Thursday, April 10, 2008 -
D80 showing CHA error on LCD screen
I had a moment of panic earlier when I put one of the full SD cards from my friend's wedding at the weekend into the
D80 to allow me to import them into
Lightroom and it flashed "CHA" on the LCD screen. Then I remembered that I'd switched the used SD cards to the Lock position to prevent any accidental overwriting. A quick google later (the camera was still tethered to my laptop), and I find out that I'm
not the only one to have spotted thisLabels: d80, nikon
// posted by Jane @ 9:44 PM
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Monday, December 3, 2007 -
Nikon speedlight SB-800
I've just bought a
Nikon Speedlight SB-800 flash unit for my Nikon D80. I found it at
UK Digital Cameras and was really impressed with their service - rapid delivery, a phone call to let me know it was on its way. I've put batteries on it, attached it to the camera and taken some test shots but I'm still rather intimidated by the fact that it comes with a 125 page manual. Hopefully I'll find time to read, review and try it out over the Christmas holidays.
Labels: d80, flash, nikon
// posted by Jane @ 8:49 PM
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Sunday, June 10, 2007 -
Problem getting photos off my Nikon D80
This morning I had a problem getting all of my photos off my SD card in a usable format. I used my usual process: take card out of camera, put into card reader, import into lightroom. At the end of the import a message appeared telling me that 36 images were in 'unsupported or damaged".

I can view these images on the camera, but can't view them on my Mac.
In the finder window these 36 images are the only ones that don't have a thumbnail image when looking at the contents of the SD card. I can't view them in Preview, iPhoto or even Nikon Picture Project.

A shell prompt recognises most of my images as "TIFF image data, big-endian" but the "corrupt" ones as "data".
This is the 2nd time this has happened, but this time affects 36 photos so I need to:
a) find a way to get these photos off the card and
b) make sure this never happens again
I decided to head upstairs and grab the direct cable from the box. My reasons for not using this method most of the time is that I prefer the card reader solution because:
a) it doesn't use up the battery
b) the camera isn't lying around on table tops as often and
c) I could actually continue shooting whilst the images get transferred onto the computer.
I plugged in the cable, looked through finder and the 36 troublesome images had icons. With fingers crossed I restarted lightroom and let it start an import. The missing images were all imported. So, it's a card reader problem. The card reader I've been using is a Packard-Bell PB-CR300 and at least
one other person has had an issue in the past.
So today I'll be heading off to find a card reader that will work with high speed, high capacity SD cards.
Labels: d80, nikon
// posted by Jane @ 10:25 AM
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Thursday, June 7, 2007 -
New lens
After posting
last week that my new lens hadn't arrived it appeared the following day. I didn't get a chance to play with it until the weekend when we visited Richard's folks in
Margate, but I'm very pleased with it.
I'll still probably shoot more photos with the
Sigma, as a lot of the photos I take at the moment are low-light evening events, but this seems to be a lovely addition.
Labels: dslr, nikon, photo
// posted by Jane @ 7:59 PM
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007 -
Nikon 18-200mm lens
I'm still waiting for my
18-200mm Nikon lens - there really seems to be a shortage of these lenses in the UK at the moment.
Jessops apparently have a 200+ on order, and of those 80 are already ordered for customers.
So, I'm still using my
Sigma 30mm lens for all photos, and the more I use it, the more I love it. Hope I love the Nikon one too when it finally appears.
Labels: dslr, nikon
// posted by Jane @ 7:28 PM
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Thursday, May 10, 2007 -
Kit Bag: Nikon D80
The Camera
My main camera is now the
Nikon d80 (having upgraded from my
Canon G3). I've had it only 10 days or so, but so far
we're getting along just fine. I've experienced the same problem as many other d80 users - namely that it has a habit of overexposing (apparently it exposes for the blacks in the picture) but a quick adjustment on the exposure meter sorts that out. Other than that, no problems at all.
The Accessories
Lenses
So far I have one lens - the
Sigma 30mm f1.4 - fortunately I love it. I wanted a fast lens for shooting some of the geek events I attend as light levels can be pretty variable.
I also have the
Nikon AFS DX VR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF on order.
Once I've got used to these lenses, I'll determine whether I need a more wide angle lens to add to collection.
Filters
I have one filter for the Sigma lens (62mm) and that is a UV filter. Over time, when I've worked out which lens I'm using in what circumstances I'll get a polarising, a Neutral Density and maybe some close up filters. I already have a 72mm UV filter ready for when my 18-200mm lens shows up.
Accessories
So far I have the following:
The Case
I've used my non-camera
Crumpler bag a lot over the years, and it has just kept on going. So, I thought I'd give the
Crumpler Pretty Boy 4000 XL a try. It looks fantastic, and fits everything I need (at the moment) into it without a problem.
Labels: d80, dslr, kit bag, nikon
// posted by Jane @ 1:12 PM
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