Nikon D300 Firmware Update v1.03

Nikon released a new firmware update (v1.03) for their D300 DSLR. The new firmware should fix certain battery related issues.

• Windows version
• Mac/OSX version

Be sure to get it.

New York City 2008

Last monday was the day of my return from the Big Apple a.k.a. New York. It was a 7 day (5 nights) trip the the wonderful city of New York. The weather was great, and the company was even better :-P .

The holiday had a bit of a slow start, because we missed the plane (my bad), but, with a four hour delay, we finally got underway. As usual, plane trips suck bigtime. Cramped seats, and no sleep.

When we arrived we got our NY City Passes + 3 day bus tickets. This way, we got discounts (or even free entrance) at sightseeing. After all, we're still Dutch ;-) .

During the 6 days we saw it all (well, almost....);

• Empire State Building
• Central Park
• The Financial District (Lower Manhattan)
• Rockefeller Center
• Fifth Avenue
• China Town
• Little Italy
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Brooklyn
• Chrysler Building
• Grand Central Station
• Tudor City
• United Nations Building
• B&H Photo and Video :-P
• Saint Patrick's Cathedral
• Saint Thomes Church
• Trinity Church
• New York Police Museum

We even visited the theater on Broadway. The show we saw was a comedy (not a musical!!!) on 48th street called 'The 39 Steps'. A play by 4 actors playing over 150 characters.

During this stay I shot nearly 500 photographs. Some of those can be found on my flickr page.

Rent a Lens

For my trip to New York City I need a (zoom)lens with a wide angle. My current 24-70 (which is a great lens) doesn't give me the wide angle I need on a crop-camera. So I was looking for a zoom lens with a bit more wide angle.

The 17-55mm f/2.8 AF-S DX (etc) would suit my needs. Enough wide angle and a bit of zoom. No need for 100* zoom lenses because it's New York. Everything is cramped on top of each other. If I need zoom, I can always get a 1.7TC @ Adorama or B&H Photo in New York.

The 17-55 is bit on the expensive side (>1000 euros), so I rented it for the week @ Kamera-Express. Not that expensive, and now I got a decent lens for exploring New York. I just hope that the lens isn't that good, otherwise I need to have it ;-).

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Lens

Last Thursday, I received a phone call from my local photography store. At first I thought that my 52mm circular pola filter had arrived, but NO... The long awaited arrival of my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S lens had come.

First, I noticed that the lens was heavy and large (compared to my 'old' Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8). On the other hand, the Nikon is 4 times more expensive....

Most notable when shooting the the lightning-fast auto-focus. On the D300 is a 3D-tracking mode. I had no problems in tracking a couple of (really) low flying F-16's that day. Normally, I have a hard time tracking birds (which don't fly that fast). So thumbs up for the Silent Wave Auto-Focus (AF-S).

There is a downside to this lens (apart from being heavy)... It makes you wanna upgrade every other lens. Currently the 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED AF-S, or the 17-55mm f/2.8 IF-ED AF-S DX, and the 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S comes to mind :P

Updating Capture NX on Mac

When I bought my Nikon D300, I got a free copy op Capture NX (v1.3.0). After installing, the application reminded me to update. There were a couple of new versions available (current version is 1.3.3).
This is were the quest began......

The Nikon Update application kept crashing on me. 50MB downloads took over three hours (before crashing), while a single download from the support pages would take 5 to 10 minutes. So I needed to get the files from the web instead of using the updater.

First, the D300 was bought in the Netherlands, so you might think that the software would also be the Dutch version. I wouldn't know this because I install everything in English (if there's a choice). So I downloaded the Dutch updates from the Nikon support pages.

Note: I used the 'Dutch' CD which came with the camera.

None of the updates worked (Error: No version of Capture NX was found)....

I literally downloaded 12 different versions from different continents. Finally, I found a 1.3.1 update (a file called cnx131_en.dmg) which worked. So I needed to get English versions of the software. Not US, or Canadian versions, but English versions.

After this it was easy; Created an account on the UK Nikon support website and found Nikon Capture NX v1.3.3 for OSX. This update worked. So finally, after a gazillion downloads, multiple crashes, and 5 hours well spend, I got Capture NX v1.3.3 up and running.....

So, even if your camera is officially purchased in the Netherlands, you need to get the updates from the UK.

UPDATE: It seems that I'm not the only one who ran into this. I keep getting referers from some fora around the Internet.
I think that if you're running Windows instead of OSX you might have similar problems. So yet another crossplatform solution :)

NYC in Prime

In a couple of weeks I'm off to New York for a couple of days. This time I'm packing a DSLR instead of the old Canon IXUS V. And to save my back (and neck), I'm not taking any of the regular zoom lenses with me. It's just gonna be me and a couple of prime lenses. These lenses aren't as flexible as a zoom lens, but they weigh a lot less Three primes approx. equals 1 nice zoom lens (nearly 2 pounds), but you mount only 1 lens at a time on the camera.

Currently I've got a 35mm f/2D and a 50mm f/1.8D prime for my D300. The lack of zoom capabilities will force me to be a little more creative while strolling the streets of NYC.

It would be nice to have a 24mm f/2.8 (or 20mm f/2.8) as well for a little more wide angle. Downside is that those are relatively pricey, or not available. the biggest photo/video store in NYC sell those at low prices, but they're out of stock.....

UPDATE: first images of the Nikon 35mm f/2D looks promising. The lens is a bit larger than the 50mm f/1.8, but image quality looks better (contrast, colors).

Zoo's

Last weekend I visited Ouwehands Dierenpark. A Zoo near the town of Rhenen in the Netherlands.

It had been a while since my last visit to any zoo. It sure is nice to stroll around the zoo with a camera, but in many cases it almost seems cruel to see those animals in those cramped spaces for the rest of their lives.

I think it might have to do something with seeing all those animals in the wild in Africa. Once you've seen that, the rest is kinda sorry, but on the other hand, not everyone has the possibility of going to Africa, and this might be the only way of seeing those animals in real life......

B.t.w. those cute polar bears are known to chase humans. Especially photographers :)

Pudong Shanghai Skyline Panorama

I 'found' a couple of 'weird' photo's in my Lightroom collection. It seemed that they were supposed to become a panorama, but I somehow forgot to create it.....

It has been a while since my holiday to China and Tibet, but it's better late than never :-).

More panorama's on my flickr page