Hi Speed sync vs Leaf shutter sync at any speed.

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:29:00 GMT, Chris Brown
wrote:

In article , Zico wrote:

Hmmm , that's worth looking at. So there's no delay with the
autofocus searching , can it be turned off ? I've only used
autofocus on compacts. I still use manual SLR's as a rule.

Any of the digital SLRs can have autofocus turned off.

Be warned though - the screens tend to be poor for manual focusing at best.

That's what the little green 'You've got focus' light is for in the
viewfinder.

:-p

--
Owamanga!

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:


"McLeod" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 08:41:06 -0000, "Zico" wrote:

As prices of DSLR's are coming down, I'm starting to think
about buying one. Ive looked at the spec of several and
some info, important to me, doesn't seem to get mentioned.
Namely, flash sync speed, and shutter lag.

If as you say the shutter is mechanical in DSLR's, what is
their highest flash sync speed ?

The Nikon D70 has 1/500th of a second flash sync, as does the D1x.
There is no shutter lag in DSLR's. Only point and shoot digitals or
EVF digitals experience shutter lag.

Hmmm , that's worth looking at. So there's no delay with the
autofocus searching , can it be turned off ? I've only used
autofocus on compacts. I still use manual SLR's as a rule.

Autofocus delay and shutter-lag are separate things. Shutter-lag is
measured once any autofocusing has been achieved. Yes, it can be
switched off.

Having said that, the D70 focuses much faster than the N80 can (the
albeit cheaper, prosumer film equivalent) - just my opinion, I don't
have real data on this.

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.

D70's shutter lag is less than 1/10th sec, and actually slightly
faster than the N80. You won't find any meaningful data on focusing
speeds because it depends on lighting conditions, subject, movement,
the lens being used etc. In many situations, it'll beat your manual
focus speed.

'Manual focus speed' ?! Christ no, I prefocus and wait. :-)

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:13:55 -0000, "Zico" wrote:


"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

D70's shutter lag is less than 1/10th sec, and actually slightly
faster than the N80. You won't find any meaningful data on focusing
speeds because it depends on lighting conditions, subject, movement,
the lens being used etc. In many situations, it'll beat your manual
focus speed.

'Manual focus speed' ?! Christ no, I prefocus and wait. :-)

Okay, It'll prefocus faster than you, so you can do more waiting, and
maybe not miss that shot that happened in the moment you were
twiddling the lens.

:-)

I use manual focus for:
Night photography.
Birds in flight / aircraft in flight (I can track-focus better than
AF can).
Rapid candids where the subject is often not located conveniently
under the currently selected AF area.

--
Owamanga!

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22), so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work. The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

--
Regards,
Matt Clara
www.mattclara.com

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22), so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work. The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

--
Regards,
Matt Clara
www.mattclara.com

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:53:22 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22), so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work. The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

Your subject has a lot to do with it. Particularly certain fabrics -
you must avoid anything that looks remotely like fly-screen. Indeed,
distant rooftops (shingles/tiles) etc will generate the effect.

Having said that, I've shot a few thousand images (most under 1/2000th
I would guess) and moire is visible in only about 10 of them. Man-made
stuff generates moire, nature tends not to.

Part of the learning curve with new equipment is to identify it's
weaknesses be aware of them and work around them. Any camera using
BAYER filters will produce this effect under the right conditions, the
trick is to avoid those conditions.

You are on the latest firmware aren't you? I seem to remember
something was going wrong with high-speed shots (don't remember it
being moire though) that was fixed with the x.2 release (they are now
at x.3)

Damn bad luck, anyway.

--
Owamanga!

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:53:22 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th
and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still
opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room
with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get
the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them
down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so
I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22),
so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire
patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this
isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work.
The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this
at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to
have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise
then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

Your subject has a lot to do with it. Particularly certain fabrics -
you must avoid anything that looks remotely like fly-screen. Indeed,
distant rooftops (shingles/tiles) etc will generate the effect.

Having said that, I've shot a few thousand images (most under 1/2000th
I would guess) and moire is visible in only about 10 of them. Man-made
stuff generates moire, nature tends not to.

Part of the learning curve with new equipment is to identify it's
weaknesses be aware of them and work around them. Any camera using
BAYER filters will produce this effect under the right conditions, the
trick is to avoid those conditions.

You are on the latest firmware aren't you? I seem to remember
something was going wrong with high-speed shots (don't remember it
being moire though) that was fixed with the x.2 release (they are now
at x.3)

Damn bad luck, anyway.

--
Owamanga!


It appears what I'm seeing is a "grid" problem, as described by Thomas Hogan
on his page reviewing the D70, http://www.bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM#autofocus
(scroll down just a bit to Other Performance Issues).

A photoshop view of 66% reveals the grid problem:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113953_7.jpg

by 100% it isn't terrible, but still present.
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113954_7.jpg

300% reveals the exact nature of the beast:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113955_7.jpg

Apparently it is a high shutter speed issue. "As already noted, sometimes
the D70 produces a grid-like artifact in constant tone areas. If in-camera
sharpening is ON and you're using JPEG and Normal to High contrast settings,
it may become visible in your shots. This, too, appears to be a high shutter
speed problem." However, I saw it in all my shots, both RAW and JPEG, and
contrast was pretty well controlled, too. Still it's a grid, and I'm not
happy that the D70 manual didn't even warn me about it...

--
Regards,
Matt Clara
www.mattclara.com

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:53:22 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th
and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still
opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room
with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get
the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them
down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so
I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22),
so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire
patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this
isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work.
The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this
at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to
have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise
then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

Your subject has a lot to do with it. Particularly certain fabrics -
you must avoid anything that looks remotely like fly-screen. Indeed,
distant rooftops (shingles/tiles) etc will generate the effect.

Having said that, I've shot a few thousand images (most under 1/2000th
I would guess) and moire is visible in only about 10 of them. Man-made
stuff generates moire, nature tends not to.

Part of the learning curve with new equipment is to identify it's
weaknesses be aware of them and work around them. Any camera using
BAYER filters will produce this effect under the right conditions, the
trick is to avoid those conditions.

You are on the latest firmware aren't you? I seem to remember
something was going wrong with high-speed shots (don't remember it
being moire though) that was fixed with the x.2 release (they are now
at x.3)

Damn bad luck, anyway.

--
Owamanga!


It appears what I'm seeing is a "grid" problem, as described by Thomas Hogan
on his page reviewing the D70, http://www.bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM#autofocus
(scroll down just a bit to Other Performance Issues).

A photoshop view of 66% reveals the grid problem:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113953_7.jpg

by 100% it isn't terrible, but still present.
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113954_7.jpg

300% reveals the exact nature of the beast:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113955_7.jpg

Apparently it is a high shutter speed issue. "As already noted, sometimes
the D70 produces a grid-like artifact in constant tone areas. If in-camera
sharpening is ON and you're using JPEG and Normal to High contrast settings,
it may become visible in your shots. This, too, appears to be a high shutter
speed problem." However, I saw it in all my shots, both RAW and JPEG, and
contrast was pretty well controlled, too. Still it's a grid, and I'm not
happy that the D70 manual didn't even warn me about it...

--
Regards,
Matt Clara
www.mattclara.com

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:47:25 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:53:22 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th
and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still
opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room
with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get
the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them
down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so
I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22),
so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire
patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this
isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work.
The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this
at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to
have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise
then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

Your subject has a lot to do with it. Particularly certain fabrics -
you must avoid anything that looks remotely like fly-screen. Indeed,
distant rooftops (shingles/tiles) etc will generate the effect.

Having said that, I've shot a few thousand images (most under 1/2000th
I would guess) and moire is visible in only about 10 of them. Man-made
stuff generates moire, nature tends not to.

Part of the learning curve with new equipment is to identify it's
weaknesses be aware of them and work around them. Any camera using
BAYER filters will produce this effect under the right conditions, the
trick is to avoid those conditions.

You are on the latest firmware aren't you? I seem to remember
something was going wrong with high-speed shots (don't remember it
being moire though) that was fixed with the x.2 release (they are now
at x.3)

Damn bad luck, anyway.

--
Owamanga!


It appears what I'm seeing is a "grid" problem, as described by Thomas Hogan
on his page reviewing the D70, http://www.bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM#autofocus
(scroll down just a bit to Other Performance Issues).

A photoshop view of 66% reveals the grid problem:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113953_7.jpg

by 100% it isn't terrible, but still present.
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113954_7.jpg

300% reveals the exact nature of the beast:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113955_7.jpg

Apparently it is a high shutter speed issue. "As already noted, sometimes
the D70 produces a grid-like artifact in constant tone areas. If in-camera
sharpening is ON and you're using JPEG and Normal to High contrast settings,
it may become visible in your shots. This, too, appears to be a high shutter
speed problem." However, I saw it in all my shots, both RAW and JPEG, and
contrast was pretty well controlled, too. Still it's a grid, and I'm not
happy that the D70 manual didn't even warn me about it...

Wow, I've heard about the problem, but never seen it that bad before.
Personally, my shutter speeds aren't usually that high and I always
shoot RAW with no sharpening. I'll have to do some tests to try and
force it.

This site used 1/8000th but had to do significant unsharp mask to make
the grid visible:
http://www.naturfotograf.com/D70_rev03.html

Your pictures look much worse.

You did shoot RAW, yes? and during import, turned off any sharpening?

If not, the way to avoid this in future may be to use RAW, then test
various sharpening filters that may or may not be able to sharpen
without bringing out the grid. It would be nice to be able to shoot at
above 1/1000 without worrying about this issue.

This guy wrote a sharpening filter specifically modified for the D70

The only samples I can find are on the D100 version
http://www.fredmiranda.com/D100_D1xCS/

And here is the details of the D70 version (but missing samples):
http://www.fredmiranda.com/D70CSpro

--
Owamanga!

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:47:25 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 21:53:22 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:41:33 GMT, "Matt Clara"
wrote:

"Owamanga" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:17:32 -0000, "Zico"
wrote:

snip

The D70 has a hybrid shutter. It's purely mechanical up to 1/250th
and
then electronic after that (which the mechanical shutter still
opening
at 1/250th). Technically therefore it should be able to flash-sync
much faster than 1/500th, but for commercial or reliability reasons,
Nikon have crippled it at 1/500th. Firmware hacks may fix this later
in the year.


Interestingly enough, I'm shooting portraits of some state department
directors tomorrow and on thursday as well. I'm using a Nikon D70 with
Alien Bee 800's (two of them) using umbrella reflectors. I set up this
afternoon so I'll be ready to roll in the morning. It's a white room
with
white ceiling, so there's a lot of light bounce, and in order to get
the
B800s under control (using a wide-open aperture) I had to turn them
down
so
far that the modeling lights were useless as they are putting out so
little
illumination. I'm not turning on the overhead lights (flourescent), so
I
need the modelling lamps, and on a lark, I pushed the shutter speed to
5000.
That image looked better than the rest (excepting those shot at f22),
so I
then went to 6400, and those shots are spot on. So either I'm getting
sync
speeds up to 6400, or I don't know what...

I think you are definitely getting sync speeds that high. It's only
the iTTL system that will refuse to sync faster than 1/500th. People
have been able to fool the shoe-mount by sticking little bits of
electrical tape over some of the connectors and can get an SB-800 or
SB-600 to sync at 1/8000th. Your Alien Bee's don't support iTTL, so
the D70 happily fires them.

I assume these are wired, rather than slave triggered by the on-board
flash - if not, my conclusions are flawed - unless manual mode flash
doesn't have this limitation either (which it shouldn't) I think I
need to play some more...

--
Owamanga!

Every single shot (200+, most in RAW mode) has very obvious moire
patterns.
Because most of them will be used at less than 2" x 2" at 300dpi, this
isn't
a problem. But there'll be no 8x10's made from this two days of work.
The
shots at 1/8000 are worse than those at 1/6400. I'm not happy with this
at
all. Having conducted a brief search, I see that one fellow claims to
have
this problem when shooting the tops of tall buildings. One may surmise
then
that the high shutter speeds have something to do with it.

Your subject has a lot to do with it. Particularly certain fabrics -
you must avoid anything that looks remotely like fly-screen. Indeed,
distant rooftops (shingles/tiles) etc will generate the effect.

Having said that, I've shot a few thousand images (most under 1/2000th
I would guess) and moire is visible in only about 10 of them. Man-made
stuff generates moire, nature tends not to.

Part of the learning curve with new equipment is to identify it's
weaknesses be aware of them and work around them. Any camera using
BAYER filters will produce this effect under the right conditions, the
trick is to avoid those conditions.

You are on the latest firmware aren't you? I seem to remember
something was going wrong with high-speed shots (don't remember it
being moire though) that was fixed with the x.2 release (they are now
at x.3)

Damn bad luck, anyway.

--
Owamanga!


It appears what I'm seeing is a "grid" problem, as described by Thomas Hogan
on his page reviewing the D70, http://www.bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM#autofocus
(scroll down just a bit to Other Performance Issues).

A photoshop view of 66% reveals the grid problem:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113953_7.jpg

by 100% it isn't terrible, but still present.
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113954_7.jpg

300% reveals the exact nature of the beast:
http://www.michigan.gov/images/D70gr...t_113955_7.jpg

Apparently it is a high shutter speed issue. "As already noted, sometimes
the D70 produces a grid-like artifact in constant tone areas. If in-camera
sharpening is ON and you're using JPEG and Normal to High contrast settings,
it may become visible in your shots. This, too, appears to be a high shutter
speed problem." However, I saw it in all my shots, both RAW and JPEG, and
contrast was pretty well controlled, too. Still it's a grid, and I'm not
happy that the D70 manual didn't even warn me about it...

Wow, I've heard about the problem, but never seen it that bad before.
Personally, my shutter speeds aren't usually that high and I always
shoot RAW with no sharpening. I'll have to do some tests to try and
force it.

This site used 1/8000th but had to do significant unsharp mask to make
the grid visible:
http://www.naturfotograf.com/D70_rev03.html

Your pictures look much worse.

You did shoot RAW, yes? and during import, turned off any sharpening?

If not, the way to avoid this in future may be to use RAW, then test
various sharpening filters that may or may not be able to sharpen
without bringing out the grid. It would be nice to be able to shoot at
above 1/1000 without worrying about this issue.

This guy wrote a sharpening filter specifically modified for the D70

The only samples I can find are on the D100 version
http://www.fredmiranda.com/D100_D1xCS/

And here is the details of the D70 version (but missing samples):
http://www.fredmiranda.com/D70CSpro

--
Owamanga!