http://www.chiark.com/image/forbec.jpg

This is my corner :D

lol. look at the white balance of those teeth ;)

Yeah, it's pretty oversaturated on the web :D

got mine from pixmania.com (got my last canon from them and it was fine (also had a warranty prob with it and canon were cool- only downside is the instructions are french but i have already d/loaded them anyway)

T

Harry_Boy

It's a while since I caught up with this thread so I'm not ignoring you ;)

Can I bring a couple of lenses to the next meet and have a play to see if it all works?

TIA

Andy

Tiggs - congratulations on your purchase - I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

On the subject of lenses, you should always go for the best glass you can afford. Remember, it's the quality of the glass in front of the body which greatly affects the quality of the images. For example, I own (and have owned for quite some years) a Nikon 85mm f/1.4 manual focus (AIS) lens and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers before I'd part with it. It's fantastic for portraits and low-light conditions. Bigger glass is more expensive but as swiss scooby said above, buy the right glass and you will certainly change the bodies before you want/need to change the lenses. Oh, and *do* buy a filter (UV or Skylight) to protect the front element - much cheaper to replace the filter rather than the lens !

Oh, BTW - firmware upgrades for the D70 and D2H have now been released by Nikon

Nikon Customer Services (http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nikoneurope_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_lva=&p_li=&p_page=1&p_prod_lvl1=%7Eany%7E&p_prod_lvl2=%7Eany%7E&p_cat_lvl1=22&p_search_text=&p_new_search=1&p_search_type=3&p_sort_by=dflt)

Daryl, you'll never need another lens??? Wide angle? How about low-light? If there was a perfect lens, people would only make one lens and the rest wouldn't bother ;)

I meant when combined with the 18-70 he has ordered!!

Low light? You wouldn't want to use that lens without a monopod/tripod anyway, it's huge ;)

tiggs pixmania still have them in stock, but how will the warranty go with this being French. I mean just because the manual is in French is the warrany invalid for the UK? Will you have to send it to France for any repairs if required?

Nikon warranty is worldwide (assuming you are not buying grey market). If something goes wrong you can leave it into your local dealer to have it repaired.

Thanks for the info Frenchie :)

as above- i have checked with Nikon and they agree that the warranty will still stand- my canon from pixmania went iffy and my local canon supplier fixed it for me no probs.

T

Cheers Tiggs :)

It's all in the lenses. Don't worry too much about the body as, before you know it, it'll be out of date. Choose a line of lenses you want to make a long term investment in, and then choose the camera! Just my $.02

Yes the Lenes are the important bit for quality images - but, the body is the important bit to 'feedback' to the user.

If that 'feedback', as in the EOS300D, is of a plastic lightweight 'got-in-a-lucky-bag' feel - then its very much an important purchase point.

Pete

If that 'feedback', as in the EOS300D, is of a plastic lightweight 'got-in-a-lucky-bag' feel - then its very much an important purchase point.
Pete

Stop going on about the crappy 300d and just buy a bloody D70!! ;)

...and anyway, the 300d isn't actually cheap and nasty, it's just a horrible colour - and lightness is a good thing! :razz:

Lightness is NOT a good thing - not if it has a price ticket of £800!! :eek:

And I bring the EOS300D into the debate because its the D70's direct competition (but, sadly, its about as much competition as the Tory Party!) :D

I just wish you could get a UK sourced D70 with that elusive 18-70 Lens! :(

The Canon was an excellent camera until the D70 came out

Pete

Originally Posted by Tiggs
My D70 arrives tommorow with the 18-70mm lenses. I am also after a decent longer lense for.....photos of things further away!

any recomendations for a cost effective choice?


Sigma AF 50-500mm f4-6.3 RF APO, about £700.

With one of those, you'll never need anything else!

No good for anything less than great lighting though. I can't stress enough how important it is to pay the extra to get the lowest (biggest) possible aperture.

Although it doesn't have quite the reach, the best telephoto lens for the money at the moment has to be the Sigma 70-200mm HSM 2.8. for about £600. It focuses incredibly quickly and smoothly, and you will really notice the difference of 2.8 aperture versus 4 in lower light conditions.

What really sets the d70 apart is the sb800 speedlight, which gives you access to what Nikon call their 'creative lighting system', including off-camera remote use.

It's fully rotatable with built in diffuser and bounce card.

Check out these results. Bearing in mind this is a silverback gorilla, so I was quite far away!!! You can actually see how the flash has lit up the face and eyes.

This was also with the sigma lens.

Also bear in mind this is 1/4 the original photo size, so nothing like the best quality.

http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5749047.html
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5749054.html

Some other random good shots:

http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5749057.html
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5749037.html
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5557765.html
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5556489.html
http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/p5556507.html

and the full gallery:

http://edbartlett6649.fotopic.net/

pete- you do faff........i have heard about, ordered and will get and use a D70 in the time it has taken you to start this thread and still not conclude it!

i am determind to post my first D70 pic on this thread while you still hum an haaaaa!

ed,

based on your monkey pic i'll get get the sigma 70-200 then.....i assume the 2.8 also improves the narrow DOF for stuff like monkey shot?

No good for anything less than great lighting though. I can't stress enough how important it is to pay the extra to get the lowest (biggest) possible aperture.


I think you missed my point somewhat, Tiggs asked for a cost effective recommendation and the Sigma lens would do away with the need to buy any others without spending silly money - I didn't suggest it was the best lens you can buy!

Nice pics BTW :)

Tiggs, yes, but you are getting yours from Pixmania!

Their offices looked good on Watchdog last night!! :eek:

Pete :D

ps. I take the 'considered' route, I'll have one at Xmas for £600 :D

Tiggs, when fully-zoomed and at a large (small number) aperture you are always going to have a fairly shallow DOF.

One other tip, search ebay for a canon 77mm 500d. This is a 77m screw-in diopter that both magnifies and reduces the 70-200's minimum working range from about 8ft to about 2 ft, meaning you can get some simply amazing macro shots at almost 1:1 reproduction.

I don't currently have any examples post-processed, and I am really busy but I will post examples at the weekend!

Ed

i'll get get the sigma 70-200 then.....i assume the 2.8 also improves the narrow DOF for stuff like monkey shot?

It's certainly a good lens (got one myself) and you are correct about the DoF

I think you missed my point somewhat, Tiggs asked for a cost effective recommendation and the Sigma lens would do away with the need to buy any others without spending silly money - I didn't suggest it was the best lens you can buy!

Nice pics BTW :)

Yeah sorry daryl, it's a perfectly good suggestion that you make, but my worry was that I would end up replacing it anyway for that reason, so I went with the 70-200 and a 1.4x teleconverter for when 200 isn't quite enough.

I *am* going to need something longer at some point soon, but the combination of incredible quality class, extremely fast focusing and a pretty decent accommodation of working range at such a low price (compared with the nikon 70-200 2.8 vr at £1500!!) was too good to ignore :)

"Their offices looked good on Watchdog last night!! "

yeah, yeah...and their D70 will look good on my desk in the morning :D

ed, thanks for the tip- i did gsce photography 14 years ago and use point and shoots since so getting back into slr's is a combo of brand new stuff and 14 year old foggy memories of Mr Ash and studying with chavs that took the subject to skip the "proper" lessons!

"1.4x teleconverter "

what effect does that have on pic quality?

They are stunning shots with the Sigma Lens I have to say!

I have always been a Sigma fan - but, £600!! Phew, this is getting expensive and I have a family to convince that £1000 is sensible money for a camera! Let alone £1600!! :eek:

Pete

pete, my the time you get it in 2009 it will be £150 all in on ebay......in fact i'll sell you mine ;)