“new” camera
I have to say I’m a little disappointed with Nikon repair service. I picked up my replacement camera and ran it through some tests. First off, the serial number is 1.4 million lower than the camera I sent in. I wonder when it was put into service. Turning the camera on I noticed that firmware version 1.3 was installed. The most recent firmware version number is 1.7 and was released in August 2005. Nikon couldn’t take the time to install the latest firmware? Next I took a couple pictures so I could test for hot/dead pixels. The picture number was in the 9800’s. I wonder if the count has ever been reset (I suspect I could find a repair shop that has diagnostic tools to get an actual count). I’d taken about 2500 pictures on the camera I sent in. So, I sent in a relatively new camera (that was admittedly having problems) and received a heavily used camera for which I have no clue as to it’s past problems or repair history. Sigh. The camera store’s going to follow up with Nikon.
As for the picture tests, I got mixed results with the pixel test. I first did the test with high-quality JPEGs and definitely found hot pixels. The test procedure recommends TIFF images, and doing so resulted in fewer hot pixels. I’ll just have to keep an eye out for them in my pictures.
The weather wasn’t overly condusive to taking pictures today, but I took a few (a couple links below). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get out with my tripod so I can set up comparisons between the Nikon and my Fuji F30.
