My Nikon buying fest!

The SB900 is pretty simple... turn the switch from OFF, through ON right the way round to REMOTE and thats it unless you want to start mucking around with groups etc. Everything else is business as usual.
 
I quite like the groups feature. Allows you to control both flashes independantly from the camera. That's a very useful feature for shooting a first dance. I know a few wedding togs shooting Nikon who still use PW's for this so I'm going to be interested to see how well the commander built into the D700 actually works.

Test time! lol
 
BouncyMelons said:
I quite like the groups feature. Allows you to control both flashes independantly from the camera. That's a very useful feature for shooting a first dance. I know a few wedding togs shooting Nikon who still use PW's for this so I'm going to be interested to see how well the commander built into the D700 actually works.

Test time! lol
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Looking forward for this 'review' :thumbs:
 
BouncyMelons said:
I quite like the groups feature. Allows you to control both flashes independantly from the camera. That's a very useful feature for shooting a first dance. I know a few wedding togs shooting Nikon who still use PW's for this so I'm going to be interested to see how well the commander built into the D700 actually works.

Test time! lol
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Groups is VERY useful, being able to have differing outputs from the heads comes in useful in so many scenarios. I am a bit pished the 900's have a switch though, some of us have to fiddle our way through pressing two buttons at once to get to cls modes :lol:
 
Thanks James and John all very interesting stuff, good tutorials too :)

Lukas, I'll be testing the backside off them! I do have a couple of shoots I need to arrange but with being in London and Bath last week and sorting a new website and getting all this in order.......I need a lie down! :)
 
James Pardon said:
If you register your bodies through Nikon it goes up to 2 years warranty fyi :naughty:
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:thinking:

Mine didn't. They sent me a letter after 12 months, asking me if I wanted to buy an extended warranty, which I didn't.

Did I miss a trick somewhere :shrug:?
 
BouncyMelons said:
Thanks James and John all very interesting stuff, good tutorials too :)

Lukas, I'll be testing the backside off them! I do have a couple of shoots I need to arrange but with being in London and Bath last week and sorting a new website and getting all this in order.......I need a lie down! :)
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You could always curl up in the gold box from the 70-200mm and have a kip - Lord knows it's big enough :D!

Enjoy the learning curve, Ali. I'm sure that the results will speak for themselves, in time :).
 
Naboo32 said:
:thinking:

Mine didn't. They sent me a letter after 12 months, asking me if I wanted to buy an extended warranty, which I didn't.

Did I miss a trick somewhere :shrug:?
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I'll dig out the bit of paper that came with mine with the address on. It just took me to a page to input my serial and that was it. Will post back later
 
BouncyMelons said:
I quite like the groups feature. Allows you to control both flashes independantly from the camera. That's a very useful feature for shooting a first dance. I know a few wedding togs shooting Nikon who still use PW's for this so I'm going to be interested to see how well the commander built into the D700 actually works.

Test time! lol
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I found it works well for a first dance, but when the dance floor starts to fill you lose reliability a bit just because you had more people to block line of sight. This was with an su-800 though rather than the on board. I can't imagine much difference
 
:thumbs:Thanks Hugh

I have the luxury of having a couple of Vivitars I can rig with pocketwizards so I can duplicate the setup manually. If I then find the CLS not working I can just turn on the PW and use those. The D700 has the port on the front that I can plug the PW into while still using CLS.

It's all ordered now and should be with me next week. :help: NOW I'm scared! lol
 
boyfalldown said:
I found it works well for a first dance, but when the dance floor starts to fill you lose reliability a bit just because you had more people to block line of sight. This was with an su-800 though rather than the on board. I can't imagine much difference
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The SU-800 uses infra red while the pop up flash uses pre flashes to control the groups so there could be significant difference between the two.
 
NorthernNikon said:
The SU-800 uses infra red while the pop up flash uses pre flashes to control the groups so there could be significant difference between the two.
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I thought the pre-flashes were the visible part of the IR signal from the on board?. In any case line of sight issues would affect both equally

Hugh
 
boyfalldown said:
I thought the pre-flashes were the visible part of the IR signal from the on board?. In any case line of sight issues would affect both equally
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Yes, but they won't bounce in the same way, whihc is why using a pop-up or SB-800/900 as a commander can trigger where the SU-800 fails.
 
You are going to love the D700 and 24-70 combo. Even though I have the 14-24 and 70-200 VRI, they mainly stay in my bag and the 24-70 stays on the body.

Good choice in the 105, it is a great macro and portrait lens and the VR is a bonus over the 60mm.

SB900's are great too :-)

I have PM'ed you with a couple of books you may find of use.

John.
 
Got them arriving tomorrow thanks John :) First thing I did was hit the bookstores.

I did ponder on the macros. Do I really need one? Was the first question and yes I could probably do without one as I mainly use the macro facility to shoot wedding rings!

But I wanted a dual purpose lens and that's why I went for the 105mm. I have the 50mm to cover the 24-70 and this way the 105mm can add some cover for the 70-200 though I may well pick up an older 80-200mm later in the year when the finances recover.
 
Hi Ali,

I am interested in how you find the 50mm 1.4 compared to the 24-70 since I have been toying with the idea of buying one for about a year now, well that and a D3s of late :-)


Another nice feature of Auto Iso on the Nikon is that it will increment the ISO in stops that are not available manually, EG, 480, 520, 705 etc. which is a really nice feature, it is also overiden when you use the speedlites.

If you are using the popup as commander, dont forget to set it to "---" so that is just fires the monitor preflashes.

I find the using the pop up as commander works really well, and if you find you need more reach, use one of the SB900's as the commander or your PW's.

John.
 
Good call on setting the commander to --, was getting annoyed first time I had a play with it, couldn't work out why I was getting so much fill flash :D
 
NorthernNikon said:
Yes, but they won't bounce in the same way, whihc is why using a pop-up or SB-800/900 as a commander can trigger where the SU-800 fails.
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I think the SU-800 is just a small flash gun with an IR filter over it, same as the Canon ST-E2.

The reason it lacks range is because, apart from being pretty feeble, the IR filter cuts out a lot of the signal brightness as well as the visible light.

I suspect that, like Canon, the best master unit is an SB-900 with the main flash disabled if you don't want it to affect the exposure. You can also point it and zoom it in the direction of remote units.

On a crowded dance floor, I wonder if zapping it up off the ceiling might spread a good signal to remote units dotted around, when direct line of sight might be blocked? I know that works fine with Canon, especially if you angle the receivers appropriately, but I've not tried it in a big hall.
 
JohnD76 said:
You are going to love the D700 and 24-70 combo. Even though I have the 14-24 and 70-200 VRI, they mainly stay in my bag and the 24-70 stays on the body.

Good choice in the 105, it is a great macro and portrait lens and the VR is a bonus over the 60mm.

SB900's are great too :-)

I have PM'ed you with a couple of books you may find of use.

John.
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Congrats on jumping ship!

And d@mn you for being able to get such awesome gear!!! Aaaargh ;)
 
BouncyMelons said:
Got them arriving tomorrow thanks John :) First thing I did was hit the bookstores.

I did ponder on the macros. Do I really need one? Was the first question and yes I could probably do without one as I mainly use the macro facility to shoot wedding rings!

But I wanted a dual purpose lens and that's why I went for the 105mm. I have the 50mm to cover the 24-70 and this way the 105mm can add some cover for the 70-200 though I may well pick up an older 80-200mm later in the year when the finances recover.
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intrested in seeing some portarits done with 105 if possible :bonk:
 
There are a few things I'm really looking forward to with these lenses John. The sharpness of that "holy trinity" for a start! I love shooting pretty open so the 50mm f1.4 is going to give me a serious focussing workout. That and the 105mm that Simon said was so sharp it shows up every pore and actully needs softening. That should be fun :)

I have a wedding album I need to finish before it all arrives otherwise I'll never get it done! ;)
 
Hi, I jumped ship like you to Nikon last summer and except for the 105mm bought the same gear, you will be ecstatic when you shoot yr first wedding with it as unlike canon everything works as it should and the lens are so,so, sharp, and the hi iso is unbelievable.

wilky
 
My book has arrived at work, unfortunately I have to spend the day in a particularly dull round of board meetings and I don't think it would go down too well if I started to read up on metering modes ;)
 
...and there's me feeling smug about a new lens turning up tomorrow.

Exciting times, that's one enviable kit list you've ordered. Interesting the high profile system changes going on at the moment and the reasons each are giving for the making the switch.
 
I started out with a 20D and a kit lens!

It's a very dangerous thing this photography, very dangerous to the back balance!

I've had my existing kit for 3 1/2 years now and it was just a case of assessing where I am now and what I want to see me through the next 3 1/2 years. I'm not one for making huge changes and this one has been done with a LOT of thought.
 
BouncyMelons said:
I started out with a 20D and a kit lens!
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Funnily enough thats what I sold and went to the same setup as you. You will love the kit Ali, and you will LOVE the nikon lenses too. I am missing the 14-24 but I will get one soon.

Enjoy it Ali, I know you will, oh.... and you need to post up some pics too when you get it all :D
 
Congrats on the purchases Ali, a very good choice of kit!

:thumbs:
 
Radiohead said:
On the topic of new arrivals I have a 70-200 VRII arriving tomorrow.
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Ooooh nice :D

Thanks Colin, It's not like it was difficult :) I took advice from other Nikon shooters and had the good fortune to spend tome time with SimonTALM so when I came down to buying I was like a kid in a sweet shop. The only difficulty was in keeping the expenditure under some kind of control ;)
 
Come to Mama!!! :D

Just reading my "Mastering the D700" book and getting all excited :cuckoo:

Loving the "My menu" feature, Active D lighting, sensor cleaning and a 3 inch monitor and that's just chapter one! I'll be reading up on metering over the weekend and if you think I'm bad now, wait till I actually get them delivered! :razz:
 
BouncyMelons said:
Come to Mama!!! :D

Just reading my "Mastering the D700" book and getting all excited :cuckoo:

Loving the "My menu" feature, Active D lighting, sensor cleaning and a 3 inch monitor and that's just chapter one! I'll be reading up on metering over the weekend and if you think I'm bad now, wait till I actually get them delivered! :razz:
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My Menu is fantastic, I've got mine set with about 8 options (incl profiles, ISO, flash commander and Image Overlay). You have to check out Image Overlay if the D700 has it. Shoot in RAW and it's essentially instant multiple exposures but without needing to use sequential files or shoot within the 30sec multiple exposure timeframe (not that useful for people work admittedly but still fun).

Enjoy
 
Did it all arrive then? Got visions of you lying on the floor in a pool of golden boxes!

And Guy - that 70-200mm VRII is stunning, wish I hadn't had a play with one as I desperately want one now!! Looking forward to reading how you get on with it :)
 
Thanks Chris - it'll be night before I'm home tonight so I haven't unboxed it yet - will use it tomorrow though.
 
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