Spent the past couple of weeks on the road, mostly in the Rockies (hence the lack of updates to this site recently), now back in town for a couple of weeks, so it’s time to get caught up.

First of all, following up on the previous post:

Overall, very happy with the Canon S90 replacing the Nikon D90/18-200mm as the go-everywhere combination with kids in tow. Sure the S90 has more shutter lag, so you have to anticipate shots more, and yes, it doesn’t have the focal length range, so obviously it misses some shots that the D90 would nail. On the other hand it’s easier to use and allows me to interact with the kids more (climbing over rocks etc), so it also got shots that I wouldn’t have got with the D90 because of it’s bulk. Perhaps more importantly, the kids enjoyed it more when I’m not lugging a DSLR round during the day. Overall, I’ve gone from one compromise to another for a “go everywhere” setup, but I’m definitely happier with the S90 in this role than the D90.

As for how other gear performed:

The Gitzo GT5541LS with the CB Gimbal is absolutely brilliant (providing you don’t have to hike too far) with a big lens, a sheer joy to use. Spent half an hour at one point shooting marmots at an oxygen starved 12,000 ft – switching between one group of marmots fighting and others sunning themselves on random rocks. Using the CB Gimbal is effortless, and combined with the Gitzo is about as stable as you can possibly get with a gimbal setup.

For lighter duty use, the ultra-light Feisol CT-3442 Tripod is a life-saver, or at least a back-saver. Easy to use, fast to set up, and remarkably stable considering it’s distinct lack of weight. The only one issue I had was one of the anti-rotation leg sections miraculously started rotating about half way through the trip, which was a minor annoyance. Providing you loosen/tighten the legs in the right order you’d never notice. Upon returning home and cleaning the tripod, something inside the leg ‘clicked’ back into place while rotating it, and it has now fixed itself – will keep an eye on it to see if it happens again.

As for tripod heads, in addition to the CB Gimbal I took the Photo Clam Multiflex, Foba Superball, Photo Clam PC-44NS and Acratech GP. The ball heads all performed admirably, but as the trip went on, and to my surprise, I found myself gravitating towards the Multiflex more and more.

After heavy use, the Multiflex has gone from “I think I like it” to “I absolutely love it”, with a couple of caveats. On the good side, it makes composing shots and keeping the horizon straight simple, especially when using the virtual horizon feature on the Nikon D700 to level it. Combined with a Hejnar Photo Rail and Clamp, single row panoramas become fast and simple.

I’m still having issues with the lower panning base on it though – the built in knob is too small to easily operate the lower panning base. On the big Gitzo the removable large knob simply doesn’t fit, and on the Feisol it doesn’t fit properly. As a result, I found myself tightening the panning base before installing the Multiflex on a tripod, and then setting up the tripod with the front of the Multiflex square to the subject and not using the lower panning base at all.

I also found myself not using the large knob to level the Multiflex either – instead I found myself using both hands, one on each side of the unit, to rotate the knobs on either side to level the platform. This works extremely well, however at one point, perched on the edge of a cliff, while adjusting the Multiflex I felt something hit my chest then heard it hit the rocks below the tripod – I’d left the large knob attached, and while adjusting the other stage it knocked it off. Fortunately it didn’t go over the edge. Shortly after that it managed to fall off and get (temporarily) lost in the back of the car while driving down a rough dirt road. From that point on, I basically used the Multiflex without the large knob, keeping the lower panning base locked and the upper loose, and the more I use it, the better it gets. For nature/landscape photography, I definitely prefer it to a ball head.

As for the cameras, everything worked perfectly with two exceptions:
* On some sand dunes, the Canon S90 failed to fully open the built in lens cap at one point. Powering it off and blowing sand off it solved that problem. A short time later it failed to even try to focus twice in a row. The third attempt at powering it off/on solved this. Again this was in extremely sandy conditions with the wind blowing.
* A week before the trip all my lenses were working. Did a final test on the day before the trip, and the Nikon 200-400mm f4 would not focus on the D300 – the AF was basically dead. On the D700 it focused intermittently. Not ideal the day before a trip, no time to send it off to Nikon, but I spent 20 years using manual focus cameras, so not a show stopper. Initially thought the AF motor may be bad, but thoroughly cleaned the contacts on the lens and both bodies and applied DeOxIT, and it appears to have solved the problem completely.

Pictures from the trip will be posted in the next few days.

Now the D90 is gone and the D300 is being used exclusively for telephoto/macro use, it’s time to sell our remaining DX lenses. If anyone is interested, we take payment via paypal, and shipping is included in the price to CONUS. All are USA models:

• Nikon 18-200mm VR (older version) – $550. Very good/Excellent overall condition, no marks on glass. Does have some barely visible dust inside the lens if you look really hard, doesn’t appear to impact the optical performance at all.
• Nikon 12-24mm f4 – $645. Has had very little use.
• Nikon 18-105mm zoom – $250. Like new – came as part of a kit with the D90, other than fitting on a camera to make sure it works the lens has never been used. Has not yet been registered with Nikon.
• Nikon ML-L3 Remote – $12.

If you are interested in any of the above, shoot me an email at steve@dentonimages.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.