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The Stealth Nikon
Saturday, 23 October 2010 23:15I Used To Be A Photographer
I worked on my school's yearbooks from Junior High through college. Eventually I had a pile of Nikon equipment and took a lot of pictures. My SF writing has taken up a lot of my "free" time, and computers in general have dulled interest in film. So my Nikons have languished for years. I've had a couple of nice little digital cameras -- all have had excellent lenses, especially the two Sony cameras with Carl Zeiss optics.
But what I wanted was a Nikon digital camera, which could use some of my old glass. Alas, the first digital Nikons have had DX sensors -- smaller than the 24mm×36mm image size of 35mm film. Thus you don't actually use all the glass in the Nikon SLR lenses, which makes the effective focal lengths longer. Plus they were expensive.
So what I really wanted was an FX sensor Nikon digital camera -- one with a full size 24mm×36mm sensor. Eventually the Nikon D3 and D700 came out, but still cost thousands of dollars.
Last Week I Had A Brainstorm
What about those Kodak digital SLRs that use a Nikon chassis and take Nikon lenses? I looked on eBay and found the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. Last produced in 2005, this is a 13.87 megapixel FX camera -- and they were going for far less than the Nikons. Took four auctions to get a clean unit, with a reasonable of service life left on the sensor, for a price I was willing to pay.
Welcome to the future:
The lens is a Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5D AF zoom I got on eBay for $94. Turns out that though the Pro SLR/n will use all my Nikon lenses, it won't use its exposure meter because the old lenses don't have a CPU chip in them. So I thought a general purpose lens which used all the functions would be an advantage.
But wait, Dr. Phil, I thought you said it was a Nikon? It says Kodak all over the place, not Nikon. You weren't paying attention. Kodak started with a Nikon F80 AE/AF (auto-exposure and auto-focus) film camera and grafted on the Kodak sensor and hardware. And it does have a Nikon logo on it -- see? It says "Nikon F-Mount" right there:
The Real Reason For Posting Pictures On The Internet
My cat Sam. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.
And our cat Blue. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.
Still working on getting settings tweaked. I'd forgotten that I'd jacked the ISO sensitivity up to 800, so the image is a little noisier that I'd expect. But I'll get the hang of it.
This is going to be fun.
Dr. Phil
I worked on my school's yearbooks from Junior High through college. Eventually I had a pile of Nikon equipment and took a lot of pictures. My SF writing has taken up a lot of my "free" time, and computers in general have dulled interest in film. So my Nikons have languished for years. I've had a couple of nice little digital cameras -- all have had excellent lenses, especially the two Sony cameras with Carl Zeiss optics.
But what I wanted was a Nikon digital camera, which could use some of my old glass. Alas, the first digital Nikons have had DX sensors -- smaller than the 24mm×36mm image size of 35mm film. Thus you don't actually use all the glass in the Nikon SLR lenses, which makes the effective focal lengths longer. Plus they were expensive.
So what I really wanted was an FX sensor Nikon digital camera -- one with a full size 24mm×36mm sensor. Eventually the Nikon D3 and D700 came out, but still cost thousands of dollars.
Last Week I Had A Brainstorm
What about those Kodak digital SLRs that use a Nikon chassis and take Nikon lenses? I looked on eBay and found the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. Last produced in 2005, this is a 13.87 megapixel FX camera -- and they were going for far less than the Nikons. Took four auctions to get a clean unit, with a reasonable of service life left on the sensor, for a price I was willing to pay.
Welcome to the future:
The lens is a Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5D AF zoom I got on eBay for $94. Turns out that though the Pro SLR/n will use all my Nikon lenses, it won't use its exposure meter because the old lenses don't have a CPU chip in them. So I thought a general purpose lens which used all the functions would be an advantage.
But wait, Dr. Phil, I thought you said it was a Nikon? It says Kodak all over the place, not Nikon. You weren't paying attention. Kodak started with a Nikon F80 AE/AF (auto-exposure and auto-focus) film camera and grafted on the Kodak sensor and hardware. And it does have a Nikon logo on it -- see? It says "Nikon F-Mount" right there:
The Real Reason For Posting Pictures On The Internet
My cat Sam. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.
And our cat Blue. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.
Still working on getting settings tweaked. I'd forgotten that I'd jacked the ISO sensitivity up to 800, so the image is a little noisier that I'd expect. But I'll get the hang of it.
This is going to be fun.
Dr. Phil
