D70 sharpness and tonal range

Hey all,

 

Has anyone out there had trouble with sharpness on the D70? Right now

I shoot RAW and do all processing in nikon capture and PS. I set the

sharpness in PSRAW to 25 and then run the unsharp filter at around

100/ 1/ 2...this offers a better image but not film sharp. I almost

always use a tripod. My lense is a 17-80DX kit lense. I always use a

fast shutter speed when available. I have tested the focal points in

camera extensively, in studio light they seem to be right on the

money. Even shooting at F8 -F22 I notice a lack of sharpness. If its

the glass I have a 50mm 1.8D lense on the way...

 

I am also having some trouble with shadow areas being very dark. I

realize that digital sensors dont have the tonal range that film does

but I want to improve whatever I can.

 

I know that this is pushing my luck but has anyone compared the D70

and the Canon 20D yet?

 

Thanks for the input...

<p>Digital cameras are inherently less sharp (demosaicing) than film. I often set the

sharpness to 35 or 45 and I turn off the Color noise reduction <b>if</b> the image has

no aliasing problem (I understand that the ability to fine-tune the AA filtering to the image

by software is the primary reason Nikon used a low-powered AA filter so why not take

advantage of it).

<p>Regarding the shadows, the D70 has a tendency to underexpose (to avoid burning the

highlights). Unfortunately a digital sensor records information linearly so they use more

bits to store highlights than shadows...

<p>Since the D70 underexposes, it forces most of the image data in zones where the

sensor is less efficient. I have exposure compensation dial in at all time. It helps if you use

the histogram to validate the exposure.

<p>--ben

Dan and Ben:

 

I downloaded a custom curve from fotogenetic to my D-70 last week. I love the camera, but my main complaint was the consistent underexposure. After some research and advice from other D-100/D-70 users, I downloaded the custom tone curve to try it out. They have 2 curves: 1)"white wedding curve", now renamed the "point and shoot"...this curve will add approx .5 stop exposure to your shadow and mid tones, but only 1/5th stop to highlights so you don't blow them out. 2) EV3 curve: same curve, with only 1/3rd stop exposure. This curve is for you if you think the other one is too bright. I have been testing with the "point and shoot", and it will probably be my choice for weddings and portraits. I don't have the website handy, but you can do a google for "D-70 Custom Curve" and it will come up. Best of luck,

 

Duane

Thanks to both Duane and Ben for your input. I will try both suggestions and let you know how they went. I do a fair amount of weddings and am very interested in the white wedding point and shoot curve.

Finally I was able to contribute with something, besides asking questions all the time. :-)<br><br>

 

Link <a href="http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/downloads.html">http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/downloads.html</a>

Dan: it is worth loading the curve to try it out. If you don't have Nikon Capture 4.1.3 (I think), you can download a 30 day trial at www.nikonusa.com. You have to have capture to load a custom curve. I really like the "point and shoot" curve. Try it out and let us know what you like.

 

Duane

I think the kit lens is sharp, but great prime lenses yield great results. I find that CaptureOne RAW processing is even better for pre-processing.

 

Here's a D70 shot with the older 300mm ED IF PLUS a teleconverter at 20 feet, 50% crop. Check out the toes on the feet. Sharp enough for me...

http://www.photo.net/photo/3158927

Hi, one of the issues you are hitting up against is diffraction, this typically occurs at apertures smaller then f/8 (or f/8 if you are using a faster prime lens). This is an optical effect, and not limited to a digital camera - though with film cameras, you often do not see the effect as soon because of the film grain.

 

An easy way to test the effect of diffraction is to set up your camera on a tripod and focus on something VERY sharp edged, like a fence or patterned wall. Make your images at every aperture from wide open to the smallest opening, and then open them up and view the images at 100% - you will be surprised by how soft your images get by f/22...I had a lens that was unusable at f/32 it was so soft because of diffaction. Do a test and you will see the effect clear as day. I do not use any lens on a DSLR with a smaller aperture then f/8 unless the sharpness of the image is not important (like motion blur).

Everyone on here has been a great help to me. First I tried a new lense 50mm 1.8 sharpness seems somewhat better....Then I downloaded white wedding have been using it since (that seems to help a lot with lost tonal values) I will soon begin the apeture test suggested above. Although even before testing the theory it seems to make a ton of sense. I always shoot at f16 or f22 when doing landscape work. The new lense f1.8 has shown me some of that already.

 

All of the tips have been of great help. Any more tips are very welcome.