Update: Nikon has issued a firmware update to address this situation. See the "D200" row on this page.

Today was "Sports Day" at Anthony's preschool, which is a fun event full of play, silliness, and dance. Like last year's Sports Day, it was very hot -- 90s in the shade, but the entire event was in the sun -- but this year I think the heat was worse for my camera than for me.

I was using my big 70-200/2.8 zoom and Nikon D200 on my monopod. After taking about 830 pictures, I was surprised to see the "battery [...]
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This post is a continuation of my earlier tripod-test posts:

Considerations for Building and Using a Tripod Tripod Stability Tests, Part I Tripod Stability Tests, Part II Tripod Stability Tests: on Shutter Speed

Part II compared different equipment setups; in this post, I'll look at the same results, but with an eye toward differing photo-taking techniques.

All images on this post were taken at f/8, ISO 100, with a 1-second shutter speed, with a pro-level 70-200 f/2.8 zoom at 200mm.

These are all from the same test session as those presented in earlier posts, so all the same caveats apply.

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(Note: this long-winded, painfully verbose post will be of interest only to serious camera geeks, if anyone)

After posting the first parts of my tripod stability tests (Part I and Part II), some discussion ensued about my choice of a one-second shutter speed for the tests, both in the comments added to the posts (comments for Part I and Part II), and in the forums at Digital Photography Review (starting from this post).

Well-presented comments from a number of different people suggested that a one-second exposure was too long, and by keeping the shutter open longer than the vibration vibrated, [...]

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I introduced my tripod stability tests in the previous post, and I'll continue in this post with more details.

Before I continue, I must note that there are some serious caveats that limit how much one can really read into the result I'm about to present. I don't list the caveats up front because no one will pay attention to them anyway /-:, so I detail them later in this post.

In this post I'll focus on equipment setup. In another, I focus more on technique.

Equipment Tests: Basics

To test the effects of changing equipment, I used a [...]

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My previous post contained a superficial listing of considerations for building a tripod, and left off wondering how to test the effect of various ways to use a tripod. For example, how detrimental is it to add a center column? How beneficial is mirror lock up? Since getting my really nice tripod, I find myself wanting to learn how to use it properly, and these questions are a big part of that.

I tend to dive into things looking for answers, as evidenced by the posts in my photography-tech category, such as my auto-focus test chart, my analysis of NEF [...]

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