Chuck Tribolet

NCUPS SEA 2013 photo and video winners have been announced: http://sea.ncups.org/sea-2013-winners-photo/ http://sea.ncups.org/sea-2013-winners-video/ Congratulations to all.

Adm. Linda FINALLY got her check from DEPP for the flooded 12-24 and got the 10-24. It must work pretty well, she got second in the Advanced (meaning experienced UW photogs) Traditional (only limited digital maniupulation) Wide-Angle category in this weekend's Monterey Shootout. With a couple of macro shots that got a 1st and 2nd, she ended up tied for 5th overall. If you have a camera that will do pin-feed AF, the Tokina 10-17 MIGHT be a better choice, but for the low-end Nikon DSLR folks that need a motor in the lens, it looks like a real good choice. I have the 10-17 for my D300, so I'll have to see if I can borrow hers and compare. It will be interesting to see how the rectilinear 10-24 compares to the fish-eye 10-17. Chuck

So how come the Nikon 10-24 is $250 less than the 12-24? Chuck

After involving the Attorneys General of California (where she lives) and Kentucky (where DEPP is located), my GF got a check from DEPP yesterday.

The Nikon charger works just fine with the NiMH cells I rebuild with. Chuck

In late November my GF received an e-mail stating that she would be paid on Dec 2. No check ever arrived, and DEPP's 800 number is now disconnected.

Funny thing, I was researching just the same question for my GF. She can't go with the Tokina 10-17 because she shoots a D60 - no pin drive AF. Aquatica uses the same port, port shade, gear, and extension.

Laptop chargers are generally just a power supply and rely on smarts in the laptop and/or battery to control the charging. They would probably overcharge a dumb pack. Also, with all the discussion of soldering, I'm surprised no one has suggested having the battery supplier spot weld the pack together. I've had my battery supplier (batterystore.com) do that for my Nikon SB-104 packs. Your Ike packs would require a jig to get the nice circular pattern, but I think that would be better than soldering. Also, the diode is likely there to prevent a short at the charging port from causing a fire. Chuck

My GF has been trying to collect from DEPP for several months. She received this today: Subject: TO OUR VALUED D.E.P.P. CUSTOMERS Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2011 11:44:49 -0500 From: <Info@AWRYInc.com> To: <lreisinger@sbcglobal.net> We continually try to improve the customer service experience with D.E.P.P. As a part of these improvements, we are consolidating all operations and administration for the D.E.P.P. Program into our headquarters in Louisville, KY., effective immediately. Our office in Palm Desert, CA will be closed November 1, 2011. This consolidation will eliminate the confusion over which office handles which aspect of D.E.P.P. administration and should help facilitate the claim administration and payment. The telephone number for the Louisville operation is (502) 565-4357. This is an automated system, however with consolidated operations, the response and reconciliation time should be drastically improved. Please direct all inquiries and communications to our Louisville, KY headquarters, 1450 Gardner Lane, Box 13, Louisville, KY 40213-1974. If you pay by check please use this address for premium payment. Our fax number will remain the same 775-640-6449 Sandy Hall or Bryan Goad will continue to responding to e-mails and returning your calls. We thank you and we appreciate your business. We believe the centralizing of all D.E.P.P. operations is an important step in improving our customer service. When send e-mail to use, please use one of the following keywords on the subject line. CLAIM DEPP QUESTION EQUIPMENT UPDATE Since we have many customers outside the US, we are unable to block many e-mails. We receive over 2500 spam e-mails a day and may possibly miss your correspondence without the keyword listed on the subject line. Sincerely; Your D.E.P.P. Staff

My girlfriend has a claim with DEPP after a flood. They are completely unresponsive to phone calls and e-mails over a period of two and a half months. Anybody else having trouble? Chuck

I just manually transferred the settings from the first camera to the second one. Boy did that second camera have some weird settings. Anyway, I got all the way down to the end of the Camera Setup menu (the last one to transfer), and found a Save/Load Settings option which would transfer some but not all settings via the CF card.

I'm about to acquire a second D300 body. Is there any way to transfer all the menu settings from my other body without manually stepping through all the menus? Chuck Tribolet

I've been accursed of nuking the nudibranchs shooting macro with two SB-104s. There is a little electronics in the Nikon SN-104 battery packs. The charging port has a diode, and there's a thermal fuse in between the two groups of three cells. The cells are "sub-C" size. I've rebuilt several packs with 3800 mAH sub-C cells. The SH-104 charger does fine, though the packs seem to get tired sooner than with the Nikon NiCd cells (which are reputed to be 1600-2000 mAH). I've got a webpage that documents what I did. http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/sb104/

Success. I have a brand new one sitting on the kitchen counter. There are at least two demo units and maybe some more new ones available available from the same source. If you are looking, contact me offlne and I'll point you there.

I'm looking for a Sea and Sea D300 housing. I'm in Northern California. Chuck Tribolet