Ok, long story short (as short as I can make it without the usual 'vetting' posts
)...noticed this guy, he's a writer/freelance toting his new D3 (he had a D2H or something). I see him all the time at the local farmers mkts, and I commented on his new D3. He thanks me for noticing. Later as I talking to him while he walks at a brisk pace through the FM, he says to me (he's got a load of bags and stuff to carry the individual fruits and such he buys) 'shit, shit!' 'I left something back somewhere, and it's worth $500'. I said 'what is it, I'll help you find it, trace your steps backwards'. He declined my offer and did not tell me what this mystery $500 item was. I walked along with him, he looks at the back end of an open truck of a vendor and finds his small bag with whatever is inside.
Well next week I see him again, this time he's doing an article on the BHFM, and he's capturing images for his article he's writing (most images are now only available online as the print edition has shrunk precipitously), but he's having trouble focusing, or getting the D3 to AF properly. I did not see which lens he had on at the time, but I've seen a rotation of a couple of zooms 20-40mm, something mid-range, and then a 105mm Micro Nikkor, which IIRC is a macro lens? Not sure which lens, but he's trying to focus, relatively closeup, say 2ft away from a bunch of grapes. He keeps cursing that he can't get good focus, cause his hands are shaking. Think he's got it on auto ISO, AEB 5 shots at a blast. Then he gives up.
And I tell him maybe he needs a mono pod if his hands are shaking. Presumably he could have easily gone into a mode that was high ISO, such that even if it wasn't a VR lens, he should have been able to get a good shot. But I'm guessing he meant that because he wasn't holding the lens steady enough, the AF was shifting depending on what grape the center spot was on??? He must have wanted shallow DOF, and the AF was hunting as his hands were unsteady, because he had it on center weighted AF zone (there are like 57 focus points and are they not selectable on such an high-end piece of equipment? ).
Here's one of his stories:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fow-market24-2009jun24,0,745115.story
So the following week I see him at another FM, and he's got this tiny, lightweight CF Gitzo tripod! One vendor asked him about it, and he mentioned the carbon fibre construction, how light it was, how small it collapsed down to, that it was his 'travel' tripod, and that it cost $500. So why was he so secretive about it with me??? Weird. What I noticed (after he had told some other vendor that he has $20k in lenses) was that this 4 section Gitzo doesn't extend very tall, and that the legs are ridiculously skinny such that when extended as he had them, the $4k D3 body + $1-2k lens, was very easy to 'bounce' around a top this flimsy tripod, that the very bottom legs would flex noticeably when he was grabbing the body and moving the tripod to get an exact framed shot.
Why don't any tripod makers make *heavy-duty* thick walled & diameter CF tripod legs, in a 'travel length' collapsing model, something that can actually do a 1/2 way decent job of supporting a dSLR + aver./smaller lens? I would think the market would be huge for such a model?
Do you think this guy just doesn't understand how AF works, or how to use the D3 correctly, which was at the root of his focusing problems? Does shallow DOF/fast F-stops cause hunting with any AF lens when aimed at a target that is relatively close to a lens, if you can't hold the lens steady? I did not realize that this could be such a problem. I mentioned to him that he should just manually focus, seemed that should rectify the issue, but he did not seem to want to listen? Was I wrong about that, is the standard focus screen in the viewfinder too difficult to judge accurate focus point when manually focusing, or is he just a hack photographer?
btw, he rants that he does AEB 5 shots, specifically so he can get a properly exposed image in difficult lighting situations outdoors, but complains that an 'intern' at the newspaper, can just hit some button, and completely screw up the exposure as it's shown on the Net.
(well it was a shorter story, I left out some details...).