D70 questions

[Magnatolia]

Hi All,

I have a few questions about the D70.

1. I find that no matter what settings I use my photos aways seem to be all out of focus when zoomed to 100% on the PC. Is this normal?

2. What is the best way of ensuring that everythin in the foreground is sharp? I always seem to get one little bit and the rest is slightly out of focus. I've tried going to a higher F number but I don't seem to get any change in the DOF. This is always the case. No matter what F number I have the background never comes into focus.

3. When I take pictures in RAW format, they turn out horrible. Even at 33% on PC they have massive noise problems even though I'm using the lowest ISO setting. What is with this?

4. When trying to take pictures of wildlife, I find that the lens quite often zooms right through the bird then comes back until it finds the bird. Often the bird is gone by then.

5. Is there a way to have the fuctionality provided in Manual mode with automatic aperture and shutter speed?

6. With the AF, my camera always bolds the box that it thinks is the ideal spot. Is this actually using all five sections of the picture to get the settings?

7. If these are to be expected with this camera, I would like one day soon to upgrade maybe to the Canon EOS 1D model, but am looking for something preferably Canon under the $1000 that is fairly advanced.

Thanks in advance,
Jason

 

[hobbes28]

1. What lens are you using. It sounds like you're just not focusing or you may have camera shake.

2. You can put the focus on servo mode so that it focuses on the closest subject.

3. That you may want to have checked out somewhere.

4. Sometimes that happens if there isn't enough light or too much. It's the same with a lot of cameras. Easy solution would be to manually focus. That's what I do most of the time.

5. Yup and it's called Program mode.

6. Depending on which focusing parameters you have set, it should.

7. These are problems that are usually associated with getting to know a camera. I don't have the same problems with my D70 so it's not a common thing as far as I know so keep messing with it if you want until you get comfortable with it.

Welcome to the forum!!

 

[Magnatolia]

1. I'm using the Nikkor 70-300mm. I think the problem may be focus related. How do you set it to servo mode, and will suffice in situations where you need to snap a photo of a moving animal without having to push the shutter button halfway down. Examples would be a flying bird, or a fast moving animal. I find that the camera tends to focus on the foreground but it usually only focuses one tiny part of the picture. That's probably why most of the image appears out of focus.

2. How do I set this option?

3. I think I'll have to do that.

4. Is there a special knack for manual focusing. I gave it a try once, but it seems that it is time-consuming to do it yourself because you have to experiment until it appears sharp.

5. Thanks for that.

6. I thought this may be the problem with the out of focus pictures. One of the problems I have is the camera has five small boxes for AF, and when I half-press the shutter, it picks the area it thinks is the right spot and bolds that box. Is this the best AF mode for focusing on more than just one small spot on the picture. An example was a small bunch of nuts in a tree. The focus was on part of one nut while the rest of the nuts were out of focus.

7. I'm still considering the idea of a Canon cheap but advanced digital camera. I've been eyeing the 20D, Powershot Pro1, 10D, EOS Rebel XT, EOS D30 and D60 from Canon and the Pentax *IST Ds. Would you recommend any of these as having more functionality than the Nikon D70?

Two more questions:

1. When using white balance, I find that when under fluro or incandecent lights, I select this as my WB and my images come out with a tint. I thought that you were supposed to select these WB's to remove these colour tints. Is this correct?

2. How does the DOF button work? I don't notice anything at all when I press it. I seem to have a problem when trying to get the whole picture in focus when taking landscape shots. I understand that you're supposed to use a higher F-Stop but when I do this, my image simply goes too dark, even when using Auto. Is there a trick to doing this?

Thanks
Jason

 

[kfoster]

Can you post some pictures with the settings you are using?

Not to be a prick, but all of your problems can be answered by reading the manual and a good book on basic photography. If the manual is hard to understand (and it can be) get a copy of Magic Lantern Guide for the D70.

You don't have anything wrong with your camera, you need to learn how to use it.

 

[wjastrow]

I own (and enjoy) a D70 myself and have found the 70-300mm lense can be on the finicky side (in auto focus).

I've found that I can "help" the focussing "magic" by leaving the D70 in "Auto" (program) mode, switch the >lense< to manual, find the object I want, switch the lense back to automatic and THEN shot the picture. Granted, when your subject isn't likely to cooperate (e.g. bird in flight) that can be a nuisance. You might also consider adjusting the "AF Selection" (I think it's closed) and choose "Dynamic area" (there are 3 settings; I find that the best overall). Also, you might consider choosing the program selection with the "running" stick figure; I've snapped a number of very fast travelling birds with excellent results.

I think I'd give your D70 another chance or two before abandoning it because it does sound as though the problems you describe may not be in the camera itself.

 

[Magnatolia]

I managed to fix my major problem of images not being in focus. I always worked with the smallest F-stop available which, as I just discovered, severely limits the DOF. I'm working at around F8-11 and getting much better results.

Cheers
Jason