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March 14, 2017

What's your favorite kid pix Nikon?

Boy_SQ_110.jpg

Here are some of the topics and news items we're tracking for our community this week.

It's an unwritten rule of thumb that the person in any family who is sporting Nikon gear is the official family photographer. Number one on the shooting list will always be the kids.

Silver member Mike Poynor (MTP1) from Texas, USA has been searching for the perfect "kid" camera:
I have purchased Nikon equipment almost exclusively since 1968. My first Nikon was a Nikon FTN. I now own D200 D700 D800E.
Most of my photography is of children, (grand kids, relative's children, etc). I have been thinking about going to a D5, D810 or maybe waiting to see what replaces the D810. From what I have been reading, it seems the D5 would be the best for children and for their sports. My children grew up during the 80's and 90's.
I took lots and lots of 35mm pictures at my son's soccer games and my daughter's soccer and fast pitch softball games with various 35mm Nikons (F100 being the last one I bought). Now that their children are beginning to play sports I would like to have the best camera for their sport pictures and to chronicle my newest grandson's life who is to be born in 2 days. I would appreciate your opinion.
Thank you.

If you are the official family photographer, what are you using?


2- Too Many Images? Need a new Hard-Drive?

Gold member James Buch (jimray) from Oregon, USA has hit the ceiling on storage space for his software and images, and he's shopping around for an external hard drive. Have you solved that same storage problem?

Jim asks:
I'm about out of space for backups and will soon add an external hard drive to replace the 4TB Seagate I am currently using. Operating system is Windows10, apps and system on 256 SSD and files on an internal 2TB drive. C drive is backed up to one Seagate 2TB drive and the files are backed up on a separate 4TB Seagate. I am thinking about replacing the 4TB external drive with an 8TB drive. Is there one brand I should consider or conversely not buy? My understanding is Western Digital and LaCie are now owned by Seagate. Is there really any difference between the three?
Thanks for your suggestions and comments.

Do we have any 8 terabyte external hard drive users with an answer for Jim


3- Help with equipment storage
Meanwhile, across the big pond in Northern Ireland, Gold member Antonio Dinis (adinis) has another kind of storage problem. His collection of photography gear is getting harder to organize.  He's looking to either buy or build a solution. How do you store your gear?

Antonia describes his dilemma:
I have quite a few items that I would like to properly store. Currently I store my items between a camera backpack, sling camera bag and a drawer in my kitchen. My camera, battery grip, l-bracket and 4 out of the 6 lenses are stored in the camera backpack. This makes my backpack extremely heavy.
In the sling bag, I have 2 lenses (hoping to sell one of them soon), a flash and microphone.
In the drawer I have chargers, batteries and cables.
I'm looking for suggestions on what I could use to keep ALL of my gear in one central place, be it something I would need to buy or a DIY project.

The one good thing I would not have to worry about is humidity as I live in Northern Ireland and the weather is quite cool.
Whatever is to be suggested needs to be able to hold my largest item, the Tamron 150-600mm.
Thanks in advance and looking forward to your suggestions.
PS. I'm sure someone will suggest a Pelican case but I would like to keep cost down.

Suggestions so far include everything from closets to auto mechanic tool chests. If you have a suggestion, please try to include a photo.


4- Your path to amazing outdoor portraits and still lifes
Digital cameras can exaggerate shadows and highlights, ruining your photos with too much contrast when taken in sunlight. Those harsh shadows and highlights need to be tamed.
PhotoBert's answer is a simple double-sided reflector called "Sunlight-White."

This reflector is a convenient 22 inches in diameter when open, but folds up and stores in a 9-inch diameter pouch - perfect for most camera bags. And it weighs less than 5 ounces!
Check this link for details.

While you're at it, scroll down for Nikonians exclusive bargains on the ProDot Shutter Upgrade, the ROR lens cleaner, and PhotoBert's legendary Nikon CheatSheets.


5- Nutmeg State Nikonian in focus
Moderating Team member Marsha Edmunds (meadowlark2) has posted her latest member profile in the "I am Nikonians" series.  Her subject is Silver member Fred Laberge (labtrout) from Connecticut, USA.

Fred tells us:
I shot film for several years in the 1970s and '80s as a photojournalist. In fact, my wedding gift from Susan in 1973 was a Nikkormat FTn, my first SLR. I've always used Nikon cameras, mostly F2's in the late '70s. But over time I transitioned into becoming an editor and writer.

Then my job at Aetna took me in a new direction, managing the company's financial and crisis communications, so my cameras and any serious photography got put on the shelf for a number of years.

Check the article for more, including samples of Fred's photography. And make sure you scroll down to the comments section and give Marsha some kind words for her great job so far on the "I am Nikonians" series.


6- Drone photogs, you bag has arrived
So-- You own a Nikon DSLR and a sophisticated drone, and your next shoot will require extensive travel.
Wouldn't it be nice if someone came up with a high-quality transport bag that could carry your drone and your camera gear?

 Our friends at Think Tank Photo already have the concept covered.
They call it the Airport Helipak V2.0 backpack for DJI Phantom.

This newly updated backpack, renowned for its comfort, accommodates a DJI Phantom 4 quadcopter and similarly sized drones plus a small camera kit, 15" laptop, controller, GoPros, chargers, spare rotors, extra batteries, jacket, tools, and more
Its refined design is carry-on compatible for both U.S. domestic or international airline travel.
Use this link to get full information while using your Nikonians free gear and free shipping advantage.
You should also want to check out their special bag for the popular new DJI Mavic Pro drones.


7- Wireless remote options
Anne DePietri (adepietri) from New York, USA is looking for a decent wireless shutter release. Her research has uncovered many options.

Moderating Team Member Brian Wong (blw) posted an extensive breakdown.

If you're in the market for one of these gizmos you need to read his response.

Here is a short sample:
The Cadillac solution: PocketWizard Plus-III's. At $135 each (and you need two, plus a cable), they are not cheap.

I switched to them after the 4th YN cable died about 18 months ago. As one would expect from the gold-plated price (and by the way the cables ARE gold plated), the PWs are bulletproof. They also operate at a kind of ridiculous 5x the distance of the lower cost ones.
The cheapies all go at least 300 feet or so, which is probably enough for 98% of all applications. I've run the PW's at longer than 300' just once, although that once was close to 1500' according to Google Maps.

Like I said--that's just a short sample. Go to the discussion for the full version.


8- Need new gear? Limited budget? Think "trade-in"
Berger Bros Camera is offering great trade-ins or outright purchase for your used Nikon or any brand photo gear. They see many people trading in older heavy DSLR gear toward new Fuji, Sony or Olympus Mirrorless cameras.

They now have in stock new fabulous Olympus EM1 MKII Sony A6500, Sony A7R II cameras as well as Fuji XT2 and coming soon Fuji GFX50S medium format 50mp.

They also have spectacular deals on Nikon D810 and put your order in now for the new Nikon Full Frame Body to be announced shortly.
Great Personal service: Brad Berger 516-816-4921 or Brad@Berger-Bros.com. or BradBerger@mac.com.


9- Fall ANPAT heads East
Nikonians founder J. Ramón Palacios (jrp) has announced the location for this year's Fall Annual Nikonians Photo Adventure Trip (ANPAT).  Some call it the most beautiful National Park in the country, a tiny gem compared to its larger siblings.

Full details will be available soon, but for now here is the Reader's Digest version:
When:
October 7, 2017 (arrival)
October 14, 2017 (departure)

Gold member Sarah Boser (Sarah9) from Pennsylvania, USA was first to applaud the announcement:
Great location choice!
Acadia National Park is spectacular. In addition to the rugged and beautiful coast of Maine, there are also streams, lakes, fishing villages, etc. The dates are perfect for autumn color.

Stay tuned to the Nikonians Annual Photo Adventure Trips (ANPATs) forum for breaking news and updates on the Acadia adventure.


10- Sending pix 101
Andrew Armenti (aaa147) from California, USA is a new member with an old question. We've all been dealing with the same challenge ever since we learned how to send a photo with our computers instead of in an envelope. What is too big? What is too small?

The question:
What is the best way to send photos (JPGS) that were edited in Lightroom via the web without losing quality?
So far it seems like dropbox may be the best option.
Any suggestions?

Moderating Team member and Director of the Nikonians Academy Eric Bowles (ericbowles) has a detailed breakdown to share.
An excerpt:
When you get larger than 4 MB, you need to start thinking about sharing it using something other than email. Email programs and hosts vary on how large files can be. My host lets me send 10 MB files, but they are slow and are not always received. So, I normally send web sized files. For larger files, Dropbox is a good option and it is what I use. If this is something that comes up frequently related to events, some of the photo sharing sites have tools. I use Zenfolio, but there are download features in some of the others.

Check here for the full version.


11- Digital artistry, the next step
Moderating Team member Dan Wiedbrauk (domer2760) from Michigan, USA is always on the lookout for ways to create examples of digital artistry from standard images. One of his most recent images sparked an interesting question. Now that you've created that image -- what do you do with it?

The question comes from new member Hilbert Nease (hhnease3):
How are some of you using these images? I'm mainly interested in if/how you print/use these. Do you print and frame them? Print on canvas? I've done some work like this, and to me they look kind of funny if I just print a "painterly" image on glossy paper. I know it would be highly variable -- for example, I can imagine some of the images would look great on metal, but I'm not sure about the more painterly ones.
Thanks, and keep up the beautiful work!

By the way -- The image we're using for this discussion topic is by ---drum roll please --- Dan Wiedbrauk (domer2760). He posted it here.

That's it for this week. Make sure you follow up on our highlights above by clicking on the "complete wrap-up" link at the top, and don't forget to grab your favorite camera and capture some images to share with family and friends (especially us at Nikonians). -- Tom Boné (flashdeadline)

Posted by flashdeadline at March 14, 2017 9:09 PM