Portfoliage

I haven’t had a lot of monolight test pictures for you all because the other Sunday morning we had a disaster with one of the monolights.  I was snapping a shot of something…I do not even remember what it was — and all of a sudden — POOF!  All the magic blue smoke that makes the monolight run escaped into the room.  Once the blue smoke escapes, you might as well as forget about your piece of electronics ever working again.  I got lots of beeps out the light and the modeling light still worked, but that was the end of any kind of flash output.

Luckily, I called up the place I bought the lights from and 5 business days later, a new light is on its way.  We did a return with no problems.

I’ve got the scoop on the d400.  Anonymous sources tell me Nikon’s new D400 will be:

15 megapixels DX

5 frames per second

Up to 12,800 ISO

The 51 point autofocus — like the d3 and d700

Have 1080p video capabilities

I do not know how accurate the source is.  The d400 is supposed to be announced here in the next week or so.  Oh, and by the way, it is a DX camera, not a FX camera.

I will not be buying it.  Everything is going FX eventually and I can not justify buying a new digital camera every 9-12 months.  I was talking to a photographer at Mall of America the other day and he is still using a pair of d200’s for all his professional work.  His advice?  If you have a DSL camera, invest in lenses.  The lenses will retain value better as well as be compatiable with whatever camera you decide to buy in the future — as long as it is the same brand.

I would take that a step further — Only buy FX lenses.  That way they will work well on any 35mm format camera you might buy from within the same family.