First print from Nikon D70 - I am impressed

[david_simonds]

Friends, I am looking at the first print I have ever made from a

digital camera, the D70 which I got last week. Frankly, I did not

know what to expect. And I am impressed. Despite the fact that I

used the camera in point and shoot mode, and failed to engage the

fill flash, the image was rock solid on color, exposure and detail.

I dumped it into PS7 and was amazed at how little adjustment was

required. And then I printed it on Tetenal paper on the Epson 2200.

The colors are creamy and smooth. It is a pleasure not to see the

gross digital artifacts that I sometimes get with scanned images

that require heavier sharpening and color adjusting. My 35mm kit is

a Contax G2 scanned with a Canon 4000. I also shoot a Rollei MF. The

Nikon images are not up to the Rollei, but I would not expect them

to be. Bottom line is that this early effort suggests that, with

practice, I should get images that are the equal or are superior to

the Contax. And that immediate gratification is intoxicating.

[daniel_taylor]

Wait until you shoot something RAW, on a tripod, with your best lens and every little detail perfect.

 

My 10D proved itself shortly after it arrived. I was at a friend's house and her cat was lying under their table in portrait-perfect light coming through the slider on an overcast day. Set to ISO 400 and JPEG, I got down on the ground and shot, stabilizing the camera with my elbows on the carpet. I was thoroughly blown away reviewing the image that night. Technically speaking (image structure, detail, noise, sharpness, etc.) the image was better than any desktop Provia 100F scan I had ever made. This is including images shot with better glass, a result of the high MTF response of the digital sensor and the fact that it uses the sweet center of the lens. I couldn't believe that ISO 400, JPEG, consumer zoom wide open produced that 8x10! I looked at it and realized my 35mm camera wasn't going to get used much any more.

 

Two years later and I'm still amazed by the thing. I still look at shots in amazement of how it performs.

 

As great as high ISO performance is on a DSLR, you'll definetly want to give a noise reduction product a try. Noise Ninja works wonders on ISO 1600 and 3200 shots. There are also some good plug-ins for converting to B&W.

 

Enjoy your new toy!

[k_michael]

Doesn't digital and PS contradict itself?

[david_simonds]

K Michael, how?

[jcuknz]

HA!! You have got the bug! Congrats :-)

[david_simonds]

JC, you got that right. Forgive the obvious vulgarity, but in my rarified MF mind set I used to refer to my Nikon D friends as digital sluts. Count me now among the promiscuous. I used to measure my output by frames per day. Can the D70 really shoot 3 per second???? Or was it 5??? I still love the Rollei, even more, but in a different way. It is a beautifully crafted piece of machinery that takes stunning images. The beauty of the D70 is that I can now reserve the Rollei for those special occasions, and shoot my brains out the rest of the time with the Nikon.

[david_simonds]

Daniel, how does Ninja program compare with Neat Image, which I just read about on luminous landscape. And what do you recommend for B&W plug-ins? I was just going to do the color conversion in PS7? Thanks. It sounds like you too are just having too much fun.

[daniel_taylor]

"Daniel, how does Ninja program compare with Neat Image, which I just read about on luminous landscape."

 

To me Neat Image produced images that had a bit of a "plastic" look to them, while Noise Ninja output was more faithful to the original. Noise Ninja also was faster. However, both programs have a wide range of options and can accept different profiles. It's entirely possible that a few changes in settings could have caused Neat Image to perform better/faster. I made my choice based on the "out-of-box" experience rather than extensive testing, so take my advice with a grain of salt. You should download both demos and see which you like best. These are the two leading programs at the moment, and it's hard to go wrong with either of them, but you may find you like a certain feature/interface better.

 

"And what do you recommend for B&W plug-ins? I was just going to do the color conversion in PS7? Thanks. It sounds like you too are just having too much fun."

 

Right now I'm playing with the convertor from: http://www.theimagingfactory.com/. You'll notice that this was also recommended on luminous-landscape. At this point I'll probably end up buying it. I like the way the interface presents the task of BW conversion. It's probably possible to achieve the same directly in PS, but the tool seems more intuitive. I'm able to achieve what I want faster.

 

Also, check out this tip on adding film grain from:

http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/How_to/n_Digital_BW/a_Digital_Black_and_White.html?page=5

 

Why on Earth would we want to ADD film grain? It works with certain BW images, and I think his tip produces good looking grain quickly and easily. It's a lot better than the film grain filter in PS IMHO.

 

Enjoy!

[david_simonds]

Daniel, many thanks for your advise. I will give these plug-ins a go. Regards.