“Footprints on the Sands of Time” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I went on a field trip with West Valley College’s Photography Dept. to Death Valley National Park. On the second evening of the field studies class we hiked the Mesquite Sand Dunes. I hiked out about mile with a few friends for sunset. The contours, light, and shadows were awesome!
I took about 1000 photos in 5 days. You’ll probably get bored with my Death Valley trip long before I do.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35mm @24mm| f11| 1/30 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| On a Tripod| Cable Release
Circadianreflections Blog 
Option: if the rentals are fair and convenient, why buy? Rent what you want, including lenses. If you find something you can’t live without, buy that.
Those.
Them.
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This rental was a bit $$$ for both the lens and camera. It has eaten a sizable chunk of my savings towards either the lens or camera purchase.
I will have to be very wise with rental choices if I want to own the gear down the road…and I do prefer owning my own gear. 🙂
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Thank you so much Todd!
Yes, for this trip I knew the vistas would be wide and having sold my Tokina 11-16mm I don’t have a UWA anymore so I thought why not rent the D700 and use my 17-35mm as it is meant to be…see how l like FF. It would be a good test to see if I really do like Ultra Wide Angle.
Overall I liked the D700 a lot. I do like my 17-35mm on it too. Have the feeling I’ll be wanting a mid- range lens if I go FF. Perhaps the new 24-120mm for an all purpose lens.
Not interested in the 28-300mm….at least not thinking that way yet. 🙂
Things I don’t like about it. Vignetting from 17mm to 21mm with a polarizer on- need to use my thin mount all the time…I only have the LB ColorCombo at the moment and it’s on the cool side…for this trip I preferred my Moose cir pol w/warming. I didn’t purchase it in thin mount.
It’s noisy- the shutter clicks louder than both my D300s, and D90. I did get used to it and hardly notice it now, but the first couple of days it bothered me.
The viewfinder! I have a few elements in my photos that weren’t in my viewfinder when I snapped the photo. Now I have cropping to do that wasn’t planned for.
I can’t see me getting the grip. I don’t own a grip for the D300s or D90…I don’t do enough rapid shooting to feel like I need it right now so maybe I’ll get a break and only have weight issues not clunky too.
Yes, I’m set on waiting for the next version. My cameras aren’t that old. The D300s just turned 1 last month, and the D90 is only 3yrs old. It will give me more time to save, and learn to frame. Maybe do a mini panoramas for my UWA needs. Expand my horizons a bit.
I rented the 24PC-E lens too. I haven’t used it yet! I am going to play it with this week-end. It’s a bit intimidating.
Deborah
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I do like your shadow work. Great exposure.
Wide, huh? Putting “Nikkor” on “wide” is pretty amazing.
I suppose you are willing to wait on the “next step.” With the Sendai plant out of commission, it may be awhile. Having said that, the only thing I think I don’t like about the D700 is the viewfinder. Like everything else and, if you add the MB-D10 grip and the D3 battery, you get 8 frames/sec (and a really chunky camera!).
Looking forward to the next 999 frames… 🙂
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