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Nikon D70- should i get it? (1 Viewer)

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chris3871

Explorer Extraordinaire
First off, thankyou to everyone who advised me in my choice of scope, in the end we got a Nikon 80- which seems fine so far.

The next part of my masterplan is buying a digital SLR. Looking at bird forum reviews, bird forum threads and other reviews, the D70 seems to be the camera for me. I wondering if anyone could give me any further advise on this and any comparisons with D70s.

Also- what lens would you advise? i want a good zoom- up to about 400 or 500 and a fairly standard 50 or something.I would spend about £1500 including camera body, so thats a fair allowance for lenses isn't it? I am also wondering about this camera in conjuction with the scope for digiscoping ( though this is not priority)

Any info GREATLY appreciated, thanks in advance.
 
Hi Chris,
There's a small difference between the D70 and the D70s, and if someone already has the D70, I wouldn't advise him to replace it with the D70s. However, the D70s is younger and therefore will keep it's value longer.
A 50/1.8 lens is a good and inexpensive choice. I don't know the prices in the UK, but a good lens is the Nikon 80-400VR, however, you may exceed your budget with this lens including the camera. A reasonable good lens (although it has no VR) is the Sigma 70-300 APO II, which will fit your budget. Another option is the Sigma 170-500 which is good, (but not excellent) and is more expensive. You should buy a good tripod as well.
 
Chris,

There has been a lot of debate on this subject. If it is any help I've got a Nikon D70 with the Tamron 200-500mm lens and you will see examples of my attempts at photography in my gallery.

To sum up general opinion at "our" budget the general feeling seems to be that the Nikon is the better camera over the other obvious choice of the Canon. As far as lenses go most birders will say you need a 500mm lens so the choices fall down to the Tamron 200-500mm , or the either of the Sigma lens 170-500mm or 50-500mm for which I believe a replacement model has just been released. I'm sure you'll get plenty of examples of users favouring the Sigma lens. The Nikon 100-400mm also attracts a lot of interest and although being dearer lens has benefit of VR which is the Canon equivalent of Image Stabilisation giving the chance of better shots in more testing light conditions. I would recommend that you do not look at the other choice of a smaller lens with a teleconverter.

In any event good luck with your choice and take plenty of pictures. You will learn quickly and it will be fun and frustrating at times. Play plenty of attention to technique both in getting a close as you can to the birds (or getting the birds to come close to you) and keeping the camera steady.
 
I too have the D70 and Tamron 200-500 Di (£700) and Tamron 28-300 Di (£200). Forget the D70s - apart from a couple of minor things, it's not worth it - especially when the D70 is "upgraded" to version 2 software (free off the web).

You should be able to get this set up for £1500. Both lenses are pretty reasonable (not on a par with expensive Nikon lenses, but better than the "cheap" Nikkor jobs. The 28-300 is so compact too - about the same size as a standard. The big Tamron is still compact and light enough to carry around and use handheld - if the light is decent enough.

Most of the pics in my gallery were taken with the 200-500, and nearly all are handheld or on a beanbag.

http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/18597
 
The D70s does have a cable release so it would be much better than the D70 for ultra tele work or astrophotography but other than that I'd say a D70 should do. The new firmware makes the menus much easier to see in bright light and does improve the AF...

I'd say the combo RezMole mentioned would be good but I don't know about the Tamron 200-500... Seems a little overpriced to me but I'm cheap.
 
Thankyou, your advise has been very helpful.

You've put me off the D70s, i don't think i need it. Now i just have a few more questions about lenses. The Tamron which RezMole uses sounds ideal, and the pictures produced look great, but i've been offered a Sigma 70-300mm APO macro, which i presume is the same one that Yossi suggested, and a Sigma 135-400mm. Are these lenses suitable, and do they take good pictures?

Also, how helpful is VR?

Cheers.
 
I have just started and am very happy with the D70 , I am surprised you can still get one i really struggled a few months back as the D70S was out and the 70 was lapped up at a reduced price.
I have a Sigma 135-400mm on mine but.................................................................Its great but....................................I want more reach...........I knew it I knew it!!! :egghead:
 
The 500mm is a good lens and a good bargain.

Chris - VR allows you to shoot hand held pictures @400mm down to 1/100-1/150 sec and even lower after some experience. It's worth the price difference IMHO.
 
I'm very tempted by VR now, but don't really know that i have the money. They all seem to be fairly expensive. The cheapest one i found on warehouse express was
Nikkor AF VR 80-400mm at just over £1100- would this fit, is it any good? Or should i settle with a good one without this i do see myself using the tripod fairly often but not all the time.

Your experience and knowledge is valued. :)
 
chris3871 said:
I'm very tempted by VR now, but don't really know that i have the money. They all seem to be fairly expensive. The cheapest one i found on warehouse express was
Nikkor AF VR 80-400mm at just over £1100- would this fit, is it any good? Or should i settle with a good one without this i do see myself using the tripod fairly often but not all the time.

Your experience and knowledge is valued. :)
Click to expand...

Get a shoulder stock or a good beanbag to get the same benefit as VR. You need zoom less than you need long reach and fast focusing for birds and the zooms just don't focus fast enough. I'd go for a prime lens around the 300mm mark with a 1.4x tele. The Nikon 300mm f4/AF-S with a Nikon 1.4x will be my next lens. You can also pick up the older AF version quite cheap these days.Neil.
 
My Tamron focuses faster than any Nikon lens - mind you, that's cos i use it manually - it's easy and much faster, and you never have the problem of it hunting when the bird flies out of frame for a second!
 
I have the D70 and just picked up my new Sigma 50-500 EXDC. This was out of the box, hand held, set on auto, through a window on a dull overcast miserable day, Now I need to learn to use it properly.
 

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chris3871 said:
I'm very tempted by VR now, but don't really know that i have the money. They all seem to be fairly expensive. The cheapest one i found on warehouse express was
Nikkor AF VR 80-400mm at just over £1100- would this fit, is it any good? Or should i settle with a good one without this i do see myself using the tripod fairly often but not all the time.

Your experience and knowledge is valued. :)
Click to expand...

The 80-400 VR is a great lens, ans is one of my long lens collection. You can use it hand held @ 400mm with very goo results. It is not a fast focus lens, but sometimes, when used properly you get this:
 

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Thanks all.

I got the camera body, kit lens and sigma 70-300 APO II (as recommended by Yossi) yesterday. Got the camera and lenses at a very good price, so have plenty left to get a bigger lens when i'm ready.

So far, i have found the camera very easy to use, and seem to be getting some okay pics. I may post some later.
 
Hi Chris,
Enjoy your new camera, happy shooting! You got a very good set of protography tools. I'm sure we'll see some good results shortly.
 
Wot camera!

Andy Bright is right! Go prime if you can - cheap zooms are generally not very good albeit better than nothing!
I'm flogging my lenses to get a good prime.

madmike
 
Hi, Chris
Congratulations on your new camera!

You got D70 or D70s? I had a d70s not long ago, looking forward to your photos!
 
Hi Chris

I have the D70 and like very much but with that being said im going to go for the D70s...WHY......the D70 has wireless remote ( sometimes a delay ) and if i use a 2x DBL it hard to shoot with out shakeing....now with the new D70s its a hard wire switch...gotta love that no shake....*S*.....well thats my 2 cents on it......Im new at this so good luck and happy birding.....Randy

Hoping to get a VR Nikon lens sometime soon.....$$$$$$
 
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