Category Archives: Nikon bodies

About Nikon DSLRs

Improved Nikon GPS

Nikon bodies

A new integrated unit.

I have had great success with the Aoka GPS receivers attached to my two Nikons – the D2X and D700. You can read all about the technology here, where you will see that a separate data logger must be used. This goes in your pocket and receives GPS data from the satellite and passes it to the device on the camera’s body. The logger has a small rechargeable battery which can be recharged from any USB socket on your computer.

The new integrated Aoka GPS receiver.

The new receiver integrates the data logger and receiver which I use. It’s a little wider but has the advantage that it’s impossible to forget to take the logger along with you, something I have managed once or twice. The drawback is that it drains more power from the camera’s battery as there is no separate logger battery to recharge. While I have not used it, the price is attractive. eBay asks $80, Amazon has it for more. One Amazon review has some useful battery drain metrics.

The device (model AK-G1) fits the Nikon D4/3/2 in all their iterations, D800/800E, D200/300/300s, D700 and Fujifilm S5Pro. There are other models to fit the Nikon D3100, D5000, D5100, D3200, D600 (model AK-G2), and the AK-G7 for the Nikon D7000, both costing $80 on eBay. The AK-G9 for the Nikon D90 has no integrated data logger ($40 – eBay) so a separate logger would have to be used.

The only failures I have had with mine result from ‘canyons’ in the city shading the satellite or not giving the device the 2-3 seconds to wake from sleep after a period of inactivity. I have also found that the older D2X is far faster at re-displaying the ‘GPS’ flag on the top LCD display than is the D700. So much for progress. The new device looks like a better mousetrap, especially as my separate logger can only support one camera at a time. Switch the D2X and the D700 on simultaneously and the D2X grabs and hogs the signal every time. The one logger cannot simultaneously drive two camera receivers.

Here’s the device on a Nikon DSLR – stock photo from the maker; I’m guessing it’s a D300:

As a friend of the blog and GPS expert points out, as GPS technology improves the advantage of these devices is that they can be inexpensively upgraded rather than having to buy a new camera body.

For comparison, here’s the earlier unit attached to the D2X, along with the small, separate data logger.

D2X with receiver and data logger.

I cannot find inexpensive aftermarket devices for Canon DSLRs. The factory units run $195 for a Nikon shoe-mounted unit with a clunky cord connection to the socket and $250-279 for the various Canon units. Both seem ridiculously over-priced to me.

Nikon MB-D10 battery grip

Nikon bodies

A ‘handy’ accessory.

The Nikon MB-D10 mounted on the D700. Vertical shutter release and switch are at lower left.

My delight in discovering the superior handling of the Nikon D2X pro body with its built-in vertical handgrip and shutter release led me to track down the detachable handgrip for my D700, the MB-D10. It fits the D300, D300S and the D700 and is quite exceptionally well made. I found mine on the Fred Miranda Buy/Sell forum and some care is called for in this case. It seems there are many aftermarket knockoffs out there of varying quality and performance so it’s important to pre-clear the one of your choice as the genuine article before paying up. Mine arrived in mint condition and cost $125, half the price of a new one, and included both the Nikon and 8 x AA battery holders.

The battery versatility is exceptional. You can have the following combinations:

  • Nikon EN-EL3e in the D700, nothing in the grip
  • Nikon EN-EL3e in the D700, a second EN-EL3e in the grip
  • Nikon EN-EL3e in the D700, 8 AAs in the grip
  • Nikon EN-EL3e in the D700, Nikon EN-EL4 or EN-EL4a in the grip with the appropriate end piece
  • Nothing in the D700, Nikon EN-EL3e in the grip
  • Nothing in the D700, Nikon EN-EL4 or EN-EL4a in the grip with the appropriate end piece
  • Nothing in the D700, 8 x AA in the grip

The EN-EL3e is the standard D700 battery, the EN-EL4 (or the higher capacity 4a) is the standard battery used in the D2X/D3/D4 pro bodies.

It gets better. If you have batteries in both the D700 and the grip, you can tell the D700 to use the in-camera batteries first or the in-grip ones first. This is in the Custom Setting Menu->d->d11->Battery order. When the camera is using the grip batteries or if only grip batteries are fitted, then the battery indicator on the top plate of the D700 is preceded by a small icon stating ‘BP’. Further, if you use AA batteries in the grip, you can tell the D700 whether these are AA alkaline, AA Ni-MH, AA lithium or AA Ni-Mn. This is in the Custom Setting Menu->d->d10->MB-D10 battery type. Best of all, if you use two sets of batteries the D700 will report on the remaining battery life and battery condition for both the in-camera and in-grip batteries. This is in the Setup menu. Phew! Nikon simply will not allow battery drain and charge reporting to go unnoticed. Extraordinary.

After sifting through all the possibilities, I discarded the idea of 8 AA cells in the MB-D10. Too heavy and prone to leaking if heavily discharged. I don’t need the vast shooting capacity which comes with using batteries in both the body and the grip so I decided on one Nikon EN-EL3e only. Finally, because the MB-D10 has to be removed to access the in-camera battery, I decided on using the EN-EL3e in the MB-D10 only, where removal and replacement are simple.

To fit the MB-D10 to the D700 a rubber contact cover on the base of the D700 is removed and the MB-D10 simply screwed to the body with a large, well serrated dial screw. Thereafter you have all the functionality of the integrated vertical grip on the D2X/D3/D4. The MB-D10 adds a vertical shutter release which can be turned off to prevent accidental use, and both front and rear control dials. The vertical grip is well contoured for the right hand and adds materially to the ease of hand-holding the camera in portrait orientation. The CF card can be accessed in the usual way through the side cover and the MB-D10 can remain in place while this is done.

The base of the MB-D10 replicates the centrally placed tripod socket of the D700 body. While the MB-D10 adds heft and bulk, it actually makes for a much better balanced camera which really comes into its own with lenses like the 180, 200 or 300mm Nikkors.

To add icing to the cake, the battery grip increases the maximum shooting rate from 5 fps to 8 fps, if that’s your thing.

Highly recommended, but don’t waste money on new retail ones or on cheap knockoffs, some of which fail to even work properly. There are many of these, the genuine Nikon versions, lightly used on the secondhand market. Just make sure you get the real thing which is distinguished by an embossed ‘Nikon’ logo on the rubber base and says ‘Nikon’ on the box. Also, if you contemplate using AA cells, make sure that the MB-D10 you buy comes with the separate AA cell holder, or be prepared to pay some $40 for the accessory.

If you are a Nikon D800/D800E user, prepare to be upset. Nikon wants $400 for a like accessory and designing the D800 body to use a different battery grip must qualify as the height of cynicism. Not good, Nikon. And most certainly not British.

Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 AF ED-IF lens

Nikon lenses

Wonderfully sharp.

The 180mm Nikkor f/2.8 on the Nikon D700.

I confess I miss the superb 200mm f/2.8 Canon EF autofocus lens I used to use on my 5D body, so when an opportunity arose to buy a used 180mm f/2.8 ED Nikkor AF-D on the estimable Fred Miranda forum (unlike eBay, it’s home to sellers with integrity) for just $375, I snapped it up. The lens retails new for $900. Mine has some superficial wear on the crinkle finish but the mechanics and optics are fine, and that’s what matters to me. At 27 ounces (same as the Canon) it’s 6 ounces heavier than the gorgeous 200mm f/4 Nikkor I own but a stop faster and with auto focusing. Worth the difference so long as you need f/2.8!

The lens, as with all Nikon AF-D lenses, uses the ‘screwdriver’ focus mechanism. A slotted pinion in the lens drives the focus rack and is in turn driven by a screwdriver attached to a motor in the bayonet flange on the body. A bit Rube Goldberg, perhaps, but it does assure compatibility with a large number of older Nikon bodies back to the film era. For digital users, screwdriver focus is still included in pro/prosumer bodies (Like the D2/3/4, D800/700/600) and in the better amateur ones (D300/300S/7000 etc)


The screwdriver pinion in the flange of the lens.

The drawback of screwdriver focus is that it is slower than the linear in-lens motors found in Nikon’s latest AF-S lenses and, incidentally, in all Canon auto focus digital lenses in various guises. As Nikon does not offer this lens in an AF-S version, if you want a Nikon 180 f/2.8 you have two choices – this lens or the much costlier and heavier 70-200 f/2.8 for some $2,400, weighing in at a porky 54 ounces. However, the zoom adds Vibration Reduction, sadly missing from the 180mm optic.

Balance on the heavy D700 body is excellent and makes for an easily hand-held combination. It’s even better on the larger D2X with it superior ergonomics. With the APS-C frame in the D2X the lens becomes 270mm long. The lens is light enough that no tripod collar is required for tripod use. The black crinkle alloy barrel is functional enough (as in functional-ugly) and cannot hold a candle to the machined, mechanical beauty of the early 200mm f/4 MF lens. Then again, nothing can.

As with the 300mm ED IF MF Nikkor, there is no glass between the rear of the diaphragm and the lens mount, so keeping a lens cap on the rear when not in use is probably a wise precaution to prevent debris interfering with the aperture blades.

Minimum focus distance is 5 feet, which is like a 50mm focusing down to 17 inches. Frame filling portraits are not a problem. The focus barrel has an M-F switch but it’s a bit funky design wise. Switch it to A and it’s locked, operable solely by the motor in the camera. Switch it to M and you can focus manually but the focus confirmation light (D700 and D2X) remains fixed and unvarying. Only when you change the C/S/M control on the camera’s escutcheon to ‘M’ does the focus confirmation light come into play and the screwdriver connection is de-clutched, evidenced by the smooth turning of the focus collar on the lens. Still, that sounds worse than it is because, for all except photography of fast-moving objects coming at the camera, the AF in this Nikkor is fast enough and is absolutely dead on accurate on my two bodies. The latest AF-S lenses have none of this MF complexity – just grab and twist the focus ring to override AF.

ED in the designation denotes the use of high refractive index glass for selected elements and IF means Internal Focus, the length of the lens remaining unchanged as it is focused. No external part of the lens rotates during autofocus for those into polarizing filters and the like. The extensible lens hood is built-in and does not wobble once extended.

The real beauty of this lens is to be found at f/2.8. What little vignetting there is can be automatically corrected in Lightroom which ships with the lens profile for the 180mm. My lens was recognized correctly and the profile automatically corrected both vignetting and minor pincushion distortion.

This is very much a ‘glamor lens’ and one you want to use fully open all the time. Backgrounds are massively blurred making the subject simply pop – these are all at full aperture on the D700 snapped while taking the pup for his evening ramble around the ‘hood:

Tar truck. Molten tar is poured into the seams where new road work joins the old.
This prevents the entry of water and slows erosion at the seams.

Leaf blower. Needless to add I got something in my eye….

Even apartment buildings can be pretty. This one is done in southern plantation style.

Typical 180mm full aperture rendering.

Last growth.

Autumn.

Should you opt for the AF or earlier MF optic? Both have stellar reputations. The answer is that the decision depends on what your uses are. Certainly focusing a lens this long and bright manually is easy. Objects snap in and out of focus with authority. If your persuasion is more on the candid/people side, as is mine, then AF makes better sense. If a more contemplative approach suits you, such as with architecture and landscapes, then MF is fine, and the lens will likely be cheaper. Good used AI-S versions may be found for $200-300 and adding a CPU means another $29 or so. Be warned though that CPU installation will require similar machining to that I adopted for the 300mm – see the link above. It’s not a simple ‘glue on’ job as there’s insufficient clearance between the baffle and the camera’s CPU contacts. It’s not difficult but if you are not handy with a Dremel and a file then this is not for you. And a CPU greatly enhances the functionality of the MF lens. The AI-S version is a couple of ounces heavier and the even earlier AI variant is 4 ounces heavier than the AF-D version. All have built-in hoods. There are also a pair of ‘non-D’ AF versions (the earlier with a plastic barrel which scratches easily, the later with the current crinkle finish) which do not sync up as well with Nikon flash units, but if flash is not a big deal for you everything else about it is identical to the current AF-D lens. The plastic barrel AF ‘non-D’ version is probably the best bargain if you can live with worn cosmetics.

Want to make your photography instantly better? Get a fast 180mm lens.

For snaps from my first serious outing with this lens, click here.

Design consistency

Nikon bodies

Thank you, Nikon.

One of the welcome features of the D2X (2005) is how little its design varies from the much more recent D700 (2008):

Top view – each camera has a GPS data receiver installed top left, the D2X’s safety tethered with dental floss ….

The top plate controls are almost identical except for the aperture/shutter Lock button on the D2X, lower left, for which I have yet to divine a serious use, and the superior metering selector on the D2X’s prism, which has an invaluable lock button to prevent accidental movement. The one on the D700 is just visible here on the rear plate and is prone to accidental change. The ISO button on the D2X moved to the lower rear. The D700 adds a handy pop up flash. The D2X has none.

The rear views are also similar:

The 3″ screen on the D700 dwarfs the 2.5″ LCD on the D2X.

Of note is that one button has been added for minus magnification on the D700 (top) replacing the two button action needed on the D2X, An improvement for those into LCD chimping, a practice I avoid as much as I do politics. Note the Nikon DK-17M magnifying eyepieces I have fitted to both bodies – a massive improvement over stock and a must-have for anyone using manual focus lenses. With these fitted both finders show a huge, clear, uncluttered image, wonderful for composition and shooting.

The D2X adds the lower information panel common to all the D-Pro bodies and most definitely not an improvement as the text is small, for the most part, and hard to read. All of this information falls nicely to the top display in the D700. Finally, in addition to the large battery grip which permits easy vertical shooting, the D2X adds a microphone and speaker activated by the button to the lower right corner of the LCD display for recording voice memos of up to 60 seconds for each snap. Very handy. The D2X hides its CF card behind the door to the right of the LCD and adopts a truly complex access mechanism which will have you resorting to four letter words when it comes time to replace the card. The D700 adopts a far superior sliding latched door on the right of the camera. Finally the center button in the four way rocker dial for changing focus points is far superior on the D700 to the one on the D2X. It protrudes a millimeter or two further, making engagement on a center press much easier. With the D2X you find yourself toggling instead of pressing, as often as not. I suspect that a small piece of rubber glues to the D2X’s button will fix what ails the design. The AE-L/AF-L and AE-ON buttons at top right are identical on the two bodies.

The front plates are identical. What the above snaps cannot disclose is the extent to which the software is much the same between the two bodies and that is the icing on the cake. It adds to an easy ergonomic learning curve the absence of torture-by-software which every new DSLR imposes on a new user. So for D700 owners thinking of upgrading to a pro body – D2X, D3, D4 – they will likely find as I did that they will be up and running in no time.

The D2X is faster in most respects. It can sustain an 8 fps framing rate in cropped mode using the stock battery; to accomplish that with the D700 requires the battery grip and new batteries, as the stock will not fit. Mercifully, regular AA cells are an option to the costly Nikon LiOn battery. Shutter response of the D2X is marginally better, but in practice the difference makes no matter. What is noticeable is how much quieter the D2X’s shutter is. Maybe that’s because it’s smaller given the smaller frame and maybe it’s also because the D2X’s flapping mirror is smaller for the APS-C format. Whatever the reason, the result is clearly distinguishable. Batteries in the D2X are inserted from the side, those in the D700 from below, meaning that if used on a tripod, the change in the D700 is more fiddly. However, both bodies have such high battery lives (probably over 800 shots on a charge) that the practical inconvenience with the D700 is not significant.

For MF lens users the focus confirmation light in the D2X is better than the one in the D700, shuddering less at the point of optimum focus. Nikon has long spec’d its pro and prosumer AF modules as requiring an aperture of f/5.6 or faster, but I have found no difficulty in using the AF confirmation light in the D700 with the f/8 Mirror Reflex Nikkor. On the D2X that light fails, making confirmation focus with the D2X impossible. A shame.

The Nikon D2X – Part III

Nikon bodies, Photographs

Some snaps.

Part II appears here.

The only thing not to like about the Nikon D2X is the bulk and weight. Hold it your eye for more than a few seconds and fatigue-induced shakes set in. Neither the body nor the classic era lenses I prefer were built with plastic. We are talking a lot of brass and alloys here and that makes for weight.

I took the body and three Nikon lenses – the current 16-35mm VR f/4 G, the twenty year old 35-70mm f/2.8 AFD and the forty-year old 200mm f/4 Nikkor-Q MF with a CPU installed to Filoli to catch the last days before the house and grounds close for the season. With the body set to center point focus and aperture priority enabled, with center weighted auto exposure, I found it a delight to shoot in portrait mode, owing to the provision of the second shutter release and the auxiliary control dials – the latter needed for the G lens. For the AFD and manual lenses I have the body set to permit use of the lens’ aperture ring. The G has no aperture ring so a control dial on the body must be used.

Here are a few of those snaps from yesterday:


Orchard.


End of season. The fallow plots await new bulbs.


Last growth.


These decorative urns are everywhere.


The Bonsai garden.


The alley.


Planter.


The Conservatory.

Despite its massive complexity and versatility, once set to your preferred mode of shooting using the D2X is child’s play. If you can lift it, that is.

A few comments on the sensor. I have long found that the sweet spot for most of my pictures is an ISO 400 setting. Fast enough to mitigate camera shake but not so fast as to destroy image quality. That held in the days of TriX monochrome film with Leicas, with the superb sensor in the original Canon 5D, in the Nikon D700, and in both my Panasonics – the G1 and G3. The D2X is in the same class. At ISO 400 noise in dark areas is just becoming noticeable in a 24″ print if you get too close. Large areas of continuous tone, like skies, show very fine, even grain at those enlargement ratios. And while the D700 is the best as regards noise suppression, owing to the large photosites used in the sensor, the earlier sensor in the D2X does not disappoint.

I have read some comments which have it that the D2X’s sensor is not usable at ISO 400. I can only think writers of this tripe are either technically clueless or spend their days pixel peeping. That’s just arrant nonsense. 36″ x 48″ prints from this sensor at ISO 400 are easily accomplished. Here are my Import Preset settings in Lightroom 4:

Lightroom 4 import settings for RAW files from the D2X.

The clock tower at Filoli – section of a 36″ x 48″ print, ISO 400, 35-70mm f/2.8 AFD Nikkor at f/4.
Grain and sensor noise? Get real.

Pay no heed to the fact that the lens profile refers to the D700 in the above screenshot – that’s what I named it. In practice, lens profiles are lens – not sensor – specific, and any of my D700 full frame profiles works equally well with the D2X or any other APS-C Nikon body. Remember that for a lens to be automatically recognized it must have a CPU fitted. One comes stock on Nikon AFD and G lenses (and even on some modern Zeiss Nikon-mount optics), but requires manual labor to install on older lenses. The alternative of remembering to set the ‘Non CPU’ lens variable in the camera’s Shooting Menu is near useless, as you will forget to do so the minute you first change lenses. This is a huge plus of installing CPUs on older pre-Ai (once adapted), Ai and Ai-S lenses. If you prefer spending time in LR or PS manually correcting distortions and vignetting because the application does not know which lens was used and hence which correction profile should be applied, that’s your choice. The few minutes it takes to install a CPU is repaid the first time you use the lens and save time at the processing stage.

Trade offs? Well, the APS-C sized sensor make all your lenses 50% longer. That might be a feature at the long end, but it is a curse for wides. A 16mm ultrawide becomes a more modest 24mm, the sensor only using the central part of the image cast by the lens. On the other hand, that central part is very much the cream of the crop definition and distortion wise, so what you lose in coverage you gain in definition. Where the D2X (and probably its later descendants, the D3 and D4) excel is in handling. The ergonomics are superb, the machine clearly designed with input from working photographers. Everything falls to hand, buttons are there in lieu of frustrating LCD choices for commonly used settings and the machine is built like the proverbial tank. Unlike that tank it is very fast indeed and wonderfully quiet, almost as quiet as a G3 despite the far greater capabilities.

Highly recommended, especially at the price, for someone who wants the last word in robustness at the price of a prosumer entry DSLR made of the purest plastic. Unlike that wonder, the D2X can handily double as a weapon in times of need. A good clunk on the assailant’s head will render him unconscious and you can still get his mug shot with the weapon you just used.

There’s a strong case to be made that the D700 is perfect for the wide-angle user whereas the D2X, owing to its superior ergonomics, excels with longer lenses.