Philip, Irakly noticed the problem with his camera before I did with mine. It must be something in the software conversion...Again with the crappy, slow software. However, I get zero Moire' shooting in tiff, but hate the color space when shooting in tiff
I going to shoot a models' portfolio this Sunday, and plan on using the ND for some of the shots (along with the Contax 645 and Kodak 645C ProBack).
I'm interested in whether I can shoot ISO 25 with my smallest (600 watt) Profoto generator dialed to its' lowest output, and use the 85 and 50 at as wide an aperature as possible. The small buffer will be a problem with any fast moving fashion sequence. But maybe a few portraits and detail shots will be possible.
Here is another interesting note concerning the tiny ND buffer: The new Kodak 14 meg has 256 megs of memory which buffers 8 shots before loading to the card. You will be able to send the camera to a special
tech center that will alter the hardware and increase the memory to 512 meg, boosting the buffer to 18 shots before downloading to the CF card. I just discovered that Nikon also offers the same service for the D1-X to boost the 9 shot buffer to 18 shots !!!!
Now, the question is, can the ND ever be upgraded like that? Nikon charges $240. to increase the memory (and upgrade the firmware to better work with PS 7 Adobe RGB color space).
I'd be more than willing to pay for a good increase of buffer capability in the ND, and it would be nice if they altered the tiff colorspace to Adobe RGB with the next round of firmware while they were at it.
A further comparitive note about service responsiveness...I just sent my Kodak ProBack Plus to Kodak because computer wasn't recognizing that the camera was connected., making it impossible to shoot directly to the screen during studio shoots. It shipped to them on Friday last week (delivered Monday), and I got the unit back in perfect working order on Weds. !!! And they completly cleaned the sensor and IR filter while they were at it, and sent me their test shot print out, and a color test pattern to help me calibrate color space on my computer screen.
Here's another question for ND cult members:
Has anyone used just a plain old Manual/Automatic on-camera flash with their ND? The Contax TTL system seems to have difficulty reading off the sensor (it was designed for film), and produces weird results occassionally. Nikon SB-28s had the same problem, and Nikon was quick to offer the SB28 DX as a solution. Since Contax will be either slow to offer a solution, if at all, I wonder if a regular
auto flash would work better? I also wonder if the relatively slow sync speed of the ND is due to the limits of the flashes they have, or the camera itself?