DigitalPro Shooter Volume 1, Issue 17, November 22nd, 2002
Welcome to DPS1-17. Today is the first day Canon has allowed images from production models of the Canon EOS-1Ds 11MP camera to be posted or printed, so of course we have one of the first reviews ready along with downloadable sample images. But first, this week also marked the return of my Nikon D1X from its 'buffer enhancement service':
Nikon is offering a memory upgrade for the D1X, which increases the buffer from 9 JPEG Large images to 21, or 6 NEFs to 14. This is accompanied by an upgrade of the firmware to version 5.0. If you only want the firmware update an equivalent upgrade to firmware 1.1 will be performed at no charge. The buffer upgrade is $234 + $12.50 shipping and handling in the US.
The memory upgrade simply increases the number of images your buffer will hold before the camera stops firing. It doesn't make it fire any faster, or take better pictures. So why did I spend $246.50 to get that done?
I travel with both a D1H and a D1X. The H gets used for most action and wildlife photography, and the X for scenics. But the X is also sitting over my shoulder with an 80-400 or 300f/4 for flight shots or sudden happenings nearby. More often than I like to think about I've ripped off a series of frames of a Clapper Rail emerging from the grass or a Harrier coming at us point blank only to have my D1X fill up and stop firing.
So for me, rather than give up the added resolution I get for scenics by carrying the D1X, the buffer upgrade allows me to have a camera that will serve reasonably well as a backstop to the D1H. Sure, I'd prefer if it also shot at 6fps or faster, but for $200, it solves an important shooting problem for me.
Frankly, I have mixed feelings about the firmware upgrade. Since every Nikon user website has been full of requests for a firmware upgrade for the last two years, you'd think it'd be a no-brainer. But there are a couple subtle downsides.
First, the good news. The firmware upgrade allows the camera (either a D1X, D1H or D100) to correctly tag Adobe RGB images as Adobe RGB. DigitalPro for Windows users have always been able to do that, so it isn't a big deal for me, but is helpful if you've been wrestling with the whole Photoshop/EXIF tagging morass.
The firmware also seems to offer an improvement in TTL flash calculations. This is very hard to benchmark, but I'm finding that I don't need to mess with the compensation as much and can often fire away with Matrix TTL and 0 compensation and be quite pleased with the results. Nikon doesn't actually mention this, nor mention what changes they might have made, so results so far are purely subjective.
The firmware also includes support for Lexar's new Write Acceleration technology and for the auto-vignetting control in Capture 3.5. But neither the new cards nor Capture 3.5 are generally available yet, so we'll report on how well that works in a future issue. If you own a D100 with MB grip, then the firmware upgrade (numbered 2.00 for the D100) cleans up the file naming scheme for audio files.
Nikon also promotes that upgraded cameras write images that comply with the EXIF 2.2 (EXIFprint) spec. However, almost all the EXIFprint tags are recorded as 0, so I'm not sure whether it will actually help anyone get better prints from their camera. And since most D-SLR users have a computer driven workflow, they won't be using the camera->printer system for which EXIFprint was designed in any case.
Now for the troubling part. Nikon has received plenty of complaints about the 'partial' images that the D1 family may record in low battery conditions. They are pretty well documented on the Nikon Europe site and are certainly annoying when they happen to you. Unfortunately, the fix in the new firmware appears to be not allowing the camera to fire when the battery is very low. This is a mixed blessing. It means you will not get partial images, but it may also mean you reach to turn on your camera and can't take any frames at all.
Personally I find the old system of making the camera less and less usable by turning off pieces of the LCD painful enough to shoot through that I'm motivated to switch batteries when I can. But if I'm on a low battery or my last battery and action is happening, I want to shoot! I'd rather have 1 out of 10 of those frames be junk than not be able to shoot at all. That's just my preference that fits my shooting style, but once you upgrade the firmware you appear to be stuck with the new behavior. I'm going to see how it works for awhile on my D1X before sending in my D1H.
Those who've held off sending in their camera(s) may be glad they did. Moose sent his 2 D1H cameras to Kentucky only to have the LCD screens on both of them rendered unusable. Now he's having to send both cameras back to NPS for service. Sure that leaves him with a D100, but 2fps does not make for a happy Moose for very long! Perhaps he's not the only one, as Nikon is now doing all the firmware upgrades (along with the buffer upgrades) at their regular NPS facilities in Melville and Torrance. Presumably they have their normal skilled technicians doing the service there and will be able to take better care of the cameras they are sent.
However, I do have a quick warning on that front. My credit card statement showed a charge of $546.50 instead of $246.50. Glad I noticed! Nikon made me send them a fax of the statement since apparently NPS can't actually see how much they charged you(?!), but says they'll credit the difference. Sort of sloppy although the camera works great!
To send your camera in for the buffer enhancement, follow this link. If you just want the firmware upgrade, you can follow this link. Note that the instructions are now very confusing. The site makes repeated reference to the special upgrade center, but when you actually click on the order form you'll see they've changed the address to the regular NPS facilities.
Nothing earth-shaking, and I'm sure that there will be the usual griping that cameras need to be sent in for this upgrade, but all in all a nice 'touch-up' for the D1 product line. Nikon should be applauded for putting this much effort into protecting the investments of their existing users. It's easy to focus on the next great thing and not always so easy to make sure and provide value to your existing customers.
Okay, so it is a very cool camera. It has 11 million awesome pixels. I love the color and I love the images. But is it the right camera for you? Read my full review of a production model EOS-1Ds and find out. I've included a couple full-resolution JPEGs for folks with plenty of bandwidth to download!
Make sure and visit us at: http://www.nikondigital.org/discuss/ubbthreads.php. Always free and always informative! In particular, we're curious what your experience has been with the D1 family firmware upgrades or if you've gotten your hands on a 1Ds what you thought of it.
These week we have two tips, courtesy of John Shaw. First, he wanted me to make sure and remind everyone that with the new Nikon Photoshop plug-in you can do basic Raw mode adjustments right from the plug-in and don't need to run any additional Raw processing software at all. He also passed along some nifty advice for file sharing. With Windows XP, he can hook two computers together over firewire and they'll share files without any additional hardware or software.