D70 Question? ISO 200?

[cicchetti]

Hi there.

 

For those of you who own a D70 or have some general input on this,

it would be great if you could give me some information on an ISO

question.

 

Is there any sort of compensator that offsets the minimum ISO found

on the D70 (and D100 for that matter) that makes up for this? I

imagine there was a good reason (?) for not providing a camera with

ISO 50 or 100. Even the coolpix models come equipped with ISO 100

and even ISO 50 on the 8700.

 

It seems like Nikon missed something here? I would not notice this

too much during low light periods, but much of my shooting is during

bright daylight. What lenses if any, would help to make up the lack

of lower ISO option? Types of shooting would be wildlife/landscapes.

 

Thanks for you help.

 

Rob

[david_kieltyka]

I've found with digital cameras that rated ISO speeds typically do not correspond to traditional film ISO ratings. For example, using a Canon 20D on an outing with a D70-owning friend we noticed that the 20D at ISO 100 and the D70 at ISO 200 were within 1/3rd stop of each other. At these ISOs both cameras were more sensitive to light than my Gossen Luna Pro handheld meter (which is very accurate with slide film) set to ISO 100. Another example: the Canon G2 I once owned when set to ISO 50 matched the exposure values of the Luna Pro set to ISO 80.

 

So don't judge according to the ISO ratings. Judge by the actual exposure values.

 

-Dave-

[joseph_wisniewski]

Rob, as the others pointed out, the D70 isn't "exactly" ISO 200. When metering it with a hand held light meter or flash meter, I rate it at ISO 160.

 

That aside, why do you want the lower ISO for the kinds of shooting you've described?

 

I've never run into a wildlife situation where I wanted a lower ISO than what a D70 or D100 had to offer. A 300mm f2.8 on a 2x TC means f5.6, if I shoot it wide open. At mid day, sunny f16, the best shutter speed you get at ISO 200 is about 1/800 sec, shooting wide open. Go down a stop or two, or have a bit of overcast, or use a polarizer, and you're rapidly hitting a point, 1/200 or 1/100 sec, where wildlife starts to get a little problematic. If things get bad (polarizer at dawn), I might be at ISO 800.

 

And if I ever suffer some type of mental breakdown and want to shoot one of those God-awful "cotton candy" waterfall landscapes, just being able to nip down to ISO 100 or ISO 50 isn't going to be able to do it. You need something more than two stops: more like an 8 stop ND filter.

[frank_skomial]

There is no need to compensate for D70 not having ISO 50 or 100. Nikon did not miss anything by not providing ISO 50 or 100, since the ISO 200 provides very small noise even for very large prints 13 x 19" and larger.

 

Coolpix cameras have many times smaller pixel size sensor, and the noise from that small sensor at higher ISO is bad, so 50 and 100 was a necessity that makes Coolpix acceptable quality prints.

 

E.g Coolpix 8X zoom provides real length focal length from 8.9mm - 71.2mm, that is equivalent to 35-280 mm on 35 mm film camera. You can simlpy compute that the coolpix sensor is about 4 times smaller (linear) than the full 35 film camera. Since they do not use full frame 35 mm lenses for coolpix type cameras (point & shoot), so there is no need to talk about the "crop factor", as that would be perhaps 4X or bigger.

 

Nikon D70 uses full 35 mm frame film camera lenses, and it makes sense to specify the crop factor that is only 1.5.

 

D70 ISO 200 up to 800 ISO provides low noise. At 1600 noise is acceptable in smaller to moderate size prints, if exposed correctly. Under exposed shots show more noise.

 

I shoot night pictures on streets, in casinos, restaurants, stage performances, sporting events, etc. without flash with D70 set at ISO 1600 with F=1.4 primes 50mm and 85mm, all hand held - no tripod, no monopod. This provides good quality and acceptable noise for prints at 8 x 10" or 11 x 14"

[art_kramer]

Just a marketing ploy. You buy a coolpix for the 50/100 ISO and the D70 for all the rest.

[ilkka_nissila]

I've never been able to see much noise at iso 200 on the D70 even with fairly extreme contrast adjustments. Don't worry about it - the D70 simply doesn't need slower speed settings.

[cicchetti]

Thanks everyone for your input. This clears things up a bit.

[yiming_zhang]

> There is no need to compensate for D70 not having ISO 50 or 100. Nikon did not miss anything by not providing ISO 50 or 100,

 

It isn't a too big deal but is still an issue bothered me from time to time.

When I shoot sport in the bright daylight, I do hope given a certain aperture (for my prefered DOF), I can get slower shutter speed for "speedy" feeling when I'm shooting in the panning mode. I don't want to put on a ND or polorizer filter on my len (sometimes, this means I don't want to put another filter on the existing one).