>An issue for you though; there are two ways to get warranties for
>equipment, US and International (grey market) warranties.  The US
>warranties are generally a lot better, but add more cost to the
>equipment and are only good in the US.  International warranties are
>generally useless in the US, but the better choice for
>international buyers.

Gray-market warranties... at least with Nikon... I bought a
gray-market item here in NZ. There is NO factory warranty. However
the importer gives a *2*-year warranty. I hope I don't need to see if
it's any use.

An international warranty by definition should be of full use in the
US. A licensed dealer who refuses to honor such a warranty is in
breach of consumer laws and of the manufacturer's requirements.
Unfortunately Nikon doesn't offer international warranties.

Gray-market Nikons also do not come with a manual. And there is NO
way to GET a manual unless your camera's serial number comes up in
the market it's supposed to be in. Of course mine doesn't. I even
tried a number from a NZ-market camera (I copied the number from a
new D80 in a camera shop). No dice. You can't buy one from Nikon (so
what happens if you have a "proper" market Nikon and lose the
manual??). Nikon has an online pdf manual BUT it is NOT printable. So
what's the use?

I have these complaints so far about my D80 and Nikon...
1 - viewfinder adjustment stops short of correcting for my shortsightedness
2 - Nikon NZ's "can't be bothered" attitude re advice as to
alternative eyepiece diopter availability
3 - camera will not focus clearly, either on manual or autofocus
4 - lack of manual
5 - occasionally the camera refuses to shoot; it just stops working
for a while, then goes back to normal

>I own Nikon 35mm cameras from long ago. They had a circle with
>a line on the top indicating the focus plane. It might be
>best to set up the distance and not trust the eyes.

Can't do that with the digital (DSLR) D80.

>More light increases depth of field which in turn makes more
>of a 3-D object come into focus.

Actually stopping down reduces incoming light and increases DOF
(depth of focus). Which of course, on a manual camera, requires a
concomitant reduction of shutter speed... and, if handheld,
camera-shake.

>Naturally when working at 4" the dimensions become much smaller.

This is a real problem with macro work.

>Digital cameras never planned on Micro/Macro (Nikon/Minolta) lens
>distances. My Sony digital has optional lenses for micro.
>It is a tube with a lens attached. It is a bit ugly, but functions.
>I have the tele for it as well. It was an early 5Mb camera.

You mean nonSLR digitals. DSLRs have optional macro lenses.

>The Nikkor has a 55mm lens for Micro photography. (or did).
>They might have one for the digital camera.
>
>In my opinion, Nikon chose poorly making the 35mm lenses obsolete.
>In recent years a digital model came out that accepted the older
>lenses. There was a lot of smoke talk about purity and clarity of
>glass, but the 35mm lenses resolved to a higher resolution. The
>object was to replace our cameras with new ones. That didn't happen.

My boss (a paleocetaceologist) had a Nikon D70, and his nondigital
autofocus lenses fit it. He did beautiful macro photos. Might have to
borrow his macro lenses and see if my D80 will do a similar job. With
its focusing problem...

As Sid Sneidar and Marcus Coltro have said to me, the Nikon Coolpix
990 compact digital takes great images of shells larger than 10mm,
with no DOF problems. Both have said that 990s can be picked up for
very reasonable prices on eBay.

>With a digital SLR, what you see on the LCD comes directly through
>the lens, so if the image is sharp, there's something else going on.

Tiny LCD screens aren't really of high enough resolution to tell how
crisp the image is. This was a real problem with my DiMage A2, which
a "pseudoSLR" and therefore had an LCD viewfinder as well as back
screen.

>Are you using a good flash?

Just the built-in. Can't afford a macro lens or quality flashes now.
Poor focus occurs with or without flash, closeup or scenic shots,
every image is unsatisfactory.

>With a quality strobe and even a simple
>aluminum foil reflector, you can shoot at f-strops as small as f8 or
>f16, thus assuring a good depth of field. I have an older Nikon 8700
>and the photos are crisp and clear. A D80 should do even better. I
>use my reading glasses when viewing the LCD

I don't, because my "glasses" have plastic lenses and the rubber
viewfinder surround will eventually leave a wear ring on the
lenses... not a good idea.

>and in general, never
>have to go beyond autofocus except when shooting micros (which I stay
>away from anyhow).

The focusing sensors of course tend to latch onto the wrong part of
the micro...

>All things considered, I'm shocked that you'd find
>a D80 image unacceptable. I'd be happy to trade cameras with you. If
>you go back and look at all the photos I shot for American
>Conchologist, they were all shot with the 8700 except for the
>earliest which were shot with a 2 megapixel Epson, yet even those
>images were quite sharp.

I found that an ancient floppy-disc Sony Mavica FDF-88 shooting
through a magnifying glass took better shots than my D80 or A2!

I'm wondering if my electromagnetic field has some peculiarity which
affects computers. Such electronic wizardry tends to malfunction in
my proximity... a series of Macintoshes (all except the 16-yer-old
Mac I'm typing this on now, and all using the same set of softeware,
in OS 9.1, 9.2 and X), 2 digital cameras...
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not those of Otago University
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean"  - Talking Heads

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