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sjstremb
Lives in
St Louis, USA, United States
Works as a
Emeritus Professor of Art/Photography
Has a website at
www.strembicki.com
Joined on
Dec 14, 2001
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Comments
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I have know a number of photo friends who purchased Makinas and all of them at one point or another had repair issues, on the other hand I also had a lot of friends who had Mamiya 7 and 6's and I can not recall any of them with repair problems, I am thinking you gotta figure that into "cheaper costs" column.
sjstremb: I've been an NPS member since before digital so I've had a lot of experience with them, in my limited experience with NPS, the quality of the services they provide in the past 5 years appears to have slipped a bit, so perhaps this will step things up. The loaner program inventory has never been very deep so thats been a limitation in the past. Mostly I've used the priority purchase program and the repair program which I think works pretty well and is worth my buying in at the $149 level.
no, that was not a comment on the gear but the NPS services here in the USA
I've been an NPS member since before digital so I've had a lot of experience with them, in my limited experience with NPS, the quality of the services they provide in the past 5 years appears to have slipped a bit, so perhaps this will step things up. The loaner program inventory has never been very deep so thats been a limitation in the past. Mostly I've used the priority purchase program and the repair program which I think works pretty well and is worth my buying in at the $149 level.
Expose for the shadows develop for the highlights
It was a pretty interesting camera and the lens was terrific, however everyone I knew that had one had issues with durability and especially film transport issues. One of my graduate students who used it had two as often as not one was in the shop being repaired. I would be so bold to suggest that the Makina was the "grandfather" to the Mamiya 6/7 series cameras that would prove to be much more reliable and had interchangeable lenses.
A very nice article. I'm a pro with a D810 system and and seven modern AF lenses to go with it, I also have a Fuji Xpro2 with 6 primes, so for me, I'm already into a second system with a second set of glass. I just want Nikon to do this right and for me the Nikon 1 system was a big disappointment. the author was right in my view, if Nikon does make this a Xpro2 like body, many would only require a few primes.
Nikon FM or FE and there are lots of very nice F3's out there that are priced well especially the non-HP version. Oddly enough, the F4's are surprisingly cheap but are a lot of camera to tote around.
I own a Nikon F, F2, F3, F5 and my go to film camera is still the F2, even in the studio.
I've used this lens as a street photography lens at Mardi Gras, in close quarters its a great lens. I also have a 14-24 and the lighter weight of the 20mm is often a deciding factor. I had a chance to test drive a Zeiss 21mm Milvus last year at MG and the difference between the IQ for me was not worth the loss of the AF.
I found this nugget from the Epson Minister of Propaganda an interesting/amusing bit: “The SureColor P5000 is a replacement to the last Epson Stylus® Pro model still available – the renowned Epson Stylus Pro 4900." Renowned for clogging-head failure, exactly what was it renowned for.... and I say that as an owner of a 4900.
sjstremb: I have a Mk III version of this camera and although it's not the same camera its pretty similar. For me, its a great little party camera, but for any kind of really serious work I actually found the zoom lens lacking. For the $ I did n to think you get the value out of it and I did not think its the kind of camera-for the work I do-to replace either my Xpro 2 or my D810. It is a very nice sensor, but thats the most I can say for it, oh yes, in the first year I had my MK III it spent more time in warranty repair than in my hands, a word of warning to anyone considering one of these little wonders, if it breaks, heaven help you, Sony warrant repair is terrible.
of course, but the point I was making was more that I overestimated the quality of the lens design, perhaps unrealistically I thought this camera would be something that I could use to more something more than snapshots. It was in the end an unrealistic expectation in my goal to user lighter more compact gear. I just did not want anyone else to follow that assumption that I did.
I have a Mk III version of this camera and although it's not the same camera its pretty similar. For me, its a great little party camera, but for any kind of really serious work I actually found the zoom lens lacking. For the $ I did n to think you get the value out of it and I did not think its the kind of camera-for the work I do-to replace either my Xpro 2 or my D810. It is a very nice sensor, but thats the most I can say for it, oh yes, in the first year I had my MK III it spent more time in warranty repair than in my hands, a word of warning to anyone considering one of these little wonders, if it breaks, heaven help you, Sony warrant repair is terrible.
Not any mention of print head design or changes to print head life span. The Epson print head failure rate is a well documented weakness of 4900-9900 printers to the extent that there has been some attempts at a class action lawsuit. Just do a search here about it, it's really criminal.
I hope this new series is not more of the same.