Brian

Just look at the technical specs of the Dell XPS 8900 and find a similar system.

Oh, I will need another photo of the right rear side (I wanna see the switches.)

Now back to Back Button Focusing. In my humble opinion, BBF is a technique, just like any other. I am of the opinion that one should learn proper technique and improve all aspects of your craft, not just use BBF because some website / photographer told you it was the "secret" to getting good photos. So let's get real for a moment. There isn't a damn "S-E-C-R-E-T" to sharp photos!! It's proper technique. Period. It's hand and elbow position. It's breathing patterns and thinking before you put that camera up to your eyeball. It's a whole way of thinking and doing. Sometimes, it's using a Tripod or Mono-pod. I feel so bad for the digital only shooters. I came from film. I didn't have 51 AF points. I had one...and manual focus at that. So you had to approach things differently. Now it's "Let me take 75 photos of my LUNCH!!! Just because..." Great Technique is being PROACTIVE. Unfortunately, people are usually reactive, and when it doesn't work well, they seem to find that the "Magical BBF Technique" is the solution to their problems!! I know, so-and-so swears by it and you wanna be just like her. (Not you personally, Krista. I'm speaking to the members who read these posts/rants of mine.) My point is does anyone ever stop to think that they are being lied to?!?! Seriously. I know several photographers who will push El-Cheapo Lights or Alien Bees and fail to mention that they use $2200 Profoto Lights and 7 Foot Modifiers. "All you need is a Bee and a Softbox to be like me!!" Buy my Workshop!! Buy my Wares!! You too can be an Amazeballz 'Tog like ME!!! For only $299.99...you can learn to turn on your camera! But wait, for an extra $200 you can learn how to click the shutter button AND change your Aperture!! C'mon Moms!!! Build confidence in shooting in Manual!! For only $300!! (OK, I'm ranting and need to real myself in. LOL!!) My point is, I think its a good idea to have you learn to use your camera without BBF. The first step is having your camera setup properly. So have you read your manual? What are your current settings, starting from A1?

The problem you are describing is the nature of FX. The AF points are not spread out like on a DX body. The reason? It's because the DX sensor is physically smaller. The AF point positions are relatively the same, it's just the FX sensor is physically larger so that the AF Point Markers in the viewfinder tend to cluster in the center. BBF is not the end-all-and-be-all of what people make it to be. It doesn't always work. *GASP* For some people, it works for them and they can produce great photos with it. Most of the time, it's just the "Herd" that follows the #Amazeballz Photographer at CutesyNamePhotography who swears by it,or the Blogger who wants easy traffic driven to their website. "Hmm...I don't have anything to post! I know, I will do an article on the "Secret to Sharp Photos!! Back Button Focusing!!!" More on the BBF below... Bomber...until you have shot with a camera that does 7-8fps or more, you won't really have an idea of what I'm talking about. Since you are shooting portraits and seniors and not sports, you probably won't miss it. Here is a D4s, in machine gun mode. Each one of those clicks is a photograph. Compare that to the click-click-click-click-click of the D810. LOL!! Cameras like the D4s and D5 and even the older D4 / D3s are much faster. They think "quicker" because they are designed to be. Just like a fighter jet. It just shoots and shoots and shoots. That said, for what you are shooting...you do not need a D4s or D5 camera. I shoot Sports in addition to Weddings and Portraits. So for me, my needs are different.

If a 27" Display is too big for you, the the Dell UltraSharp U2414H is also a good choice.

I like both. Good choices. The ONLY thing that you would need to buy is a mouse. That one that comes with the Dell is terrible for photo-editing. You would want a nice mouse. Which one? Head to a store that has them on display and give them a test drive. This is personal experience type of thing and one I can't decide for you. What feels comfy in my hands may not in yours. I will tell you that Microsoft and Logitech are good brands to start with.

In all honesty, that Dell at Best Buy is a pretty decent deal. Spec-wise you wouldn't have to upgrade anything right away. As far as viruses, they are sooo 1990's. People don't get viruses anymore, the term "Virus" is like saying, "...I got stung by a Bee." Hmm...did the person get truly stung by a Bee or was it a Wasp? Nowadays, people get Malware, Trojans, Keyloggers, Ransomeware and other nasty things, not true Viruses. To get the best protection, you need the paid versions of software. I like the paid version of Malwarebytes that does real-time monitoring. I also like the paid version of AVG. I've also heard of good things about Kaspersky and it really plays well with Windows 10. Keep in mind, this is just a layer of protection, no software is fool-proof, but it's better than having nothing.

Well, that unit does come with 16GB and a 2TB HD, which is fine to start with. You could upgrade it to 32GB of RAM down the road if you needed to. It also has a 4GB Dedicated Video Card. So yes, you could get some years out of it before doing any sorts of upgrades. Plus at that price-point, you could also afford to purchase a Spyder5 Pro Calibrator from Best Buy. As for a iMac, you are looking at the 27" models ONLY!! The 21.5" iMacs can't be upgraded easily after purchase and are really under-powered. In my humble opinion, the current 21.5" iMacs are a complete waste of money. If you did get a iMac, this is the one to get at Best Buy. That one you would have to upgrade right away, since it only comes with 8GB or RAM. I would purchase a 16GB RAM Kit from Crucial to take it from 8GB to 24GB. Those kits are around $100 the last time I checked. Then you still have to purchase a calibrator. Basically, you are spending around $2800 - $3000 for a iMac equivalent setup.

I'm really not digging Best Buy's selection. I found a PC that caught my eye. Why? Because it has Windows 7 installed. So ignore the reviews with people boo-hooing that it didn't come with Win 10 pre-installed. Having Windows 7 Pro edition is a good thing! What happened is that Dell sold you a license for Windows 10, but installed a previous verison of the OS. I do this ALL THE TIME when it comes to my servers that I build for clients. The reason is sometimes the customer's software may not be compatible with a version of the OS. So the older version is installed, is completely legit, and when it comes time to install the newer OS, you can get it free. I'd get this computer: Dell XPS 8900 ...and this monitor: Dell U2713HM That combo is a good starting point. $1969.98. Plus Tax. I'm not impressed with the other models. In either the "Performance Desktops" or "Gaming Desktops." It's a bit of a "Yawn" for me. You do not want a "All-in-One" Windows computer and you wanted to stick with a Windows system, so a 27" iMac is out of the equation. That Dell combo is what I would personally purchase. In fact, I bought a lower-end computer for my GF for this past Christmas.

Whoop! Whoop!! This is when I LOVE TO BE WRONG!! Glad you got your missing files back. The reason prices are the same, just like Apple, Nikon controls the minimum prices. The only thing the resellers are allowed to do is throw in freebies.

Yahoo!!! Yippee!!!! Thank YOU!! Nothing bugs me more when a person goes out and buys a fancy camera and doesn't take time to familiarize themselves with the camera's functions and menus. I'm happy to hear you have RTFM. Nope. Don't do that. When it comes to formatting, I personally do not use Nikon's Two Button format Strategy. It's not 100% fool-proof. I ALWAYS hit the Menu button, head to the Wrench Icon (Setup Menu) and highlight Format Memory Card in the list, then hit the OK button on the left. From there you should see CF card Slot and SD Card Slot. Use the directional pad to move to the card you want to format and click right on the directional pad. A warning message will appear, highlight YES and then click the OK button on the left side. The camera does a quick format and you should be good to go. Do the same thing for the SD card slot. This method is a bit longer, but ensures you are formatting the correct card completely. That Two-Button Method is a carry-over from when Nikon Bodies had only one slot and like I said, it's not fool-proof. You might think things are formatted, but they aren't. Which might explain things. Did you by chance format that CF Card in the D810 before using it? I'm thinking this is a yes, but I'm being Capt. Obvious here asking dumb questions. I don't want to leave anything assumed. Bit depth of RAW files - 14 bit depth, Image size is "RAW L”, 7360x4912; 36.2 M -- Your image size is fine. I would change it to 12-bit. In real-world situations, there isn't a whole lot of difference between 12 and 14 bit. Of course, with the extra two bits of info gives you more "stuff" to play with in ACR, but it's nothing to write home about. Unless you are a complete n00b and blow the shot by 7 stops, then the extra 2-bits might help. For the majority of the people who have the ability to obtain a proper exposure, 12-bits is fine. Sometimes if I'm shooting something like a portrait, I will flip to 14-bit, but it's really overkill. 99.9999999% of the time I'm in 12-bit and recommend you should be too. Compressed or uncompressed? COMPRESSION IS ON (should I change this?) -- Yes! You want this to be OFF. RAW Files that are 12-Bit Uncompressed is where you want to be and is what I use. Jpeg recording options set to? When looking at the shooting menu at the highest level is says “JPEG/TIFF recording ------“ Next level says "JPEG COMPRESSION", "SIZE PRIORITY" -- We are going to set this once and then you will flip this back to RAW. In order to make these changes to the JPEG settings, your camera needs to have JPEG turned on. So set your camera to NEF and JPEG FINE via the QUAL button and rotating the Rear Dial. You should see NEF and FINE on the top LCD. JPEG Compression should be set for OPTIMAL QUALITY and not "Size Priority." You want ALL the bits and pieces of data when it comes to JPEGS in-camera. Color Space should be set to sRGB. Granted, it doesn't matter when it comes to RAW/NEF files, but just in-case you accidentally flip to JPEG, your Color Space is set to sRGB, which is a good thing. In addition, these JPEG settings also affect the JPEG Preview that you see on the rear LCD. You see, that image on the display is NOT the Raw file itself, but the JPEG Preview contained within the RAW file. That's why sometimes Raw images will disappear, but you can still the the image on the LCD...it's the JPEG Preview that can sometimes be recovered. But this isn't a 100% guarantee. After you get you JPEG Settings Sorted, press the QUAL button and Rotate the Rear Dial so that only NEF show on the top LCD. Sandisk and Lexar...Good Choices. For me, I would setup the CF Card to be Primary and the SD card to be secondary. In fact, if you have an important gig that really matters, like a Wedding, I'd insert a larger SD card and use multiple CF Cards. Raw Files would be recorded to various CF cards and JPEG Fine Files would be written to the SD card. This way if anything were to go horribly wrong, you will have SOMETHING to work with. If I were to buy a D810 (...and I'm really tempted) I would use this SanDisk Extreme Pro CF Card with it. In addition, in keeping with the "JPEG Backup" theme, I'd buy this 64GB SanDisk SD card to store your JPEGS. There is also a 32GB Version for $25. Other settings: I'd set your LCD Brightness to -2 and set your camera to LOCK when no cards are preset. This setting should be F11 under the Custom Settings Menu. If you leave this setting at the default, the camera will take the picture, and it will be temporarily stored it in the buffer. You will be able to see the photo, but when the buffer is full and/or tries to dump to the card, your images will go *POOF* if there is something wrong with the card, or it isn't properly formatted. This sounds eerily similar to what you are describing. Hmm.... Short Answer: Nope...I'm sorry. Long Answer: I'm thinking the "Two-Button Format" is what screwed you up. I have a feeling that the SD card got formatted and the CF card didn't. You could try recovery software, but it's not looking great. I'd say re-shoots are in your future...but I would try recovery software. The Sandisk Cards should have come with a download code for the Sandisk Recovery Software. It's free for a limited time.

Oh, I would also not trust any brand other than Sandisk or Lexar. The cheap off-brands that are usually bundled with camera bodies are usually junk. Transend, Promaster and the like are not to be used during professional or paid gigs. Hell, I wouldn't even use them for personal stuff.

I also had another thought besides the camera settings, still which need to be rechecked. It is possible a bent pin in a card reader could have screwed up your card. The end result is more than likely going to be the same, but there might be another ingredient in this whole mess. In fact, the most vulnerable time for a CF card is when you insert and remove the card. A bent or shorted pin in either the camera or reader (or second body) can really screw up your day. I actually remember reading about a Wedding Photographer who had a bent pin in her primary camera, which blew the card. Since she was busy shooting a Wedding, she picked up her backup body and moved the card over from her primary. Well guess what? The now faulty card shorted out her 2nd body. Two dead cameras during a gig within a span of 5 min. Fortunately, her 2nd had a spare camera. My point is, you really need to be aware of the state your cards are in. Especially CF Media. Assume nothing. Even if the card worked fine the last 10 times.

It leaves you seriously screwed. It sounds like you do not have your D810 setup properly. Perhaps you are shooting RAW + JPEG and the JPEG files might be assigned to the SD slot. I would seriously take a look at your Nikon D810 Manual and read it cover to cover. #KNOWYOURGEAR #NOEXCUSES #YESITISBORING A: Only if you have it setup that way. By default, the CF card is written to first. So in your case, you want the SD card to be Primary and the CF to be Secondary. Then you choose Overflow from the Secondary Slot Function Option to have the files be written to the CF card once the SD card is filled. But you N-E-E-D to designate the SD slot as Primary first!! These options are in the Shooting Menu. Now, before you shoot ANY gig, YOU NEED TO FORMAT BOTH OF YOUR CARDS IN CAMERA. The filesystem needs to be setup on BOTH CARDS or else things won't be written to the cards properly. Never-ever format CF/SD cards in your computer. >>> Those images will go *POOF* when the camera's buffer dumps the images onto a un-formatted card. <<< It is not good practice to shoot multiple gigs on the same cards, unless it's back to back sessions at the same place. Even then that practice is questionable. In reality, one shoot = one set of cards. Now I'm sure you are saying, "...but that's expensive." So are lawyer's fees if you get sued. Trust me, extra CF / SD cards are cheaper than legal fees. So before we continue, how is your camera's menus setup? How is your image recording set? What bit depth is your RAW files set to? Are they compressed or un-compressed? What is your JPEG recording options set to? You want "Optimal Quality" for "JPEG FIne." Yes, you will be shooting in RAW, but it's a good idea to set your JPEG quality just in-case your fat-finger something and you accidentally shoot a session in JPEG. Trust me, it's happened before. Usually followed by a panicked post from a member here. So I'm here to help. Let's get you straightened out. In addition, what brand of CF / SD cards are you using?

Ditch the card. The Promaster brand is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Inside the CF Card, is a little tiny computer chip which then designates to where the data files end up. In this case, it's image files. If that little CPU chip screws up, your image files are screwed up. It honestly sounds like you were able to get the JPEG Preview files that are contained with in the RAW files. I'm thinking the images were being written to on a faulty card and there is no way in getting the RAW files back. Fortunately, Sandisk is running a sale on their "Professional Grade" line of cards: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1000363-REG/sandisk_sdcfxps_064g_a46_64gb_extreme_pro_compact.html I personally only by Sandisk Extreme and Sandisk Extreme Pro cards. It's just not worth it cheaping out on the most important part of the camera...the friggin' cards! You can get a 32GB card for $50.

Unless you are into Overclocking and playing games, you are splitting hairs. The Gigabyte Motherboard is a solid one, but if you want to get a faster motherboard and faster RAM, that's going to raise the prices about $500 just for the motherboard. Plus there is other stuff to tweak. We could easily blow another $1500 on components. Or more. I understand what you are asking, you want a "SuperFast Computer with Fireballs painted on the sides." I get it. The problem with that is you are missing one thing: Manufacturers buy stuff in bulk, which lowers the costs. The local guy / gal that's going to build you a system, they really don't buy in bulk. The components that they choose usually accomplish a few things: Are Reliable, so they don't have to fix / support things Are Cheap/Inexpensive, to keep their COGS low. That motherboard is around $75 or so. It's a good motherboard, but it's not a $800 motherboard with superfast RAM, overclocked CPU and liquid cooling. What I would do is upgrade the SSD drive from 250GB to at least 512GB, or better yet... get a 1TB SSD. I would not put anything less than a 512GB / 500GB in today's computers and really recommend that you get that 1TB. Now, some folks might say, "...but you just put the OS on the SSD and maybe your main programs and put everything else on the D: Drive..." I'd say that's true. The problem is the individual end-user. They are so used to going, "next-next-next...ok...standard install...nextnextnext, ok..finish" that everything just ends up on the C: (SSD) drive. It will become a mess at some point. With a SSD / Traditional HD setup, you have to be ANAL on what goes where. You must be proactive. You must choose "Custom" install and select the D: drive for stuff. Plus, with all of the updates for Windows and various programs getting larger all the time, 250GB is just "Too Small" these days. At a MINIMUM, you want a 512GB SSD Main Drive or 500GB Traditional HD. You can never have too much HD space. I seriously recommend the 1TB drive I linked to. I'm no fan of Seagate Hard Drives. The only HDs that have failed or physically blown components on me are Seagate Drives. I like the Western Digital Caviar Black line of Hard Drives. I've owned several drives over the years and have never had a problem. They run fast, are reliable and run cool. I would avoid the "WD Caviar Green Drives" like the plague. They are cheap pieces of junk. I'd get two of these and configure them in a RAID1: WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM Drive - 4TB Video Card: I'd upgrade to a 4GB model. Adobe's products are using video RAM for a performance boost these days, so it's better to get a decent video card. The one that's chosen is fine, I'd just get the 4GB model. I wouldn't go blowing a $1000 on a insanely fast video card, Adobe's products probably won't take advantage of the architecture that make it so fast. You aren't playing some sort of video game that a huge refresh rate with the highest detail setting. You want something that Adobe's software will play nice with. Finally, I would get 32GB of RAM and be done with it. While 16GB is good to have these days, like HD capacity, you can never have too much.

The other think you have to keep in mind, is you don't always put the AF point on your daughter's eye when she is that far away. You see, as far as your camera is concerned, there is a teeny-tiny bit of contrast swing (her eye) surrounded by a pinkish blob, (her face.) So your camera will take a best educated guess on focusing. For this shot, this is the wrong lens to use. Stopping down would have helped a smidge and maybe putting the AF point on her left arm could have helped, but nothing to write home about. The end result would still be the roughly the same. Wrong lens choice.

All kidding aside, the PC that is listed in the chart is a very nice one. It's "better" than the Dell XPS 8900 that I normally recommend. You see, what is "Great" now is already outdated. Within 6 months, something even better will come out. So I don't get excited by technology that much, because it's constantly evolving. Manufactures do not want you holding onto a computer for 5-7 years. They want you in the market sooner rather than later. So they keep pumping stuff out model after model. By the time you have done your research and saved up enough money and finally made a decision, that model you were going to buy has been replaced...and not always by something better. So if it were me, I'd get the one you were quoted and purchase a Dell Ultrasharp Monitor.

Enjoy your purchase!!

I just got to thinking, what would be a "Great" off the shelf computer that is already built? Alienware comes to mind. I'd look at the Alienware Area 51 line and would start with the $2099 model. Be sure to include a keyboard and mouse, since they are extra. High-end computers are targeted towards people who have no problems dropping a few hundred on a mouse and keyboard, so they don't come standard. http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-area51-r2/pd?oc=dpcw02s&model_id=alienware-area51-r2#overrides=dpcw02s:4~W8AWENG;12~AWLMMG1

If you want great, we can do great. I configured a "Awesome" computer...and stopped at $2700. Final cost was around $3600. Of course, you'll have to put it together yourself. Off the shelf computers aren't great. They are fine. They will get the job done. PS doesn't need a lot of horsepower. It won't take advantage of the architecture of a "Great" computer. You are just blowing money and trying to show off if you went that route. Just like PS runs slower on a Mac Pro vs a fast iMac. Now if you are editing video, that's a different story. So take my specs that I have laid out and use them as a baseline. Find a computer that has triple the specs and has awesome reviews.

Dell XPS 8900

Yep! Most lenses fall apart if the subject is more than 20 feet away. This is normal. Everyone talks about minimum focusing distance, but not maximum focusing distance, which is usually between 15-20+ feet. One of my most used lenses is the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8. It's the "24-70" for crop bodies. Anyway, when the subject is between 5 feet and 15 feet away, they are tack sharp. 16-20 feet away, they are "OK Sharp...gonna have to do stuff in PS later." 20 Feet or more...forget it. I'm reaching for my 70-200 and using compression to my advantage. I do know that Sigma has released firmware updates for the various ART lenses which helped some with focusing issues. You need the Sigma USB Dock in order to do the firmware update. That said, I don't think it applies here. This just boils down to good 'ol #KNOWINGYOURGEAR and when to use the lens...and when not to. Now if you are going to be doing photos like this and want to crop in severely, to get the detail that you want, you are buying a Nikon D810 or one of the Canon 50MP cameras. However, before blowing thousands on a camera body, can I interest you in spending that money on a 70-200 f/2.8 lens? That will do more for you than a new camera body. To give you an example, I was about the same distance away as you were when I took this shot with my 70-200 f/2.8 VR II:

Yes I'd get a Dell Ultrasharp instead.

Oh, I NEVER buy those extended warranty things, unless it's AppleCare. They almost never want to fix things and are pure profit for the resellers.