Nikon D-70! (1 Viewer)

Just got shipping confirmation, my D-70 is scheduled to arrive early next week! Anyone else got one on the way? I would like to compare notes.

The D-70 will only arrive here in a couple of days, and i intend to purchase it .
How much did you get it for?

Mine came last night, I paid $999 US for it. It is awesome! I'll post some pics with it today- once the clouds and rain dissipate.

DOC- what lens do you plan on using with it? Right now I am using a mediocre lens I got off ebay, but hopefully soon I will be able to afford the sigma 50-500.

i've got the Sigma 70 -300. Now, as i understand, when mounting the Lens on the camera , the telescopic capabilty increases because of "some technical structure" within the camera ( the distance to the lcd? or something like that ...) so that the Sigma 70 -300 will actually become 105- 450. So if u get the Sigma 50 -500 - well WOW! Just imagine.
Btw - here in Israel the body price will range at 1400$ !!

D70 in less than 1 week they say

Yeah, me !

Even thought the UK is starved of the D70s by Nikon (20 a month I have been told), I managed to get one with the 18-70 lens for UKP939 inc.

Cant wait..... anyone want my old Fuji 602 Pro cheap ?

Will advise when it arrives and initial thoughts.

DOC said:

i've got the Sigma 70 -300. Now, as i understand, when mounting the Lens on the camera , the telescopic capabilty increases because of "some technical structure" within the camera ( the distance to the lcd? or something like that ...) so that the Sigma 70 -300 will actually become 105- 450. So if u get the Sigma 50 -500 - well WOW! Just imagine.
Btw - here in Israel the body price will range at 1400$ !!

Click to expand...

The "magnification" or "cropping" effect is due to the fact that the actual DSLR image size (a function of the construction of the ccd sensor) is smaller than that of a 35mm. film image. Consequently the relative magnification of a particular focal length lens is greater. That's the good news, at least for bird photographers.

The bad news is related to the good news: although the size of your bird becomes larger relative to the total area of the frame, the total area of that frame is, in fact, smaller than that of a 35mm. negative or slide. So what you end up getting is akin to taking a bird picture taken with a 35mm. camera and snipping off the outsides of the image with scissors. The question becomes: have you really gained anything here?

The issue is complicated by the fact that it's a digital image, not a film image, and consequently the number/size/density of pixels becomes an issue in terms of your final image size/quality in ways that I cannot begin to comprehend.

But the bottom line is that in practice, if your 300mm. (or so) lens is not really adequate for bird photography when you use 35mm. film, it still won't be adequate for bird photography when you use it on a DSLR. It does not magically become "the same" as using a 450mm. lens on a 35mm. camera. For bird photography you still need at LEAST a 400mm. lens.

I've just ordered my D70 and 80-400VR lens. The store says the lens should be in long before the camera, which could be anything from tomorrow to several weeks. For a long time it was a toss-up between that system and the Canon 10D/ 100-400, and the 2 things that tipped the scales to the Nikon are the price and the overall weight of camera + lens. Anyway, I can't wait to get my hands on it and start learning how to use it all correctly!

I've been toying with the idea of getting one, but I have heard that TTL flash metering will not work with manual lenses. :C

not sure what to think of mine yet. My first had to go back with a back focus problem. My new one takes some good pictures but seems to get alot of losers especially with open apetures.

Leif said:

I've been toying with the idea of getting one, but I have heard that TTL flash metering will not work with manual lenses. :C

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Leif,

Depending on the type of manual lenses you have, the limitations may be more severe than lack of flash metering. The way I interpret Nikon's documentation, for non-AF lenses (other than AI-P) you won't even get normal exposure metering.

(I have the D70 but haven't tried it with a manual lens so can't yet provide empirical perspective.)


Tony

tlb said:

Leif,

Depending on the type of manual lenses you have, the limitations may be more severe than lack of flash metering. The way I interpret Nikon's documentation, for non-AF lenses (other than AI-P) you won't even get normal exposure metering.

(I have the D70 but haven't tried it with a manual lens so can't yet provide empirical perspective.)


Tony

Click to expand...

Tony: Most Nikon bodies don't provide exposure metering with manual lenses. IIRC the exceptions are the top end bodies (digital excepted). However, that is not a problem as a hand held meter does the job, assuming speed is not essential. However, for flash TTL metering is pretty much essential IMO. AFAIK all film bodies provide TTL flash metering with manual lenses.

The alternative is to get manual lenses matrix chipped, but sadly not all can be done. I had my 200mm micro matrix chipped and it now meters with any body.

D70 + Sigma 50-500

DOC said:

i've got the Sigma 70 -300. Now, as i understand, when mounting the Lens on the camera , the telescopic capabilty increases because of "some technical structure" within the camera ( the distance to the lcd? or something like that ...) so that the Sigma 70 -300 will actually become 105- 450. So if u get the Sigma 50 -500 - well WOW! Just imagine.
Btw - here in Israel the body price will range at 1400$ !!

Click to expand...

I have a Nikon D70 with Sigma 50-500.Ti is excellent set for photographing wild birds and mammals.Sigma is fast and silent.Sharpnes is very good.

Had my D70 for about 3 months now, well chuffed. It proves that there is
no need to spend mega bucks to get good results.

I use mine with a Sigma 500 4.5 and some times with a Pro 300 converter.


Chris.