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Nikon D70 users help!

P

perplex

Gawd
Joined
May 25, 2005
Messages
773
Hello, any Nikon D70 users here?

What lenses do you all use? i'm thinking about buying the camera body without lens and then buying a lens seperate but have NO idea what lens to buy. I've never owned a (digital) camera before, just used others :/

Also, if anyone know any excellent prices of Nikon D70? ;]

Thanks.
 
The lens that comes in the kit (18-70mm AF-S F/3.5-4.5) is very good. Start with that and then decide later if you require longer, wider, faster, etc.

My most used lens is the 24-120mm AF-S VR F/3.5-5.6. It is the one that "lives" on the camera.
 
Well, you gotta ask yourself - are you going to get into photography? Or is this more for pointing and shooting, in which case a DSLR is excessive? Anyway...

If you want body only, then around $800 for one is the price to pay.

Now for lenses...

I bought the D70 kit, so I use the 18-70 mm lens - not a bad lens, pretty sharp, some vignetting at 18mm at F/3.5. For a lens that retails for around $350, it still feels a little plasticky. Overall, a good lens.

I also use a prime 50mm/1.8 which I got from Adorama for $90. I use this more than my 18-70, unless I'm a situation where I really need a wide angle or I have to zoom in a little further and can't really walk forward/backward much more.

Other than that, you'd really have to find what kind of stuff you like to shoot, and that will determine what kind of lenses you buy.

I personally think the kit lens is a pretty good buy if you buy the D70 or D70s kit, it gives you a good zoom range to start with (wide angle to short telephoto), and you can see if you need more focal length on that.

And how much are you willing to spend on lenses and camera gear? That would dictate a lot of suggestions.
 
perplex said:
well this seems an excellent buy...

http://www.bestchoicedigital.com/st...ails.asp?Store_id=101&page_id=23&Item_ID=3078
Click to expand...


They have the lowest Reseller Rating I have ever seen.

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller9018.html

0.07 - It's not James Bond, it's telling you to stay away!

Plus, $650 for the kit is a little cheap, unless it were used or had some weird defect. The retail kit goes for aound $1100 - 1200 US retail.

And what's with that site. A 1GB CF card costs $600.

I would strongly urge you to buy from a reputable dealer like www.bhphotovideo.com, www.adorama.com, or www.beachcamera.com.

Sometimes you do get what you paid for.

edit: Okay, so I explored that site a little more. There is definitely something amiss.

Their Nikon D2x sells for $1950. The price that everyone else sells it for is around $4000 - 5000. They have the Canon 20D for $769, which is half of what the normal price is.

Like I say, stay away.
 
haha i was about to just edit my post about that. scary comments from customers - i'm still shivering :D

thanks for pointing it out anyway, i might have missed it
 
this is disappointing, the other "good" price i found has the same ratings :[

how can ANY company be running and be as bad as those user's say?

seems as though i can only afford the nikon d70 if i buy that 50mm for it.
 
perplex said:
seems as though i can only afford the nikon d70 if i buy that 50mm for it.
Click to expand...
Of the four lenses I use at work, the 50mm prime gets the most time on the camera. There are certainly situations that require more flexibility, but 50mm makes for a good walk-around lens. You can learn an awful lot about photography even while stuck at a single focal length. The D70 is a fairly sophisticated camera, so if you're fairly new to this level of photography, you may even be better off with a simpler lens. In any case, I don't think you should let that prevent you from getting the camera.
 
I have owned and tried a variety of lenses on my D70...I'll give you some thoughts on them
-18-70mm DX (Kit Lens) I like this lens a lot...yes it's plastic but still a good deal for a mid range zoom in this class. AF-S is a big plus here for a kit lens.
-24-120 VR not a bad lens, definately larger than the 18-70 DX and a better build but more costly and slower at f3.5 - 5.6 AF-S again is a good positive along with Vibration Reduction
-50mm f1.8d one of my favorite's but doesn't live on the camera...used mainly for portrait and low light situations
-Sigma 24-60 f2.8 EX a good performer for this class but lacks HSM (similar to Nikon's AF-S) and tends to be soft on the edges...thats bad for a film lens being tested on a digital camera.
These are a few that I've used and some quick thoughts on them. So what lens lives on my camera....18-70 DX because I love the wide angel and stopped down it's not a bad performer.
Nikon D70 w/ Nikkor 18-70DX @ 18mm f8
44314584._DSC5891.jpg
 
ok it seems as though my mum doesnt mind spending a bit more money, so i think i'll get the Nikon D70 kit with 18-70

hehe... i just showed my mum loads of photos from people's Nikon D70 galleries and she was shocked how beautiful the photos can turn out. so it looks like i'll be buying one soon :D
 
congrats...I hope you enjoy it. No all you need is a 1gb sandisk ultra mem card, extra battery (for the rare occasions), external flash unit, large bulb blower, and some editing software for raw files...prefereably Nikon Capture.
Good luck and enjoy your camera. Please remember though it isn't the camera taking the great photos but the people behind them. There is always a learning curve behind any photography equipment. DSLR's while more advanced require much effort and knowledge to get breathtaking results. Everything from composing the image, to having the in camera settings just right, and finally Post Processing. Most point and shoot digi's will do a lot of the post processing in camera for you for nice images. DSLR's don't do this as much allowing you get exactly what you want out of the image by applying those things yourself. So good luck and I hope you enjoy your tool, the D70.
 
yeh i now realise that it will take a long time to learn how to use the tool, but i'm Sure it'll be very pleasureable to climb the learning curve :D

whats a "bulb blower" and can't i just plugin the camera directly with usb2 so i dont Need a seperate card reader?

i think the only accessory i'll be buying is a memory stick. i was thinking of 256MB or 512MB. how much capacity to the absolute best quality photos take? i mean the 3008x2000 and highest quality (raw?).
 
You will want a 1G card (compact flash). 256 or 512 won't go far. A single NEF is around 5M.

Yes, you can use the USB cord.

Bulb blowers are used to blow dust off the sensor (or lens or whatever)
 
They can be had as low as 675.00 for a D70 Outfit, Hard to get @ the price but possible :D
 
Well Then I guess not, I got lucky got mine for that price.. ;)
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was impossible to get it for that price. Just that when you're buying from someone selling at 60% of list price, you've got to be careful. The only specific suggestions so far are apparently disreputable.
 
HorsePunchKid said:
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was impossible to get it for that price. Just that when you're buying from someone selling at 60% of list price, you've got to be careful. The only specific suggestions so far are apparently disreputable.
Click to expand...

No need to apologize i know what ya meant :)
 
Hey Bugalaman how about you ship that lens to me in some bubble wrap? It's not like you need it :rolleyes:
 
Sucks to hear that Bugalaman - when's a replacement due? In the meantime, my D70 is sorely needing a zoom lens, I could take care of it for you. ;)
 
I actually have no idea when the repacement is going to come. I ordered the D70S kit, through my employer, for $900, three weeks ago monday. I received it last friday and after about 30 seconds of use I dertermined it to be defective. I tried a few batteries, memory cards (Lexar 1gig 80x), and that nice VR lens but nothing seemed to fix it. When i took a picture, the mirror locked down and the screens flashed err. I looked in the manual and it said err should never ever be displayed so I called nikon and they said ship just the body back. I sent it off DHL the next morning and they recieved it on tues.

Dammit, when I get a camera directly from the manufacturer, I EXPECT IT TO WORK. what am I supposed to tell my customers? that this nikon product you're looking at will be defective out of the box? I emailed them telling them just this , so maybe they'll send me a whole new camera (I sent the email on thurs, because I said wait a minute, your the freeking store I bought it from. hell they aren't even a normal retailer, its only because I special ordered it through their partners program ).

I really didn't want the digital rebel xt because its just too damn small and uncomfortable to hold. My hands aren't even that large. :confused: Sure it might be a better value, but hey I want a comfrotable camera. The D70S was the greatest thing I've ever held, it was just so comfrotable (too bad all I was holding was a $900 paper weight)


EDIT, sorry I originally typed this at work and had no time to proof read it :rolleyes: (heh, it ain't much better at home considering its 1:18am and i'm half awake)
 
If you want to do macro shots, then you'll probably have to buy a macro lens, use an extension tube, or reverse mount your lens with a special adapter.
 
perplex said:
what distance would you say those 3 photos are focused?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, it's completely impossible to say without knowing (at least roughly) what the focal lengths of the lenses they were shot with are. Butterflies are somewhat skittish, but they're not too bad. With a typical 100mm or so macro lens, that was probably a foot or two away. Birds are very skittish, so unless that was a trained falcon, the photo was probably taken with a 200 to 400mm lens, and the distance was surely at least several feet. Flowers are not skittsh at all, so that could have been taken with just about any focal length, I imagine :).
 
HorsePunchKid said:
Unfortunately, it's completely impossible to say without knowing (at least roughly) what the focal lengths of the lenses they were shot with are. Butterflies are somewhat skittish, but they're not too bad. With a typical 100mm or so macro lens, that was probably a foot or two away. Birds are very skittish, so unless that was a trained falcon, the photo was probably taken with a 200 to 400mm lens, and the distance was surely at least several feet. Flowers are not skittsh at all, so that could have been taken with just about any focal length, I imagine :).
Click to expand...

sorry but i dont completely understand what your saying. are you saying that any lens can do close up shots as long as the object wont fly away? ;)

excuse my idoicy, i'm COMPLETELY new to photography.
 
We're saying that to know the distance the picture is focused at, we need to know the focal length and how much the image was cropped by. With a longer focal-length lens, you can be further away (than with a shorter focal-length lens) to achieve the a given magnification of a subject.

That said, we don't know that information for the pictures provided. So we can't really tell.


And no, not every lens can do real macro photos. A real macro lens should be fully corrected to perform well in reproducing life-size images. If you look at a 35mm negative/positive/slide, a life size reproduction of a dime would produce a dime on the 35mm film that is the exact same size as the real thing. A half-size reproduction would produce a dime on the film that is 1/2 the size of the real thing. Very few lenses are corrected for this, as it is a very specalized task.


The 18-70 (and a pretty much all zoom lenses) are not real macro lenses. But that doesn't stop you from buying a +4 close-up filter that threads to the front of your lens for $10 to get higher magnification by allowing you to focus closer.


Cheers & hope this helped.
 
Nikon 50mm f1.8d with Canon 250d (close up filter)
good results can be achieve with this combo for less than $200.00
 
holy shit. i nearly shit my pink undies because of that Thing :D

did you take that? ok it looks like that is the macro lens that's gonna be warning up in my xmas stocking this time!
 
That's actually slightly cropped; I don't remember how much off the top of my head. It could have focused that close, I'm sure, but the praying mantis would have jumped on the lens, which she seemed to like doing. :)

Here are a few that I'm pretty sure are not cropped. It's very capable in the non-macro realm, too, though I'm not finding any great examples of my own at the moment.
 
This is a crop as well from a Nikon 50mm f1.8d with a Canon 250D close up filter
btw this is my eye ;)
44791050.EyeCU.jpg
 
Very nice! Thanks for the sample. It's much better than I expected. I guess these close-up filters aren't just a toy after all. :)
 
Basically, a close up filter attaches to a lens and magnifies the subject you're shooting. Generally a cheaper alternative to buying a true macro lens (like the Nikkor 60mm/2.8 Micro, supposed to be one of the sharpest lenses out there)
 
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