Awhile back DigitalRev did a vid about bad glass on a good body vs good glass on a bad body. Short verdict was good glass always wins.

I would tend to agree.

I would also add, GOOD LIGHT and good glass can produce fantastic results even on the older, less capable bodies. A decent lens and the right light with even a lowly body like a D40 can make some stunning images.

tcole1983 said:
Hmmm my ratio of lens money to body money at this point is about 10:1 and if I ever upgrade my body will be around 4:1...so sticking with lenses here. Now you still have to keep up with the lately technology I think. Several generation newer bodies can do wonder for picture quality from what I have seen, but at the same time putting junky glass on an expensive body seems like a moot point also.

But now for years to come I can still use my glass I have invested in already...and my body is already out of date and needs (or I want to) upgrading.

I am with you as far as my own personal purchases go, tcole.

Only problem for me, is that my money doesn't go as far as my eyes tell me it needs to ;-)

Hmmm my ratio of lens money to body money at this point is about 10:1 and if I ever upgrade my body will be around 4:1...so sticking with lenses here. Now you still have to keep up with the lately technology I think. Several generation newer bodies can do wonder for picture quality from what I have seen, but at the same time putting junky glass on an expensive body seems like a moot point also.

But now for years to come I can still use my glass I have invested in already...and my body is already out of date and needs (or I want to) upgrading.

AA is indeed famous for his landscapes but early in his career, he could not support his family, solely with his creative work. Like many "creative " photographers he did "commercial" photography and like most commercial photographers, he took whatever work he could get and that included portraiture, see Ansel Adams an Autobiography

sevencrossing said:
Do look up his portaits of Albert Bender, Georgia O'Keeffe & Orville Cox, Robinson Jeffers, Mary Austin, Beaumont Newhall, Cedric Wright, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston

Yes, I have mispoken....what I meant to say, was, his landscapes generally did not include people....and I believe this was quite intentional in sharing the scene as he saw it. It was to my understanding, the importance in his work was on the natural resources in the landscapes and the portraits he did snap were of far less importance. This is only my understanding and I could be in error here as well. But my knowledge is based on discussions from years ago..

Thanks sevencrossing..

msmoto said:
Probably important to understand, Ansel Adams lived in a time which was technologically limited. ........ he made little attempt to photograph people.......Just a few thoughts to encourage more comments :-)

Do look up his portaits of Albert Bender, Georgia O'Keeffe & Orville Cox, Robinson Jeffers, Mary Austin, Beaumont Newhall, Cedric Wright, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston

Probably important to understand, Ansel Adams lived in a time which was technologically limited. No digital, no computers capable of what we can do today, and most important, his passion was the landscape. While his images are the highest form of photographic art, he made little attempt to photograph people.

If one is a "paparazzi" and is interested in recording life, then the camera's capabilities become very important. The high ISO, rapid frame rates, rapid interchangeability of lenses, and portability of the camera body are in some cases critical. So, in one senses asking which is more important is like asking which is more important in the car...the engine or the transmission....

Just a few thoughts to encourage more comments :-)

For me? I believe in lenses. Fast glass.

I took a note from reading about Ansel Adams some years back and it made sense to me. He said, all other things being equal, the lens is the most important. If it does not get through the glass, you'll never see it on the image.

As an example, I bought the Nikon 70-200mm ED VR II f/2.8 early in 2012. Fast glass. In the middle of shooting a season of local baseball, I could suddenly see very detailed fine dust/dirt particles in my images just as my eye did as the players moved or from the catchers glove. Others were just as amazed at the 'new' images.

Before that I was using an f/4.5 Nikon zoom/tele. Both good lenses, but the VR II f2/8 internal zoom was better from all my reading and seeing it could be f/2.8 through its focal range was something to be said.

I've the same experience with my Micro Nikkor 60mm and two other very good lenses.

Fast glass rules for me as I love hearing people's breath being taken in at the sight of my pictures. :-) It just makes a good camera better.

I'll get a new body in 2013. My investments in glass that I have made will only improve even more then.

That is the brand which I used, works great, Visible Dust. I tried the pre-moist swabs from Sensor Swab on my D300s and it was worse afterwards than before. I think that Visible dust has the better product in my limited experience. On the D4 I was able to blow all the dust off except for one tiny spot near the edge, so decided to leave it alone for now, but if it gets worse, would not hesitate to use the Visible Dust product on it as well. Again, since I have usually shot at wide open apertures, you don't see the dust, but above f/5.6-f/8 it appears and very problematic at f/11. Just aim your camera to the blue sky, set it at f/11 and take a few pictures moving around, the dust is very apparent. I am not sure how to tell dust from oil, since the spots I am seeing are darker and round -- is it dust, oil, or pollen?

This is the easiest way to clean the sensor on your camera. It is just too easy for words. http://www.visibledust.com/instructions.php?pid=450

I usually shoot at low aperture settings, but last week was at f/8 and against a blue sky noticed dozens of spots ruining the pictures. I researched and then purchased Visible Dust 1.0 full sensor size swabs/solution and after blowing off the dust with a rocket, swabbed the sensor on my D3s. It removed about 80% of the spots, so I did it a second time and now there is not a single spot, even at f/11. It really is not that difficult. Now am I brave enough to do the same on my D4 which only has a few spots?

BarryH said:
I'm looking to buy a D3s body.

Is there a cut off point when I should start to think twice about the number of shutter actuations the body has done?

Are there any other major things I should look at or ask about when buying a used D3s?

Sorry, Sarlacc! This is a nightmare I have every time I set up a meet-up on craigslist to sell something. I hope it works out for you. Welcome to the forum.

I'm going to revive this thread from the dead.

I just dropped my D3 off at NPS in El Segundo...

I was in the process of selling the camera...I was physically with the buyer as he was checking the camera out, when it up and died. No power, no lcds, nada.

Took it straight to NPS...they said they haven't heard of such a thing before. They would look into it. potential cost of $470 to fix it. I've never had an issue with this body since buying it new 3 years ago...only has 17k on the shutter.

Needless to say its a huge bummer, but Im well out of warranty....I can only hope its something so off the wall they decide to cover it. Regardless the buyer says he is still interested when the camera is fixed. I'll hopefully know more tomorrow.

Murphy's Law man...this couldn't have happened when I was actually shooting with it...had to happen in front of some dude I never met before as I was trying to get him to buy it.

As someone who owns 4 lenses and 1 body I've encountered my share of photos like the one above (although that one looks like a pretty nasty case). I've developed three ways to reduce the possibilities of dust.
1. Plan ahead (as someone mentioned) to minimize the amount of time that your sensor is exposed. Don't remove the lens from the camera until the back cap of the replacement lens is off, then put the lens on right away. Sound obvious but not everyone does that.
2. Point the camera down toward the ground when the lens is off. Again, seems obvious, but dust is more likely to travel downward then upward.
3. If you can't find a Class 5 clean room in which to change lenses, try and use rooms that have less fabric surfaces, like a kitchen or bathroom. Those will usually have less dust.

sqame_sp - 100% it's sensor

as for the rest of conversation, cleaning sensors is not that hard, You just need to be very careful and don't put too much force - start with blower (gently and be sure the air is clean) if this doesn't help, buy a cleaning kit or send it to specialist, shouldn't cost more than $15-$20.

You are braver than I...if it doesn't blow off or clean with the in camera sensor cleaning then I would send it in. The negatives of messing this up outweigh the positives of maybe doing it correctly. Good luck.

shibang said:
This looks exactly what I had with my D7000, it only started to show when I was shooting around f8.

I tried a rocket blower which never made any difference and it turned out to be oil on the sensor which seems to be pretty common.

I just bought some eclipse cleaning fluid and some swabs and cleaned it myself, now at f8 it is ok but still shows around f16 so I guess I should either give it another clean or take it to a dealer to have it cleaned. I never really shoot lower than f8 so I'm not so concerned now, I think I will eventually get it cleaned just in case I decide to sell the body later.

Sorry to hear that, hope mine gets cleaned fully. Fingers crossed!!!

spraynpray said:
+1 and I always try to organise myself so that the camera internals and lens are only exposed for a few seconds.

Just a thought - have you set your camera to clean the sensor at start-up and switch off?

Yes, it's set to clean the sensor.

It's D7000, it's about 1.5 years old.

Thanks a lot guys, I did buy that "cleaning package" long time ago, that had the cleaning solution, cotton swab, lens cloth...etc

Will give a shot with @mark_wilkins steps, and will update this thread.

Thanks all.

This looks exactly what I had with my D7000, it only started to show when I was shooting around f8.

I tried a rocket blower which never made any difference and it turned out to be oil on the sensor which seems to be pretty common.

I just bought some eclipse cleaning fluid and some swabs and cleaned it myself, now at f8 it is ok but still shows around f16 so I guess I should either give it another clean or take it to a dealer to have it cleaned. I never really shoot lower than f8 so I'm not so concerned now, I think I will eventually get it cleaned just in case I decide to sell the body later.

mark_wilkins said:
One tip which has helped quite a bit for me is to make sure to always tilt the camera slightly toward the ground when changing lenses. If you point the camera straight up to do this, you're a lot more likely to have ambient debris settle into the camera, but orienting the mount opening toward the ground lets gravity work to pull dust away from the sensor rather than toward it. Doing this is not a complete solution but it does help in any but the most extremely dusty environments.

+1 and I always try to organise myself so that the camera internals and lens are only exposed for a few seconds.

Just a thought - have you set your camera to clean the sensor at start-up and switch off?

Yes, definitely use a blower to start with. My comments were based on experience cleaning earlier CCD cameras, which tended to have more serious dust problems because their use of electrical charge would often cause dust to adhere due to residual charge even after the camera was turned off. Current CMOS cameras shouldn't have this issue and will respond better to air, but be careful to make sure you don't use air from a source that contains condensation, oil, or other contaminants. Anything purpose-built for cleaning cameras is probably OK.

Edit: If you feel that those conditions were an uncommon thing, sure, send it back to Nikon. They'll clean the camera thoroughly and safely. Not sure if or how much they charge for that. However, if you're struggling with dust due to the circumstances under which you shoot your preferred subject, you'll have the problem over and over again.

One tip which has helped quite a bit for me is to make sure to always tilt the camera slightly toward the ground when changing lenses. If you point the camera straight up to do this, you're a lot more likely to have ambient debris settle into the camera, but orienting the mount opening toward the ground lets gravity work to pull dust away from the sensor rather than toward it. Doing this is not a complete solution but it does help in any but the most extremely dusty environments.

It's always safer to send it to Nikon for a clean.

However, if you feel comfortable enough with cleaning your sensor yourself, you can start by blowing air (camera facing down, mirror locked up and battery fully charged) and be sure to use a dust free blower...

If the dust is still visible on your photos, you can use a sensor swab with some eclipse (one or two drops max) and be very careful to follow all the correct instruction about this, or at this point you can go to Nikon or send them an email to see what they say.
Make sure you have the correct size swab for this...

Cheers,

Teo

As a general rule, if dust appears sharp in your image, it's on the sensor. Dust on the lens can result in lens flare, but it will always be out of focus in your images and won't show up as small dots.

With most cameras (since you don't specify the model) you can lock your mirror up and the shutter open. At this point, you can safely use a product like Sensor Swabs (google it and you should find the manufacturer) with a small amount of cleaning solution to clean the dust off the sensor.

It's essential that you don't apply excessive pressure (which can scratch the sensor), use an excessive amount of cleaning solution, or allow the shutter to close while you're doing this (which will lead to a VERY expensive shutter repair.) However, if you're reasonably gentle and take appropriate care, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to do this yourself. If you continue to have a dust problem, it is certainly possible to send the camera to Nikon to have them clean it, as long as you avoid causing damage by doing one of those things.