First results with the 200-500 f5.6 (Image added, 27th)

[Frank Fremerey]

A very fine instrument in your hands

[MFloyd]

No. I never trusted Apple. I build my own hardware and use Windows. For backup I chose my own set of Hardware / Software solutions that suit my needs. And I test these and they work. With Windows 10 it is even easy to reinstall the whole system if it should be necessary and the error lives in the system backup too.

These are the sort of generic / take away comments which are not very helpful. I could make the same sort of badmouthing comments on Windows ad libitum, as I practiced MS since its very inception. TimeMachine (™) has helped me out of the deep sh..it on several occasions; I also recently used it to migrate to my new MacBook Pro. Two remarks:(1) use TM the way it is build i.e leave it on, and don't use it from time to time (2) always put (at least) a second backup strategy in place e.g. every month (or less) I take a CarbonCopy clone on HDDs (copies which are then safely stored away: fire and theft proof). This way, I was kept whole from major disasters, all these years.

By the way, David, very nice pictures ... and I'm sorry to learn your data recovery problems.  In addition to the aforementioned, I always make a second copy during my imports (Lr has provided this option), and this on another disk.  Moreover, I never empty / reuse my memory cards before a month or so, in the case I need a last chance recovery.

[Anthony]

Time Machine has saved me in the past, but I also have a second backup which I refresh every week or so with SuperDuper.  It is possible for any hard drive to fail, and it is possible that two will fail at the same time.

When a backup disk, Time Machine or otherwise, is full, I put it somewhere safe and install a new replacement.

[David Paterson]

Thank you, Erik, Elsa, Frank and Floyd.

Floyd - in the light of what you and others have said, it's obvious I must beef up my backup regime. However, it seems to me that the extreme measures - that you (and others) find necessary - point to one of the major downsides of our digital age. There is just no reliable solution for accessible long-term data storage. Electronic components have a certain useful life-span before they become unreliable and eventually fail completely. I have not been particularly unlucky, but since I bought my first desktop computer in the late 1980s I have had disk failures, memory-card failures and ram failures. On the other hand, I have two 4-drawer filing cabinets in my office which house my archive of 35mm and medium-format transparencies. Many of these go back over 40 years and have never had any care taken except to keep them in darkness and at a reasonably stable temperature, yet they are apparently as fresh as the day they were shot. Digital manufacturers are providing us with ever more high-capacity storage devices at very low prices. Perhaps they should turn their research in the direction of affordable *reliable* long-term storage.

[Frank Fremerey]

I must beef up my backup regime. However, it seems to me that the extreme measures - that you (and others) find necessary - point to one of the major downsides of our digital age. There is just no reliable solution for accessible long-term data storage.

That is so not true. I 1996 I reported for c't magazine about data storage in Banks and Broadcasting. It works reliably.

Think of having your files stored unchanged. Bit for bit.
Do not think about the media, media fail.
Do not organize it yourself.
Store the data in a reliable professional data center.
pay a monthly fee.
Keep your access and encryption keys on different physical media in different places.

That is data storage.

If electricity fails worldwide for a longer period we will have other problems, much bigger problems.

If you are bold enough to think your pictures still serve humankind in that situation, then have them printed on long term stable material like natural canvas with pigmented ink. and store them safely in a bunker.

[MFloyd]

David, I couldn't more agree with you. My "digital age" started around 1999 and really picked up in 2009, to stabilize around 300GB per annum for the last three years.  Up to now, I have encountered no losses, despite chronical HDD failures, the latter being an inherent part of the game. Film, has also his problems; just having a look at the movie industry and their problems to safeguard and preserve copies. An excellent article around archiving digital media is here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2984597/storage/hard-core-data-preservation-the-best-media-and-methods-for-archiving-your-data.html

May be we should dedicate a thread to this.

[MFloyd]

...
Do not organize it yourself.
.....

But you rely on a home build computer, making a bet that you will do better and more reliable than the "big guys". You tell me. A chain is as solid as its weakest link. As David mentioned, the reliability of mass storage devices, be it HDD, SSD or other media, is clearly the weak link in my process. And Dr. Murphy likes very much to play this game: years ago a had a simultaneous double disk crash and controller unit in an IBM RAID unit in one of my offices ....

[Bjørn Rørslett]

We have an issue here. The thread has wandered off completely and now mainly deals with data security and storage. Interesting and crucial topics for sure, but nothing relevant to the 200-500 lens as such.

Might I ask further submissions to concentrate on the lens and the results it can deliver? The data aspects can  be dealt with in a separate thread.

[MFloyd]

As per Bjørn's request with regard discussions related to image back-up strategies, I opened a new thread http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,5164.0.html open to everybody, of course. 😊

[ColSebastianMoran]

The lens is great. I've been using it for birds with a D7200.

[elsa hoffmann]

I have this lens permanently attached to a D800.
My other D800 is used for all my other lenses.
I simply couldnt live without the lens anymore