2008 Ends

A year has come and gone. How fast time goes. Just like that!

Thanks to a tip from TFC, I learned that one of my photos has appeared on Boing Boing. How cool!

Ramon finally checked in. Initially I thought this would be Ramon, but turns out he ended up being this instead.

Up next is a pictorial comparison of Raul and Ramon. Ramon is on the right in the pictures.

Bottom


Top


Left


Right


Back


Front

I will not give a review of either. For that, you can check out the excellently done reviews by Thom for the D200 and the D700. Instead I shall just point out features of the D700 that I appreciate as improvements over the D200.

Noise performance is tops. I can shoot at higher ISOs with the D700 than I can with the D200 without comparable picture degradation due to noise.

The navigation wheel at the back of the D700 has a button at the centre that is easier to press than the mechanism on the D200.

The viewfinder eye-piece on the D700 is part of the camera body, unlike that on the D200 which I have lost, replaced and lost again! There's also a lever that you can use to cover the viewfinder on the D700, unlike for the D200 where you need a seperate piece to cover the viewfinder in shots where that is needed.

Zooming on the D700 is a 1 button affair, unlike for the D200 where you first press one button, then press another as you scroll a wheel to zoom in or out.

A plus for the D200 over the D700 is the stiffer focus lock lever on the former which makes it harder to accidentally switch it. There have been times during the few moments I have worked with the D700 where I found I couldn't change the focus area as I had accidentally switched the focus lock lever. So now I have to be more careful when shooting not to switch it.

The flash sync and power ports on the D700 are covered by rubber covers attached to the body (thus making it much harder to lose them!), unlike for the D200 where those ports are covered by plastic screw-on covers. The flash sync port cover is already lost (see Left View picture above), and I have seen a number of other D200 bodies where that cover was lost.

These are my initial thoughts on the two cameras. With time I'll have a more informed opinion of both machines.

Before I leave camera manenos, I have to point out this lady who got a superb cake and gift from her husband on her birthday.



How neat!

In terms of weddings, this has been my busiest month. I had 4 weddings to cover over the period of a week. So it was a case of charge batteries, download pictures, format compact flash cards, shoot wedding, repeat. On one of the weddings, the deliverable was a disc of images. However, the bride called me later and asked if I could get an album ready for her before Saturday, as she and her husband leave for the US Sunday. So I spent this week sourcing an album, then getting images ready to print, then mounting them on the album, and finally packaging it. This meant working right up to Christmas Day. The end result was worth it.



Incidentally, on my way to shoot the wedding above, I had some interesting car issues. I was supposed to be at the venue at 7.30am. So I leave my place early at 6.45am. I pass by the petrol station to fuel my car. I go to start it after that. Nothing doing. Try again, still nothing. Turns out the timing belt in the engine had gotten cut. How weird for it to have happened where it did! Fortunately I was able to get another car to drive as this one was attended to.

I picked my car up two days ago. I drove around, and found that it still had a problem starting after some time staying off. I took it back to the mechanic to check it out. He asked me to park it at a place he could check it out. Just as I go to drive it there, the steering mechanism broke down. How lucky that happened right at that point, and not while I was on the main road! This car is jinxed I tell you.

From the Small World department. On one of the weddings I did, it turns out the mother of the bride is good friends with my aunt. And the groom is good friends with a guy I went to high school with. One of his grooms men is good friends with another friend of mine. I tell you, one day I'll wake up to find I am related to every single human being at this rate!

At one of the weddings I did, I had to help out some of the grooms tie their ties. Turns out that is a skill that not everyone has! So my camera was put down for a moment and ties were tied.

The evening party of that particular wedding was different from most others I have attended. They even had 1 man guitar present! One interesting bit about the evening was when the MC called upon the bride and groom to give their accounts of how they first met and got together. About the only thing that agreed between both accounts was the venue and time of their first meeting. Beyond that, eh, each had some salt and spice to add to the tale. Very interesting that.

That was one of two weddings with huge bridal parties. There were 7 groom's men, 7 bride's maids, a flower girl and a page boy. At the other wedding there were 8 groom's men, 9 bride's maids, a flower girl and a page boy. Choirs these! So it was an interesting challenge during the photo shoot. Fortunately the bridal parties were easy to work with, so we had fun during the photo sessions.

So today is Christmas. I wish y'all a most wonderful day today (even though there's just 2 hours left of it as I type this!). Here are two pictures of rings from recent weddings to close out my contributions to your pictorial enjoyment of 2008. Have a blast in 2009!!

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