Two D70 questions

[marcus g]

Dear all,

 

I'm beginning to get really tempted to buy a D70 in the near future.

There are two things that I'm wondering about, that maybe some of you

Nikon-fans could answer?

 

#1 I would buy a body only, as I already have Nikkor lenses for my

35mm camera. These are the AF28-85/f3.5-4.5, the AF85mm/1.8 and the

AF75-240mm/f4.5-5.6D. The latter one is cheap plastic, but the first

two should be pro grade. Will this lens collection work well with the

D70, or is there some advantage to the new DX lenses that I will be

missing? (I know that I'll be limited to 28x1.5 = 42mm at the short

end but I primarily like to shoot in an amateur studio, and rarely

try wide-angle landscapes.)

 

#2 In the promotional PDF brochure available from Nikons website, it

is stated that 'images can be downloaded from the camera to a computer

while shooting'. Can this be done using the software supplied with the

D70?

This also leads to another thing I have been wondering, as I have no

previous experience from shooting digital: For a studio shoot, I think

that it would be really neat to hook the camera to a laptop computer

by a long USB cable, in such a way that RAW files would be transferred

to the computer (with a few GB of free space) automatically while

shooting - without fiddling with several memory cards etc. This would

be a feature that had no counterpart in film photography. Am I only

dreaming here, or is it possible to arrange such a setup - with the

D70? (The idea is that one should not have to touch the computer while

shooting this way.)

 

I'm thankful for any responses!

[scott_warn]

Your existing lenses should work fine but I do think that the Kit lens is an excellent value for the money. My sample is very sharp, offers excellent contrast, and does not show any major tendancy for flare. I would consider it a pro grade optic in a consumer package, it's not ruggedly built but optically it's shockingly good. I really do think you will be doing yourself a favor if you buy the lens/body kit. You will get an excellent lens and retain the 28mm perspective your current lens offers on 35mm film.

 

For linking the computer and camera, a trial version of Nikon Capture is included with the software package for the camera. I had to hunt around a bit on the disc using Explorer because it's NOT included in the Auto Load menu. You have to load Capture seperately. Capture will allow you to control the camera from the computer and may also allow you do do the downloading that you have in mind. I have only used Capture for editing, not for direct camera control, but I do know that a camera control module is part of this package. The trial version is full blown (no features locked out) and works for 30 days. If you get the package this gives you to opportunity to try it out and then decide on buying the standard version, for me that decision only took about 5 days, it's a very good editor.

[ecarter]

I second getting the kit lens for this camera. Your lenses will work on the D70, but you lose wide-angle with your current lenses. The kit lens is the cheapest way to retain wide-angle reasonably - even though you say you rarely try wide angle, when you need it, you NEED it.

 

The D70 does have a mode (which I haven't used) which is called PTP mode which will allow your computer to control the camera directly - with the caveat that you need to use Nikon Capture 4 or better (a demo version is included - you have to pay to get it seperately). I don't think this is terribly expensive, but I don't know the exact cost or if the mode works with other software.

[chuck_t]

"These are the AF28-85/f3.5-4.5, the AF85mm/1.8 and the AF75-240mm/f4.5-5.6D. The latter one is cheap plastic, but the first two should be pro grade"

 

Excuse me? As far as I know, non of your lenses are "pro grade". What do you call for the AF17mm-35mm zoom f2.8 with constant aperature through out the range? What do you call if you own one of the AF 85mm f1.4 and AF 70mm-200mm VR lens? As a professional photographer, I hate the varied aperature through out the zoom range. Why? Very difficult to do manual exposure when I do not trust the camera metering.

 

One more thing, non of the zoom are considered "pro", in my opinion. I am more favorite the prime lens because they are really good for low light work.

[nico_.]

Pro grade or not, I really like the 85/1.8 on my D70. Unfortunately, it seems to suffer a bit from purple color fringes in backlight situations but a lot of lenses do that at varying degrees.

 

The tethered operation mode of the Nikon Capture Camera Control software is a pretty nifty feature. But since you say RAW: Nikon really wants you to buy a more expensive (a.k.a. professional) camera, since the D70 supports only the slooow USB 1.1 interface. Fine if you can wait a couple of seconds. Alternatively if you can reshoot, do your tests on jpegs and the final shot in raw.

 

Btw. Capture Camera Control also allows you to store and save complete camera profiles as well as user defined custom tone curves (see for instance http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/downloads.html). I use this for instance to separately store settings I need for some macro photography in tethered mode where quality, colorspace, sharpening and saturation settings differ from the ones I normally use.

 

Anyway, tethered operation is a really, really nice thing for studio work. It's a shame that Nikon's marketing department curmudgeonly decided against USB 2.0. Well that's product politics I guess.

[rustys pics]

Forget USB-I want a Firewire 800 connection on the D70, or any other Nikon DSLR.

Nikon Capture costs $100.00. Considering you can upgrade to Photoshop CS for $169.00,

Nikon's software is way over priced. I know people over at Fred Miranda.com think it's

great...but you have to look at where they're coming from (lots of money for toys).

 

Unless you have a fast connection to your computer and lots of disk space, you'll gain

nothing by doing direct capture to the computer. You really need a firewire 400 to get the

speed you need.