{"id":130,"date":"2006-01-10T21:46:44","date_gmt":"2006-01-10T12:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-01-10\/130"},"modified":"2007-12-18T23:35:53","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T14:35:53","slug":"got-my-d200","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-01-10\/130","title":{"rendered":"Got my D200!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

\n\nI got a wonderful surprise today when I got<\/span> a call<\/span> from my friend Katsunori Shimada<\/a>. We'd talked<\/span> earlier in the day (after our workout -- we do the elliptical\ntrainer and weight training a few<\/span> times a week<\/span> at a local club<\/a><\/small>)\nabout how there's a worldwide<\/span> shortage of Nikon's new digital SLR. I'd ordered a Nikon<\/span> D200<\/a> a\nweek<\/span> or so ago, and at the time the shop had no idea when it might come in\n(could be two days, or could be two months). Since then, reading online forums<\/a>, I've found out that they're\nin short supply worldwide.\n\n<\/p>\n\n

\n\nIt's a bit frustrating having no idea even how many people are in front of\nme in line, so Shimada-san kindly agreed to call to find out. Well, it\nturns out that the camera body was already in! This information, of course,\nwas the aforementioned wonderful surprise. Slightly dampening it, though,\nwas that the lens\nI ordered<\/span><\/a> at the same time wouldn't arrive until mid February.\n\n\n<\/p>

\n\nWell, since my previous camera broke<\/a> and is at the shop,\nI've been without a reasonable<\/span> camera lately. The timing<\/span> is particularly\nbad because this past weekend one of my neighbors from Cupertino visited\n(stopping buy Japan on his way to Nairobi, London, and Ireland). It would<\/span> have been nice to have a camera.<\/span>\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n

I called the shop to confirm that indeed my<\/i> D200 body was waiting\nfor me, and without much time left before I had<\/span> to pick Anthony up at\ndaycare, I hightailed<\/span> it on my bicycle down to the Teramachi electric\nshopping district, 15 or so minutes away (but the way I was<\/span> flying today,\nit was half that). Along the way I had<\/span> to find a bank<\/span> or convenience store\nto withdraw the money, and this turned into more of a hassle<\/span> than I wanted<\/span>\n(involving returning home to get a forgotten<\/span> bank card), but in the end I\nwas<\/span> able to get what I needed.<\/span> (Unlike ATMs in America, there are much\nhigher daily withdraw limits in Japan. When it's a non<\/span>-bank-specific one\nsuch as at a convenience<\/span> store, the limit is usually $1,000 or $2,000, but\nI've been able to pull $2,500 from the convenience store near us, so I\ndon't<\/span> even know what their limit is.)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nSo, I picked<\/span> up my D200 body. It turns<\/span> out that they'd tried to call me a\nnumber<\/span> of times (or so they claim). I wonder<\/span> why I didn't<\/span> get the messages.\nAnyway, I asked<\/span> how many of these they get in a week,<\/span> and the guy said\nthat it's not measured that way (they can go weeks without getting any...\nthey trickle in when they come in). The only reason<\/span> I got<\/span> mine now is\nbecause someone else canceled. Otherwise, I'd still<\/span> be waiting (but,\npresumably, be next in line).\n\n<\/p>\n\n

\n

\n\n Here's a note that will mean nothing unless you're looking for this\n information: Bought in Kyoto, Japan. Serial number is 2011199. The box and<\/span>\n manual pack have “AJ” stickers on them. The manual<\/span> has “jp” in the upper\n corner (and is, of course, in Japanese -- I've downloaded the English\n version from Nikon's web site).\n\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

Just as with many electronic shops, Joshin\nDenki<\/a> offers “points” with most purchases -- basically, it's credit\nback that you can use for purchases later. In this case<\/span>, I got about<\/span> $160\nback, and on a whim<\/span> used $90 of it to buy a four<\/span>-year extension to the\none-year Nikon warranty. It's probably<\/span> money well wasted (at least, I hope it<\/span> will be), but I consider<\/span> it free since I used<\/span> the points <\/b>. I also used<\/span> $30 worth to get a printer<\/span> ink cartridge I'd been needing. I still<\/span> have enough left to get a camera<\/span> bag, or something, I suppose.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAnyway, there remained the issue of a lens.<\/span> I bought<\/span> the body only, so\nneeded a lens<\/span> if I wanted<\/span> to actually use it. They had a very<\/span> small\nselection of lenses -- a few<\/span> Nikon and a few<\/span> Nikon-fit Tamron<\/a> lenses. I would<\/span> have loved a\nsomewhat<\/span> fast short-range zoom (say, in the 16-60 range) because I'd still\nwant it even after getting the slow 18-200 on order, but they had nothing\nreally appropriate. What they did have was close, but I didn't<\/span> want to\nspent $500 on something “close”, so after much hemming and hawing, I decided<\/span> to not get the lens there. I thought<\/span> I might<\/span> go pick up Anthony and\nthen take a drive<\/span> somewhere to get one.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nBut, while at the checkout, I got a<\/span> text message from Shimada-san\nsuggesting that the lens selection would be better at a nearby<\/span> camera store<\/a> (since\nthe place I was<\/span> at sold mostly computers, and had only minimal camera\nstuff). Time was getting tight, but I stopped<\/span> by and indeed they had a wide<\/span>\nrange of lenses (Nikon, Sigma, Tamron), and also a quite<\/span> a lot<\/span> of used\nones. After much (much!) hemming and hawing, since I'm really quite out of\nmy element, I spent<\/span> $90 and got a used<\/span> Nikon AF 28-80 f\/3.3-5.6 zoom. At\nf\/3.3 it's not very fast, but it'll suit me fine for a while<\/span> until I can<\/span>\ndecide on a good<\/span> short\/medium zoom. They buy used equipment, and if they\ngive me $50 for it in the summer, for example, then it's like renting it\nfor 30 cents a day.<\/span> I can live<\/span> with that.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nSo now it's 9:45pm and I've taken the D200 out of the box but have done\nnothing so far other than ogle it. Now the fun<\/span> begins....\n\n<\/p>\n\n

UPDATE<\/b>: my first shot, the toy-strewn top of Anthony's play stove...<\/p> \n\n

<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got a wonderful surprise today when I got a call from my friend Katsunori Shimada. We'd talked earlier in the day (after our workout -- we do the elliptical trainer and weight training a few times a week at a local club) about how there's a worldwide shortage of Nikon's new digital SLR. I'd ordered a Nikon D200 a week or so ago, and at the time the shop had no idea when it might come in (could be two days, or could be two months). Since then, reading online forums, I've found out that they're in short [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}