Manual focus lenses with a D70.

"Phil Stripling" wrote in message
...
"Jim" writes:

Is there a way to get a good meter reading shown in the viewfinder?
No
If you
set the f/stop by hand with the lens, does the D70 stop it down for you?
Yes
Jim

"Jim" wrote in message
m...

"Musty" wrote in message
...

"Jim" wrote in message
om...


Errr, what do you mean the good old days? I use manual exposure on
almost
all my shooting. For example, how do you meter off the sky to take a
scenic
shot? You can use AE lock, but why bother? No AF is mainly a problem if
you
are shooting moving objects, for scenes and portraits MF should be
fine -
infact for high depth of field shots I only use MF.
With the D70, you look at the LCD. It shows where the underexposed and
overexposed areas are. You also look at the histogram.

As for me, I abandoned hand held meters when I bought my Canon FT-QL back
in
1968. Just one less thing hanging around my neck.

Jim


When I said metering, I meant just pointing the camera to the appropriate
place and adjusting A and T until the camera tells me the exposure is
"correct". I am referring to the fact that manual exposure allows you to
quickly meter off the correct place whereas using an autoexposure, the
camera tell you what the aperture and shutter speed must be given something
it decided to meter. For example when taking landscape shots I usually meter
off the sky and then recompose and take the image.

John A. Stovall writes:

How well do manual focus lenses work on the D70 (or any of the Nikon
digitals)? I see what appears to be very good prices on used manual
focus Nikon lenses.

On the low end, D70, D100, and the Fuji S2, the manual focus lenses
mount, and shoot fine. Focus is, of course, entirely manual -- but
the "focus" indicator down in the corner of the frame functions, plus
what you can tell from the viewfinders.

However, they don't *meter*. At all. On the low end cameras. This
is a design decicions on the cameras; they'll meter fine on an F100,
or I believe on a D1 and the variants.

Depending on the type of shooting you do, and on your personal
experience and working style, this is somewhere between a complete
deal-breaker, and no big deal at all. Personally, I've worked with
cameras with no built-in meter, and *most* of my work is still shot on
manual exposure even with modern camera bodies. So for me, it's
mostly no big deal.

I use my 58mm f1.2 NOCT and 24mm f2 quite a lot, and my 135mm F2 and
300mm f2.8 (Tamron) some (and I sure can't afford modern autofocus
lenses with those specs).
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

"Jim" writes:

"Musty" wrote in message
...

"Jim" wrote in message
om...


Errr, what do you mean the good old days? I use manual exposure on almost
all my shooting. For example, how do you meter off the sky to take a
scenic
shot? You can use AE lock, but why bother? No AF is mainly a problem if
you
are shooting moving objects, for scenes and portraits MF should be fine -
infact for high depth of field shots I only use MF.
With the D70, you look at the LCD. It shows where the underexposed and
overexposed areas are. You also look at the histogram.

Yes, the histogram is *very much* your friend! Use it.

As for me, I abandoned hand held meters when I bought my Canon FT-QL
back in 1968. Just one less thing hanging around my neck.

I didn't even buy my *first* hand-held meter until a year or two after
that. Useful with my Leica M3. And later other hand-held meters were
useful with studio flash, and useful with 4x5. I've got two hand-held
meters now, one of which even lives in my normal camera bag and hence
goes with me most of the time. But it probably *shouldn't*, because I
use the LCD and histogram for exposure determination now almost
exclusively.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

"Jim" writes:

"Musty" wrote in message
...

"Jim" wrote in message
om...


Errr, what do you mean the good old days? I use manual exposure on almost
all my shooting. For example, how do you meter off the sky to take a
scenic
shot? You can use AE lock, but why bother? No AF is mainly a problem if
you
are shooting moving objects, for scenes and portraits MF should be fine -
infact for high depth of field shots I only use MF.
With the D70, you look at the LCD. It shows where the underexposed and
overexposed areas are. You also look at the histogram.

Yes, the histogram is *very much* your friend! Use it.

As for me, I abandoned hand held meters when I bought my Canon FT-QL
back in 1968. Just one less thing hanging around my neck.

I didn't even buy my *first* hand-held meter until a year or two after
that. Useful with my Leica M3. And later other hand-held meters were
useful with studio flash, and useful with 4x5. I've got two hand-held
meters now, one of which even lives in my normal camera bag and hence
goes with me most of the time. But it probably *shouldn't*, because I
use the LCD and histogram for exposure determination now almost
exclusively.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

MF lenses work extremely well with the D70, I use 2 in particular, the
85/1.4 AI-S, and the 105/2.5 AI....these are such amazing lenses, that
for portrait work, they are almost irreplaceable with AF lenses. In a
studio setting, I use a meter with my strobes anyway, so the only
limitation is focusing, and there is a in focus indicator in the
viewfinder. Depending on the situation, it may be difficult to focus
without that because of the smaller viewfinder, but I find it not that
difficult, and rather easy to use the MF lenses.....

JR




In article ,
John A. Stovall wrote:

How well do manual focus lenses work on the D70 (or any of the Nikon
digitals)? I see what appears to be very good prices on used manual
focus Nikon lenses.


************************************************** ********

"A people that take no pride in the noble accomplishments
of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy
to be remembered with pride by remote descendents."

Thomas Babington Macaulay
_History of England_

MF lenses work extremely well with the D70, I use 2 in particular, the
85/1.4 AI-S, and the 105/2.5 AI....these are such amazing lenses, that
for portrait work, they are almost irreplaceable with AF lenses. In a
studio setting, I use a meter with my strobes anyway, so the only
limitation is focusing, and there is a in focus indicator in the
viewfinder. Depending on the situation, it may be difficult to focus
without that because of the smaller viewfinder, but I find it not that
difficult, and rather easy to use the MF lenses.....

JR




In article ,
John A. Stovall wrote:

How well do manual focus lenses work on the D70 (or any of the Nikon
digitals)? I see what appears to be very good prices on used manual
focus Nikon lenses.


************************************************** ********

"A people that take no pride in the noble accomplishments
of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy
to be remembered with pride by remote descendents."

Thomas Babington Macaulay
_History of England_

John A. Stovall wrote in
:

I've found over the years there are just too many things that an in
camera meter can't meter.

You mean, rather, that you don't know how to meter things properly?
An in-camera meter is no different from a hand-held meter.

--
http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=moosespet

David Dyer-Bennet wrote in :

because I
use the LCD and histogram for exposure determination now almost
exclusively.

that's kind of silly... it's like you're trying to determine your exposure
-after- you've taken your shot!

--
http://www.neopets.com/refer.phtml?username=moosespet

In article , Jon Pike
wrote:

John A. Stovall wrote in
:

I've found over the years there are just too many things that an in
camera meter can't meter.

You mean, rather, that you don't know how to meter things properly?
An in-camera meter is no different from a hand-held meter.

there is a *huge* difference between the two.

in-camera meters are convenient but you can't incident meter, flash
meter or measure ambient color temperature. some cameras can spot meter
with the built in meter but those are nowhere near as flexible or as
tight a spot as with a dedicated spot meter.

on the other hand, in-camera meters can examine multiple areas of the
image, make some guesses about what the subject is and adjust the
exposure accordingly. handheld meters can't do that.