Colleague at work brought his in today to show me. How impressed?

Amazed at just how instant startup is. I've read about it, but you always think they are exaggerating. Auto focus is virtually instantaneous, makes mine look like mice are driving the motors.

The general feel of the camera is very good, very solid, like a proper camera should feel, not like the bargain basement plastic lightweight 300D (not knocking the 300D abilities before people jump down my throat, just it's build quality). All the controls werre easiliy accessible without havin to take your eye off the all important subject matter. Menus, when needed, were straightforward, no messin.

I only had a limited oppurtunity ti take some shots, but I browsed thru what had already been taken and they were very impressive. I did a test shot of some people against a brightly lit window, hoping that (like mine :( ) I would just get silouhettes. Oh no, properly exposed people and even detail from the background outside.

How much do I want one? ****loads! How likely am I to persuade the wife to let me part with £900 after buying an S7000 in december? Well...........


Oh how I envy the people with one.

Ah, back to Big Brother.

Geezer

£900? Mine will be £650 from Singapore. Should be here on Saturday :D

(Sorry, cruel, just had to :D )

£900? Mine will be £650 from Singapore. Should be here on Saturday :D

(Sorry, cruel, just had to :D )

Oh, that cuts deep!

Kick me while I'm down!!!!! ;)

I'd like to say I hope you enjoy your camera, but I can't bring myself to :D

Geezer

£900? Mine will be £650 from Singapore. Should be here on Saturday :D

(Sorry, cruel, just had to :D )

Let's hope your mate doesn't get caught coming through the green channel :D

(Sorry, cruel, just had to :D )

Daryl
His problem, not mine ;) :D

Great thread :) Makes me want to spend some money! I love my toys as much as anyone but can I just repeat what Pete 'gold lens caps' Lewis said, as he doesn't generally talk much sense :D

Pete said "a camera's only function is to take photos." And all the technology in the world does not guarantee good photos - far from it. A good photographer with a disposable camera will score a higher success rate. Learn about photography - understand the effect of shutter-speeds and lens apertures, focal length, depth-of-field, perspective. Know what your camera is doing, and why.

Most of all, try to understand light - highlights and shadows, contrast ratios, and the difference between what you see and what the camera records. You actually see with your brain, which really is a clever bit of kit, and getting the camera to reproduce that image from your mind's eye is a great skill.

Read a book (Basic Photography by Michael Langford is a good start) and then there's no substitute for taking lots of pictures, understanding why they're not quite what you hoped, and then taking a few thousand more.

And if this thread is mostly about image quality, then consider that my father's 50-year-old Rollieflex will record the equivalent of around 40m pixels per frame. Not a very sexy camera, but he took some bl00dy good pictures with it :)

Cheers,

Richard.

Not seeing many example shots from all these wonderful new D70's on SN :D
C'mon lads - post some more!

cant link to pic so gave up!

Now if only I had £1370 to spare....... What a package! (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3831759770&ssPageName=MERC_VI)

That would do.

For starters.... ;)

Geezer

http://www.tiggspics.fotopic.net/p6468669.html

taken on my first day with the D70 and through a chain link fence.....but not a bad start!

Tiggs,

Thats a nice pic, well cropped to. Do you rember the settings you used or were you in one of the preset numptie modes:)?

Darren

the camera was on ap priority to get nice and wide with low DOF....however, i have found my 70-200 sigma is not as sharp as i'd like wide open so with hindsight i may have shot slower and sharper. the camera was set to auto sharpen as it does out of the box- i no longer have this and do all my sharpening on the pc.

the original nef was soft and washed out so i used Photoshop to create the othe pic version that is on my photopic site....then i got nikon capture and found it much easier to use. im sure PS is better but i dont really understand what im doing (but i know what i like) and NC works for me.

in the better pic i used lots of extra sharpening and contrast to counter the soft original thenused colour boster- it depends what effect you want i suppose as the shot no longer looks like my eye saw it! it looks bright and colourfull not like a dreary day at marwell zoo! but i prefer to make a nice picture above capturing what i saw.

i also played with exp in NC and WB a bit.

then cropped it in PS, a lot of the background had lines where the chain link was blured out, while they are still there in the better one the tighter crop focuses the eye more on the face and you dont notice the fence so much.

T

Well my good lady wife has relented! D70 here I come.

Anyone fancy a 7 month old S7000 with a load of accessories?

Geezer

Great pic Tiggs although our usernames aren't quite right are they? ;) Now let's see ajm sort that one out :D :D

If you haven't already read up on white balance as it's important to understand how this works - the importance of white balance in digital photography is often overlooked.

If I am able I manually set it using an 18% grey card, but this isn't always possible of course.

tiggers.

i have a vauge understanding but my use of it is limited to trying some presets in NC and seeing what pleases my eye best! Not very hitech but its my photo!

i have a vauge understanding but my use of it is limited to trying some presets in NC and seeing what pleases my eye best! Not very hitech but its my photo!

Well it's a good start, but be sure to at least use something like Adobe Gamma to try and make sure that your monitor is at least some way towards being adjusted for colour correctly otherwise adjusting a photo by your eye is a waste of time.

tiggers.

Well, merchandise arrived safely in the UK via the Nothing to Declare channel :D - going to pick it up tonight - D70, 18-70 lens, 512mb card, SB600 flash, £931 all in, not too clever exchange rate, but still saved approx £400 on UK price :)

Hmmmm, my lenses arrived yesterday, all I need now is the bleedin body!

And I've sold my old one, so I've nothing to take pictures with :(

Maybe I could hold on of the lenses up to my eye and pretend.................

Geezer

Dave,

I'm afraid that, as a good citizen, I have to report you to HMC&E. Sorry about that, but expect a knock on the door. By the way, do not mess with these people: they have scaaaaary powers.

;)

Tiggs, great photo - I wish I could have produced something like that on the first day. Echo the comments about a camera being a tool to assist getting photos, but ultimately it's the photographer that a photograph makes. Again, I recommend the Michael Langford "Basic Photography" book, but for the love of all things holy avoid reading the digital manipulation section whilst drinking anything that will damage keyboards, as there's some howlers in there.

The description of the modem is particularly good, as apparently it translates analogue images into digital.

Nick

:D

Well, merchandise arrived safely in the UK via the Nothing to Declare channel :D - going to pick it up tonight - D70, 18-70 lens, 512mb card, SB600 flash, £931 all in, not too clever exchange rate, but still saved approx £400 on UK price :)

Are you sure the saving was that great? I know you can get the D70 and 18-70 lens for around £900 add £50 for the 512Mb card ............... why buy a flash, I thought the D70 had one??

Pete

i just got the sb800 and its superb...standard flash is not much use for proper flash shots

Er, Pete, the difference between the built in flash and the sb 800 is "significant". They're 300 quid in the UK.

I can't remember the last time I used flash for anything other than Fill-In ... and for that I would imagine the one on the camera is more than good enough?

Pete

depends where the subject is.....i was at the zoo recently and found the standard flash to weak to light up animals that were to far away.

Just got home from collecting my new toys :D

Pete
The other geezers have answered your question! :)

depends where the subject is.....i was at the zoo recently and found the standard flash to weak to light up animals that were to far away.

Didn't think the zoos were open at night?

Enjoy playing with your kit Dave!

;) Pete :D

"Didn't think the zoos were open at night?"

cloudy weather and a tiger under a tree needs a flash......either jump in enclosure and pop up the standard flash...or use SB800 and not get eaten!

Pete
Ta :D

I'm doing a sponsored charity solo parachute jump on Sunday, so shall give the GF the new camera to get some nice sharp pics if I strawberry jam myself :D