lot but this is a $10,000 camera five years ago. A $5,000 camera just two years ago - heck, a year ago. 10MP for those of you who count - twice as fast as the D70 and twice the pixel count. Its a solid tough magnesium body, has complete control over white balance, ISO, Quality - right from the dial! It has a bright LCD (2.5,” 230,00 pixels. 170 degree viewing angle) on the back that allows for easy cropping and preview. A professional meter (1,005-pixel 3-D RGB Matrix Metering). Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual. 11 AutoFocus Zones. I could go on and on but I will wait till I get it… TOMORROW!
JC
Ken Rockwell has put together a terrific site. I find the photographic equipment reviews particularly well done. He has a section dedicated to Nikon and really well done hyperlinks thorughout the site bringing you where you need to go as you read. He knows cameras but he also understands the power of HTML - link when you can and click when you read. Don’t be afraid to wander around, you can always click the back button.
I’m considering the new Nikon D200 - was looking at the D70s but now I’ve been upsold for the 10 Megapixels! I’ll look deeper later - here is a GREAT REVIEW of the D200 by Phil Askey.
So this website “best price cameras” offered the camera $400 less then anyone else. I figured it would be too good to be true so I did a google search on them and look at this horrible feedback.
The best is the picture of the storefront!
Thanks Don Wiss. This guy has a great webstie - he has taken shots of the storefronts behind the websites.
Apparently many of these low ball resellers go beyond the grey market vs. usa warranty scam. Grey market is when its bought from Japan or Europe and therfore not sold as a USA product. The problem is finding a place that will fix it. If the company is big enough they may send it to Japan to get fixed for you. Most of these companies won’t be in business that long. Here is the dirty trick they described that this company does. They require you to phone in your order to verfy, then ask you if you want the “accessories” which are really the stuff you are supposed to get with the camera anyway. Such as the manual, lense cap, battery, etc. They bump the price over market that way or tell you its backorderd and you never get your product or money back.
I’m ok with the “international” warranty on certain items. For example, Stephanie bought my Tissot T-Touch with an international warranty. With Swiss Watches they are top quality as long as you get a real/new one. And I’m pretty sure this one is. The manufacturers protect the resellers who are “authorized” - if not “authorized” they cannot offer the US warranty. But the cost difference was enough that I’d just buy a new watch or pay for the repair. With a Camera its a different story - especially this one that will cost over $1,500 dollars and have lots of moving parts. With this reseller they claim they will send it to Switzerland for you.
Adobe Labs - Project: Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom Beta is the efficient new way for professional photographers to import, select, develop, and showcase large volumes of digital images.
I just downladed it and it is way cool. I’m impressed. And I took a quick look. Macromedia will survive - this comes from them. I sold my MACR stock after the merger runup. I think they will be back on track. The Developers are not nervous anymore.
I’m buying.
That’s me with my pack:
Click this link for Charanis AT Hike - 2005 Pictures
Driving home one of my classic reflections hit me.
I was thinking about the incredible impact of a teacher. There is probably no more of an impact-full force on a child then a teacher’s worth. Especially one on one and that’s where I’m going with this. Because a teacher could be a coach, an aunt or uncle, another kid’s parent and I guess one of the best examples of how a teacher can impact a child’s self worth is when I was in high school in Rochester NY. My Photography teacher, Joanne Brunner was reviewing some of the pictures I had done to submit to a local photography contest (the one she picked did win honorable mention). Now realize, this is Rochester NY - Kodak was born and is still here. RIT is “the school” for photography.
Anyway… I was 15, 10th grade. Ms. Brunner had reviewed some photographs from my father’s collection. He is a perfectionist and many of his subjects were of friends, nature, the marines (that was his job when he was active), me. She looked at my work next to his and said “I think you have a better eye then your dad.” Now that hit me hard - my dad walked on water to me when it came to photography. He taught me, we had a dark room in the basement, it was one of the few things we did together (he worked a lot). Ten words that completely changed my perspective. She focused on the word I, she focused on my father, she focused on me, and she gave me a complement and power that only she could have done at that time. So many teachers feel they have to put their students in their place. They feel that beating into submission is the only way. Ms. Brunner empowered me and gave me a gift that lasted my entire lifetime.
Jim
