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F717

My Nikon D40--Six Months of Enjoyment

Posted Fri, 2008-02-08 19:59 by matthew

Last summer my beloved Sony F717 died. It was my own fault--I was careless and dropped it while hiking at Winterpark with my family. That camera had great optics and had become a long time friend. I was so very bummed but saw it as an opportunity to buy a new camera. I bit the bullet and found, what was then, a good deal on a Nikon D40.

Nikon D40

Posted Wed, 2007-08-01 06:03 by matthew

I bit the bullet today and bought the Nikon D40.  Fortunately they had a no-interest financing deal going on.  So far it is proving to be a very easy camera to use.  I've taken a few pictures that are living on Flickr.  These shots were taken to start getting a sense of what this camera can do.  My first impression is how light this camera is.  I haven't figured out how to frame using the LCD, if it is even possible.  The LCD is about twice the size as my beloved and crippled F717.
On a side note, my wife owns an Nikon N65--a film camera--and it turns out that the lenses she owns will fit onto the N40.  Auto focus doesn't work with the lenses, but shooting with my Minolta X7A taught me long ago how to manually focus pretty quickly.

My F717 has died

Posted Tue, 2007-07-31 04:03 by matthew

My beloved Sony is sick. It took a tumble in Winterpark and now it won't focus correctly. I think the time has come to replace it with a dSLR. I have been thinking about a Nikon D40.

Any advice?

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Power Winder for Minolta X7A

Posted Sat, 2007-04-14 18:28 by matthew

One of the results of my Sony F717's CCD dying was I that I started shooting film again.  This led me to look for gear on Ebay that I could use to augment my camera.  Not suprisingly, there is a brisk business online of folks selling compatible equipment.  There are many lenses, flashes, and power winders available.
I bought a little power winder a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't had much of a chance to dicker with it, but today I'm heading to Mount Rushmore National Park.  I'll bring both my digital and my film camera and set down to take shots in the park.  Hopefully the winder ends up being a valuable/useful tool.

Minolta X7A

Posted Fri, 2007-04-06 04:10 by matthew

When I graduated from high school, my parents bought me this camera as graduation gift.

Since getting my first digital camera a number of years ago, this little guy has been gathering dust. Over the last few weeks I've pulled it out (mostly due to my digital camera's sensor dying on me) and started shooting film again.

I developed one roll of film and was kind of flabbergasted. I had forgotten the difference between the image feel between film and digital--one isn't better than the other, but they are definitely different.

Sony F717 Update

Posted Fri, 2007-03-23 02:27 by matthew

Yesterday I was notified by email that the Sony repair shop in Laredo Texas had my camera.  I got on line and entered the work order number in the Sony site and it indicated that my camera was with a repair technician and the repair could take between 5 and 10 days. 
Today I got a second message indicating that my camera was shipping back to me.  This is either great news--they fixed it fast, or it is terrible news--they didn't fix it at all.
Unfortunately the message does not indicate WHAT the resolution to my CCD issue was.  It would be simple enough for them to drop me a quick email letting me know if the news is good or bad. 

Sony F717 CCD Failure

Posted Mon, 2007-03-12 03:49 by matthew

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My Sony digital camera went on the blink today. I had a Kodak that did the same thing a number of years ago. I sighed and resigned myself to the fact it was time for a new digital camera. I have a fair number of accessories for this camera, so it had me pretty bummed out.

This camera has been a real workhorse for me. I've taken well over 5000 pictures with it. It has great optics. It has been a pretty steady friend.