D700 ~the unpacking video ...... just joking!

[Keith]

Three freakin' weeks to get a D700 ... I can't believe the damned thing is finally here. Between a supplier that dragged his heels to a Fedex man that decided it wasn't worth venturing down my very currently muddy driveway the other day and drove away with my camera and took it to the nearest mail centre instead ... I'm amazed that I finally have it in my hands!

Ah yes the unpacking:

No fancy frills from Nikon here a la Leica M8 or similar ... just a box with a camera in it ... and a lot of camera at that! (no video to put on my blog sorry!)

Just one horrific moment that I have to relate: (has this happened to anyone else?)

Put 50mm Zeiss Planar on camera and look through viewfinder ... can't see a damned thing. Adjust dioptor ... still can't see much, in fact it's about as inspiring as a dark night through the bottom of a dirty coke bottle ... what the **** is going on here? Check manual ... "viewfinder will not operate correctly and in fact darkens considerably without a charged battery fitted to the camera" ... what the! 😛

 

[Krzys]

Auspost or any other courier never deliver to my door anymore, no matter what package, and its like 3 meters from the road. Annoying when I'm home though reassuring if I'm away....

If you paid for the service then he should have traversed your muddy driveway, I say!

My thoughts on the DSLR....not much...

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Congratulations, Keith. It's a great camera!

Cheers,

Juan

 

[jonmanjiro]

Ohhhh man, you're done for now 😀

Enjoy Keith! Its an awesome camera 🙂

 

[Sparrow]

I just looked at it on Google ... evil, and ugly





...😀

 

[Sparrow]

Congrats ...

 

[Nigel Meaby]

I thought you were going to say you'd forgotten to take the lens cap off!! 😛
I never experienced that with mine as I never looked through it without a battery inside. That is incredible!

 

[sahe69]

Congrats, you'll be very happy with it.

 

[Keith]

Auspost or any other courier never deliver to my door anymore, no matter what package, and its like 3 meters from the road. Annoying when I'm home though reassuring if I'm away....

If you paid for the service then he should have traversed your muddy driveway, I say!

My thoughts on the DSLR....not much...

My thoughts on the DSLR ... a tool for work that will earn money hopefully and allow me to get a decent scanner, better computer, some Zeiss lenses for the FM3A (and D700 of course) ... the list is endless! 😀

 

[Krzys]

Ah come on. An M9 can do all that too!

 

[lynnb]

Keith, good luck with your new camera! You may shortly feel the need to buy a few (more?) external HDDs...
Cheers,

 

[Keith]

I thought you were going to say you'd forgotten to take the lens cap off!! 😛
I never experienced that with mine as I never looked through it without a battery inside. That is incredible!

Do yourself (and me) a favour ... remove the battery of your D700 and look through the viewfinder in less than ideal light ... you too can experience the anxiety I did when I'd just spent $2500.00 on a camera that suddenly had the worst viewfinder I'd ever looked through! 😛

Stewart ... you're right, it is an ugly beast .. but the first thing I did was shoot an image in my gloomy loungeroom at 6400 ISO and had a close look at the amount of noise. (or lack of)

It can be as ugly and evil as it wants! 😀

 

[Sparrow]

just an observation, not a criticism, I’ve seen what they can do … and anyway none of the Nikon SLRs were much to look at 🙂

 

[david_r]

Hey Keith, good to hear you have your D700!
Just tried mine without battery and it definitely loses brightness so it looks like business as "normal"!
Strange really as I didn't think that would happen either. Fully electronic really means fully electronic.

 

[Keith]

just an observation, not a criticism, I’ve seen what they can do … and anyway none of the Nikon SLRs were much to look at 🙂

Them's fightin' words ... I can hear the thundering hooves of the Nikon squad as I type! 😛

 

[Keith]

Hey Keith, good to hear you have your D700!
Just tried mine without battery and it definitely loses brightness so it looks like business as "normal"!
Strange really as I didn't think that would happen either. Fully electronic really means fully electronic.

Hi David ... we have to catch up for a coffee soon and you can update me on your analog progress via college etc.

We can only wonder at what sort of electronic wizardry Nikon have used to make the 'optical' viewfinder of an SLR behave this way ... the mind boggles! 😛

 

[gavinlg]

Awesome - though 3 weeks? Wow.

The viewfinder itself has a liquid crystal display overlay for the focussing points - which is why it goes dark without the batteries in. It sounds scary but it really is a very cool system, sure beats having all focus points visible through the VF all the time like my 5d.

Next on the agenda is PICS! (especially with the planar)

 

[Keith]

Awesome - though 3 weeks? Wow.

The viewfinder itself has a liquid crystal display overlay for the focussing points - which is why it goes dark without the batteries in. It sounds scary but it really is a very cool system, sure beats having all focus points visible through the VF all the time like my 5d.

Next on the agenda is PICS! (especially with the planar)

Seeing as it's currently my only lens that seems quite likely Gavin! 😀

That liquid crystal overlay sounds very clever and explains the behaviour. 🙂

 

[italy74]

Ciao Keith

of course congratulations.

I experienced the viewfinder problem too, but on the older D200, so here I was "prepared" and installed the battery first. I'm glad you now have one more couple of great cameras (I have too), now it's my turn to get some Zeiss glass 😀 😀 😀

 

[david_r]

Keith,
Will have to catch up soon.
I have some negs I developed now to scan (and a V700) so your "expertise" would be great!
Can I tempt you over for drinks....