Category: General

Nikon’s back, tell a friend.

Eminem! Got it? Never mind—

I received my D850 back on Thursday via UPS, about a month after it was posted to Nikon.

The problem with the viewfinder focus not matching auto-focus is gone. Whilst they had it, Nikon Europe called me to report that they could not find any fault. I explained what was wrong with the camera but remained anxious that they would return it without doing any repair. Fortunately, they managed to identify the problem and corrected it by adding three shims of 0.05 mm to the focusing screen.

It is now easier for me to focus on a subject through the viewfinder, which is essential when doing macro photography. My thorough checks show that everything is working. Except for one little nit: a sliver of the gold shim is visible in the viewfinder. It causes no harm other than to my obsessive compulsion, so I will have to get used to it.

Like other Nikon users have reported, the camera came back from the repair shop in immaculate condition. I had inadvertently left an SD card inside; that was returned to me. I also received some sort of Nikon-branded cloth in the box. It got me scratching my head, trying to figure out what it was. I thought it was a cloth to wrap the camera, but P thinks it is the mat they put the camera on whilst working on it. I am still curious why it was sent to me, though.

Today is a cold day, and P and I are still not 100% recovered from the flu of a few weeks ago. So we did not go out on a hike, as much as I wanted to try the D850 in the field. But I spent a couple of hours doing some flash photography.

***

We did not go out also because P was excited about trying out a recipe in her new fancy air-fryer. In truth, we had lame excuses not to go out today.

I’ve been ill with the flu since Friday evening, with the usual inconveniences: body ache, alternating shivering cold and fever, sleepless nights and weird dreams.

Hiking was out of the question, and even sitting at the computer felt tiring. Instead, I spent the weekend on the couch, napping and binging on photography videos on Xiao Hong Shu.

We’ll be having dinner shortly, and I still don’t feel great. Tomorrow might be a remote work day.

***

I keep receiving codes on my Facebook app, as if someone was trying to access my account.

As I walked away after taking this picture, I had a doubt, “Did I set the focus in this scene?” Clearly, I didn’t.

***

I took the Nikon D850 out with us today. Back at home, I returned it into its original box,  wrapped the box in leftover Christmas giftwrap paper, put the lot in a large parcel bag, and affixed the pre-paid postage label. That was it, the camera was ready for collection. The repair time will be around 25 days according to Nikon.

***

On this cold Sunday morning walk, we covered about 6 km in about 2 hours. P did not fancy a long hike, because she wanted some rest before the dreaded Monday and the weather was miserable. Luckily, much of the ice had still not melted, which enabled us to walk over frozen ground that would have been otherwise too muddy.

Perhaps, I was just as miserable as the weather. Twice people stopped and started conversations with me. Both times as I was setting up the above shot. “Spot anything interesting?” “Pardon?” I asked back. “Did you see an interesting bird?” he asked again. Instead of giving a simple answer, my mind started analysing the situation, thinking about why I would be taking the picture of a bird with a short lens on a camera fixed on a tripod? “Oh, no. It’s just the trees.” The man trod off.

About five minutes later, an old lady stopped and asked if I was shooting anything interesting. “Oh, no it’s just trees. No rare birds or anything of the sort, ” I said, once again gesturing at the trees. She said, “I know, I saw you had a short lens. Have a nice day.” Obviously, she knew her stuff and could have made an interesting conversation partner. Instead, I blew it off by being brief and effacing.

Later, P told me that I was borderline rude for virtually telling these two people to bog off. In her words, I was as bad as the shopkeeper who sold me the camera and whom I had called unfriendly. It wasn’t really my intention, I just avoid lengthy conversations about photography with strangers lest I bore them. I have to admit, though, that people stopping and asking questions about what I am photographing should have been give-away of their genuine interest. Knowing this, I felt, well, miserable for the rest of the walk, despite P’s attempt to comfort me.

***

Back to the D850, it is an amazing camera. Here are two more pictures that I took today.

We went for a walk in the cold today, covering 10 km in Long Valley. The temperature hovered around zero degrees Celcius, so much of the overnight ice remained, which made it fun for us to slide on the many frozen puddles along the way.

My one-month-old Nikon D850 has a misaligned focusing screen, which means that the AF works but the viewfinder shows a blurry image. I requested a warranty repair from Nikon, and it’s due to be collected by courier on Tuesday. I thought I’d take a few pictures with it before it’s sent off. The D850 is a really great camera, it’s a shame that my specimen has this fault.

In these winter months, sunrise is still too late, and sunset too early, severely limiting the amount of daylight we can enjoy. The poor weather added to that does not offer much incentive to go on long walks. However, one week into my holidays, I had to get out of the house. P could not accompany me, so I took the opportunity to climb Caesar’s Camp.

Going up the hill was tiring, and the wind at the top was chilling. But the view was breathtaking. The visibility was so good that the London skyline could be seen.

Today was a desk day spent re-scanning old negatives on the Nikon Coolscan V ED scanner. The picture below was meh when scanned with the Epson Perfection V200 but is pleasing to me now.

Although the focus is off, I love this picture.

P and I had just checked in to our room at the Waldorf Hilton in London, and as she always does, P jumped on the bed and used the remote to browse the TV channels. It is memorable because it was taken at the end of a death march week at work in April 2010. I remember starting this holiday weekend all stressed and P being extremely supportive and trying her best to give us a good time.

I’m using up my remaining holidays for 2024, taking every Monday off until Christmas so that I have long weekends to enjoy for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been great, which has ruined our plans for hiking. On Saturday and Sunday, we actually had Storm Darragh sequestering us at home, and the weekends before, we had Storm Conall and Storm Bert.

Our last walk, going up Caesar’s Camp from Claycart Bottom, seems a distant memory now. The climb was difficult for P, but we still enjoyed the view from the summit. I took pictures on our way up and down. We were greeted by a beautiful view of the sun beaming through the colourful trees at Claycart Bottom, so I am hoping that the pictures from my film camera come out good. But I have to wait until I can finish the roll of film to develop it and see the results.

I installed Nikon Scan software to replace VueScan and was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the scans. Right off the scanner, the colours are good and require little correction. Here are some images from one of our walks along Basingstoke Canal.

We started today’s walk at Basingstoke Canal in Mytchett and progressed to Pirbright where we crossed Curzon Bridge into the MOD managed land to head back to our starting point.

Along the way, we stopped at Frimley Lodge Park for pictures and for feeding the birds. P had a lot of fun throwing bread scraps at them and having them follow her up and down the towpath. We then continued to Pirbright, stopping at a few locks along the way, including the one where this picture was taken. We came across a lovely cottage, which seemed abandoned and got P fancying about cottage living.

The walk through the MOD managed land was a workout, the ground going up and down. It didn’t help that a mist came down and we increased our pace to avoid the rain. With more time, we would have gone through the woods instead of following the sandy paths, which didn’t present much to photograph. P and I joked at the insane number of portaloos we came across in seemingly middle of nowhere. I think they’re put there for soldiers to use during breaks in their training, but they could also have been used by people who manage the woodland.

The end of the hike was disappointing as we walked through an area where people bring their dogs and allow them to foul the ground. I think the next time we do this walk, we’ll avoid the last bit of woodland and take the roadside instead. Going that way will not be as picturesque, but it will spare us the nastiness.

It’s this time of the year when the sun sets before 5 p.m. Every afternoon walk becomes a race, as we try to get back to the car before it turns dark. The shorter days make it more difficult to take pictures, but at least there are the autumn colours to be thankful for.

Last month, P and I hiked a lot across the many MOD managed areas surrounding our town. Here are some snapshots from our walks.