D70 initial comments

Autofocus is sharp. Works fine with the 18-70 it came with and my 18-200 VR, through which I’ve shot perhaps 15,000 shots on my D40.

The color leaves a little to be desired by me. I would describe it as cool instead of warm like the color from my D40. The same thing I noticed when comparing my cousin’s D70 to my D40 earlier this year.

But it appears I’ve purchased a functional D70 at a fair price.

I closely compared pictures shot with BASIC, NORMAL and FINE JPEG compression and decided, as I did with my D40, to shoot in BASIC.

Why D70?

Why not a D80 or D300?

Reason 1: Because the D80 is presently ~$750 and the D300 is presently ~$1799. I can, and did, get a D70 (with lens!) for under $400.

Reason 2: Metering. According to Ken Rockwell, the D70’s meter is better than the D40 and D80’s. Wonderful.

What I really want is  D300 but I believe this D70 is an affordable step in the right direction. And I already wanted this particular lens (18-70) for times I’m walking a lot and my 18-200 VR is just too long to be hanging there, tipping my D40’s nose down all day. For those times, when I also don’t need the 200mm zoom, the 18-70 will be okay. I would also haven been happy with the 18-55 kit lens, but I sold that after I got the 18-200, desafortunadamente.

D70 + 18-70mm lens

I found a D70 with 18-70mm Nikkor lens for $500 on Craigslist this morning. I emailed the guy, offered him $430, heard back quickly and called him. Including a bag, battery, 2GB Ultra II CF card, some chargers and he threw in a USB CF reader.

The lens was scratched so I offered just $200 for the body. He asked how much for the whole deal including the scratched lens. $375. Deal.

I’m happy with the deal. According to Exif data from a pic I took, the D70 has about 7700 shutter actuations on it. Not bad — according to a D40 pic from about a month ago, my D40 has 18752 shutter actuations — and I’ve only had it since February this year (2007).

90-degree Gateway LCD rotation in OS X

Works great. There’s an option in the Displays preference pane for the Gateway 24″ monitor — found it today. Great. Rotated, it is ridiculously tall.

MacBook Pro -> me

My 15.4″ MacBook Pro is back from Apple. They definitely fixed the screen hinge clutch. Great. Had a little blue ink on top of the lid (not mine) but it rubbed right off.

I sent it back Monday and Apple got it back to me via DHL by early Thursday (today). That’s pretty good.

Gateway FHD2400 24″ LCD arrived.

The 24″ Gateway LCD arrived. It is very pretty. So far, I haven’t found a way to rotate the screen 90 degrees in OS X. Bummer!

How I rate my iTunes/iPod songs

Zero stars: Unrated

One star: Don’t like it. Uncheck it and don’t sync to either 40GB gen-4 iPod nor mini.

Two stars: Like it.

Three stars: Really like it.

Four stars: Love it.

Five stars: Totally love it.

Lost lens cap

I lost a 77mm Nikon lens cap Friday at Rumas restaurant. Bummer. I think they took it with the dirty plates. Bummer.

MacBook Pro -> Apple

DHL just picked up my 15.4″ MacBook Pro. Apple will fix the loose LCD hinge clutch and send it back to me. Today is Monday and I hope to have it back by or before Friday. In the meantime, I’ll use my Dell Vostro 1000 XP backup machine.

Gateway 24″ LCD

I just ordered a Gateway FHD2400 24″ LCD monitor for work. It’s about time. 1920×1200 and lots of inputs, including HDMI (mixed feelings about this interface) and DVI (good).

Ordered from Amazon, fulfilled by J&R.

FiOS is coming to my neighborhood.

I just got a notice on my door saying Verizon is laying fiber in my area. So FiOS is coming to my neighborhood!

Windows Feedback Program

Today, thanks to a link on stealdeals.net, I signed up for the Windows Feedback Program. The carrot was a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate or Office Ultimate 2007. I chose Office. After three months, they say they’ll send me my copy of Office. We’ll see. If so, cool!

18-200VR report

I’ve been using my 18-200VR for months now. I’m very happy with it. Sharp, good color rendition, fast enough, no outward creep (creeps inward when pointed up but doesn’t creep outward when strapped to my neck. It could be faster but it’s already a miracle so I’m realistic about this. Auto focus is overall very nice. Sometimes the autofocus messes up, but I’m not sure what thats coming from. Could just be a low light issue.

Anyway, although I’d like something shorter for carrying around my neck (like an 18-70), this 18-200 really delivers for me. I can’t complain.

Funny Amazon review

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3QR3AC2WXWHIT/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm/

Speculating in manufacturers I use

If I’m going to do stock investing, I want it to include those companies that earn my business. For example, today I found that Garmin is doing great (stock value wise). I had never even checked into that.

Speed of XP in Parallels Desktop on MBP vs. Vostro 1000

I run Windows XP Pro daily in Parallels Desktop on a 15.4″ 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with 3GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive. It runs just fine for how I use it (browsing VPN shares, editing Word document user’s guides, building things in Visual Studio. It runs great. Nothing I’ve tried feels slow.

I recently bought a backup notebook — a 15.4″ Dell Vostro 1000. 1.72GHz Athlon X2 with a 120GB hard drive running XP Home. I’ll tell you, XP feels faster in Parallels Desktop than it does on the Vostro. Nice!

Getting questions answered

I realized yesterday that I really like getting my questions answered.

First WordPress entry: I’m dumping blogger.com

I decided to dump blogger.com today. Bored like crazy with the templates, for one thing. Import to WordPress went awesome. I’m really considering setting up my own site again, this time using Joomla! But why suffer with Blogger.com in the meantime.

Bill Bryson, Author

Today I was introduced to the author, Bill Bryson, while reading this Jeffrey Friedl blog entry. Looking at his other titles on Amazon.com, I’m excited that here I might find a contemporary author I’ll really enjoy.

Sam Jones

Last night at BAM!, killing time before a film, I found the book The Here And Now: The Photographs of Same Jones. Holy cow! I loved it. I looked at every page. Unfortunately, I didn’t have $39.99 in my book budget. But Amazon’s got a better price, so perhaps I’ll pick a copy up there.

Auto ISO! (D40)

I just discovered the Auto ISO setting on my Nikon D40. Yes! I thought it was the same as the “Auto ISO” choice on the shooting menu. It really bothered me that I couldn’t choose Auto ISO in P mode. Well, it turns out I can! I just didn’t realize the darned camera had two identically-named but different settings. Awesome!

Thank you again, Ken Rockwell.