d70 quick advice

[wider]

hey guys i picked up a d70 in japan... i know all about warranty etc, but i want some advice:

are there any settings or things i should do to the camera to make sure im getting the best possible photo? eg sharpness adjustment or things to watch out for?

how important is the firmware upgrade?

Cheers!

[gstark]

Was the camera you purchased new or pre-loved?

And was it a D70, or a D70s?

If the latter, I don't think there's any firmware upgrade available.

If the former, what firmware is it running? The latest upgrade gives it virtually the same firmware as an s, and it corrects a couple of minor issues.

What CF cards do you have for this, what is your shooting background, and what do yolu like to shoot. The more we know about your shooting preferences and skillset, the better we'll be able to help you.

[Yi-P]

The D70 is not as capable as newer cameras to take 'out of the box' shots. But with a little play with the settings and maybe applying some PP after shot, the results are just amazing as it should be.

As Gary said, before giving suggestions, some background information may be needed to guide you through this.

[shutterbug]

Do some test, since it is digital, it does not cost you anything.

My advice is to go out and capture.

[wider]

cheers for the replies

i have used my father`s EM nikon (manual slr) for about 8 years and my own olympus sp350 p+s which is quite controllable for a compact.

I picked up a d70s new, with the kit 18-70 ED glass and cheapish sigma 70-300, with a 115x 1gb CF card.

im going around tokyo at the moment, trying out some slower exposures on moving people etc using shutter priority. im finding the metering system interesting as im losing some darker objects against a light background (dont ya hate light grey skies/smog) . im just using exposure compensation for a quick fix as i dont want to be behind the camera the whole day.

does this camera tend to oversharpen pictures? im wondering what PP set people tend to use for general photography... i am doing alot of cityscape photography at the moment - in tokyo and yokohama.

[Yi-P]

D70's meter is not perfect and with complex lighting situations it tends to expose incorrectly.

When doing night-scapes, better off using manual modes. I'm sure you'll be familiar with how to set this up with the EM, same deal with the D70.

With digital, you may see they will tend to oversharpen from the process as comparing back with film. Not sure if this will be the lens you are using, but quick enough you get used to this.

[gstark]

i have used my father`s EM nikon (manual slr)

You mean manual focus, I hope. The EM was an aperture priority AE camera; this was their entry level SLR at the time it was released.

The FM series were fully manual in terms of exposure and and focus, and the FE was the aperture priority AE version of the FM. And IIRC, the FG sat somewhere between the FE and EM, being aimed at those who wished to step up from the EM, but still didn't want the FE.

I picked up a d70s new, with the kit 18-70 ED glass and cheapish sigma 70-300, with a 115x 1gb CF card.

Ok. That's addressed the firmware upgrade question then: there is none available for that model (to my knowledge) so don't worry about it.

im finding the metering system interesting as im losing some darker objects against a light background (dont ya hate light grey skies/smog) . im just using exposure compensation for a quick fix as i dont want to be behind the camera the whole day.

Actually, grey skies are great for photography. They provide an even light source, which gives good quality light, once you know how to take advantage of it.

What is the metering mode that you're currently using, and what focus points and focus modes are you using? While I mostly use centre spot metering, given your unfamiliarity with the camera, you may find it better to use matrix at this time.

How much of the frame area is the lighter background occupying? It sounds like you're hitting a typical backlighting situation, and exposure compensation is one way to overcome the problem.

A second method though is to use a bit of fill flash, with FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation). On the left side of the pentamirror housing, as you look down at the camera, you'll see a small button. Pressing that will pop up and turn on the built in flash.

With the flash popped, hold it down and rotate command dial #2 (front) and pay attention to the display LCD at the top of the camera. Using this control set, you can dial down the flash power; set it to about -1 1/3 stops. Use this setting where you're seeing the underexposed foreground subjects and see what sort of a difference that makes to the images.

Adjust to give more or less power as needed.

...

Turn on the focus point highlighting, and pay attention to the focus points.

While I normally would suggest killing the auto-ISO setting, perhaps for the shooting you're doing this may be useful; I'm not sure. I also prefer to not use auto white balance, and have set my basic WB points to -1 or -2 to help give me images out of the camera that I prefer.

I also have a custom image curve loaded, and that's a big help too.

does this camera tend to oversharpen pictures? im wondering what PP set people tend to use for general photography... i am doing alot of cityscape photography at the moment - in tokyo and yokohama.

If you're shooting raw (highly recommended) then it doesn't really matter.

You can change most settings after the fact, but I prefer to view that as an emergency action, rather than as the way one should be shooting. You should be aiming to get everything right in the camera, just as you would on a film camera. While PP on your computer is great, and great fun too, having to do this can impact your workflow, and the closer you can get to a final image in the camera, the less time you'll be spending in PP correcting the errors that simply shouldn't have been committed.

[wider]

wow great to see how much you guys know about old cameras too! yes the EM was only manual focus/apeture but ran on apeture priority. gstark were you an FM owner?

i have been using the centre point focus mode, with matrix metering. i might change the metering to the centre point with the brackets around it and different size area for experimentation.

thanks for the information about setting the fill flash, i have been wondering where these controls were and was about to whip out the manual! one minor dilemma is alot of the photos i have been capturing are through the 70-300 lens, with subjects either far away or spread throughout the whole field. i just need to remember now to turn the exposure compensation back down, im used to looking at an lcd for setting up the photo.

i have kept attention to the ISO setting, trying to keep it as low as possible. the white balance has been interesting, as Auto had my pictures under grey skies too blue, even at one stage the cloudy mode was still too blue.

im keen to try out some raw, but am not on my own computer, and the software i picked up might be in japanese. with only 1gb fine quality jpeg is sufficient i guess...

ken rockwell was saying that the 'vivid' PP mode gives some nice results. i might give this a shot today. i'll post up some pics if you want, so you can critique how im going with the camera

[gstark]

wow great to see how much you guys know about old cameras too! yes the EM was only manual focus/apeture but ran on apeture priority. gstark were you an FM owner?

FM, FE, FE2, FA, currently have an EM sitting on a bookshelf and awaiting conversion to ....

Check my signature line for the current inventory of bodies.

i have been using the centre point focus mode, with matrix metering. i might change the metering to the centre point with the brackets around it and different size area for experimentation.

With the 70-300, I'd probably switch to centre weighted or spot, but with the kit, stay on matrix.

i just need to remember now to turn the exposure compensation back down, im used to looking at an lcd for setting up the photo.

The FEC info that I gave you applies only to the flash. Push the flash head down, and those settings are no longer in use.

But yes, for the general exposure compensation settings, they will remain set unless and until you change/remove them. Both of these have an indicator in your viewfinder too, btw.

i have kept attention to the ISO setting, trying to keep it as low as possible. the white balance has been interesting, as Auto had my pictures under grey skies too blue, even at one stage the cloudy mode was still too blue.

Also be aware that there remains, I believe, a bug in the firmware, whereby a couple of the WB settings are reversed. Choose cloudy, it gives you sunny values, or something like that.

There is an old thread on the forums about this; hopefull somebody can pull a reference to it for you.

Also - and I appreciate that you're not on your own pc - don't overlook the tutorials that we have available from our front page. And remember too that this site started as a speciality D70 users' site, so we really have a lot of expertise archived in our older posts.

i'll post up some pics if you want, so you can critique how im going with the camera

When you're ready. Please remember though that while we always try to be constructive, if there are some harsher comments posted, they will be aimed at getting you to improve your techniques, and thereby your images. That means that the comments should never be taken as personal criticisms.

[wider]

here are 3 different images i took yesterday

EDIT: host should be fine now


please excuse grainyness in the last photo - it was handheld and theres also a reflection up the top too

am welcoming any comments, cheers for all the info so far!

[wider]

okay i have a few quick questions

1. does having NR on reduce the speed of the multi burst mode (even when its not a slow exposure)?

2. im getting a UFO white light around the sun in some pictures, how to avoid this? (dont tell me not to point at the sun >_<)

3. some pictures i have taken with my cheapish sigma lens are showing a hotspot in the centre/the edges are duller... is this because the lens is crap or because im not using the lens flare light cover thingy (the lens is a 70-300 'f4-5.6 DG Macro'

[Oz_Beachside]

i have kept attention to the ISO setting, trying to keep it as low as possible. the white balance has been interesting, as Auto had my pictures under grey skies too blue, even at one stage the cloudy mode was still too blue.

Also be aware that there remains, I believe, a bug in the firmware, whereby a couple of the WB settings are reversed. Choose cloudy, it gives you sunny values, or something like that.

There is an old thread on the forums about this; hopefull somebody can pull a reference to it for you.

Hi Gary, I repeated the WB test, on a recent D70s (manuf. feb 06), and got the same result, ref here... (which refers to the original D70 thread also).

http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?t=2352&highlight=