Wow- I mean I love the body and lens but this is a bit much. Maybe I could get a tattoo of the 58mm Noct or the F3 body…

Nikon House- Ginza Tokyo

This year’s big trip ended up being Japan- I went to Kyoto and Tokyo. Kyoto has too many temples and Tokyo’s got cameras- or at least that’s how I saw it!

We stayed in  the fashionable Ginza district- you should think of it a lot like Japan’s version of shopping in Manhattan.

Within easy walking distance of the hotel Dai-Ichi are:

• Nikon Salon and Service Center (google maps)
• Nikon House
• Leica Boutique

I’ll get into the Nikon Salon in a different post because it actually pales in comparison to what can be found at the Nikon House (google maps).

What’s There

The most minty collectibles- I saw F3’s in near-perfect condition. They had all of the range-finders I knew about and every SLR I’m aware of (excluding whacky variants). For good measure- they’ve got Leica bodies.

But what blew me away was, I saw two of these:

Nikon House- Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 Noct

If you’re not familiar with the spectacular night photography results this lens achieves, Ken’s got a good overview, and here is a great article by Nikon about the more technical aspects of the lens’s lack of sagittal coma flare. Nikon provides a nice example of sagittal coma- compare the Noct to a non-Noct and look at how the cars’ brake lights smear into oblong blobs on the non-noct.

Hey, notice that price? That’s only $3,822 at today’s terrible exchange rate- but they’ve been going for ~$3200 the last time I checked on ebay– IF you can get one and if you’re spending that much on a 30+ year old lens, do you want to trust some random internet guy? I once saw a person offering -5- of these for sale on Ebay, all in different auctions- all the same seller, same picture, same description. I wrote him asking how he could have 5 for sale and flagged it fraudulent and it was down the next day.

If I could blow the cash, I would have bought it- I may still kick myself for not buying one- I’ll probably never see one in person again and Nikon will never make one again (it’s clear due to the dearth new FX primes that they just don’t care to offer the breadth that they once did- nobody who buys a D5000 is going to buy any… Get your 200mm f/2 now, is my advice).

Here are some more examples (click to get a much larger version):

Nikon House- Minty F1

If that minty F1 doesn’t get your heart going, cameras may just not be for you. I think I’m now kicking myself for not grabbing one of those minty black F1’s- I’ll never see another that good probably.

Nikon House- Minty F3's

Nikon House- F5's

Nikon House- D200's

Prices

If you want to know what your used D200 is going to fetch, be prepared for tears. My F5, that I paid a whole paycheck for in ‘98 dollars is now worth even less than I thought. The reality is that the prices were higher than what we can get in the US- but let’s get serious- the dollar’s weak, Tokyo real estate is crazy-expensive and how many other places have -2- 58mm f/1.2’s on hand for you to try out?

They DO take credit card and they’ll hassle you for a passport- this is because they want to have you avoid paying the 5% Japanese sales tax

Getting There

Here’s the exact spot. I highly recommend that you find a map with the Sony Building in Ginza on it- the Ginza Metro had maps with stores on it and so did the street maps and many places are referred to by the building name as opposed to addresses. Closest subway’s where either Ginza (on the Ginza Line- 1 stop from the Tokyo station), or Shimbashi (like 2 stops from the Tokyo metro).  That’s all you really need- it’s Japan, but the area is pretty small, find some map with the Sony Building on it and go there, it’s across the street.

No Photography! This is a Camera Store!

So I spent some time outside getting establishing shots and marvelling, then I go inside and get some shots of the items in the display case like the F1’s above and I hear “NO PHOTO!” Huh? “Oh, ok…” It’s a camera store that only uses clear glass- I can take shots of the inside from the outside and the entire outside storefront is one glass display case. I can’t figure this out- I guess they don’t want idiots on the internet hassling them for mint collectibles.

Apologies- as soon as I got back from Japan, I got a flu that put me down for several days. Unfortunately, that didn’t work well with Nikon’s release schedule. If I’ve missed anything, please mail me.

Nikon S1000pj's Delayed

Engadget finds an article on the Japanese Impress site that says that the S1000pj’s have such strong demand that they are delaying the shipments from September to October:

…[Demand] significantly exceeded the expected number of orders from the original quantity, [Nikon] can not provide a sufficient number…

I wonder if that’s the actual reason though- how are they gauging interest- pre-order channel sales? It would seem to me that you’d release the initial shipment and then head into round 2- that’s what we’ve typically seen with hard to get new items in the past.

We’re now on the latest version of WordPress- this update was made necessary due to a recently found bug that allows really easy pwnage. Remember- always validate user input…

I’ll be upgrading this site over the next few days. During that period, you may experience random oddities, crashes, downages, dry mouth, and headaches.

If your problems persist more than a couple days, please see you doctor.

I’ve had to yank the serial number code post because there’s some sort of issue with IE where it prevents the right hand side links (and ads!) from being displayed.

Which explains why the few pennies I normally get per day has dropped to -0-. Big brother has not asked me to take it down, let’s not start a silly rumor.

If you want the code, please mail me.

D5000 Service Advisory Serial Number Range

This is very early, I haven’t double-checked these by hand, but here’s what I have so far.

I’ve tested increments of 100 from: 3,015,209 to 3,515,500 and here are the results- remember that “positive” means your body DOES have the problem, “negative” means that it’s fine. Also, I haven’t bothered checking numbers except at intervals of 10. For example, 3032295 has the problem, 3032296 does not, but I won’t bother checking every single number.

3015209 – 3026100: Positive (has the defect)

3023300: Negative

3023400 – 3026200: Positive

3026300: Negative

3026400 – 3029200: Positive

3029300: Negative

3029400 – 3030000: Positive

3030100 – 3030200: Negative

3030300 – 3032200: Positive

3032300: Negative

3032400 – 3048000: Positive

3048100: Negative

3048200 – 3054100: Positive

3054200: Negative

3054300 – 3073600: Positive

3073700: Negative

3073800 – 3084200: Positive

3084300: Negative

3084400 – 3085200: Positive

3085300: Negative

3085400 – 3112300: Positive

3112400: Negative

3112500 – 3114300: Positive

3114400 – 3515500 : Negative- End of run?

D5000 Service Advisory Serial Number Ranges- Start at 3,015,209

I’ve done some poking around and the lowest serial number that appears to work is 3,015,209.

If you’ve got one that’s lower than this and it works, please mail me, I’d like to get a complete list.

I do not yet know the upper bound.

Nikkor-S 5.8 cm f/1.4 vs. Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G

This is total win- the guys at LensTip have made a detailed comparison between the OLD Nikkor-S 5.8 cm f/1.4 (58mm f/1.4) and the new Nikkor AF-S 50 mm f/1.4G as used on the D3.

What’s not surprising is that the modern lens is better. What IS surprising is that the ancient lens gets very, very close to the new lens’ performance in resolution once you’re at f/8 or above and that the old lens is a good deal better with CA.

Very fascinating article!

Nikkor 50mm AF-S f/1.4G Review

dpReview takes a look at Nikon’s Nikkor 50mm AF-S f/1.4G lens on both DX and FX format and finds it to be largely OK.

Nikon D5000 SLR Review

If you’re dying for more a more in-depth look at the D5000, then dpReview has a 30+ page look at it.

The best part may be on the front page where there’s a comparison matrix between the D500, D90, and D60. Most of the other info is just a rundown of the features and specs, menus, product shots, and a bunch of sample shots.

Nikon SB-600 Flash Tube Replacement

Steve saw the previous post on replacing your SB-800’s melted fresnel lens and pointed me to this link that shows you how to replace the busted flash tube on your SB-600, if you’re handy with a soldering iron.

Sadly, the only thing I can do with soldering irons is burn things and make nice round beads of solder- which I enjoy, but it’s not very productive.

Kudos to Steve, nicely done!

Mike Kobal continues to impress with his movies taken with the D90 and now D5000. He’s good enough that I’m starting to wonder why he bothers with cameras and doesn’t just get a dedicated video camera.

Take a look.

SILENTIUM EST AUREUM Nikon D90 + Lensbaby from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

Replace Melted Nikon SB-800 Front Lens

Son Ton melted the front fresnel lens on his Nikon SB-800 flash.

Not being the pussy that you and I are, I mean, uh, being more manly than me and my fist full of Craftsman screwdrivers, he decided to tackle the repair himself.

Check out his site for very interesting shots of the repair in action- normally, you only get to see these parts if you destroy your SB-800, so my hat’s off to him.

Front Fresnel Repair of Nikon SB-800

Almost even more interesting is that he somehow was able to dig up the exploded parts diagram for the SB-800:

Nikon SB-800 Exploded Parts Diagram (Click to enlarge)

Kudos again to Son Ton!

Sample Shots:Nikon 10-24mm AF-S Nikkor f/3.5-4.5G DX ED

TBower (flickr) has managed to get ahold of the lens and posted some sample shots taken with Nikon’s Nikkor 10-24mm AF-S f/3.5-4.5G DX ED and here.

CA and fringing appear to be bad as shown here. Even the central image area appears to lack detail to me- maybe his technique wasn’t so hot?

Nikon 10-24mm AF-S Nikkor f/3.5-4.5G DX ED

Ken has a funny deal- he gives reviews to Nikon items that he either hasn’t held in his hands before, or as it appears in this case, he’s taken one shot outside of an office complex with!

But if you must know what he’s got to say, then take a look.

Basically, he says it’s better than the 12-24mm.

Either I’m missing something (hey, could be)- or the 12-24mm is going to go bye-bye. They’re basically similar lenses in every way that I can see. The question is “why”- why did Nikon release two lenses that compete against each other in almost every way?

Nikon D5000 18-55mm Sample Shot @ 6400iso

The Japanese website dcWatch has a nice review of the D5000 and 18-55mm kit lens (translated) that includes studio and outdoor comparison shots are various ISO and noise reduction levels.

Unsurprisingly, everything looks pretty good.

Engadget’s just all over the mid-level camera market lately. In this article, they compare the D90 and D5000.

It’s hard to compare the quality from their images. The D5000 comparison shots are underexposed and at slightly different magnifications, so you can’t really conclude anything from those shots.

Engadget has a quick head to head with the T1i and the D5000: they seem pretty well matched in general.