102 March 2016 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Our resident Nikon expert Jason Parnell-Brookes answers your
questions and solves your problems. If you’d like Jason to come
to the rescue regarding your Nikon-related question, email it to
[email protected]. Please note that we reserve the right
to edit queries for clarity or brevity.
Do I need any special filters, and are
there any safety warnings I should be
aware of, when shooting a time-lapse
sequence of a solar eclipse?
Don Bearwolb, via emailJASON SAYS... It’s vital to fit a solar filter to
your lens when viewing or shooting par tial
phases of a solar eclipse. Not doing so can
result in serious damage to your eyes, as well
as to your camera. Solar filters are available as
either screw-in filters or to fit into a square filter
holder. Bear in mind that even with an almost
total solar eclipse, the tiny crescent of the sun
that’s still visible will be extremely bright.
To get rough exposure settings, fit the filter
and experiment ahead of time by shooting the
sun directly with various apertures and shutter
speeds. You may have to tweak your settings
when the eclipse occurs. Keep the settings the
same throughout your time-lapse sequence.JASON SAYS... The
genuine Nikon MB-D15
certainly is expensive,
with a typical selling price
of around £ 230/$250. By
contrast, you can find cheap
imitations for as little as
£20/$30 on the likes
of Amazon and eBay.Sometimes, though, you’ll
get exactly what you pay for,
and not in a good way. We’ve
experienced problems with
cheap, unheard-of brands
of battery grips, with the
camera reporting battery
status errors or suddenly
not working at all. Anexception is the ‘Neewer’
brand, which tends to be
very inexpensive yet still
reliable and fairly well made.
Like the genuine Nikon grip,
it of fers the choice of
powering the camera from
an EN-EL 15 Li-ion cell or six
AA batteries.The Nikon battery grip for
the D7100 seems expensive.
Are cheaper third-party brands
any good?
Claude Mattsson,
via emailI need to replace
my old flashgun. What
would you suggest for
around £100?
Bart Eddy-Torre, via FacebookJASON SAYS... I’d avoid
ultra-cheap flashguns, which
are often lacking in even basic
features, or old secondhand
flashguns, which may have a
high trigger voltage that can
zap your Nikon’s electronics.
My current favourite budget
option is the Gloxy GX-F990
TTL, which currently costs
around £110/$190. This
is a surprisingly powerful
flashgun with high-end
features like stroboscopic
repeat mode, and it’s a real
bargain. Check out last
month’s Big Test for details,
or go to http://www.photo24.co.ukAsk Jason...
Eve n a sli ve r of s u n c a n da m a ge yo u r eye s o r c a m e r a ,
so don’t try shooting the sun without a solar filterNIK PEDIA Q&A