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Nikon USA has made a press release announcing two new DSLRs and two new lenses.

D300s – incremental upgrade to the D300 adding movie and dual CF/SD card slots

D3000 – D40/D60 replacement, 10.2MP with 11AF points and 3.0″ LCD

AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II – update on the excellent 70-200mm f/2.8 VR with Nano Crystal Coat and new optical design with 7 ED elements

AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II – update on the 18-200mm VR with zoom lock switch and SIC

Yesterday I was out and about with this Phottix gear, this time with my Nikon D300 and I just thought I would give you all an update on how they are performing. I will get some pictures up soon…hopefully before I scratch the units (although my ball head has already lost some paint as it was a demo unit).

Firstly, the Geo One on the D300 works well. As on the S5 Pro, the Geo one rapidly and reliably locks up the GPS satellites and inserts your position into the EXIF. The bonus of using the Geo One with the D300 is the D300′s ability to turn off its meter (and the Geo One) when the camera goes into standby, you may recall that I mentioned that the S5 Pro went through its battery very quickly as the meter and the Geo One did not turn off.

As for the Ball head….well since I last mentioned it I have moved the head to my trusty Manfrotto 055 PROB from its home on my Manfrotto 714B. It was rather annoying that I dont have more ArcaSwiss style quick release plate, but other than this, the ball head did a good job. My only gripes with this ball head was the amount of tightening that was required to prevent slippage of my camera (D300 + MB-D10 + Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 or Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR), this means the ball head will get moved back to my 714B to to save it from being regulated to being purely a light stand.  Otherwise the ball head was both easy to use and dealt with the load adequately. It will work nicely when smaller lenses are and lighter loads are in use.

Yesterday’s project was mainly panoramic and my experiences indicate that a ballhead is definitely better than a pistol grip head for this work, although a levelling base or a self centreing column is really needed to get the best out of any tripod.

Looks like I will be getting some more ArcaSwiss style quick release plates and the Phottix ball head and Geo One will remain in my arsenal. I will have to consider a levelling base and a larger ball head in the future…maybe a Markins M20.

I have just come home from attending Sony’s CREATE Roadshow where I was told about the new Sony Alpha DSLR line up. Everyone there also got a chance to spend a few hours with the A330 – the middle of the road in this new lineup.

Whats new? At first glance the new cameras have shrunk and have had a nice facelift, becoming an attractive two tone (gunmetal/black) package. However the first glance does not tell the truth…picking up the camera it appears that Sony has forgotten about ergonomics. The grip on these cameras (the A330 and A380 being the same body with a different sensor, and the A230 being a very similar body with the Live View functions and tilt screen removed) is deep but thin at the same time, leaving you with a grip that is uncomfortable with most hands. The buttons have been redesigned to mirror those of the CyberShot cameras closely “to aid the transition to DSLR”, but IMHO this has two fold ramifications for the end user. Firstly, there is a larger difference between the control set of these camreas and those higher up in the line up which will cause problems for Sony as their new users grow into the enthusiast/professional cameras, and there is a definite handicap with the ease of use the camera in a full manual mode.

The woes in the design do not end here. The redesigned GUI interface is nice, but at the same time the menu system has become more convoluted and harder to use with the splitting of controls into two distinct menu systems (activated by the menu button and the Fn button). This will require the user to remember where each feature is located, unlike the older Alpha menu system and the Nikon menu system which has a quick access menu as well as the full menu which contains all the options.

Furthermore, the direction pad that previously allowed the user to quickly set the AF point (when in the Local AF mode) has become a pad with hot keys to control ISO, Display, Flash and Burst/Self-timer/Remote. Although having these hot keys is nice and downsizing the number of buttons is good, this has meant that you have to dig into 2nd level menus to change your local AF point which is a BIG problem. As a final point, the cut down body size has meant that the menu button and the Aperture/Exposure compenstation buttons have been awkwardly placed on the top of the camera, further detracting from the ergonomics of the camera and making the Menu button rather hard to find.

Sony has decided to ditch the compact flash cards in these cameras, which is neither a good or bad thing, but the good news is that these cameras have a dual card slots for SD and MS which is more than welcome (is this a sign to the end of the MS card??). These cameras also sport a new (recycled from HandyCam) battery, which is smaller so I am assuming that this will be reflected in the battery life of the camera.

All of these cameras have the same 10/14MP ratings as the models they replace, there have been no actual physical upgrades between these 3rd generation Sony DSLRs and their 2nd generation cousins. In fact I could not find the wireless mode for the pop up flash on the A330 which I was using. The AF seemed to be similar to the older models as did the capture time, image quality did not appear to be improved, but I cannot comment on this unless I get an actual sample unit to confirm and compare.

The camera that I was issued (as was every other camera there) was fitted with Sony’s new 18-55mm lens, whihc to their credit, looks and feels like an improvment on the 18-70mm lens that it replaces. This lens was noticeably faster and quieter than the older kit lens.

The Good

• Dual SD and MS card slots
• 18-55 lens
• In body image stabiliser (Steady Shot)
• Quick AF Live View (A330/A380 only)
• Tilt screen (A330/A380 only – although this implementation is not as good as that of the Nikon D500 and the Olympus E-620/E-30)

The Bad

• Compromised control set
• Awkward grip
• Button placement

Overall, I feel that this is a step backwards for Sony. No doubt their marketing machine will ensure sales of these cameras, I have failed to see any significant changes to justify the purchase of these newer cameras over their older counterparts that are ergonomically superior and have more features. The new interface does not inspire confidence and users who want more control will quickly find that access is hampered and will either upgrade or move to a competitor. Unless there is a significant improvement in image quality (especially at high ISO) there seems little point in upgrading or choosing one of this new series over the older model which can be bought for cheaper.

Please keep in mind that these are my personal thoughts that have been deducted from a short hands on session (only a bit over 2 hrs) with the A330 (which is identical to the A380 and very similar to the A230) and does not take image quality into consideration. Please look at further reviews for a more information, or even better, compare the two generations of camera side by side.

Just been using the Phottix Geo One for a little while now and thought I would just let you all know how it is going.

I picked up this unit a little while ago and have been using it with my Fuji S5 Pro as my D300 has been away for repairs. Since then I have taken the unit around with me for most of my roaming and even on a day trip into the Blue Mountains.

My initial thoughts are that it works nicely. The time to initaially establish a connection varies but is mostly under a minute, however there have been occaisons when it has refused to connect (when indoors or when there is excessive cloud cover). Unfortunately the S5 Pro does not turn off its meters when the Geo One is connected so I cannot comment on warm start up times, this will have to be done when the D300 returns. There are no problems with integration, the Geo One does what it says it does, it writes straight to the EXIF in the S5 Pro and from what I have heard the D300 as well.

The bad news…it drains batteries! On the Fuji S5 Pro the meters dont turn off when the Geo One is connected, so both the camera meter and the Geo One remains on the whole time the camera is on, and if your like me and are used to keeping the camera on all day your batteries drain mighty quick. This is a problem for me as the S5 Pro has an annoying propriortry battery (thanks Nikon for not sharing the battery) and I only have two of these NP-150s. I do not own a MB-D200 so I cannot use AAs either. I had to stop using the Geo One during the Blue Moutains trip as I was worried of running out of battery. There should be no issue with the D300 as I have more batteries, the MB-D10 and the D300 will turn off the its light meter (and the Geo One) if left at idle.

So far I am very impressed with this unit and would have no problems continuing to use it.

I recently had to reformat my computer and in the process it appears that I have lost photos from at least two trips up to the Blue Mountains and a macro trip. I do not want to know what else I have lost as it hurts too much just knowing that I have lost the records from these two trips which feature in my gallery.

There is not much else to do but to take this as a lesson and use it as an excuse to head up into the mountains again in the near future in the hope that I will be able to replace some of the lost images.

Here is a showcase of some of the images lost forever (unless this insane attempt to recover a 320gb HDD that has been formatted and rewritten allows me to recover some of these photos).

These images will continue to be hosted on this website but will not be available for purchase as full size versions are not available for printing.

I took a trip up to the Katoomba in the Blue Mountains today with good friends, it was cold, wet and FOGGY. This meant that the cliche shots of the sisters were out of the question so we hunkered down and pushed through the mud and found a few things to take shots of.

This was the first time I was really testing the Phottix Geo One and the Phottix Ball Head that I picked up recently…and both have performed really well hopefully there will be more on this soon.

As my D300 is still not back from service I took the Fuji S5 Pro and had a play with a few different adjustments on the camera so the pics from today have a different look from my usual work.

I have had a bit of an interesting turn of events with the Lowepro Fastpack 250 being put out of action a little while ago, but am very happy to let you all know that Maxwell (Lowepro’s distributer in Australia) honoured Lowepro’s Limited Lifetime Warranty and replaced my Fastpack 250 (which was ripping at the straps). I took the chance to upgrade to the slightly larger Fastpack 350 which has a nicer harness, more room for camera gear and the ability to accomodate a 17″ laptop.

Whilst I was without my Fastpack 250 I really noticed how much I used that bag and how dependent on it for my day to day travels. I am glad to have a new Fastpack and even if I was unable to get my exisiting Fastpack repaired or replaced I would not have thought much about buying a replacement. It truly is a great day bag and it will remain in my arsenal for many years to come.

Two thumbs up to Maxwell and Lowepro for their great service and commitment to honouring their warranty.