ECKSJAY
Water is dirty
- Location
- Covington, WA
You'll probably find my comments on the Nikon D70 around the 'search' archives here...
Have been using mine since late December when I bought it...and am thoroughly impressed. Silent operation (has the DX lens) which helps me shoot candids of people. The thing that tickled me the most when reviewing/looking at/trying out was the INSTANT on. Most digitals need a boot-up period before being able to start firing shots, but not the 70. The sales guy at Glazer's Camera in Seattle turned on a Digital Rebel at the same time I turned on the D70, and (with both cameras manually set to a fast shutter speed) I had 3 frames fired off before his first one. SOLD. I love portraits and journalistic photography, so fast 'on' is important to me. I also like the RAW (.nef Nikon file) capability and especially the RAW+JPG feature they use. Creates one 'low' res JPG file for each RAW image shot, so there's no conversion necessary to immediately view your images. I also use a pair of 1GB Sandisk Ultra II cards which are super fast read/write (10/9mbps, respectively). With my latest firmware update from Nikon (v2.0) the storage capacity bumped up to 158 frames of COMBINED RAW+JPG. That's a lot of shooting. Have seen plenty of folks using the Hitachi microdrives (4GB) with great success. My reason for the Ultra II usage is the quickness with which 'rapid-fire' is written. I'm actually looking at picking up a third 1GB card for additional storage when away from the laptop. Photo quality is some of the best I've found (and trust me...I've looked at a lot of them). I don't feel there's a bias because I've been shooting Nikon for years. I feel impartial because I started over when making the jump to digital. The relatively high minimum ISO200 in this camera has less noise than some other digitals at 100 or 50 ISO! Even through the 800 ISO range I've noticed little noise in daytime shots, a little more so with the nighttime photos (as to be expected). I typically shoot in the 200-600 range depending on weather or indoor/outdoor conditions. I've printed 8.5x11 borderless prints on my Epson R200 printer (which I purchased at the same time as the camera for $99...and got a rebate from Epson for $100 because it was on the camera receipt) and people can't tell it's digital. I've printed 16x20 prints through the local pro finisher and I can't even tell they're digital. Impressive!!!
The only complaint I had with this camera was the 'hunting' it did in autofocus mode. It used to enjoy slipping out of focus and sliding back in focus. v2.0 of the firmware noticeably took care of that issue. Nikon included a totally kick ass lens with it, put all the controls in the same places as my old film camera (Nikon N80, which is for sale, make offer
), and put all the new features in a stout, rugged body. USB 2.0 interface and a high-capacity Li-ION battery. I've had the pleasure of getting at LEAST 1100 shots out of the camera in autofocus mode, photo review, and onboard flash on (I've sold my soul to the fill flash).
The only things I've wanted since getting this camera are the remote control unit, a second battery, and a flash unit. The onboard flash works as a master control unit which will fire off a remote 'slave' flash for additional effects. I can't wait! Of course a nice long zoom lens is in the plans as well.
Good luck and hold out for the good 70 or above if you decide to hit up Nikon. The 50 is a dumbed down version and there is a budget 70 that doesn't have the 'good' lens. You'll be glad you did.
Have been using mine since late December when I bought it...and am thoroughly impressed. Silent operation (has the DX lens) which helps me shoot candids of people. The thing that tickled me the most when reviewing/looking at/trying out was the INSTANT on. Most digitals need a boot-up period before being able to start firing shots, but not the 70. The sales guy at Glazer's Camera in Seattle turned on a Digital Rebel at the same time I turned on the D70, and (with both cameras manually set to a fast shutter speed) I had 3 frames fired off before his first one. SOLD. I love portraits and journalistic photography, so fast 'on' is important to me. I also like the RAW (.nef Nikon file) capability and especially the RAW+JPG feature they use. Creates one 'low' res JPG file for each RAW image shot, so there's no conversion necessary to immediately view your images. I also use a pair of 1GB Sandisk Ultra II cards which are super fast read/write (10/9mbps, respectively). With my latest firmware update from Nikon (v2.0) the storage capacity bumped up to 158 frames of COMBINED RAW+JPG. That's a lot of shooting. Have seen plenty of folks using the Hitachi microdrives (4GB) with great success. My reason for the Ultra II usage is the quickness with which 'rapid-fire' is written. I'm actually looking at picking up a third 1GB card for additional storage when away from the laptop. Photo quality is some of the best I've found (and trust me...I've looked at a lot of them). I don't feel there's a bias because I've been shooting Nikon for years. I feel impartial because I started over when making the jump to digital. The relatively high minimum ISO200 in this camera has less noise than some other digitals at 100 or 50 ISO! Even through the 800 ISO range I've noticed little noise in daytime shots, a little more so with the nighttime photos (as to be expected). I typically shoot in the 200-600 range depending on weather or indoor/outdoor conditions. I've printed 8.5x11 borderless prints on my Epson R200 printer (which I purchased at the same time as the camera for $99...and got a rebate from Epson for $100 because it was on the camera receipt) and people can't tell it's digital. I've printed 16x20 prints through the local pro finisher and I can't even tell they're digital. Impressive!!!
The only complaint I had with this camera was the 'hunting' it did in autofocus mode. It used to enjoy slipping out of focus and sliding back in focus. v2.0 of the firmware noticeably took care of that issue. Nikon included a totally kick ass lens with it, put all the controls in the same places as my old film camera (Nikon N80, which is for sale, make offer
), and put all the new features in a stout, rugged body. USB 2.0 interface and a high-capacity Li-ION battery. I've had the pleasure of getting at LEAST 1100 shots out of the camera in autofocus mode, photo review, and onboard flash on (I've sold my soul to the fill flash). The only things I've wanted since getting this camera are the remote control unit, a second battery, and a flash unit. The onboard flash works as a master control unit which will fire off a remote 'slave' flash for additional effects. I can't wait! Of course a nice long zoom lens is in the plans as well.
Good luck and hold out for the good 70 or above if you decide to hit up Nikon. The 50 is a dumbed down version and there is a budget 70 that doesn't have the 'good' lens. You'll be glad you did.
