I finally installed my Helibars today. JZ did most of the work. It took the better part of the day.
They don’t look better than the stock bars, that’s for sure. But hopefully they’ll be more comfortable for me given my long torso.
Fenix Flashlights
I’ve misplaced my xenon Surefire 6P and G2 Nitrolon high-powered small flashlights. At this point, I don’t know when they’re going to show up again, though I’m confident they will.
I need replacements. And I want a strong purse torch for my wife. And I want to switch to LED-based torches. So I checked out surefire.com and found the E1B Backup. Nice. I really like that it has a clip and that it’s reversible. But I kept looking and found candlepowerforums.com and Fenix lights.
I decided on and purchased on Fenix PD20 ($57.95) and two Fenix PD1-Q5 super-mini lamps ($49.95), one of which is for my wife’s purse. The other is for me and I haven’t decided where it’ll go. I’ll probably buy another one some day, too. But not this day.
LAPoliceGear.com got my business this time. Good prices and free shipping with a coupon code I googled for (“SPECOPS”) on orders over $124.00. The lights already had free shipping but I threw in some off-brand (i.e. non-Surefire) CR-123A batteries that required shipping. — a 20-pack for $23.00.
D90 arrived. Best Nikon body I’ve owned.
All I can say is Wow. This thing is such a pleasure to use. Nikon really outdid themselves. Right off the bat, the following things are worth the upgrade:
- Higher-res LCD
- Bigger LCD
- Moving around on LCD gets fast sooner than on D200.
- Ability to set Auto-ISO above 1600!
- Easier to read text in menus and more descriptive names in menus
- Sharper (at least with Sharpness cranked up) than D200 ever was.
So far I’ve only shot it with my 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor lens.
4 October 2011 update: I’ve had my D90 body for almost three years. For me, for a digital body, that’s a long time. And I’m still very happy with it. Noticed some dust on the mirror for the first time the other day. The rubber under my right thumb position has come unglued, but whatever. I’d really like an FX body to get wider shots with my 50mm f/1.4 and to get maximum low-light picture quality, but the D700 is
- Expensive; and
- Large; and
- Liable to be improved upon in the next year or so.
For my needs, my D90 still beats every other Nikon body I’ve owned. Namely, D40, D70, D80, D200. I suspect the Fuji X100 would challenge it for my affections.