New Nikon D40

According to :

DoN. Nichols wrote:
scenes, given the lack of interchangeable batteries (you had to recharge
them in the camera), and the limited resolution.

I can understand the other "shortcomings" (from our point of view; I'm
sure they all seemed reasonable at the time). But a fixed battery? Was
there some technical reason, or was it merely, let us say, lack of
foresight by someone?

Well ... the camera body derived power from this as well (wires
soldered to the battery carrier which normally goes into the bottom
plate of the camera). I think that removing the battery would cause a
reset of all of the counters, as well as the selected ISO. And if you
did this with some shots in the PCMCIA disk drive, you would wind up
with some rather confusing image numbering -- given the quirks already
present with continuous power. It derives the file name (in part) from
the frame number that the camera body thinks it has. (It still believes
that it is using film. :-) This means that it remembers the last frame
number, and just keeps incrementing (0-99), and then wraps. The
electronics in the body seem to then scan for what file names are
already in use, and if there is a gap at the start, it starts using
those, until it hits a file name that is already present. Once it fills
in all of the gaps present, it increments the digit to the left of the
frame number. (FWIW, the frame number is multiplied by ten, so 1-99
result in 010-990.) Then it starts stepping through the newer numbers
-- until you run out of space on the PCMCIA hard disk and swap in a new
one, at which point it starts over -- again with whichever frame number
the camera body gives it.

Since there is no real film, you can't reset the frame number by
rewinding the "film". (I've tried -- and I guess because it never
senses the "back" being opened, it does not consider the film to have
been changed.

And the reason for incrementing by ten -- this is because it has
a voice annotation system, which uses a new file for each N seconds of
speech. So it uses the nine file names just beyond the last frame taken
for the sequential annotation files (all .wav files).

The physical design of the "back" is such that it requires
disassembly (think jeweler's screwdrivers) to change the battery -- not
a reasonable field operation.

And the battery itself is a heat-shrink bundled set of eight NiMH
cells with a special connector -- not the sort of thing that you could
find in the field, either. :-)

I don't know for sure whether they considered making it
interchangeable, and decided to keep it permanent to preserve the
"flash" upgrades -- or whether the mechanics of interchangeable battery
packs were beyond the scale of the project. (This thing was developed
for the AP, and the cameras are so marked. I don't know whether the
others of the family were similarly stuck with built-in batteries.

Anyway -- since it was built on the N90s body, it handles both
modern "chipped" lenses and older AI lenses (in appropriate modes).

Oh yes -- another limitation. The TTL flash (from the SB-28)
which would normally work on a N90s with film won't work with the sensor
in the NC2000-e/c because the reflection and dispersion from the sensor
is different from the diffuse dispersion from film which the N90s
depended upon.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

According to Bill Funk :
On 19 Nov 2006 01:10:54 GMT, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:


I've looked in vain for a place to put the electronics (considering
heat problems) for such a back.
I think it would be much better to simply design the whole camera
around the sensor, than to try to make and market a back.

Look at the Kodak/Nikon NC2000e/c. That is a Nikon N90s film
camera body with a back (and sub-base) converting it to digital. (Only
1.3 MP -- but it was done quite a while ago.)

If that's the one he
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography...lrmain9197.htm
I don't think that fits the description of a "back", but is instead a
conversion. The base certainly provodes a place for the electronics,
but it's not a back.

That is it. And yes, it *is* a back with a sensor -- with a
sub-base rigidly attached. You remove the film camera's back. You
remove the battery cage from the underside of the camera, you slide the
modified and wired battery cage into the camera body while guiding the
back containing the sensor into position, and secure the whole thing
with a long captive tripod socket extension. You then plug the cable
from the base into the 10-pin connector at about 2:00 relative to the
lens as viewed from the front. (Scroll up on that page, and click on
the F90x which was the alternate name for the N90s, depending on where
you purchaseed it.) It is the larger of the two connectors on the front
-- somewhat below and to the left of the flash sync connector.

The sub-base holds the batteries, the electronics, and the
socket for the PCMCIA hard disk drive.

One other problem which I forgot to mention before is that it
does not have a display capable of showing the captured images. All the
display on the back shows is how many shots are left (and a pie chart of
percentage of PCMCIA hard drive used), and the state of the battery
charge. Plus -- with the right button pressed, it shows the SCSI ID
assigned to the back for image transfers.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Jim wrote in message ...
On 2006-11-16 13:02:02 -0500, "just bob" kilbyfan@aoldotcom said:


"Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote in message
...
Hi All,

Nikon USA has just announced the D40:
http://www.dimagemaker.com/article.php?articleID=774


Is it me or are Nikon's cheap cameras getting dumber while the cheap
Canon cameras are getting smarter?

A dumb digital camera that works is not a bad thing. I shoot RAW with my
D70s and will continue with whatever I buy in the future. Photoshop is my
firend. But, Dad a veteran of the Speed Graphic, Leica IIIf, Nikon F and
a Nikon F3 and Kodachrome when it was ASA 10 (yes for you young ones, ASA
10 with f 3.5 lenses) bought a D50. I questioned his judgement. In the
past, he has taken many prize winning photographs. It isn't the first
time I have later admitted Dad was right and it won' t be the last. He is
compentent in Quicken, does on line banking etc. But, trying to teach him
the basics of PhotoShop Elements or Microsoft Picture etc.. was well, a
futile effort. So, with that D50 on JPEG fine, large, he takes pictures,
shoves the SD card in his Epson printer and prints off some pretty amazing
photos. He also takes the card to the quicky one hour lab and likewise
gets back very credible pictures. Are they going to win the Salon Slide
category month after month, perhaps not, but they are still very worth
while. If he had to post process every shot, he wouldn't be taking
pictures.

Does not make a lot of sense, sounds more like he has made a choice and is
sticking to his guns. just think what he could do if he tried a bit harder
like he did with Quicken, personally I hate Querken!!

"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote in message
.. .
In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems Anthony wrote:
The EOS 10D is still available for order in Asia. Lots of canonistas
have also put their 300Ds, 350Ds and 20Ds on the used market and
upgraded. Me thinks the Nikon D40 is competing against those old Canon
cameras. The 10D is definitely lots better than the Nikon D40 despite
having almost the same pixel count.

The Nikon D40 is also going to compete against the (discounted) D70s
and the D50s that are still available in the market. Makes me wonder
what strategy Nikon is following. I wish Nikon has something to compete
against the Canon 5D so that Canon is forced to lower the premium on
that full-frame camera.


I tell you what. Average Joe will go into best buy and he will buy the
new
Nikon D40 and not look for a used Canon 300D.

Personally, I think it is a stroke of marketting genious.

I agree.

IMO, Too many times electronic manufacturers are focused on adding more
features to keep the price the same as it was last years model when a lot of
consumers think the price of technology should be going down every year.
Consumers who are frustrated by this will see value in being able to pickup
a DSLR for $500.