I try to always use hoods on my Nikkors. The only one I don't use a hood on is my 60mm Micro (it would only get in my way).

It's a good thing that I do use the hoods because last week I went away to the seaside for a 5-day vacation. While there, one of my Nikons went tumbling down onto the hard pavement. I felt physical pain as I watched it falling in slowwww motion, and then heard it CRACK! Picked up the camera with a terrible sense of dread, only to find that it was perfectly fine and functioning normally except for breaking the hood where it mounts to the lens. When I got home, I ordered another OEM Nikon hood, used but in perfect condition on Ebay for $8 including shipping to my door! Could have been a bad outcome if not for the humble lens hood.

Hoods are at least as useful for protection as they are for a lens shade. One caveat for the uninitiated however: If you can't figure out why your indoor, built-in flash photos have a crescent-shaped shadow. . . now you know.

Hey, anybody who intends to throw away their memory cards can do the environmentally "green" thing, and send them to me!

Save the planet, mail me your evil Compact Flash cards heh heh. . . heh heh. . .

DirtFarmer, you are mistaken on 2 points.
1. The Lexar warranty is not 5 years, it is LIFETIME.
2. You do not deal with the seller (at all) for warranty but only directly with Lexar themselves, who are more than happy to give you an RMA number to send it back.

I've got to stand up for Lexar on this one:

In 2004, I bought a Lexar 512MB CF card for my D70 at $89 at the same time as buying the camera. It has worked flawlessly for all these years, without a hint of trouble. Very recently, it started giving me problems with corrupted files. I never tried to low-level format it, and Lexar didn't even ask me to try. They took it back under their LIFETIME WARRANTY without any problem, and sent me a brand-new modern Lexar 32GB card to replace it. I did have a copy of my receipt for the Lexar 512 MB card because it was with my original camera receipt and owner's manual. They were GREAT to deal with, and they were more than happy to replace my card.

LEXAR STANDS BEHIND THEIR PRODUCTS!!

Great Company!!

I spoke to Lexar directly about this card formatting question, and here is the definitive answer I was given:

There are three (3) levels of card formatting. Listed from minimal to maximum, they are

1. In-camera formatting (we all know and use this one)

2. Computer operating-system formatting

3. Low-Level formatting (provided by a memory card company via a utility program which you download onto your computer)

They said that most of the time you will only format in-camera, but that you should occasionally/regularly do a double high-level format to all your cards (meaning computer OS formatting and then in-camera formatting) just to help keep your cards cleaned up on an ongoing basis. Low level formatting provided by a memory card company via a utility program should be done to any cards which you have any reason to suspect, or which have been in use for a very long time.

PM replied to

Brand new & unused!
Tiffen 62TPK1 Photo Essentials Filter Kit

62mm Full Set
Circular Polarizer, UV/Haze Protection Filter, and 812 Warming Filter

Read about it here: https://www.adorama.com/flk62.html

I had bought this kit several years ago for use with my Nikkor 60mm f2.8 Micro, because I was intending to use it as my primary all-around lens. Paid $68.99 plus shipping from J&R (still have the receipt). However, I only ever used the 60mm Nikkor lens on very rare occasions to do close-up macro shots, and I never ended up using this kit. . . my loss, your gain!

These sets now sell for $56 new, and $40 used. I'm selling this brand-new perfect set for just $25 plus postage to you!

(Download)


(Download)

Or buy a used Nikkor 105 Micro

What are you shooting with theses days?

Great responses! Very interesting

Generally speaking, size does matter with regard to sensor design. . . apparently because the bigger the sensor is, the more light it encounters. If you say full-frame format sensors at 36 x 24mm are necessary for today's professional, there are others who will say (as I'm sure many on here will) that the APS-C, the APS-H and even the 1" sized sensors can be plenty good enough for the vast majority of pro photography.

But there are even medium format DSLRs with digital sensors at more than twice the size of 36 x 24mm full-frame sensors. Apparently the medium format DSLR camera systems are not as practical as are the lesser-sized-sensor based systems we are all familiar with. . . even for various reasons apart from the huge cost-barrier. But I wonder if an intermediate-frame format sensor (my term) at say 42 x 30mm might be worthwhile for use in for Nikon & Canon DSLR systems (that is if one were to be produced of course) as a modern compromise, improving upon the full-frame format without straying too far into the impracticalities of full-on medium-format DSLRs.

This thread has certainly turned out to be hugely informative! Great job all. . .

This ^

If you're asking how to get the same image with a full-frame camera as with your cropped-sensor (APS-C) camera: A 300mm lens on a full-frame camera will show the same image proportions as your 200mm lens shows on your cropped-sensor camera.

Food for thought:

It sounds to me like you're a long-time SLR shooter who probably already has a certain creative "program" laid out in his brain with regard to handling his camera, shooting photos, and to the entire photographic process as a whole. I would think you should move in the direction of getting a camera system which strongly resembles the old SLR system you're already familiar with. That's likely to be the most efficient way to get directly back into your groove again, building off your existing experience & knowledge base. So, your decision to go with a Canon DigitalSLR system makes perfect sense to me.

One thing I'll mention though: A commitment to a removable-lens DSLR camera is as much or even moreso a commitment to the lenses to be used with it.

Many people have way more money in lenses than in their camera body. For that reason I would encourage you to check out the available lenses for both cropped-sensor and full-frame-sensor cameras in your chosen brand before you commit. Lenses made for full-frame cameras are different than the ones made for APS-C cameras. Full-frame lenses on a full-frame body will give you the same angle of view that you were already accustomed to with your old SLR system at a given focal length, because the camera's sensor is the same size as a frame of 35mm film. Your chosen focal lengths will be second-nature to you, and even the heft & feel of those lenses will likely be familiar. However, at any given focal length, the lenses made for APS-C cameras give a much narrower angle of view than full-frame lenses do because they are made for a much smaller sensor. They are less expensive than the full-frame lenses because they have less glass and they cost less to produce.

I'm not necessarily telling you that you have to go with a full-frame DSLR system. . . but I am saying you should really check out both APS-C and full-frame camera systems with their respective lenses before you commit. A lot of times, people buy the APS-C camera first, and end up upgrading to a full-frame camera system in the future. But in your case, your budget has plenty of room in it to just go directly to the full-frame DSLR system, and slip right back into your old groove on familiar glass with a modernized body. You might save a step in doing so. . . not to mention saving money by not switching formats later.