I decided to quit hijacking Darrell's thread

I called Berger Bros. about ordering the camera and they have a long list, with a wait of 45-60 days.

I trotted (well, OK, I drove) down to my local Best Buy, and while they did not have the D800 in that store, they located it in Wichita and it will ship to my local store (Oklahoma City) within 4-5 days.

I feel a bit guilty. So many Nikonians have been on waiting lists forever, and I enter the game today and will have mine in a few days. The same thing happened with the D7000. When I made the decision to buy, nobody seems to be able to get them. I went to my local camera shop and they had several in stock.

Maybe I should rent myself out as a personal shopper?

Anyway, I will wait on the computer upgrade until October, per suggestions, to see what is coming out. After breaking myself on the camera, I'll do good to save that much by October anyway!

I bought my first iMac at Best Buy several years ago, and while waiting for the camera order this morning, I checked them out. The Apple rep there said don't get a 2 TB one, get the 1. The reason is 1TB will hold all the software I need, and if I store photos on the mac hard drive, it would only be a little longer before I'd have 2 TB as full as a 1TB. He said invest that money in desktop HDs. Right now, the only files I have on my iMac are the folders I am currently working on. Once I've gone through a folder, it is moved to two external HDs. 1 TB will easily take care of the current stuff.

And, per your suggestions, he agreed that I should buy minimum RAM on the new iMac. I can save $300 by buying 16GB outright and installing it myself rather than asking them to upgrade the computer. I'll rope in a family member to do that for me.

Once I do get the iMac, I will need all the help I can get because I don't have a clue how to allot and partition. Scares me just to think about it.

You all are the greatest!

Betty

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Pre-congrats on your D800! And on your new iMac! Enjoy them both!

Jon Kandel
A New York City Nikonian and Team Member
Please visit my website and critique the images!

Hi Betty,

Please don't feel guilty, everyone waiting (generally) has the option of ferreting out in stock locations, smaller shops, BB etc.

I ordered mine the first week of pre sale, it arrived in the first release, then I waited to pay the balance until the internet had enough non brand produced video comparatives versus the D4 and MK2/3 for me to invest as a video tool, plus the stunning 36mp FX colors.

I also had the D4 on order but released it when the D800's video seemed to be sharper, plus the D3S is close in low light to the D4

During that 6 weeks, I was opening a LOC with the bank, to fund business, and the store was aware of that as I'd check in every week about the delay for picking it up.

D800's trickled in at best but one day a manager took (snaked it) mine and sold it even though it had half down which is a game commission sales people play in music stores, camera store etc when the month is closing.

The sales guy freaked but the following week when I came in to do the deed, he had magically plucked a brand new (post battery and AF issues) body for me.

So, don't feel guilty, it's a free commerce market.

Good luck with the iMAC, although for that money other custom choices are available from ADK, nothing Best Buy will be able to help you with.

Have fun!

Rob



Rob

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That's funny in a way, Rob, the guy selling your camera. The funny part is that you didn't go down there and strangle him. I might have. I was recently treated very badly at a Lowe's over buying a new refrigerator. I meekly came home and stewed for awhile, then I picked up the phone, got on the computer, and made waves. There was a time I let people run over me. No more.

At the least, the salesman who treated me like I was stealing the money out of his wallet, who didn't want to honor the "match price plus 10%", and then raised his voice to me, got severely reprimanded. The salesman at a different Lowe's who treated me like a valued customer was thanked profusely, and I made the higher ups aware of his courtesy. All I was asking is for them to honor store policy.

And what is ADK?
OK, just Googled it. Looks like they just do laptops? I don't see anything about Apple products. I'm dedicated to an Apple computer.

Betty

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More for the video and audio crowd.

The gambit with them is their staff, regularly contributes on the Adobe and Avid forums and they actually real time load all of their platforms/software to be sure these will all work together, unlike Sager and some of the other online high-end computer makers.

A quick check and yes, they have exited the Apple brand from what they once offered.

I'd guess, the FCPX, debacle (love it or hate it?) and the migration to AVID and Adobe, etc. may have chilled the deal, or politics branding etc.

Not sure but they used to have all things MAC.

The NLE market in video has changed considerably with many folks retrofitting Nvidia Quadro 4000 GPU's and others into their existing MAC based systems in order to better compete by using advancing technologies. IE. the Mercury playback engine in Adobe, AVID's DNxHD etc.

The move from hardware to cloud, would seem to be what Apple is focused on long term.

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Sometimes it's just about being in the right place at the right time. I got a D800 the week before last, just three days after putting my name on the waiting list at my local Nikon dealer.

Rocky

No reason to feel guilty, ever a little since all those waiting since Feb know they could get one if they were searching for one through sources that are getting them.. They are on a 6 month waiting list by choice when most of those who got them in a short time( 3 days for me) were not so passive. Other reasons might be wanting to delay intentionally to have time to build up the lens selection or wait until the stories about AF problems fade away. There are a number of reasons people are letting the waiting to go on so long.

Regarding the often stated view that Apple is a better editing platform, might be true when 8 bit color was the norm. For some time the options have been wider with PCs and Windows, in fact Windows 7 supports 48 bit color. So there is a greater opportunity to build a higher end editing workstation on the PC/Windows platform than Mac currently and has been the case for a number of years. But it does take configuring it yourself since most PC's are aimed at a low price point so have minimal hardware.
Stan
St Petersburg Russia

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I understand what you are saying, Stan. I do know it is cheaper to go PC, that I could get better hardware for what I spend on a Mac. I used PCs from the start, and only went to Mac a few years ago. (about 3?)

All in all, the Mac platform is smoother for me. I got tired of the constant Microsoft updates, page after page of them. There were always back doors and holes they were trying to fix. (Microsoft) I had more crashes. Well, I say more, I don't have any with my Mac, other than a couple of times Bridge quit on me briefly, but loaded right back up. That happened only when I'd try to edit a file name! Go figure!
My last PC was a high end gaming PC, just about as expensive as you could get for the time. People would spot it and say, "Whoa!" Top notch hardware, huge HD, best video card, and yet I dealt with crashes and the dreaded gray screen on a regular basis.
Then there was the malware, in spite of having the latest programs to prevent it.

I have not had any of that with the Mac. I do realize the bad guys are going after the Macs more than they used to, but all in all, most of the hackers concentrate on PCs the most because more people use them.

So it is a personal choice for me. I've got the software for Mac, and don't want to go through all that changing over again. Kind of like going from a Nikon system to Canon. Stick with what you have the stuff for! So I may pay a little more but in the long run, I'll be happy, so it is worth it. My husband is using a PC and he is constantly griping over trouble with it! And I sit back with my Mac and smirk.

Betty

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PC Crashes?

Can't say I've had any in W7Pro, excepting when I jiggle the eSATA cable it has gone blue then.

Between the cable company, mail POP and Kaspersky's AV, really little to worry over.

As Stan noted, Apple is no longer industry leading hardware for the reasons folks gravitated to them in the early days, graphics, film editing and recording, all are now somewhat eclipsed or in parity with Intel, Nvidia and the other core manufacturers offerings.

Apple users to be sure, like Chevy and Ford, Canon and Nikon, ease and familiarity.

By example, a calibrated capable monitor alone costs as much as a MAC, and HP has Dreamcolor, an offshoot of their engineering close to reference grade screens for Dreamworks some time back.

Thunderbolt? That's Intel's patent, hammered out with Cupertino's opted-in team, marketing 101 with the advance in Apple just there long enough (1 year) to have the appearance of proprietary technology, but in May Intel rolled out their new ATX board, along with many others so that will soon be a wash.

Back to the camera, my DP pal was in town for two days from a tour operating a RED Epic and four remotely, he's been dying to see the D800 and on his gig, the staff image guy has already garnered 2 MK3's, which do not impress my friend.

He told me about a fashion shooter who followed his advice and has now moved back to Nikon because of the stunning imagery she is getting from the first try with the D800.

Oh, yes he cradled mine at dinner, and we discussed the 10 bit 4.2.2 output capture Hyperdeck 2 SSD device as well. He won Premier Pro from AJA's booth a Creatasphere last fall, and needs a new LT now as his iMAC is long in the tooth for CS6...decisions, decisions.

You should have a great time.

Rob

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Hi Betty:

No need to feel guilty I think the D800 log jam is breaking. You did the right thing by looking around. I think someone who does a little hunting around can find one fairly quickly now a days.

It sounds like you are getting good Mac advice. I am sure you will be able to process your photos fairly well esp the .jpegs.

Enjoy the D800 what lens are you going to put on it first?

Cheers

Andrew

Andrew, of course, one of the first things I must check out is how my 80-400VR behaves shooting backyard birds. I understand I'll lose reach. But the sharpness of cropped images hopefully will make up for that. Darrell's shot of the moon with the same lens, heavily cropped gives me hope.

I have the 24-70, a sharp lens. I'll check that out, also I have the 105VR Nikor and 1.8 50mm. And the 2.8 85mm Sigma prime, which on my D7000 has been a great portrait lens. I'll be curious to see how it is on FX. The only DX lens I have is the 18-200 Nikor, which has always been a great walk around vacation lens. I'll miss that.

Zooming with my feet isn't always an option. Many of my vacation shots a couple of years ago was taken from the edge of the highway, and I couldn't climb fences and get on private property. I had the 24-70 with me, and found myself using the 18-200 the most. I could stand in one spot and get wide-angle shots of glorious foliage, then zoom up. Two shots from the same place with totally different looks.

Back when I was accumulating my lenses, I always had in the back of my mind the possibility of going FX. So I bought lenses with that in mind. I did buy the DX 12-24 Nikor, but sold it. I found my style isn't very wide-angle, and I was shooting it at 24. The 24-70 covers that and the 24mm actually will be wider on FX than DX.

So probably the 1st one to put on the camera will be the 80-400VR.
Next the 85mm, as I have a friend who wants me to take a portrait of his Golden Retriever. He wants full body, but I'll take some head and shoulders also. Studio lights, backdrop, indoors. I don't know if the 50 or the 85 will work best. If I can't get the full body with the 50 with limited space indoors, then I'll put on the 24-70. Hopefully, I'll have my new camera the day before the shoot, otherwise I'll have to go with my D7000, still a great camera.

Betty

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