Buying a SLR/n a mistake?

Paul_Kluber · #8 08-07-2005, 03:00 PM

Hello:

I have two of the SLR/n's that are used for commercial work in and out of the studio. I use Nikon ED glass zooms and most if any color fringing is not noticable. The only problem I have is when shooting too fast in RAW mode, I can overload the computer when tethered and it crashes. Maybe if they had a FW800 instead of 400 port that would not be a problem. Shooting to cards, overload is not a problem unless you are shooting dual writing to both CF and SD cards at the same time and the buffer fills very rapidly in highest RAW mode.
For my clients and jobs, the speed of the system is just fine and compares favorably to the Hasselblad way of time spend shooting.

If someone came out with 25-35% more pixels in the same Nikon lens format, I would consider selling one and keeping the other for back-up. I find that I have to shoot tight crops to maintain all the pixels for later editing. Art directors, that I work with, are loathe to make final decisions on cropping while on a shoot so that freaks out some of them. For that reason, I miss my Hasselblad. NO, my business model does not allow spending all that money for prime and back-up digital backs in 2 1/4 format. I guess I'm not in that league of shooters that talks about buying those $20-33 thousands dollar backs like they were pocket change. My pockets have had holes in them for a very long time!

Paul

Sean_Shadbolt · #9 08-07-2005, 07:10 PM

I was having my computer crash while tethered ( Powerbook ) and couldn't work out why, camera manager would freeze if if I shot too fast and a restart was necessary ( it only happened in portrait sessions where a lot of frames were being shot , never with product ) - A client pointed out to me I had a lot of stuff on the desktop and it could be a cause of the crashes. Embarrasingly , after putting all the files into a folder and minimising the desktop, the crashes stopped and CM has run crash free since!
You learn something new every day.

BobSmith · #10 08-07-2005, 09:37 PM

I guess I don't shoot fast enough. I've never had Camera Manager crash because of heavy shooting. I shoot so that PhotoDesk opens each exposure as it's made. I've had upwards of a hundred full frames open at once in Photodesk. I just keep shooting and the art director keeps saying "what if..." until there's gobs of images already open. The only thing I've found that will consistently cause a hang is if I do the same type of shooting and have a contact sheet open as well. With a contact sheet open, it doesn't matter if there's one fulll frame open on fifty... eventually it will cause what looks like a locked up computer. In fact it isn't locked up. If you just let it sit for a minute or so it will enventually go right back to where it left off. If there were frames in the buffer behind the "frozen" frame they will usually open normally once it gets past the problem frame. There were some lengthy threads about this in the past. The gist is that the contact sheet is the culprit. I've confirmed that by accident numerous times now.

I love Camera Manager/PhotoDesk, but with CS2, I've happily made the switch to ACR for almost all of my editing. Bridge is just too darn efficient.

Bob Smith

DanSroka · #11 08-08-2005, 05:18 PM

I also just acquired an SLR/n, bought after the camera was discontinued. It fits my needs extrememly well, and I was able to buy it for a couple thousand dollars less than the D2X. The D2X, while a fine camera, also has many features that I would personally never use, so I didn't want to pay a premium for them.

Besides, my guess is that if you ever decide you don't want it, you could easily ebay it for around $2500.

Dan

Paul_Kluber · #12 08-08-2005, 07:34 PM

Hello:

The contact sheet is the problem? I will try your solution out and see if it fixes my particular problem. When my laptop freezes up, a black window appears in front of all the others that says I need to reboot. I have never waited to see if it disappears. Do you recall how long that might be from your past experiences?

Paul

BobSmith · #13 08-08-2005, 09:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
When my laptop freezes up, a black window appears in front of all the others that says I need to reboot.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds like a different problem. The one I'm describing will happen on either Windows or Mac but it looks a bit different depending on the platform. We went round and round on this here months ago with Jon Gary and others from Kodak saying they were having problems duplicating the situation. Several of us described the exact same problem though... and someone somewhere along the way figured out that it was an open contact sheet while shooting that was causing it. All I know is that I've never once had it occur when no contact sheet is displayed. I've had it occur several times after I've decided to view a contact sheet in the middle of a shoot and forgot to close it again.

The problem happens fairly rarely and very randomly. Before I figured out what caused it, it might occur three or four times during a day of tethered shooting where I might shoot a couple hundred frames. It doesn't seem to matter if shooting fast or slow. It might occur on the first frame shot or it might not happen until fifty perfectly normal shots have been captured.

On a Mac, when it happens, the progress bar as the image opens in PhotoDesk appears to come to a stop. The program seems completely unresponsive. If you just let it sit for over a minute... maybe two... it will eventually finish that file and return to competely normal operation. That frame will appear as jumbled garbage on the contact sheet but it will open fine. Close the contact sheet and re-open and the image will appear just fine. On Windows, much the same thing happens but you can still see the progress bar moving. Its just moveing REAL slow. It doesn't look frozen, it just slows to a crawl. Where a normal frame takes maybe five seconds or so from clicking the shutter til its open in PhotoDesk, one of these "bad" frames will take maybe 90 seconds. As soon as the problem frame is done everything goes back to normal. If any other shots are backed up in the buffer, they will begin to download and open as normal.

Bob Smith

Neil_Poulsen · #14 08-15-2005, 11:36 AM

It depends on your needs, and you know them better than anyone else.

I just purchased a DCS/c, and I'm pleased with my daring. There've been some negative things said about this camera. But, I did a thorough investigation, and this camera will accomplish what I want.

As much as people rave about full-frame and the resolution that can be obtained from either the DSC or the 1DsII, these cameras are just the beginning. In three years, the situation will be completely different, and these cameras will be anecdotes. In the meantime, I've gotten in at a very good price point ($3775) with a camera that meets my needs and has a three-year manufacturer's warrenty.

As for the alternative, it also has problems. There's been a serious issue with lost images, and it's expensive. Nor did Canon care to support the camera with an extended warrenty. Hmmm, I wonder why?