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"Dimitris M" <> wrote in message
news:1228668567.602409@athprx03...
> It is the perfect travel "do everything" lens. I have use it as my main
> lens in the D70 from December 2005 and after with my D300 The second is
> the Tokina 12-24. When you will become familiar with the VR, you can have
> nice steady shoots at 200mm with 1/16s and even at 1/4s, if you are steady
> enough, you will have more than 50% success in steady subjects.
>
> I wish you wonderfull vacations here in Greece
> --
> Dimitris M
>
>

Thanks! I am excited about the upcoming vacation in Greece. I decided to
buy the 18-200 lens, so that means I will have several months to practice.

You said I can have steady shots after I "become familiar with the VR." Can
you give me some tips on what I should do (or avoid doing) with regard to
VR?

MaryL

Dimitris M wrote:
> In normal light both cameras are almost equal. D300 have faster autofocus in
> 3D full 51 focus points (after the firmware update, makes me look every day
> in Nikon for an update for the D700). In low light D700 opened a new world
> in front of my eyes. It is almost 2 stop faster. With a fast lens I can
> shoot handheld practicaly everyware. In 6.400 ISO is as D300 in 2.000 ISO.
> If I shoot in RAW in low ISO (1600 or less) I have plenty of room (dynamic
> area) to bring back in life almost completlely dark areas if I want to. Is
> no need for fill-in flash as the shadows can be preserved easily.
>
> In the near furure I wll change the D300 for a D90, just to have a very
> light easy camera with my 18-200 when I want to travel light. D700 + 24-70
> is very heavy and bulk. I can not make street photo's without attract the
> people's attention.


Thanks for the detailed reply, mostly I shoot in normal light so I am
glad that the lighter and less expensive D300 is almost as good as the
D700. I have been shooting some lower light photos with my D300 and
have been much happier with the results compared to the D80. I shot
some very low light photos a couple days ago that had quite a bit of noise.

With a tripod I can shoot low light very nicely.

--
Sheila
http://swdalton.com

Thank you very much. This is very helpful -- and your English is fine!

MaryL


"Dimitris M" <> wrote in message
news:1228733356.997854@athprx03...
> Excuse my poor english. I hope that I will make clear what I want to tell.
>
>
>
> The VR performs better after some time and experience with it. You must
> expect that some times will make miracles, when you are stable and some
> times (few) it will disappoint you.
>
>
>
> You must understand that the width of movement (correction) have limits.
> When you look through the viewfinder and press half way the release you
> will see the image stabilized. If the camera changes azimuth just a
> little, in the viewfinder you will see nothing to change as the servo
> mechanism corrects this. If you move a little more, you will reach the end
> of possible transition (movement) of the small floating crystal. In this
> moment, the lens VR it will reset the crystal in the middle. So when you
> become experienced you will press the release just after the set (or
> reset) of the correcting crystal. In the tele end is well visible in the
> viewfinder and easy to become familiar. I normally press the shooter just
> after I see in the viewfinder the subject stabilized. If I late, I wait
> for the slight movement that indicates that the crystal is been reset and
> then I take the picture. It is more easy than it looks.
>
>
>
> Another is to know when to choose "active" or "normal" stabilization. In
> most situations "normal" is better and permits panning, from the other
> hand it can interpret slow movements of you as panning and decide to not
> correct in this direction. "Active" is better when you are not stable, if
> you are in a vehicle etc.
>
>
>
> If you shoot in the tele end, from 100 to 200mm with very low speed in the
> area of 1/16 to 1/4 it is a good idea, if you can, to take 2-3 shoots to
> choose the best. As I told before, when the end of crystal travel is
> reached the crystal is reset. 1/4 sec is enough time so if you slowly
> moves, the crystal can be reset during the shoot and the photo become as
> double exposed or as to have ghosts. The blurred photos with the VR are
> completely different from the normal blurred from camera shake. It
> resamples the blurred photos when shoot with flash at "slow" sync.
>
>
>
> Another thing is that you should understand that the VR can not correct
> for subject move (except panning).
>
>
>
> The impressive results are in the tele area and are more impressive as you
> reach the tele end. Is not at all impressive in the low end. At 18mm I can
> shoot clear pictures at 1/8 without the VR. With it I can shoot at 1/4,
> but not so at 1/2. So when you become familiar you can gain 4+ stops at
> the high end, but no more than 1 to 2 stops in the low end.
>
>
>
> I hope the above to be some helpful. I am electronics engineer more than I
> am photographer so I always want to understand and analyze "how it works"
> under the surface.
>
>
>
> Friendly,
>
> --
> Dimitris M
>
>
>
>>
>> You said I can have steady shots after I "become familiar with the VR."
>> Can you give me some tips on what I should do (or avoid doing) with
>> regard to VR?
>>
>> MaryL
>
>

MaryL wrote:

> Thanks, everyone. Your responses have been very helpful. Based on
> various reports -- what I read here, some reviews, anecdotal reports
> other places on the Internet -- I have decided to bite the bullet and
> buy the 18-200 lens. Now, I need to investigate prices and availability.

Amazon is nearly always the least expensive, non-rip-off vendor. But
they don't show up in price search engines like Google's because they
don't pay to be listed.

"SMS" <> wrote in message
news:uWa%k.9186$...
> MaryL wrote:
>
>> Thanks, everyone. Your responses have been very helpful. Based on
>> various reports -- what I read here, some reviews, anecdotal reports
>> other places on the Internet -- I have decided to bite the bullet and buy
>> the 18-200 lens. Now, I need to investigate prices and availability.
>
> Amazon is nearly always the least expensive, non-rip-off vendor. But they
> don't show up in price search engines like Google's because they don't pay
> to be listed.

I have already checked amazon.com. I buy a great many items from them, but
I am dubious about using them for this purpose. It is extraordinarily
difficult to send messages if there are any problems -- no "real" person to
contact. I have had good results from B&H and Adorama. We also have a
BestBuy nearby, but there prices for photography equipment are usually very
high.

MaryL

"Theodore Parget" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 6 Dec 2008 20:37:10 -0600, "MaryL"
> <-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote:
>
>
> IS Modes: Advantages vs. Disadvantages
>
>

Excellent! Thank you very much.

MaryL

MaryL wrote:
>
> "SMS" <> wrote in message
> news:uWa%k.9186$...
>> MaryL wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, everyone. Your responses have been very helpful. Based on
>>> various reports -- what I read here, some reviews, anecdotal reports
>>> other places on the Internet -- I have decided to bite the bullet and
>>> buy the 18-200 lens. Now, I need to investigate prices and availability.
>>
>> Amazon is nearly always the least expensive, non-rip-off vendor. But
>> they don't show up in price search engines like Google's because they
>> don't pay to be listed.
>
> I have already checked amazon.com. I buy a great many items from them,
> but I am dubious about using them for this purpose. It is
> extraordinarily difficult to send messages if there are any problems --
> no "real" person to contact. I have had good results from B&H and
> Adorama. We also have a BestBuy nearby, but there prices for
> photography equipment are usually very high.

My observation at Best Buy (and Circuit City, r.i.p.) is that their
prices for cables, connectors, etc. are outrageously marked up, and they
generally don't carry camera equipment I am interested in. B and H I'd
endorse.

--
john mcwilliams

MaryL wrote:

> I have already checked amazon.com. I buy a great many items from them,
> but I am dubious about using them for this purpose. It is
> extraordinarily difficult to send messages if there are any problems --
> no "real" person to contact. I have had good results from B&H and
> Adorama. We also have a BestBuy nearby, but there prices for
> photography equipment are usually very high.
>
> MaryL

Amazon's Customer Service Phone Number for the U.S.A. is 1-800-201-7575.
I've always had very good experiences if there is a problem. You _can_
talk to a real person, but they don't make it obvious how to do so.
Finding that phone number on their web site is about impossible.

"SMS" <> wrote in message
news:X1c%k.7869$...
> MaryL wrote:
>
>> I have already checked amazon.com. I buy a great many items from them,
>> but I am dubious about using them for this purpose. It is
>> extraordinarily difficult to send messages if there are any problems --
>> no "real" person to contact. I have had good results from B&H and
>> Adorama. We also have a BestBuy nearby, but there prices for photography
>> equipment are usually very high.
>>
>> MaryL
>
> Amazon's Customer Service Phone Number for the U.S.A. is 1-800-201-7575.
> I've always had very good experiences if there is a problem. You _can_
> talk to a real person, but they don't make it obvious how to do so.
> Finding that phone number on their web site is about impossible.

Thanks! This is going into my files. I have usually had good experience
with Amazon, but it has been nearly impossible to obtain answers on those
few occasions when there was a problem.

MaryL

"SMS" <> wrote in message
news:jtc%k.6398$...
> MaryL wrote:
>>
>> "SMS" <> wrote in message
>> news:X1c%k.7869$...
>>> MaryL wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have already checked amazon.com. I buy a great many items from them,
>>>> but I am dubious about using them for this purpose. It is
>>>> extraordinarily difficult to send messages if there are any problems --
>>>> no "real" person to contact. I have had good results from B&H and
>>>> Adorama. We also have a BestBuy nearby, but there prices for
>>>> photography equipment are usually very high.
>>>>
>>>> MaryL
>>>
>>> Amazon's Customer Service Phone Number for the U.S.A. is 1-800-201-7575.
>>> I've always had very good experiences if there is a problem. You _can_
>>> talk to a real person, but they don't make it obvious how to do so.
>>> Finding that phone number on their web site is about impossible.
>>
>> Thanks! This is going into my files. I have usually had good experience
>> with Amazon, but it has been nearly impossible to obtain answers on those
>> few occasions when there was a problem.
>
> All you have to do is Google "Amazon Phone Number."
>
> There was a piece of good advice on this as well from
> "http://amazoncustomerservice.blogspot.com/2007/12/8.html":
>
> "Remember when calling Amazon.com customer service that you've got
> something in common with the representative you'll talk to on the
> phone....."

How interesting! I do a lot of googling, but I never thought of that -- I
just kept going through page after page on the Amazon site and never could
find anything. They even have links that tell us we will find information
on a particular location, but it's never there. Thanks, again.

MaryL