How to get the most out of my D70?

[claude_batmanghelidj]

I have a few questions.<p>1. How should I set my camera to shoot jpgs that can

be taken directly to the printers and printed like film? Does anyone know how I

can set the camera to mimic certain films, such as Provia, velvia, Tri-X,

Scala?<p>2. How about lenses? I have one purpose built lens, the 18-70. The rest

of my lenses are all 35mm lenses, such as the 35, 105, 50, and 35-70 2.8. These

lenses, seem a little wasted on the small D70, because of the 1.5 sensor

differential. Any thoughts on this?<p>3. Does JPG make any difference from NEF,

with the proviso that the jpg files are not touched from the moment of exposure

to being inputted into a printer?<p>Thanks in advance for any answers. I am

mainly interested in printing, and in using the D70 as a point an shoot, and

want to simplify operation to resemble a 35mm camera as much as possible. I just

want to shoot and print, and forget about all the computer editing, chimping,

and whatnot.

[graybrick]

If you didn't want digital, why did you go digital? If you're printing straight from the camera you're not going to 'get the most' out of your D70. As for settings, set it just like you would your film camera. At risk of 'chimping', you can even learn to use that newfangled histogram thingy to check your exposure. If you want to emulate film without post-processing forget about it. It's not film, anyway, as there is no film grain and, uh, well, no film in there. Don't fight the technology before you. The digital camera is a new tool, and it's not film at all. If your lenses are compatible you're a fool to not use them. The FOV on your 1.5x sensor will be equivalent to a focal length 1.5x longer on a 35mm camera, ie your 50mm lens on your D70 will give you an image that a 75mm lens would give you on a full frame 35mm camera. While I appreciate your want for simplicity I'm afraid that you're afraid of the technology based on your ignorance of it, and when you take the time to explore and learn about the computer part you'll grow to appreciate what you can do. Even with post-processing, it's simpler than film because there's no processing lag involved and you have extensive control over the printing process when you learn to use it. It's not film.

[graybrick]

Oh, right, and reading the manual is always an excellent place to start if you want to learn to use a new toy.

[albertdarmali]

Sell it and get an F4? Either that or shoot in ISO1600 in B&W to get "film grain", or you can use Adobe CS2 and play with colour to (hopefully) simulate the film feel. But looks like you'll be happy with F4. At least it has a decent viewfinder :)

[elliot1]

Your camera has a fully automatic setting, the 'green' setting on the dial on top of your camera... you now have a point and shoot camera.

[heartyfisher]

Hehe .. what a rude bunch .. but i think its mostly toungue in cheek if not then they are just rude.. ..

 

Anyway .. I partly agree whth what they are saying but you know guys .. not everyone is tech savy.. and here are really ALOT of setting on this new toy.

Claude maybe when you figure out which combination of settings produce equivalent effects as Those films you mentioned you could post them on teh internet somewhere.. i am sure that would be useful information for prople like you who are just comming in to DSLR from flim..

 

First place to look in your camera is is the saturation and colour profiles ken rockwell has some nice articles on the D70 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70.htm and setting the colours etc..

 

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/whitebalance.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70/d70-settings-controls-back.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70/d70-settings-menus-shooting.htm

 

I tried his suggestions and didnt like them but i did find a setting I liked..

 

Hope this helps.. :-)

[robert_hooper1]

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/15189.html

[trex1]

Uh, dudes, I was only asking a simple question. I am perfectly capable of shooting NEF and

fixing it in CS, but I want to know how to use the D70 as a film camera. Go out and shoot and

take the little card to Yodobashi Camera, here in Tokyo and have prints made. That's all. I

don't want to dick around with friggin computers, excusez moi!

[trex1]

Robert, thank you so much for the link! That post was very informative, and I really enjoyed

his photos on his web site! Cheers mate!

[graybrick]

Read the manual, and use it as you would a film camera. You can change some settings, but 'emulating' different film types is a lost cause if you don't want to dick around with the computer. If you're printing from the camera, I suspect you'll need to use JPG compression unless you have a lab that will interpret your NEF files and the ancillary settings for you. Ask your lab. Yodobashi will certainly have an 'autocorrect' routine they run on all thier digital prints, much like they do with scanned film before printing, so you won't need to dick around adjusting contrast and color and things like that. Again, I appreciate your want for simplicity, but your question asked how to get 'the most' from your D70. What you want is, in reality, the least from it. Pardon me for the confusion.

[trex1]

Oh, silly me. I guess you're right. I could open up the raw files in the computer and edit the

NEFs and then print them. I guess I am just nostalgic for film and want to take pictures and

be done with it, not fool around on the pc (or mac in my case). Anyway, Robert's link was

extremely helpful.

[marike1]

The best way to mimic various films like Velvia, Provia, Kodachrome, etc is with Alien Skin's

Exposure, but that would involve messing around with a computer. But if you really want

those looks in your exposures, it may be the way to go. You could make an Photoshop

Action to apply say Velvia, and Automate > Batch a directory of images. Simple, and quick.

 

As far as your lenses, I don't believe they are "wasted" at all on the D70, they are just

different focal lengths. Still sharp, fast lenses. The only lenses that are wasted may be super

wide angles, even then, they may still useful.

[jason j]

Geez! To each his own, but if getting the most out of a D70s, which is what I own, means maximizing shooting and printing while minimizing editing, then play with the camera settings until you get a combination that makes you happy. Like Tze, I started with Ken Rockwell's advice and tweaked it until I found what worked for me. Many photographers focus on making the image as close to perfect as possible in camera and then doing as little post-processing as possible (Mary Ellen Mark for one), so your question strikes me as reasonable. Good Luck.

[johnw63]

After reading this, perhaps the title should been, , " How do I get my camera to do as much of the work as possible ? "

 

I don't see that as a bad goal at all. Many people, I'm sure, got into digital for the simplicity and fast results. If I could set a digital camera up so that I got very good results with minimal "fixing" on the computer, I would certainly be happy with that. Think about it. How many of you got into digital so you could become Photoshop experts ? What is wrong with the following statement: " I got this camera dialed in so well that I hardly have to do ANYTHING with the files before I print them ! " ? Heck, even better, " I can pick some saved setting and output pictures that are like the ones my favorite film used to give me ? "

 

Is it really a crime to wish it could be done ?

[trex1]

Hey Grayson, I never though of that. I'l have to ask them about it when I go to get some prints. I do like to print at home, but the problem is getting affordable ink. It is much cheaper for me, and much quicker to have the store do the prints, but I much prefer the look of my own prints. It's really a convenience thing. I think both sides are right, the DIY edit in photoshop and print yourself, as well as the HCB school of thought that just wants to shoot pictures and hand them to a darkroom technician.

 

In any case, I am looking forward to trying the settings that were offered on the link above, not Rockwell's the Nikonians one.

 

Incidentally, part of my problem is an economic one. My little Mac just struggles to process the photos. I really need a much more powerful computer and much faster better printer. The cheap gear I have at home can produce very nice results, but it just takes so long, and it is not much fun to wait while the pc heaves and hos, and then the printer runs out of ink after a few prints.

 

Of course the technology will only get better, and I am pretty certain that in less than a few years or so, we will be able to print out really high resolution images on pretty large sizes of paper, very qucikly. It will be much different from the dot matrix inkjet type machines we have now. These 1.5 size sensors will seem laughable when we have medium format quality digital cameras that can print a wall sized image that shows every pore on someone's face.

 

In the meantime thanks for all the feedback. I'll post any results I get as soon as possible.