Dave Benham

Nikon have announced a firmware update for the D700 which resolves these issues:

- When Custom Setting a4 Focus tracking with lock-on was set to Off in Continuous-servo AF, the lens drive moved gradually without achieving focus.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to Distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and then the exposure meters were reactivated or the camera was turned on, the distance information displayed on the SB-800 changed.  This issue has been resolved.
- When the Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 was mounted on the camera and an EN-EL3e battery inserted in the camera but no batteries inserted in the MB-D10, and SB-900 flash mode set to TTL auto flash mode, the flash mode changed to A mode when the exposure meters turned off or were reactivated, or the camera was turned off or on.  This issue has been resolved.  (This issue has also been resolved with SB-900 firmware Ver. 5.02.)
- An issue that, in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR in the shooting menu set to On has been resolved.
- Manamah, displayed in the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu, has been changed to Manama.

Download the new D700 firmware here.

There’s also a new D3 firmware update (2.01), for a list of the full changes see the link below.

Download the new D3 firmware here.

On Saturday we took Harry to the second birthday party of his friend Ben. Predictably there were lots of toddlers, noise – and photo opportunities!

Most parents there had cameras, I decided to use my D700 with AF-S 24-70 f/2.8 lens, shooting in natural light. I flicked the auto ISO on, and set a minimum shutter speed of 1/60th second. No flash – the D700 is so outstanding at high ISO it wasn’t necessary.

Here are a few of my favourite shots from the party:

Ben, the birthday boy – taken at 70mm, 160th at f/2.8, ISO 250

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The default way Wordpress creates URLs for your blog posts is in this format: http://www.yourblog.com/index.php?p=2. It’s simple and it works, but it doesn’t describe a great deal about what you’re saying. To be picked up by search engines which look for relevancy against search terms you need a little more.

So here’s my potted guide, accumalated in the last few days, on how to make your blog more search engine friendly, and the resources you need to do it.

The easiest way to create search engine friendly URLs is to set Wordpress up to do it from the start – it’s under the Settings menu, entitled Permalinks. I favour a custom pattern like this: /%post_id%/%postname%.htm.

That way my posts are generated with my domain name, the post id, then the name of my post, and .htm is put on the end. All I have to worry about then is to make the post title useful and descriptive. You’ll also need to make sure mod_rewrite is activated on your site hosting – most hosts will have this these days, although my friends at Aress installed it for me.

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Taken from Wikipedia

There are many different reactions you get from people when they see you carrying a DSLR with a reasonable lens. Having a two year old child, I’ve attended a number of children’s birthday parties recently and inevitably have ended up standing next to another father watching our kids, cameras in hands.

They’ll normally say something like “That looks an impressive camera!” and I’ll reply wittily “Yes, digital cameras are so compact these days.” And then they’ll show me their digital compact in an almost embarrassed fashion. There’s nothing to be embarrased about of course – you can get some great shots from a compact. But it was only after another parent told me how superior his Canon G9 was to my D200 that I felt the need to take him down a peg or two.

Now at this point you can rightly say that a great photographer with a G9 will produce better images than an amateur with a D200. But for arguments’ sake let’s say their equal, or at least look at it from a sensor point of view. A G9 has a sensor 7.6 x 5.7 mm in size, bigger than many compact cameras, but no bigger than a fingernail. The APS-C sensor in a D200 is nine times bigger – and the full frame sensor in my D700 is twenty times the size!

Is it any surprise that compacts suffer at high ISO, or even just going above ISO 400? It’s not. The surprise is really that you get such good images at all. It’s a marvel of technology really.

So much so that I’ve actually purchased a G9 for my Wife. Why? She won’t carry a DSLR – which rules out a D40 or D60 which would have been ideal. And the biggest problem we have with a compact and an active child is that to get “the moment” you need a minimum of shutter lag, which the G9 seems to be the best – right up until the G10 was released!

Good question isn’t it? I’m on four at the moment – yes, excessive. But it will change, honest! I blame the press. Two of the magazines I read regularly are giving away camera bags free with a subscription (that’s how I got one last Christmas) and I have to confess to getting one in the sales. Here’s what I’ve got, and why:

1. Tamrac Adventure 6. A Christmas present last year. It’s a nice 50/50 bag with plenty of room at the top to take sandwiches or other bits. The only problem is the base isn’t deep enough to take my D700 with 24-70 zoom, so I’ve had to look again.
2. Lowepro Topload Zoom AW. This has been a great bag, but the zip is starting to go. The fact my wife doesn’t like it means that it’s probably on borrowed time too. This was the only topload zoom bag I could find at the time that would take an SLR with 70-200 lens.
3. Lowepro Trekker AW – My free gift last Christmas. It’s a great bag and will hold all my gear, but there’s no room to carry anything else. I don’t want to carry another bag as well!
4. Kata 3N-1-30. This is the result of my research. It’s big enough to take my key gear (D700 with 24-70, 70-300 and 50mm lenses, SB-600 and accessories) and still have a compartment for lunch or other bits. Full review and a photo to follow when it’s all configured.

Am I addicted to bags? Hope my wife doesn’t read this…