I don’t understand the comment about “off focus shots”…. are you somehow implying that I might make a mistake from time to time?! Blasphemy! Actually, most were fine because I didn’t take all that many shots to begin with, and I knew that focus would be an issue, so I was careful. There’s one shot that’s quite out of focus, and I sort of like the effect I ended up with, so perhaps I’ll post it. As for the focus screen, wow, it’s hard to believe how bad the stock Nikon one is for manual focus until you get to enjoy a good one for a while, then have to go back. Ugh. —Jeffrey

However, I would like to see them a bit darker. After all, it is nighttime, and even though the combination of lens and camera can make it seem much brighter than it actually is, I think that, as photographs, they would in general look better with -0.7 exposure compensation or so. After all, the camera doesn’t know it’s nighttime, and the metering system is struggling to get to 18% grey. At least to my eye, more darkness and shadow would have made for more interesting photos, at least for most of these.

I appreciate the kind words, but I’m missing something in the connection to the “people pics” comment. (Perhaps I don’t know what “people pics” means, but my first guess would be “pictures of people” ) —Jeffrey

Went to Kyoto last March, beautiful place. can’t wait to return next year. n times better than where I live now (neighbor to the breaucrats –> Washington DC).

My 17-35mm arrived so I will go do some shooting this weekend.

The “John” above wasn’t you? I figured that you were just trying the ‘h’ on for size… —Jeffrey

Glad you got to test out your D700. I think the metering has changed quite a bit over the last few years with Nikon. They went very different with the D80 and have been toning it back ever since. To me, the D700 is capturing the most usable range I have experienced so far. There is almost never a time that whites are unrecoverable in Lightroom.

Looking forward to more pictures… especially at dawn, dusk and even night! I need to shoot more myself!

I saw your post about how your angelic wife surprised you with the D700, and it made me all the more anxious to get my hands on mine (which I’d ordered right away, but it arrived the day after I left for The States). Of course, the low-light performance is great, but there are a few “issues” I’ve not yet worked out. Sometimes the on-screen image playback goes wacky, as if I’m looking at a 50′s TV with poor reception. The files themselves are fine when I move them from the card, so I dunno what the problem might be. I also find that the metering doesn’t seem as good as the D200, but since I’ve not yet read the manual, it’s not really fair to blame the camera over my own ignorance, so understanding how the metering might differ from the D200 is something on my to-to list. —Jeffrey

Whats the status of the 12-24mm on this body ?

Nice to see you back, Kalyan. The 12-24/4 is a DX lens, so you’d either get a 6MP image when the sensor is in DX mode, or if you force FX mode, one would expect softness and vignetting at the edges. (Here’s a Digital Photography Review post that discusses the 12-24/4 on an FX sensor.) —Jeffrey

These pictures are seriously cool!!!