tolachi

M Sandberg I am aware of the cropping factor and if it were my camera I would probably go with cheaper lens. Either the 85mm 1.8 or a 50mm. Since it is a business I am going for the best quality possible as any noticeable difference in image quality could easily pay for the extra cost very quickly.

Daniel, once again thanks for the heads up. I don't think it will be a problem as we will be photographing full grain leather which has a pebbled grain that is quite random and not at all like the patterns in most clothing.

Thanks for the input. This thread and some other research on the photo.net forums has tipped us in the favor of the D70. I think we are going to go with the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, which everyone seems to say is incredible. We've also ordered 2 books on lighting to get us started of off with some good ideas:

Light - Science and Magic

and

Matters of Light & Depth

Both of which seem to have been recommended here quite a bit. Any further comments/suggestions are welcome.

Pete

Bruce, thanks. I was unaware that there was a significant difference in the image processing the cameras do.

Would anyone disagree that this quote also applies to the D70 compared to the 5700:

"My D100 images compared to the images made with my Coolpix 5000 or 5700 are real vs toy, with the D100's 13x19 looking better than CP's 8x10. I have no idea how anyone could compare the D100 to any P&S and say the images were inferior."

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005mpS

I guess the issue of low end zooms vs high end primes has been covered extensively elswhere. Does anyone know what zoom lens the 5700's is roughly equivalent to?

Daniel,

Thanks for the feedback. Lighting has been a major problem in the past. One of the things we are looking into is getting a pro to spend a few days helping us get set up. I'll make sure to add hotlights to the list of things to bring up when we talk to him about it.

The background gets edited out of the final picture entirely.

Pete

I want to know what type of difference and how much can be expected

between the quality of photographs taken with a 5700 vs a D70 with a

Nikkor prime lens like a 105mm f/2.8 micro or an 85mm f/1.4.

My company is an online retailor that sells leather apparel. Because

the quality of our products is difficult to convey over the internet,

product pictures are one of the most important factors that influence

sales. Therefore the ability to obtain the highest possible quality

pictures is very important.

Resolution is important because we make 1,000px by 1,000px blowups of

our products available and we would like to provide detail shots of

the same resolution. However, since both cameras have a similar

resolution I'm not sure that this will matter.

Obviously focus speed the durability are not a factor. The camera

sits on a tripod and takes a shot of the garment which is on a

modified dummy. The potential sharpness and quality of the color are

probably going to be the most important factors.

To me the biggest potential difference seems to be that the D70 can

use a high quality prime lens while the 5700 uses a multi purpose zoom

lens.

Thanks for any feedback and suggestions.