Nikon made me buy Canon

In article ,
Chris Brown wrote:
In article ,
David Dyer-Bennet wrote:

It doesn't meter with the AIS lenses, but with a digital camera *who
cares*? If I need a perfect "first shot" I can do test shots ahead of
time (just the way I'd use a light meter ahead of time to prepare with
a film camera).

Exactly. People get terribly hung up about in-camera meters. I recently
picked up a small match-needle handheld light meter second-hand for the
price of a few pints of beer, and it works just fine.

I've also found that outside in the daytime, I can usually guess the correct
exposure to within a stop anyway, even here in the UK with our notoriously
changable weather. It only takes a bit of practice.

I think it is a bit ironic. Nikon designs the most advanced in-camera meter,
with a more than 1000 pixel RGB sensor, only to be told: 'who needs a
built-in meter anyway'. No wonder people are moving to Canon.



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

A reply from Nikon

"Sorry, to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which do not have
electronic contacts would have pushed the price up and out of the range we
were producing it for. The only digital SLR which are able to communicate
with such lenses are the flagship, professional range - the D1/D1H/D1X and
D2H.
Generally, Nikon have a much greater degree of compatibility with older
accessories and products than other manufacturers, but in this case we felt
we had to take this route as most user of the D70 do not own, or do not want
to use, manual focus lenses and even those that do do not want to pay more
for the camera to do so.
Again, sorry you are unhappy with this."

Is it just me or does "to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which
do not have electronic contacts would have pushed the price up" sound like
complete bull****.

Nikon has, IMO put a spoiler into the D70 so that their customers have to
buy AF lenses. They haven't done that with the D1 etc.

So what's the cost difference? Well, it's more complicated and expensive to
put blocks in to stop meters from working.... Nice bit of blatant
profiteering, Nikon. And here's news. I use Canon now because it's cheaper.

--
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Zebedee wrote:

Nikon has, IMO put a spoiler into the D70 so that their customers have to
buy AF lenses. They haven't done that with the D1 etc.

The pro-cameras have the mechanical coupling required to meter with MF
lenses. I can't find the link now but a schematic is available on the
net.

--
Jose Marques

In article coh.net,
Philip Homburg wrote:
In article ,
Chris Brown wrote:

I've also found that outside in the daytime, I can usually guess the correct
exposure to within a stop anyway, even here in the UK with our notoriously
changable weather. It only takes a bit of practice.

I think it is a bit ironic. Nikon designs the most advanced in-camera meter,
with a more than 1000 pixel RGB sensor, only to be told: 'who needs a
built-in meter anyway'. No wonder people are moving to Canon.

Further to this, my 10D is the only camera I have that has some sort of
sophsticated metering mode (Canon call it "Evaluative Metering"), but I
don't use it at all. To me it seems liek a completely useless feature
because I have no idea what it's metering from. As a result, I leave the
camera in partial metering mode the whole time. At least that way, I know
that if the thing under the partial circle is white, and I've dialed in +2
stops, it'll be properly exposed. With Evaluative Metering, who knows what
it's doing?

If I were in the position of the original poster, I'd have stuck with the
Nikon lenses and got a D70 and a handheld light meter. I guess others have
different preferences.

In article coh.net,
Philip Homburg wrote:
In article ,
Chris Brown wrote:

I've also found that outside in the daytime, I can usually guess the correct
exposure to within a stop anyway, even here in the UK with our notoriously
changable weather. It only takes a bit of practice.

I think it is a bit ironic. Nikon designs the most advanced in-camera meter,
with a more than 1000 pixel RGB sensor, only to be told: 'who needs a
built-in meter anyway'. No wonder people are moving to Canon.

Further to this, my 10D is the only camera I have that has some sort of
sophsticated metering mode (Canon call it "Evaluative Metering"), but I
don't use it at all. To me it seems liek a completely useless feature
because I have no idea what it's metering from. As a result, I leave the
camera in partial metering mode the whole time. At least that way, I know
that if the thing under the partial circle is white, and I've dialed in +2
stops, it'll be properly exposed. With Evaluative Metering, who knows what
it's doing?

If I were in the position of the original poster, I'd have stuck with the
Nikon lenses and got a D70 and a handheld light meter. I guess others have
different preferences.

"Zebedee" wrote in message
...
[]
Is it just me or does "to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses
which
do not have electronic contacts would have pushed the price up" sound
like
complete bull****.
[]
Zebedee

No, it could be quite reasonable if extra mechanical parts (to link up
with couplings) are required.

Cheers,
David

"David J Taylor"
wrote in message ...

No, it could be quite reasonable if extra mechanical parts (to link up
with couplings) are required.

I fail to see why the bayonet mount from the D1 could not be used in that
case. It's cheaper just to make one mount and use it universally than to
make several.

--
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

"David J Taylor"
wrote in message ...

No, it could be quite reasonable if extra mechanical parts (to link up
with couplings) are required.

I fail to see why the bayonet mount from the D1 could not be used in that
case. It's cheaper just to make one mount and use it universally than to
make several.

--
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

In article ,
Zebedee wrote:
"Sorry, to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which do not have
electronic contacts would have pushed the price up and out of the range we
were producing it for. The only digital SLR which are able to communicate
with such lenses are the flagship, professional range - the D1/D1H/D1X and
D2H.
Generally, Nikon have a much greater degree of compatibility with older
accessories and products than other manufacturers, but in this case we felt
we had to take this route as most user of the D70 do not own, or do not want
to use, manual focus lenses and even those that do do not want to pay more
for the camera to do so.
Again, sorry you are unhappy with this."

Is it just me or does "to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which
do not have electronic contacts would have pushed the price up" sound like
complete bull****.

It is very sad. The D70 does work with Ai Nikkors, so it has to have support
for closing the aperture to take a picture. They only thing they had to do is
to make a custom function that stops down the lens and takes a light meter
reading through the lens.

Nikon has, IMO put a spoiler into the D70 so that their customers have to
buy AF lenses. They haven't done that with the D1 etc.

No Nikon wants people to buy the D1X, D2H.

So what's the cost difference? Well, it's more complicated and expensive to
put blocks in to stop meters from working.... Nice bit of blatant
profiteering, Nikon. And here's news. I use Canon now because it's cheaper.

Canon did the same thing with the firmware for the 300D. That's just
the way it is.

The D70 sells very well. That tells Nikon that they are doing the right
thing.



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

In article ,
Zebedee wrote:
"Sorry, to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which do not have
electronic contacts would have pushed the price up and out of the range we
were producing it for. The only digital SLR which are able to communicate
with such lenses are the flagship, professional range - the D1/D1H/D1X and
D2H.
Generally, Nikon have a much greater degree of compatibility with older
accessories and products than other manufacturers, but in this case we felt
we had to take this route as most user of the D70 do not own, or do not want
to use, manual focus lenses and even those that do do not want to pay more
for the camera to do so.
Again, sorry you are unhappy with this."

Is it just me or does "to make the D70 able to communicate with lenses which
do not have electronic contacts would have pushed the price up" sound like
complete bull****.

It is very sad. The D70 does work with Ai Nikkors, so it has to have support
for closing the aperture to take a picture. They only thing they had to do is
to make a custom function that stops down the lens and takes a light meter
reading through the lens.

Nikon has, IMO put a spoiler into the D70 so that their customers have to
buy AF lenses. They haven't done that with the D1 etc.

No Nikon wants people to buy the D1X, D2H.

So what's the cost difference? Well, it's more complicated and expensive to
put blocks in to stop meters from working.... Nice bit of blatant
profiteering, Nikon. And here's news. I use Canon now because it's cheaper.

Canon did the same thing with the firmware for the 300D. That's just
the way it is.

The D70 sells very well. That tells Nikon that they are doing the right
thing.



--
The Electronic Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video
recorder. [...] Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving
you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electronic Monks believed things for
you, [...] -- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency