Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi all, I am back from my Eastern Europe trip, exhausted -- physically and emotionally. It was a profound experience for my wife to locate the actual places where her grandparents lived, and were killed. Over 2400 images safely captured on my eFilm PicturePad -- the vast majority of them not worth sharing. This was my first digital only vacation, sans PC. I took a Nikon D100 and a Canon G3. Primary Nikon lens used was the new 18-70mm . I took my 12-24mm, and a 35mm f/2 for low light. Did not use them as often as I thought I would. I will probably forgo the weight of the 12-24mm next time -- I am not getting any younger. The Epson R2-D is sounding more and more attractive, even at an inflated price. Coupled with my 35mm 'lux and my 15mm Heliar, I will be ready for anything with minimal weight. I often longed for my M6 -- but now that I am back, I am very, very happy not to be faced with all that scanning. Some comments about my technology experiences: The very first time I dumped a CF card to the PicturePad it reported an error. I nearly had a fit. On a retry it worked just fine, however, and never malfunctioned again. As a precaution I copied everything to the PP twice. I know this would not help in the face of catastrophic failure, except to improve the chances of recovery .. but it made me feel better. As someone pointed out, the battery life on the eFilm PP sucks. 3-4 transfers of a 1MB card and it was near death. This was not a problem since I could use mains power every night to do the transfers -- unless I wanted to take more than 100 NEF images a day. Nikon D100 metering still bemuses me. I have been using Nikons since 1979 with no exposure problems. However, I cannot get consistent exposures on the D100 under varying lighting conditions. I invariably need some post processing for either exposure, balance, or both. The Canon G3 consistently nailed exposure and balance every time. I suspect that Nikon is aware of the problem -- they seem to be using the more advanced metering from the F5 on the D70. My Treo was great for POP3 email almost everywhere except Vilnius. My first vacation record pics are at http://www.pbase.com/chmoss/2004_07eu So far only the Latvian images are up. Lithuania, St. Petersburg and Treo 600 to follow. -- Clive http://clive.moss.net