While on holiday this summer noticed my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR lens wasn't focusing properly.  Specifically, the focusing ring did a lot of wandering before locking into focus.  When in dim light and/or using a polarizer, however, the lens quite often couldn't attain focus at all.  At first chalked this up to normal behavior.  But over the course of the summer it got to the point where all focusing with the lens had to be done manually.

A couple weeks ago called the Nikon Service Center in Melville, NY to discuss my issue and options for fixing it.  From the moment the customer service rep answered the phone could tell this would be a positive experience.  He was helpful, knowledgeable, and "on shore" to boot.  But then after several minutes of conversaton he dropped the bombshell; he said Nikon warrants their US purchased lenses for 5 years.  Wow!  And given this lens was purchased last year in 2006 the rep said all I had to do was pack it (with a copy of my receipt), ship it (insured) to the Nikon Service Center, and they would take care of the rest.

After shipping it to Nikon via UPS ground on Friday, September 14 it arrived back yesterday.  All told it was returned in less than two weeks and only cost me the $23 shipping fee to send it to Nikon.

According to the packing slip the lens repair invovled (1) replacing the SWM (Silent Wave Motor) and focusing ring, (2) adjustment of several lens components, and (3) a thorough check and cleaning.  Once out of the box gave the lens a thorough test on my Nikon D70s in both bright and dim light and found it to work perfectly!  It even looks new!

Seems odd after all the cameras, lens, et al I've owned and all the images taken over the years to have never had an item that required repair.  Certainly happy this first experience was so painless.  Thanks, Nikon.

Since the beginning of June, have no longer had to worry about backing up image files.  The backup has been automatic, secure, and off-site.  Although not exactly fast.

In late May of this year a neighbor who has many gigabytes of photos and videos on his home PC had spoke of a Walt Mossberg column he read last December in the Wall Street Journal which compared two off-site data backup & storage services, Mozy and Carbonite.  Walt's endoresment of Mozy got my neighbor to try it earlier this year.  And although he said it took about a month to complete the initial backup, once it was done he knew he wouldn't need to go through all the motions for backup that I was doing.

After buying and reading Peter Krogh's book "The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management For Photographers" last summer I began the process outlined in his book of filing and storing images in folders no bigger than what a DVD could hold, making DVDs every time I acquired new images, and then carting the DVDs off to a safety deposit box at a local bank branch.  Although this work flow does provide for safely backed up files, it was too many additional steps and required too much extra time.

With Mozy, however, this old, tiresome process is now a thing of the past.  

Mozy is easy; it backs up whatever files or file types you specify whenever your machine is idle.  It is also cheap (i.e., about $5 per month for an unlimited amount of storage).  At present have almost 100 GB backed up which includes all my digital image files, the contents of a 30 GB iPod, plus other files.  But in addition to easy and cheap it is also safe.  Every file is safely stored off-site thousands of miles away (at least so I think).  Restoring files is as simple as selecting the file(s) to restore from the integrated user interface or request DVD copies by mail.

The only negative experience to date was the time (about a month) it took to complete the initial backup.  Although the downstream service from our internet access provider (a cable TV company) arrives at a whopping 5 giga whizzes per second, the upstream speed crawls at an unbelievably slow 512k per day (it seems).  Mind you this upstream speed is ordinarily no problem, but it certainly slows down the backup process.  And while this speed is not the fault of Mozy, it does have an impact (albeit a small one once the intial backup is complete).

Without question, though, can say am a happy and satisfied user of Mozy.  And glad to be rid of a process where I had numerous steps to complete to ensure backups were made and taken off-site.

Concluded another successful eBay sale this past week (this time for the Nikon SB-50DX Electronic Flash).

On the heels of concluding another sale on eBay last week am offering for auction another item today.

The Nikon Autofocus Speedlight SB-50DX, a compact, multi-function electronic flash unit, was a great companion to the Nikon F100 camera.  It's small, light-weight and just enough power for making indoor shots of family and social gatherings.

Am finding this eBay model is a great way to rotate photo gear; perfectly good items are finding good homes, my closet is cleaner, and no longer feel guilty about gear seeing insufficient use.

Based on the success of selling the Nikon 80-200mm lens on eBay mid last year have decided to offer up another item for auction.

The Nikon F100 purchased in March 2004 (as described in this blog previously) was an ideal upgrade for me.  At that time my camera du jour was a Nikon N8008s.  Although it was in top notch condition, was interested in moving up to a more sophisticated camera.  And thought this new Nikon F100 would hold me for several years while the digital SLR technology got sorted out by the market place.

In September 2005, however, was in Singapore's Sim Lim Square and lured to the Nikon D70s.  After negotiating with several shop owners finally arrived at a price that was hard to beat.  Since that day, have yet to shoot a single frame with a film camera.

Given the Nikon F100 was still new to me at the time, never gave a thought to selling it.  But as time went by and it saw no use, decided it was time to say good-bye to this classic Nikon camera.  Am offering this Nikon F100 for sale on eBay today, therefore, in hopes it may find a good home.