Shooting a D70 like a rangefinder...variant on prior thread

I've put in an order for a D70 and should have it by the middle of next month.

Honestly I'd much rather shoot with my M but the cost of film and processing is

cramping my desired style -- think Winogrand! I'm still going to keep shooting

E100G with my M6 but it'll have to be sparingly for stuff that really requires the

M's "fly-on-the-wall" mode.

 

Now before you tell me about how I could have spent the money I spent on

the D70 on film, let me clarify two points: 1) the D70 costs the equivalent of

about 70 rolls of E-6 slide film plus processing here in Japan. I could happily

shoot this much film in two months if it were free and 2) I'm actually not paying

for it at all since I'm using part of my research budget. You gotta love Japan!

(And before you start bitching about THAT, how many of you have a two

income family, three more or less new cars, and live in a $400,000+ home? I

sure don't.)

 

Anyway, I'm planning to shoot my D70 as much like a RF as possible. I'll

probably shoot a lot with zone focus (that's what higher ISO are for, right?)

and probably primarily in A or metered manual.

 

Any other suggestions for turning a DSLR into a faux digital RF?

Stay away from zooms. Use a external viewfinder and a 20F2.8. But zone focus is a waste of time with SLR lenses because the scale marking is unusable.

Wideangle lens, external viewfinder of equiv. focal length (factoring in 1.5-1.6x crop) in hotshoe mount, manual or set focus.

Yes. One idea is to get the Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 P (Pancake Tessar style, manual focus, CPU lens) It will keep the package quite small and give you manual focus without sacrificing the metering/flash modes available because it is a CPU lens.

 

You will enjoy being able to flick between ISO speeds for each shot (200 - 1600 and 2 stops over/under compensation) and having 3 different metering modes.

 

You will NOT enjoy the D70 viewfinder as much as the viewfinder on a Leica M (but it's not as bad as some people make out).

 

Good luck. I enjoy my D70 a lot. And the freedom from expensive film processing (here in UK it is expensive also) is wonderful.

 

The D70 is a blast.

Didn't Winogrand shoot loads and loads of film, then wait a long time before printing? If so, I guess this can be emulated with digital ;-)

 

The difficlt to emulate characteristics will the noise level and the size, or are the new DSLRs more quiet than my D60?

1. Don't apologize for needing/wanting digital.

2. Use it as it was designed. Why 'zone focus?' It has AF, with focus lock. It has metering. It

isn't a RF, so why pretend?

You could spend 3 times as much and get the Epson RD-1 (same type of 6mp sensor as the D70) and continue using Leica/CosinaVoigtlander lenses. This will give you the 'true' rangefinder experience.

 

Oh and you are going to get badly mauled for bringing up a Nikon DSLR here in the Leica forum.

The D70 is smaller than the D100 and if fact just about the same size as my

Coolpix 5000 with battery pack. It's even slightly smaller than my N90's.

There is still that annoying mirror slap but the D70 is considerably quieter

than my N90 and maybe on a par with my FM2. I'd say it's a toss up between

the D70 and the Bessa R2. Same volume different sounds.

 

I will have a (Tokina) 12-24 zoom because this covers my favorite focal

lengths for classic SLR travel photography. And for the time being I may have

to use that to get a true 28mm -- my favorite street lens. It'll also give me a

usable 35 at least. Wish I hadn't sold my Ai 24/2.8.

 

When out "shooting B/W" I'm thinking of setting up an automated post-

processing workflow such that I don't actually have to look through color

versions. Don't know if that's feasible or advisable.

buy the 45mm pancake D lens (the fm3a kit lens) for use on the d70. it is the only MF nikkor lens that is fully compatible with the d70. it is a superb and compact combo. very leica-like.

D70, no flash, ISO 800 and 1600, f3.5, handheld indoors today....<div></div>

===<div></div>

You will also enjoy auto white balance and custom white balance.

Derek, I've never really bonded with AF and even with my N90's shot mostly

manual focus when on assignement. I don't like to have to set focus and then

recompose -- which of course you even had to do back in the days of SLR

split image rangefinders (remember those). I got around this on all my SLR's

by installing matte screens which allow me to focus on any part of the frame.

The D70 has the same sort of matte focusing screen.

 

Also I think a good number of classic Leica M photos are distinguished by

their creative use of focus, for example, large OOF foreground subjects

framing a sharp rear image. Smart AF's won't let you do this and so you're

back to focus and recompose something I'm just not will to do. By the way,

when I say "zone focus" I'm really talking about focusing by feel or at a given

shooting distance not setting the lens at some hyperfocal distance.

 

Also I'm not apologizing for digital. The only reason I want a digtial camera is

to save myself the cost of film and processing and to have direct access to the

final digital format I'm after (I haven't made a print in years). I'm not doing

digital so I can dial in aperture on a wheel instead of a ring (but I can learn to

cope) or to be able to use "i-Flash" when plain old f4 auto works just fine or so

I can dial in exposure compensation when the matrix metering isn't right, or to

be able to record the exposure data for every frame I ever shoot, or to have to

decide which of 5 AF sensors I should activate before shooting, or any of the

hundreds of other "innovations" I've been avoiding for over 15 years.

 

Digital doesn't have to mean AUTO EVERYTHING. I can just be digital.

I use a D100 for a similar style - Sigma 20mm 1.8, (35mm effective on the digi) focused at the hyperfocal distance most of the time...AF disabled (custom button to use when needed) The nikon digital noise at high ISO's is fairly grain-like...so I find it makes a convenient alternative to my film RFs.

Many people suggested buying the 45mm pancake lens because of its tiny, RF-lens-like

stature but remember 45mm on D70 becomes a semi-longish 67mm. I would say get a

24mm F2.8D - though bigger than the 45mm this is still a very light and small lens in the

Nikon lineup - and with the D70 crop factor it becomes a 35mm lens. 35mm as a focal

length is more versatile for unobtrusive street photography, which is what RFs are great

for in the first place.

Oh and Trevor thanks for the encouragement (and warning). On the RD-1 not

only is this completely out of my price range but my classy CV 28 becomes a

boring 42 and my fantastic 35/1.7 becomes a 52 -- hmmm well I guess that

last one's not too bad.

Yeh you can put a rangefinder device on the accessory shoe of the d70. Now that's how to shoot it like a rangefinder!

And of course calibrate the lenes distance scale properly, to reduce errors guess a few distances (your most commonly used ones?) focus using the screen, then mark a sticky strip on the lens, do this a few times and you can do an average. The reason for guessing is that you will do this anyway, say you guess 2m as 1.8m (measured) most of the time and mark the lens as such you will always be 200mm out. Or indeed use 'my favorite distance 1', '..... 2' etc.

Donald, your original post and the other comment here are a good example of some pent-

up demand for a reasonable RF (not viewfinder) digital.

 

I understand the zone focus thing. And in an SLR, there is that disconnect that you don't

have with an RF. And the problem with AF lenses their focusing scales in most cases are

useless.

 

One option you might have looked at was the Pentax *ist D. There are a great number for

used MF lenses for that camera that allows for most functions of the metering system.

<i>But zone focus is a waste of time with SLR lenses because the scale marking is unusable.</i>

<p>

I "zone focus" all of the time with my slr primes, using their very accurate marked scales. They don't put these scales on the lenses for decoration. I use a 20/2.8, 35/2 (both AF-D) and the 45/2.8. And, I've just ordered the 24/2.8 to use in the way you describe...all on my D70 as well as my FM3a.

<p>

The scales on AF lenses are not as complete as they are on manual-focus lenses (not all of the f-stops are marked), but they are quite usable.

<p>

You'll have no problem doing what you purpose. Get the remote shutter release for really hands free shooting.

I have a D70 with a 35/2 pretty much parked on it. I also have a 24/2.8 which I should give a whirl, but I haven't. ~50mm does the trick.

 

Ok, I have to report I don't use this camera all that much. I tend to keep it on high ISO for random around the house shots. VF stinks. AF hunts. MF is very difficult. Futzing with WB is usually a big PITA.

 

Don't get me wrong, I've gotten some good pics out of it. It is what it is, and it has a good feature set and is priced right and what not. I have an SB800 flash, and that works pretty nicely wit the D70 and my other Nikon cameras.

 

But for me and how I have fun with cameras/pics, the D70 doesn't compare to either my FM3a + 28/45P/105 Nikkors kit or M6 + 21/28/50 (CV/Leica) kit and some 125+400 speed B&W film. And I'm a < 1 year camera newbie and have no emotional attachment to film or ancient gear of yore. It's just with these film cameras, I can focus + meter + shoot with no real unexpected or distracting feedback from the camera.

 

If I spent more big bucks, the AF and VF issues would be solved, but I'm not interested. I imagine auto WB technology will improve over the years. But hell, I have to live in the moment :-)

 

Scott

Why would you want to scale focus an AF SLR? These things focus so quickly and accurately that you might as well just use the AF and get sharper photos.

Jim wrote:

 

"I "zone focus" all of the time with my slr primes, using their very accurate marked scales. They don't put these scales on the lenses for decoration. I use a 20/2.8, 35/2 (both AF-D) and the 45/2.8. "...

 

 

Well good for you, Jim. I have more or less the same lenses, and I always mis-focused if I use the larger apertures. Even for the 45mm Ai-P, it takes less than a 7 degree turn to go from 2m to infinity. In comparison, for my Summar F2, it takes almost 90 degree to cover the same distance! For my Nikon 24mm F2.8 AF, it only takes a 3 degree turn to go from the 2m mark to infinity!

Easy Johnson...I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I was just pointing out the fact that modern slr prime lenses can be zone-focused by following their marked scales.

Donald,

 

a BUMMER with Nikon DSLR is that they won't even METER with a Manual Focus Lens :( (so

of course, no AE).

 

It is kind if interesting to throw an old 35 f2 AI on it and use handheld incident meter/

zone focus. It does really change the vibe of the shots a bit.

 

jmp