D70 Shooting Speed

I just received a used D70 and did some speed testing. The results seem stange. Any input

would be appreciated.

The camera was set to A mode with the widest possible aperture on my lens. The shooting

mode was multiple shots. I pressed and held the shutter release to see how many shots I

could take in a burst before the camera stopped and how fast I could get them.

To my surprise the fastest response was in the RAW mode although it had the smaller

number of shots allowed by the buffer. In Fine, Normal, or Basic mode the time between

frames was almost twice as long despite the larger number of possible shots in the buffer.

Is this mormal?

Yes.

 

JPEGs need to be processed by the camera: converted from original 12 bit per channel

"raw' data converted to 8-bit, have colorspace applied, have WB balance applied; have

sharpening and other settings applied and finally have jpeg compression applied.

The 3-frames per second is rated for the RAW mode. This can

be limited by many things including set functions, shutter speed,

and of course buffer memory.

 

In modes other than RAW, the number of continuous shots,

although at a slower rate than 3fps, is greatly increased.

 

You would think that the lower the resolution, the higher the FPS.

 

It is normal though.

Also make sure that noice reduction is turned off. It cuts frame rate in half.

Err... what?

 

I don't know what the above posters are on about, but the D70 is as fast in JPEG mode as it is

in NEF mode. I personally tested this on my own D70 just now.

 

Make sure you turn long exposure noise reduction to off unless your exposures are longer

than a few seconds.

Thanks for the feedback.

The speed results surprised me because I thought that the amount of data to process in RAW

mode plus the compression to NEF would take more time than a JPEG compression.

I actually like that as I am planning to mostly shoot RAW images. I just wish the buffer was

larger. I am using a fast Sandisk Extreme III card, so it should help.

Thanks for the comment regarding the Noise Reduction setting. I thought that the setting

was only operational in slower than 1" exposures and wouldn't affect the system in other

shutter speeds.

It does affect the camera at all shutter speeds. The most noticeable effect, for me, is the

reduction of raw buffer depth from 4 frames to 3. That alone is a deal breaker.

What's what I also discovered. The manual said I should have a buffer of 4 frames in RAW and

yet I only had 3. Now with NR off I have 4. That's huge, a 33% improvement. Thanks again.

Make sure to put it in manual focus. That'll give you the extra edge you need for good fuzzy and out of focus shots when you really need to crank them off.

Nikon D70 Camera Review

 

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