Nikon D1X

[Pope_Larry_II]

My wife’s boss has an older Nikon D1X along with a nikkor 28-70mm f2.8D (IF) lens and a Speedlight 50-DX flash. They bought it for work a while ago and no longer use it.

I’m trying to work out something to buy the lens in installments (yes, I’ve checked prices); however, the lens squeaks a little when focusing. Is this a big deal or a minor issue? Looking around it seems that this sort of thing happens to this lens.

Is it worth it to buy the whole lot or just the lens? I have no idea if the flash or the camera works. I have both in my possession right now, I just need to charge/change batteries.

On a side not the lens is really freakin’ heavy and it seems funny to attach the lens to my little D3000.

[caradoc]

The 50DX is next to useless. It was designed for film, not digital.

[chupathingie]

FWIW, you could have a sensor in a cardboard box and still get the benefit of the good glass… (other than the flippant comment I’m of no use, tho 😉

[sleeping]

A D1X seems like an awful big hunk of camera to lug around for not all that much resolution these days, and being the day’s high-resolution model, it’s not super-fast either. It ought to be moderately indestructible though, for example if you were looking for something fairly expendable to shoot in some kind of extreme conditions. Other than that I wouldn’t bother with it.

Squeaking seems to sometimes indicate a problem with the AF motor and sometimes not (they may actually be different sounds, I’m not sure). But you’re probably looking at 3-400$ to fix it if it does go, so I’d try to take that into account when pricing it….

[Pope_Larry_II]

Cool, thanks everyone.

[Pope_Larry_II]

Alrighty, the final update: I bought the whole works, lens, body and flash (carrying bag + misc stuff) for $1,000. The body and flash were throw-ins with the lens really. Now to find out if the camera works.

[ennuipoet]

It’s funny, some of us good ape poo for an old film camera chock full of obsolete tech. Yet when it comes to an old DSLR…they crowd goes silent 🙂 That says something about technology and camera nerds. BTW, it looks to me like you struck a solid deal there. The lens alone going $750 USD and up on the Fleabay and Amazon, so good on you! Shoot and enjoy, and I definitely agree with sleeping it’s nice to have a body you don’t care so much about for hard use.

[Pope_Larry_II]

ennuipoet, most of the lenses I looked at started at $1,000…so I think I did well.

[Yoyo]

It’s funny, some of us good ape poo for an old film camera chock full of obsolete tech. Yet when it comes to an old DSLR…they crowd goes silent 🙂 That says something about technology and camera nerds.

Just before Christmas, I was visiting my mom and stopped in at the camera repair shop near her. Talking with the repairman was nice. He seemed to have lots of customers stop in while I was there looking around and chatting.

He was definately an old fashioned (and old) guy. He complained about the lack of depth of field of digital prints compared to film (but I couldn’t see what he was talking about), but more belivably he said the quality and durability of digitals just doesn’t match the film bodies. He could take apart, clean, and reassemble a film body and all the parts and pieces fit exactly where they’re supposed to, but with the digitals everything is cheap plastic and weak electronic connectors.

I haven’t tried disassembling anything yet, so I can’t say for myself.

[orionid]

He speaks the truth. I have disassembled things.

[Farktographer]

I have disassembled things.

That statement rates a 0 on the surprise-o-meter.

[staplermofo]

Webcams are surprisingly well constructed. Many even come with an unused c-mount securely on the circuit board.
They look tantalizingly like this.

Come on, who wouldn’t want to slap a tiny, high resolution sensor on a tele/microscope?

[ravnostic]

Webcams are surprisingly well constructed. Many even come with an unused c-mount securely on the circuit board.
They look tantalizingly like this.

Come on, who wouldn’t want to slap a tiny, high resolution sensor on a tele/microscope?

We’re investigating this. I haven’t yet been willing to undo the plastic casing to verify what’s inside, but Jupiter at 800 pixels is awfully inviting to ponder, and I’m getting 60 fps.

napkin–>drool

orionid *yawn* Yes, dear, now go back to sleep 😛

(I’ll bet Kes has to say that weekly.) 😆

[staplermofo]

We’re investigating this. I haven’t yet been willing to undo the plastic casing to verify what’s inside, but Jupiter at 800 pixels is awfully inviting to ponder, and I’m getting 60 fps.

Buy 7 of these.

You’ll probably get it on your first try, but then you’d still have 6 more to try amping it up.

[ravnostic]

Buy 7 of these.

You’ll probably get it on your first try, but then you’d still have 6 more to try amping it up.

Oh, to hell with that–but my gawd thanks for the link, staplermofo!!

Look what else they have: http://www.amazon.com/Hootoo-Vision-Webcam-12-0MP-Microphone/dp/B003VY4M42/ref=pd_cp__1

Man, I’m tapped out till Friday, but I can see blowing $30 on a few of these just to take them apart…mixed reviews, but…

Here’s what one reviewer said:

“The first thing I did was take the web cam apart and remove the infrared filter. Most web cams have a thin plastic filter but this one had a glass filter glued into the lens. I used a small screwdriver and broke the glass and scraped it all out. The web cam now records in complete darkness.

The ability to turn off the LED lights completely is a great addition to this camera. Overall the picture quality is very good and the audio works very well.

This web cam is NOT a true ‘night vision’ camera unless you remove the IR filter. It simply has LED lights to illuminate the subject in the dark, like having a desk-lamp next to the camera at night. If you want this camera to record infrared night vision video you will need to remove the filter, but once you do that it sees extremely well in complete and total darkness. The infrared video quality is as good and in some cases better than my much more expensive CCTV infrared security cameras.“

orionid? What do you think?

//novelty alone might be worth it…

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