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- 3,156
- Name
- Simon Everett
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I know most of you will scoff at my use of a compact, but the P7100 did me proud on many assignments, until I drowned it. It wasn't brilliant but it did the job and there was a range of accessories for it, including a fantastic wide angle lens that mounted on a plastic bayoneted front fit mount. That wide angle lens was nearly as good as (21mm equivalent) the 17-35 at 21mm on my D3. The difference being the WC E75A wide angle attachment lens for the compact is only about £200 new!
Now, having drowned the P7100 I replaced it with the new version, the P7800, which is an upgrade in image quality but at the cost of speed of working. I don't mind that because what I use it for speed is not really of the essence, but image quality is. Why oh why did Nikon, in their wisodm, see fit to put an accessory ring on the lens surround and then not provide any accessories for it?
Specifically a means of mounting one of their superb wide angle attachment lenses, which of course I already have, together with the mounting adaptor.....the P7100 had a bayonet mount, the replacement P7700 and 7800 have a threaded mount surround. Typical, because the lens is the same. I have hunted high and low to find a means of attaching the old wide angle lens to the new camera without success - but I had the basic bits, they just had the wrong fitments.
I saw threads on the internet where people had used step up rings and all kinds of bodges, none of which really fired my enthusiasm. So, I searched for a precision engineering shop, made an appointment to see them having explained what I was after and went to see them, camera in hand. The following day I get a text to say that my prototype lens mount was ready and to come and try it out. This engineering shop is 7 minutes walk from my house, so I nipped down and the aluminium lens mount they had made me fitted the camera like a glove, the wide angle also screwed on effortlessly - they are wierd thread sizes on purpose tomake life difficult for anyone gearing up to make stuff for the cameras and so lock in the system to Nikon - only they hadn't taken advanatge of it. The lens mount is a 51mm 7.5 thread and the body is another obscure dimension - not enough for a good precision engineer though! The problem was we hadn't taken the measurement properly and the barrel of the adaprtor mount was about 5mm too short. No worries, they said they would make another one - we took into account the bit of the mount we had overlooked the first time - this was my fault, They set to and will have the thing made this week.
So what has evaded Nikon P7800 users for so long will be available to me by getting the mounting system I needed custom made by the precision engineering company. This may seem a horrendously expensive way of gong about things, but I was surprised, the alloy mounting piece, with very difficult threads on it deliberately to make life difficult, was not as expensive as I thought it would be., and not much more than the plastic mount Nikon sold for the P7100. I now have the improved image quality and file size of the P7800 with the wide angle capability, no vignetting and no barrel distortion of that quite stupendous wide angle - in a kit I can put in my coat pocket. Happy days.
Has anyone else had a custom engineering job done to solve a problem? If not and you have a seemingly insurmountable problem, try getting a custom engineer to do it for you.
Now, having drowned the P7100 I replaced it with the new version, the P7800, which is an upgrade in image quality but at the cost of speed of working. I don't mind that because what I use it for speed is not really of the essence, but image quality is. Why oh why did Nikon, in their wisodm, see fit to put an accessory ring on the lens surround and then not provide any accessories for it?
Specifically a means of mounting one of their superb wide angle attachment lenses, which of course I already have, together with the mounting adaptor.....the P7100 had a bayonet mount, the replacement P7700 and 7800 have a threaded mount surround. Typical, because the lens is the same. I have hunted high and low to find a means of attaching the old wide angle lens to the new camera without success - but I had the basic bits, they just had the wrong fitments. I saw threads on the internet where people had used step up rings and all kinds of bodges, none of which really fired my enthusiasm. So, I searched for a precision engineering shop, made an appointment to see them having explained what I was after and went to see them, camera in hand. The following day I get a text to say that my prototype lens mount was ready and to come and try it out. This engineering shop is 7 minutes walk from my house, so I nipped down and the aluminium lens mount they had made me fitted the camera like a glove, the wide angle also screwed on effortlessly - they are wierd thread sizes on purpose tomake life difficult for anyone gearing up to make stuff for the cameras and so lock in the system to Nikon - only they hadn't taken advanatge of it. The lens mount is a 51mm 7.5 thread and the body is another obscure dimension - not enough for a good precision engineer though! The problem was we hadn't taken the measurement properly and the barrel of the adaprtor mount was about 5mm too short. No worries, they said they would make another one - we took into account the bit of the mount we had overlooked the first time - this was my fault, They set to and will have the thing made this week.
So what has evaded Nikon P7800 users for so long will be available to me by getting the mounting system I needed custom made by the precision engineering company. This may seem a horrendously expensive way of gong about things, but I was surprised, the alloy mounting piece, with very difficult threads on it deliberately to make life difficult, was not as expensive as I thought it would be., and not much more than the plastic mount Nikon sold for the P7100. I now have the improved image quality and file size of the P7800 with the wide angle capability, no vignetting and no barrel distortion of that quite stupendous wide angle - in a kit I can put in my coat pocket. Happy days.
Has anyone else had a custom engineering job done to solve a problem? If not and you have a seemingly insurmountable problem, try getting a custom engineer to do it for you.
