What has disappointed you?

Peter7100

Senior Member
Not looking for answers like 'your husband' or 'partner' ;), but what piece of photography equipment has not met your expectations. It could be a lens, body, flashlight, tripod, filter or anyting similiar.
It doesn't need to be something that you necessary sold on as it could be something that you still own.

I will start this with my biggest disappointment which was a lens I was expecting much more from. I did buy a new copy and after a few months decide to part with it as I just thought at the telephoto end the quality was not acceptable.
The lens in question:

Tamron 18-400
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
My inability to get that perfect shot and lack of time to get out to practice/find the shot.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
My Nikon D600. It had the oil spot issue and went in 3x for repair. Each time I'd get it back, I took a test shot against a white piece of paper. Oil and dust spots all over the sensor with the very first image. I will say they did an amazing job calibrating the AF. It was...shall I say...spot on. :beguiled:
 

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
I have to admit I have been disappointed in several features of my D500, despite my overall elation with the camera as a whole. Not having a full articulated Live View screen is more of a letdown than I was expecting - and I was expecting it to be a letdown. Not having full touch screen menu controls is also something I miss more than I thought I would, after having gotten used to the ease and speed of that feature on my D5500. And that 10-pin connector for my wired and wireless remote shutter releases is almost comically frustrating to use.

None is such a disappointment that I am considering selling such an otherwise magnificent beast. But it has made me hold on to my D5500, which I had originally planned to sell to offset the cost of that Baby D5. (And I have to be honest here. I may have decided to keep the D5500 anyway, because as Nikon's smallest and lightest DSLR it's actually an excellent street and travel camera.)
 
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TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
The fact the Z6 automatically chooses crop mode when you put a crop lens onto it. There is no way to override and shoot a crop lens using the full sensor, as I could with the D800. The Tokina 11-16 f2.8 is nearly a perfect wide angle lens, IMO. Crop sensors see 15-24 effective, but if you throw that on a full frame DSLR its also nearly a perfect 16mm prime. The lens vignettes horribly at the other focal lengths on full frame, but at 16mm its great! Not so with the Z6. The camera dumbs down to crop mode and grays out the option to kick it back to full frame once you twist a crop lens on the FTZ. I didnt read this anywhere upon doing my research and was fully expecting to use the 11-16 on the Z6 as a 16mm prime, but the result is about 10MP as opposed to 24MP. This would probably be a non issue on the Z7, but the sensor just isnt big enough for my liking using crop lenses paired with the Z6.
 

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
And that 10-pin connector for my wired and wireless remote shutter releases is almost comically frustrating to use.

A word of caution; Careful!

The D800 also has that 10 pin connector. I bought the body used and it was months before I bought a remote that was supposed to connect to the 10 pin. It didn't work. After some research, I found out the D800 had a known issue with the connector. Its difficult to manipulate the pins and hasty fingers can push the connector into the body, something that had already occurred by the time I got it. When I checked on a repair, it was more than what I spent on the camera. I still needed to control the camera using a remote, so I tried the aftermarket grip that has an IR remote, but that was hit and miss at best. Then I bought a CamRanger that connects through the USB, thereby bypassing the broken 10 pin. That fixed the problem and opens up a lot more possibilities, (seriously, it is a very powerful piece of equipment) but its a real pain to get setup every time to use it. Its more useful in a studio setting, more unrealistic in the field.
 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I just returned the ball-head I purchased. Fidgety with a crappy locking mechanism. I am not sure why manufacturers are not using nice, polished metal but instead have the rough, hewn metal that seems so cheap and not smooth to use. I dunno. I hated that thing. I couldn't get my camera mounted on it easily. I was willing to pay the shipping to get rid of it. Now, I need a new tripod and a new head. Well, I probably need 2 of each. :mad:

Sigma 150-600C has a crap collar as well. Thinking of trading it for a Nikon lens.
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
I just returned the ball-head I purchased. Fidgety with a crappy locking mechanism. I am not sure why manufacturers are not using nice, polished metal but instead have the rough, hewn metal that seems so cheap and not smooth to use. I dunno. I hated that thing. I couldn't get my camera mounted on it easily. I was willing to pay the shipping to get rid of it. Now, I need a new tripod and a new head. Well, I probably need 2 of each. :mad:

Sigma 150-600C has a crap collar as well. Thinking of trading it for a Nikon lens.

Am I not correct in thinking you can get a better alternative collar for the Sigma. I’m sure I saw a video about it somewhere?


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nikonpup

Senior Member
SERVER.jpg

​​​​â€â€‹---going on 4 months, no improvements that i see.
 

Peter7100

Senior Member
@Peter7100 As far as I know, there are no aftermarket collars that fit the Contemporary. I have been looking for one.

Not exactly sure what you are looking for but in case you haven’t read it, there is a lengthy thread in ‘dpreview.com’ discussing possible replacements suggested by several members.


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BF Hammer

Senior Member
Sigma 150-600C has a crap collar as well. Thinking of trading it for a Nikon lens.

I use that iShoot aftermarket collar Bluzman links to. I really bought it because I made decision to standardize on Arca Swiss quick-release for everything as it has the Arca-Swiss plate machined into it. However... it is still a short tripod mount, too short sometimes as is the OEM mount. The thumbscrew for rotating the lens in the collar is inconsistent in how much work required to free the lens. And of course the short plate makes it inadequate for using as a carry handle when rotated to the top of the lens. But it does solve the issue of the Arca Swiss plate working loose when attached to the OEM collar. And I do not know of another aftermarket collar out there.
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
Let's see, buying a $30 tripod at Target, buying a $80 ball-head tripod from Amazon. Well that first one got the job done a couple of years when I had a Coolpix 995, but it had no use for existing under a D80 when I upgraded.

Speaking of the D80, the original 18-135mm kit lens was bad. I did not fully realize my disappointment in it until I bought a Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens.
 

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
[MENTION=48483]BF Hammer[/MENTION]. I don't know how I missed the aftermarket collar. I don't use an Arca Swiss except for the mono-Gimbal head that I rarely use, but that would solve the problem of it rotating free. There is a plate with a stop on it that is supposed to do the same thing.

Right now, I am a bit handicapped because my pistol grip fits my broken tripod. My plate's screw handle came off. My other tripod had a 3 axis head with a hexagon plate that has now bit the dust, and the pistol grip isn't compatible.
:distracted:
 

BF Hammer

Senior Member
@BF Hammer. I don't know how I missed the aftermarket collar. I don't use an Arca Swiss except for the mono-Gimbal head that I rarely use, but that would solve the problem of it rotating free. There is a plate with a stop on it that is supposed to do the same thing.

Right now, I am a bit handicapped because my pistol grip fits my broken tripod. My plate's screw handle came off. My other tripod had a 3 axis head with a hexagon plate that has now bit the dust, and the pistol grip isn't compatible.
:distracted:

In 2018 I was at a crossroads with my tripod and head situation. I had just broken a leg on my Sunpak carbon fiber tripod with pistol grip. I was finding the pistol grip head did not have nearly enough load capacity for my newly acquired Sigma 150-600mm. Sunpak repaired the tripod under warranty, but I had already begun the research for upgrading. I also had a monopod that needed a head of some type (mount screw only at the time). I also felt like I should be done with transplanting the quick release plate between camera bodies and telephoto lenses. I wanted to standardize and have extra quick-releases. When I saw how much the industry had settled into the Arca-Swiss system, that decision became clear. I bought a very large ball-head to replace the pistol-grip head. I bought a tilt-head for the monopod. I bought Arca-Swiss compatible clamps that screw into the quick-release plates of older heads and mounted one of those on my pistol-grip head, thus converting it to Arca-Swiss. I bought the L-brackets. I bought extra Arca-Swiss style plates in 2 different sizes.

Then after all that I found a deal-of-the-day bargain for a 3-Legged-Thing tripod that basically became my new go-to tripod for nature and landscape work. Arca-Swiss compatible ball head that is light enough and has more than enough load capacity. 4-segment carbon-fiber legs that are actually long enough for me to set up and not have to extend the center column way up to reach eye-level. I really like the thing. (pun unintentional, at first) 3-Legged-Thing Punks Billy Tripod

But this kind of gear is quite personal for each photographer and I certainly understand the appeal of the pistol-grip head after using one myself for many years. Using 2 hands to adjust a ball-head just feels so clunky after that one-handed instant aiming of the pistol-grip. The load capacity was the downfall in my world.

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Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
those damn birds wont fly at me nice and slow.

i was looking at the tamron 18-400 instead of my 70-300 nikon as my walk about lens, so thanks Peter, more research needed there.
 
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