Bargin of the Month

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
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Paul
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Bargin of the Month

Post by Paul »

Recently I found a Kodak dcs 660 on eaby. It was listed in poor condition because of the rubber falling off. It had a few rubbings but no scratches on the LCD. It wasn't not listed as a Kodak dcs 660 but as a F5 body. It was listed as buy now for $80.00 and as is. I offered fifty. they took it. I wasn't willing to pay more for a camera I thought probably didn't work. After I received it I glued the rubber back on using Jet model glue, and than ordered a battery via Ebay form Hongkong. it arrived less than a week lately. I didn't bother to charge it. Placed it in the camera and took a picture. It works fine. Even more surprising, only 2051 articulations.
Stan Disbrow
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Re: Bargin of the Month

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Well, you can't beat that with a stick!

Later!

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
NIKON KIU
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Re: Bargin of the Month

Post by NIKON KIU »

More like the bargain of the year :lol:

Kiu
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Ashley_Pomeroy
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Re: Bargin of the Month

Post by Ashley_Pomeroy »

That's pretty good, and there's a certain thrill in owning something that used to cost $20,000+. I've only ever seen one DCS 660 on eBay before, I surmise they didn't sell in huge numbers.

Along similar lines I have just got hold of a DCS 760, which arrived yesterday. It was one of those "no charger, flat battery, can't guarantee that it works" eBay auctions, and fortunately it just needed a new battery. I shall try cycling the old Kodak Professional battery as per the instructions on this site. Anyway, it was £150, which puts it on a par pricewise with a decent used Canon 10D or 300D.

I now have it sitting next to my DCS 560, which it looks down upon. The problem is that I have since sold all the Nikon lenses I used with my DCS 460.

I have had fun removing the prism and then putting the prism back on. Misc thoughts:

1. The firmware is version 3.2.8, and it has some clever ideas that are still clever today. There's a "luminometer" that works as a kind of post-capture multi-spot meter. This excites me no end. Given that my style of photography is as per the following example, I would benefit greatly from a multi-spot meter that allows me to stand there and accurately determine the brightness value of a face-sized object from a distance of fifteen feet:
Image

You can set a custom white balance with a little box that you scroll around the image, which is an obvious idea that doesn't seem to have been adopted outside the DCS series. There's a long exposure dark frame subtraction feature that works extremely well and helps solve one of the major problems of the whole DCS series, viz horribly splotchy noise. With this feature turned on, it seems to be less noisy with multi-second exposures than the Nikon D1x I used to own. I've just taken an eight-second shot of an album cover, and it's noise-free, which is something I never expected from a DCS camera.

Judging by Digital Photography Review's review of the camera, posted when it was fresh and new, the original firmware was pretty spartan. There's a lengthy article at Rob Galbraith.com ("DCS 760 delivers crisp, clear photos") which has a bitter-sweet air; it's full of promises of future upgrades, and in hindsight the company must have already decided to pull the plug. And yet the camera was upgraded, and upgraded well, so presumably the men and women of Kodak cared.

2. It has a plain infrared filter. With this filter in place the colour seems more natural and less purple than the colour from my DCS 560;

9. It uses a FAT32 file system and seems to recognise, fully utilise, and work fine with my 4gb and 8gb Compact Flash cards;

3. JPG processing - which I will never use - is much faster than in the two-megapixel DCS 520;

10. The manual's coverage of flash photography can be summarised as "use an SB-28D and leave it in P mode". However it seems to work fine with my SB-24 in TTL mode, regulating the flash output to account for aperture, although I haven't shot a wide variety of subjects yet.

4. It's a Nikon F5! It has a little window in the viewfinder that shows the aperture. It meters with my Sigma 28mm f/2.8 Mini-Wide manual focus lens. I'm tempted to buy one of those cheap 28-80mm f/3.3 G-type lenses just to activate 3D Matrix Metering, and unlike the DCS 460 I am prepared to spend a certain amount of money on Nikon lenses because I envisage using the DCS 760 instead of leaving it as an antique. Having said that, Samyang is about to release a 14mm f/2.8, and if it's anywhere near as good as their 85mm f/1.4 I might buy it in Nikon mount and adapt it for my 5D as required. A Kodak DCS 760 with a big 14mm lens on the front would be something to see.
Paul
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Re: Bargin of the Month

Post by Paul »

The DCS 760 is the hallmark of the Kodak pro series. Seems like you got a great deal too.
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