Post your latest purchases.

[Woodyg3]

I have two D500s already, so why buy another one? The next "logical move" would be a Z8. I just don't want to spend $3500 for a Z8, then more for new batteries, a lens adapter, CFexpress cards and a new card reader. I'm quite happy with my D500s, one of which has something like 400,000 shutter actuations. I decided to pick up a used D500 with only 19,000 clicks on it as a sort of camera in reserve since I know it won't be long until virtually all parts for the D500 will be impossible to find should I need a repair. I got the camera for $750, the only "fault" on it being some very minor scratches on the rear LCD. The money I save can go toward photography road trips, trips for my wife to compete in triathlons, and boring stuff like new tires or home repairs, etc.

 

[hark]

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I have two D500s already, so why buy another one? The next "logical move" would be a Z8. I just don't want to spend $3500 for a Z8, then more for new batteries, a lens adapter, CFexpress cards and a new card reader. I'm quite happy with my D500s, one of which has something like 400,000 shutter actuations. I decided to pick up a used D500 with only 19,000 clicks on it as a sort of camera in reserve since I know it won't be long until virtually all parts for the D500 will be impossible to find should I need a repair. I got the camera for $750, the only "fault" on it being some very minor scratches on the rear LCD. The money I save can go toward photography road trips, trips for my wife to compete in triathlons, and boring stuff like new tires or home repairs, etc.

By any chance did you get that from Allen's Camera? They had one with about that number of shutter actuations, and I remember it was a good price, too. Have fun with it. It's an amazing body!

 

[Woodyg3]

By any chance did you get that from Allen's Camera? They had one with about that number of shutter actuations, and I remember it was a good price, too. Have fun with it. It's an amazing body!

Hi Cindy,

This was from Roberts Camera (Used department is Called Used Photo Pro) and they have some really great deals on DSLRs right now.

 

[Peter7100]

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I have two D500s already, so why buy another one? The next "logical move" would be a Z8. I just don't want to spend $3500 for a Z8, then more for new batteries, a lens adapter, CFexpress cards and a new card reader. I'm quite happy with my D500s, one of which has something like 400,000 shutter actuations. I decided to pick up a used D500 with only 19,000 clicks on it as a sort of camera in reserve since I know it won't be long until virtually all parts for the D500 will be impossible to find should I need a repair. I got the camera for $750, the only "fault" on it being some very minor scratches on the rear LCD. The money I save can go toward photography road trips, trips for my wife to compete in triathlons, and boring stuff like new tires or home repairs, etc.

I don't blame you as it is an excellent camera for the price!

 

[bluzman]

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I have two D500s already, so why buy another one? The next "logical move" would be a Z8. I just don't want to spend $3500 for a Z8, then more for new batteries, a lens adapter, CFexpress cards and a new card reader. I'm quite happy with my D500s, one of which has something like 400,000 shutter actuations. I decided to pick up a used D500 with only 19,000 clicks on it as a sort of camera in reserve since I know it won't be long until virtually all parts for the D500 will be impossible to find should I need a repair. I got the camera for $750, the only "fault" on it being some very minor scratches on the rear LCD. The money I save can go toward photography road trips, trips for my wife to compete in triathlons, and boring stuff like new tires or home repairs, etc.

I've considered adding a second D500 to my kit. At one point, I actually bought a refurbished one at a good price directly from Nikon during one of its 4 day refurb sales. When I checked the shutter count I found it was ~260K so I returned it. These days, I'm hoping Nikon eventually offers a Z equivalent of the D500. Meanwhile, my D500 remains my favorite wildlife camera.

 

[bluzman]

I succumbed to a bout of G.A.S. this week and bought a used Coolpix P7800 on Amazon. I've owned several Coolpix cameras (P530, B700, P1000 & A1000) over the years. I sold all of them once I started shooting wildlife in action with Nikon ILCs. One of the things that attracted my interest is that, unlike those previous Coolpix cameras, the P7800's dials and buttons are much more like a DSLR. Also, it's a relatively small device although not pocketable.

The P7800 was released in 2013. It doesn't appear to be well suited for fast action (e.g., shallow buffer and old Expeed 2 processor). OTOH, it looks like it could be decent grab-and go camera for something like street photography or family gatherings.

 

[Blue439]

I know I’m susceptible to serious bouts of GAS, but honestly, I’ve been very good recently. I’ve stashed a nice little pile to buy a Hasselblad-equipped DJI Mavic Pro 3 drone which would be quite useful for the type of work I often do, but now I’m hesitating. I haven’t quite made up my mind. Yesterday however, I was out in the field shooting two churches in the Beaujolais region (just north of Lyon) for the Fondation du Patrimoine, and as I was completing the first one, I had a low battery alert on the Z7 II. I knew I hadn’t charged it up before I left home and I wasn’t worried as I had a second EN-EL15c in my photo bag.

So, when it did die, I pulled out the other one... to discover that it, too, was empty! I was enraged at my dumbness and lack of preparation. The worst thing is, in the car I have a power converter that allows me to plug in 220 V AC appliances and charge them through the 12V DC system... but not one single cable in sight to plug the camera to that!

So, I decided to do two things: one, I ordered a second Nitecore UNK 1 battery charger. This is the best charger for EN-EL15 batteries, I’ve used one at home for years and it is much smaller and so much better than the regular Nikon one. I also bring it when I travel, obviously, and I warmly recommend it. You plug it into a USB II socket, or into the mains via an Anker USB charger. That second one will live in the car so I can use it to recharge a battery on the go via one of the USB sockets in the car.

And two, I acquired another Raviad USB II to USB C cable (1 meter long). I already had one of those at home, and now one lives in each of my two Peak Design photo bags, so that I always have with me, if I’m not in the car, a solution to patch my forgetfulness and give me a chance to recharge the camera directly via its power port. Raviad cables are slightly more expensive than the usual Chinese knockoffs but substantially better quality and I also recommend them. They remain very, very reasonably priced anyway.

OK, those are not very exciting purchases, but as I said, I’ve been very reasonable recently. To tell the truth, what I am really waiting for is the Z-mount tilt-shift lens (or lenses!), as yet unannounced but supposedly in development, according to Nikon Rumors...

The charger:

The cable:

 

[Blue439]

Recently, I saw a post on Nikon Rumors about the introduction of a new EN-EL15C battery by Manfrotto boasting a silicon coating for shock protection, but more importantly a 2,400 mAh capacity, versus 2,280 for the Nikon model. I was impatiently waiting for that product to become available in Europe when I realized that German company K & F Concept already had a 2,600 mAh model, available for less than 40 euros (where the Manfrotto would probably be priced around 50-60), and sold with a nifty charging cable that plugs directly into the battery and promises to charge it fully in 2.5 hours. There is no silicon anti-shock coating on that battery but I don’t drop them on hard surfaces every day, and so I went for that K&F one. Will keep you posted on performance!

 

[blackstar]

Recently, I saw a post on Nikon Rumors about the introduction of a new EN-EL15C battery by Manfrotto boasting a silicon coating for shock protection, but more importantly a 2,400 mAh capacity, versus 2,280 for the Nikon model. I was impatiently waiting for that product to become available in Europe when I realized that German company K & F Concept already had a 2,600 mAh model, available for less than 40 euros (where the Manfrotto would probably be priced around 50-60), and sold with a nifty charging cable that plugs directly into the battery and promises to charge it fully in 2.5 hours. There is no silicon anti-shock coating on that battery but I don’t drop them on hard surfaces every day, and so I went tfor the K&F one. Will keep you posted on performance!

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Assume you use these 3rd party EN-EL15C with z7, z7ii (and z6, z6ii). Remember z8 does not take any 3rd party batteries. Can you verify? Thanks

 

[Blue439]

Assume you use these 3rd party EN-EL15C with z7, z7ii (and z6, z6ii). Remember z8 does not take any 3rd party batteries. Can you verify? Thanks

Yes, my current camera is a Z7 II. I don’t intend to purchase a Z8 (it does nothing for me in terms of image quality), but of course I will be upgrading to the Z7 III when it launches, as I expect it to be an improvement, IQ-wise. And I hope Nikon will not be so petty-minded as to allow only their own batteries in that model. If only they made the absolute very best batteries available anywhere in the Galaxy, that tactic would be more acceptable, but it’s really cheap and dumb prohibiting users from procuring better “ancillary” products elsewhere!

 

[BF Hammer]

Yes, my current camera is a Z7 II. I don’t intend to purchase a Z8 (it does nothing for me in terms of image quality), but of course I will be upgrading to the Z7 III when it launches, as I expect it to be an improvement, IQ-wise. And I hope Nikon will not be so petty-minded as to allow only their own batteries in that model. If only they made the absolute very best batteries available anywhere in the Galaxy, that tactic would be more acceptable, but it’s really cheap and dumb prohibiting users from procuring better “ancillary” products elsewhere!

I can confirm Nikon is exactly so petty as to lock out 3rd party batteries in Z series cameras. But it is a matter of how well the battery maker reverse-engineers the logic in the cell. I have 3 high-cap aftermarket EN-EL15 that work perfectly on my 2 F-mount bodies but my Z5 puts up the warning screen and refuses to function. The company assures me the new ones they sell work, but mine were a few months past the warranty period when I bought the Z5 so no free exchange.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, the AK diffuser came this afternoon. I hurriedly put it together and went out into the wild lands of the backyard. Unfortunately, the lynx spider had already finished her lunch, but I managed to rustle up a few other critters to shoot. No noteworthy results, but gave me an idea of how the new gear performs.

Initial impressions of the AK.

1. My order was very promptly filled and shipped. I ordered it on Mon afternoon, and it arrived today, on Wed. Well packed. I chose UPS ground shipping. I helps that they ship from FL, and I live in SC.

2. Assembly was straightforward. I laid my man-card aside and watched the short video first, but I could have easily figured it out on my own. I've decided to leave the LED focusing light off for now. I will try it later, but doubt it will be something I would use.

3. Construction is nice. I would have liked to see a slightly heavier gauge of plastic, but it seems adequate for the task. I was a little surprised that the white reflector material on the inside is glossy, rather than matte. I would have thought that matte would provide superior light softening. Having said that, the results speak for themselves.

4. Overall impression. I am happy with it at this early date. It's a little pricey for what it is. However, making a similar product myself would have taken a lot of effort to procure the right materials and a specialty tool to affix the snaps, and probably a prototype or two. The preliminary images show that it probably gives a softer, more even light than my home built model. I think the small reflector that can be either snapped onto the top or the bottom of the diffuser is a good idea and may help even out lighting that suffers from deep shadows under insects. The shadow under the grasshopper is not as deep and I am used to.

Here's a shot of it with the reflector snapped on top and out of the way. Sorry, didn't feel like digging out my Z5 and take my own photo, so I used one from the web.

 

[Blue439]

Latest purchase: a nice tabletop diffuser for small to medium-sized objects. Sorry for the ugly iPhone snaps but they will be enough for you to get the idea, and the full description is here: https://vflatworld.com/pages/light-...k5TiYdTBETy4YouhGkrjttTR7JN7169OX72UCcnSsrjpT

 

[Dawg Pics]

Latest purchase: a nice tabletop diffuser for small to medium-sized objects. Sorry for the ugly iPhone snaps but they will be enough for you to get the idea, and the full description is here: https://vflatworld.com/pages/light-...k5TiYdTBETy4YouhGkrjttTR7JN7169OX72UCcnSsrjpT

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That looks like the Elizabethan collars we put on the dogs to keep them from licking their wounds.

 

[Blue439]

That looks like the Elizabethan collars we put on the dogs to keep them from licking their wounds.

Absolutely, it does, and I bet it would work just fine as such a collar! Considering its price, I wouldn’t try it, though, knowing what dogs do to those collars (I grew up with Weimaraners, my father used to breed them for a pastime)...

 

[lightcapture]

Here's my latest purchase...

...

 

[Clovishound]

With the weather cooling off, and sunrise getting later, the Pup an I are looking to go back to Boneyard Beach to do some trees in the surf photography in the coming months. I decided I wanted to do some long exposure shots, so I ordered a 10 stop ND to fit my 24-70. I ended up with one of those magnetic mount versions. I've never tried that before, but I think I'm going to like it. Ironically, it was a little cheaper than the traditional screw in version, even though mine came with the screw in magnetic adapter ring for the lens. I think it'll make mounting the filter a whole lot simpler, and I really like the magnetic lens cap it came with.

 

[Blue439]

K&F Concept is a good German brand. Not as good as Heliopan, but still good. The magnetic ones sound fun to use. I have never tried them myself, as the variety of lenses I use leads me to use NiSi filter holders and square, slide-in filters:

 

[Clovishound]

They were considerably cheaper than the old standby filter brands like Tiffen and Hoya, and seemed to be of decent quality. A friend bought me a set of no name filters off Amazon. While I greatly appreciated the thought, they were absolutely horrible. Plastic filter material, and they ended up making everything soft focus. No, it wasn't supposed to be a soft focus filter.

 

[Peter7100]

They were considerably cheaper than the old standby filter brands like Tiffen and Hoya, and seemed to be of decent quality. A friend bought me a set of no name filters off Amazon. While I greatly appreciated the thought, they were absolutely horrible. Plastic filter material, and they ended up making everything soft focus. No, it wasn't supposed to be a soft focus filter.

Yes there are a lot of poor quality cheap filters on Amazon and elsewhere. Think it is always better investing in a decent set. I have always found Lee filters to be of good quality.