Great locale + Great Folks = Great Fun & Excitement!
Was just too excited to go to sleep, so had to stay up and do a star trail.
Photo captured by D2X, 17-55AFS, finished in digital darkroom camera pointed SW
August 2006
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Wow… wish you were here! The Sundance Photographic Workshops start this afternoon and man, am I excited! It’s a beautiful locale with great subjects everywhere. This Sunflower is right outside my cabin lighting up as the first rays of sunshine set it a blaze. I plan on (you know how plans go) to post a new photo everyday from Sundance all week. So stay tuned!
Photo captured by D200, 10.5 on Lexar digital film, finished in Capture NX.
Nikon did a soft release of the MC-36 a few months back. It’s taken a while, but I finally recieved mine this week. It’s a very cool tool that replaces the MC-30 as a electronic cable release. You’ve probably not heard of it. Like I said, Nikon did a real soft release on the MC-36 and their website has little to no info. If you go looking at the price, you might wonder why a electronic cable release is so expensive.
The MC-36 has a built in interval timer. Why would one want that when it’s already incorporated into so many camera bodies? Have you ever done star trails? I have a huge collection from nearly everywhere I’ve been. That was film days and while I still do them with digital, it’s not the same. Working on a new technique for achieving better star trails than I did with film, I needed a better interval timer system than that built into the camera. The MC-36 provides that feature.
If you go out all excited about getting one, be prepared for disappointment. Like the 28f1.4, the MC-36 is nowhere to be found right now. Samy’s was real good about informing me when they came in stock so if you want one, I would get on a list. I’ll have more on the MC-36 and digital Star Trails in the next issue of the BT Journal.
Tech Note: We receive lots of emails asking how we get the product shots. They are all taken by me, an old passion and fun past time (there are a couple of exceptions). This photo is a single SB-800 flash with a custom snoot (thanks Rog!) made from Cinefoil fired remotely with a SU-800.
Keeping CCDs clean is a real challenge for many. We are constantly being asked how to clean CCDs . First part of this process is to realize you’ve bought a really expensive camera, so counting pennies when it comes to keeping it working correctly is real silly. It’s real simple once you realize you just need to bite the bullet and get the GOOD stuff right from the start and then your CCD dust problems are solved.
There’s only one option IMHO and that’s the products from the folks at VisibleDust . I’ve been using their products since they first came on the market and haven’t had a dust problem sence. Their latest products are really darn cool and work beautifully. VisibleDust Swabs are THE best hands down. They have two types, orange and green. Orange works with their VDust Formula for removing dust from your CCD. The green swabs work with their Sensor Clean when you have a smudge on your CCD. It’s a killer solution. We sacrificed two swabs testing the products and we were incredibly impressed how with perfection our CCD was spotless after cleaning.
Yes, these products cost real money! It’s really up to you, do you want to risk having a piece of dust covering up a vital part of your image, risking the loss of detail, or do you just want to shoot and not worry about such things? The answer is real easy for me, buy VisibleDust Arctic Butterfly , buy their VisibleDust Swabs and cleaning fluid and forget about dust problems.
It would seem that macro is becoming very popular again (interesting how things cycle in photography). Many photographers rather not put out a bunch of money for a new lens, opting for more finanicial friendly solutions to getting in close. We’ve received a bunch of requests asking for extention tubes that can be used with Nikon bodies. That’s because Nikon STILL doesn’t offer any automatic tubes. Well thank goodness my friends at Kenko do and infact, have a new series out.
Kenko’s DG Extention Tubes work perfectly with Nikons and their lenses. The combos I like personally are the 12mm with the 600f4AFS, the 20mm with the 200-400VR and 36mm with the 105VR. These tubes provide full metering and AF hook up on my D2X, so I’m a happy camper. So if you’re looking for a less expensive way to play in macro, this is the best option I can recommend.
