Dust and Diesel Update – Nikon D600

After Nikon Sydney replaced the shutter mechanism + seal (under warranty) and gave the sensor a wet clean, the problem of oil splatter on the sensor still persists. It’s nowhere near as bad as reported in the initial post but after 800+ actuations, the telltale spots are back again. I ran a series of time lapse shoots to get the shutter actuation count up and then took some stills to check for marks. The 50mm prime lens hasn’t been off the camera since I collected it from Nikon’s Sydney repair center. I must add, that to their credit, that the guys at Nikon did a great job with no hassles. But there’s a bogy in the weeds somewhere here. The new shutter mechanism and seal should have fixed the problem. Reports of the issue reoccurring are in circulation and you can read a similar account in Martin’s first comment in my original post.

I’m prepared to wait and see if it worsens or if the marks on the sensor are the end of it. What’s beginning to annoy me a little is that Harvey Norman at Penrith initially refused to acknowledge there was a problem. Despite me providing a detailed account of the issue, the same that I gave to Nikon, no one (except for the guy who actually worked in the Photography section) seemed to be prepared to entertain the idea that this problem could be caused by a fault in the camera or the manufacture of the camera. Whether they actually got in touch with Nikon, as promised, I never found out, because that call to me was never made and no discussion about whether the camera should be replaced took place nor in that context was it suggested or offered despite the ‘replacement warranty’ details being on the sales record copy they printed out whilst I was there.

Adobe Lightroom 5 Beta

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Adobe Lightroom 5 splash screen courtesy of Adobe.com

There’s a lot of talk about some of the new features in Lightroom 5 that are available for preview in the current Beta version. However what’s impressed me the most is the inclusion of editable book templates. Of the features in Lightroom 4, the inability to edit templates when creating books is the biggest drawback and one that constantly sends me back to the Blurb App on my desktop. While the ability to soft proof inside Lightroom 4 using Blurb’s profile is a nicer option than having to install the Blurb ICC profile in Photoshop and soft proof from there when using Blurb’s installed software, it wasn’t enough to win my loyalty in that area. So I look forward to having a true Blurb workflow inside Lightroom 5.

Read the Beta release notes here.

And at the Lightroom Journal here

AddOn 2013

Once again thanks to Charles McKean for the invite to participate in this years AddOn Exhibition. Last years show was memorable to say the least and it’s simply a great pleasure to be a part of a show that I know will push me to keep refining the way I see and do things.

AddOn

Exhibition Details

Official Opening:
Tue, 14/05/2013 – 18:00 – 20:00
Date of Show:

Tue, 14/05/2013 – Sat, 25/05/2013

AddOn is a non-competitive, anonymous, photographic exhibition curated by Charles McKean and Festival Director Moshe Rosenzveig.

One of the core events of Head On Photo Festival, AddOn showcases a diverse and exciting range of square images, taken by more than 100 photographers spanning professionals, artists, enthusiasts, celebrities and politicians. Shown without title or photographer credits, viewers interpret their images for what they are and bring their own meanings to them.

Gallery:

Depot II Gallery

2 Danks St

Waterloo, NSW 2017

Australia

Nikon D600 | Dust and diesel, dead in the water

Thinking of buying a Nikon D600…..hold that thought. You may want to read the following before jumping in.

Whilst some may argue that the overall performance of the camera weighs in against the inconvenience of the dust and oil issue, I’d have to counter-argue, that there’s nothing worse than coming back with a swag of useful shots and suddenly finding them loaded with lots of visible spots out of the blue and (not even as in my case) be able to palm it off to a lens change gone horribly wrong. And if that’s not enough, conventional cleaning fails to remove the junk from the sensor so the camera has to lay idle until the sensor can undergo a wet clean. Which has in my case now been something like three weeks. That’s clearly not what you buy a camera for. i.e., you don’t go out and buy a good camera just to have a part time relationship with it.

All might be well in the ideal world if the ‘free clean’ offered by Nikon staved off the wolves, but apparently it doesn’t and you can, by all accounts, expect the issue to re-appear in the not too distant future. And then, hi-ho it’s off to another round of clean’n’go.

This is the first time that I’ve experienced visible particles at open apertures. I had a little dust on a Canon 50D which took two rounds of cleaning at Canon in Sydney, but in this instance the particles were sparsely scattered and visible only on shots taken with a Pinhole Cap (f/166) and a f/45 Zone Plate. However on the D600 the particles are visible on conventional lenses at apertures down to f/1.8 on both stills and video.

These two shots are about 30 min apart and the increase in what appears to be both oil and dust is clearly visible. Both crops are from the top left of the frame and are consistent with most other reports. They were visible under magnification in the preview and the lens filter was cleaned between shots to eliminate the possibility of anything foreign on the filter itself.

Also read the most recent post on this here

D600 oil

D600a oil

Cropped from the original images

 

I had to eventually shut the Nikon down and go out with a Canon G1x which returned some good shots of the same environs as shown below.

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Adobe release Photoshop Touch for iPhone

Today marks the end of a long wait and the wait has been worth it. Photoshop Touch is finally available for iPhone.

You can read the release blurb at Adobe or download the app at iTunes.

IMG_5506

I’ve put together a quick review on the run and you can read it here.