Idiot's guide to the D70

I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know
how to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm
sure I'm not the only moron with a D70.

I haven't explored the P mode yet. As I understand I should be able to
program several custom pre-programmed modes for my own purposes. For
instance, that'd let me turn off the darn flash & have a setting for
shade white balance with the exposure compensation darkened a bit. Do
people use this P setting much, am I understanding the intent?

Unfortunate that exposure compensation doesn't work in green mode. I
guess that's usable in P mode?

Why would I chose shutter priority or apeture priority? For more depth
of field I need a larger F stop which means I'm stuck with a lower
speed, right? What speed is the slowest that I could shoot hand held? I
get an awful lot of blurrred shots from shake. So I ought to set to
shutter priority in low light situations & chose what maybe 1/60 as a
max for hand held shots? Then I could adjust the exposure compensation
to underexpose & fix that in photoshop rather than lose depth of field.

Digicams are supposed to have more depth of field but maybe not so for
DSLRs, I read that's was due to the tiny CCD in cheaper digicams. If I
wanted to blur the background more I would... hmm scratching head I
would use a small f stop? So I'd use aperture priority 'A' mode? Should
I change the ISO for this situation in low light?

If I was shooting a moving object, I'd use shutter priority at a high
speed & accept limited depth of field if it was less than full sun? I'm
just not used to thinking about these things.

Are the other preset mode any use? I guess the flower is for macro but
am not sure what it changes. Sports, portrait (white balance for good
flesh tones?) I don't know what the other icons mean.

The D70 gives pretty washed out bland colors compared to other digicams
but there is a setting to bump up the saturation. I don't know why
anyone would want such washed out colors unless that's a more 'pure' raw
image for processing. I do a lot of work in photoshop and am much more
competent with that than I am with this camera but still it's a lot of
work to have to process every single picture. Ditto for sharpening but
my understanding is that sharpening should never be done until the final
step so I think it ought to be turned off on the camera.

I tried setting the ISO mode to auto since that's not the default but
haven't studied to see what that does. I'm pretty ignorant about the
function of the ISO setting frankly. What was it for film you'd use 100
for outdoor & 200 for indoor? Sorry my ignorance is showing, I'll bet
I'm not the only one.

How the heck do I toggle the focus across those 5 zones? I just move it
around & push the shutter half way but I think I read somewhere that the
exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition.
Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.

"paul" wrote in message
...
exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition.
Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.
Then why should we have the patience to answer all of your beginner
questions?
Jim

"paul" wrote in message
...
I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know how
to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm sure I'm
not the only moron with a D70.

http://www.bythom.com/d70guide.htm

"paul" wrote in message
...
I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know how
to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm sure I'm
not the only moron with a D70.

http://www.bythom.com/d70guide.htm

"paul" wrote in message
...
I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know
how to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm
sure I'm not the only moron with a D70.

I haven't explored the P mode yet. As I understand I should be able to
program several custom pre-programmed modes for my own purposes. For
instance, that'd let me turn off the darn flash & have a setting for
shade white balance with the exposure compensation darkened a bit. Do
people use this P setting much, am I understanding the intent?

Unfortunate that exposure compensation doesn't work in green mode. I
guess that's usable in P mode?

Why would I chose shutter priority or apeture priority? For more depth
of field I need a larger F stop which means I'm stuck with a lower
speed, right? What speed is the slowest that I could shoot hand held? I
get an awful lot of blurrred shots from shake. So I ought to set to
shutter priority in low light situations & chose what maybe 1/60 as a
max for hand held shots? Then I could adjust the exposure compensation
to underexpose & fix that in photoshop rather than lose depth of field.

Digicams are supposed to have more depth of field but maybe not so for
DSLRs, I read that's was due to the tiny CCD in cheaper digicams. If I
wanted to blur the background more I would... hmm scratching head I
would use a small f stop? So I'd use aperture priority 'A' mode? Should
I change the ISO for this situation in low light?

If I was shooting a moving object, I'd use shutter priority at a high
speed & accept limited depth of field if it was less than full sun? I'm
just not used to thinking about these things.

Are the other preset mode any use? I guess the flower is for macro but
am not sure what it changes. Sports, portrait (white balance for good
flesh tones?) I don't know what the other icons mean.

The D70 gives pretty washed out bland colors compared to other digicams
but there is a setting to bump up the saturation. I don't know why
anyone would want such washed out colors unless that's a more 'pure' raw
image for processing. I do a lot of work in photoshop and am much more
competent with that than I am with this camera but still it's a lot of
work to have to process every single picture. Ditto for sharpening but
my understanding is that sharpening should never be done until the final
step so I think it ought to be turned off on the camera.

I tried setting the ISO mode to auto since that's not the default but
haven't studied to see what that does. I'm pretty ignorant about the
function of the ISO setting frankly. What was it for film you'd use 100
for outdoor & 200 for indoor? Sorry my ignorance is showing, I'll bet
I'm not the only one.

How the heck do I toggle the focus across those 5 zones? I just move it
around & push the shutter half way but I think I read somewhere that the
exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition.
Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.

I was at a camera store today and saw a book titled "..... guide to the
D70". It might just be a glorified owners manual, but it might be a good
start for you.

"paul" wrote in message
...
I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know
how to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm
sure I'm not the only moron with a D70.

I haven't explored the P mode yet. As I understand I should be able to
program several custom pre-programmed modes for my own purposes. For
instance, that'd let me turn off the darn flash & have a setting for
shade white balance with the exposure compensation darkened a bit. Do
people use this P setting much, am I understanding the intent?

Unfortunate that exposure compensation doesn't work in green mode. I
guess that's usable in P mode?

Why would I chose shutter priority or apeture priority? For more depth
of field I need a larger F stop which means I'm stuck with a lower
speed, right? What speed is the slowest that I could shoot hand held? I
get an awful lot of blurrred shots from shake. So I ought to set to
shutter priority in low light situations & chose what maybe 1/60 as a
max for hand held shots? Then I could adjust the exposure compensation
to underexpose & fix that in photoshop rather than lose depth of field.

Digicams are supposed to have more depth of field but maybe not so for
DSLRs, I read that's was due to the tiny CCD in cheaper digicams. If I
wanted to blur the background more I would... hmm scratching head I
would use a small f stop? So I'd use aperture priority 'A' mode? Should
I change the ISO for this situation in low light?

If I was shooting a moving object, I'd use shutter priority at a high
speed & accept limited depth of field if it was less than full sun? I'm
just not used to thinking about these things.

Are the other preset mode any use? I guess the flower is for macro but
am not sure what it changes. Sports, portrait (white balance for good
flesh tones?) I don't know what the other icons mean.

The D70 gives pretty washed out bland colors compared to other digicams
but there is a setting to bump up the saturation. I don't know why
anyone would want such washed out colors unless that's a more 'pure' raw
image for processing. I do a lot of work in photoshop and am much more
competent with that than I am with this camera but still it's a lot of
work to have to process every single picture. Ditto for sharpening but
my understanding is that sharpening should never be done until the final
step so I think it ought to be turned off on the camera.

I tried setting the ISO mode to auto since that's not the default but
haven't studied to see what that does. I'm pretty ignorant about the
function of the ISO setting frankly. What was it for film you'd use 100
for outdoor & 200 for indoor? Sorry my ignorance is showing, I'll bet
I'm not the only one.

How the heck do I toggle the focus across those 5 zones? I just move it
around & push the shutter half way but I think I read somewhere that the
exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition.
Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.

I was at a camera store today and saw a book titled "..... guide to the
D70". It might just be a glorified owners manual, but it might be a good
start for you.

Jim wrote:

"paul" wrote in message
...

exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition.
Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.

Then why should we have the patience to answer all of your beginner
questions?


I gave a few tips, thought maybe someone on a similar level could share
ideas. Maybe some more expert wouldn't mind sharing what they think are
useful techniques. Maybe inspire myself out of shame to return to this
thread with more tips as I learn grin.

OK I'll take a stab at focusing:

I can't figure out how to use the right side sensor if my subject is to
the right. If I repeatedly press the shutter half way it seems to cycle
thru the 5 sensor areas? I can use the AF-L button to lock the focus
while the camera is moved to center the subject but as I said I thought
this also locks the exposure partially. The AF-L button is also the AE-L
button so how do I lock focus in one spot then lock exposure in another?
Hmm, it seems I could program the button in the menu to only lock
exposure then use reframing to lock focus. That'd be most sensible
because I could just point up at the sky to lock my metering with the
button & make sure it isn't blown out then lock the focus... hmm but I
have to hold the shutter half way down still to keep the exposure
locked. I still don't understand the cycling between the 5 focus sensor
zones or how to control that.

Maybe the book adm mentioned would give better explanations.

paul writes:

I'm
sure I'm not the only moron with a D70.

:- Well, I'm sure moronity isn't restricted to D-70s. I don't have a D-70,
so I can't answer questions specific to it. Other questions are more
general, so I'll take a stab.

SNIP
Why would I chose shutter priority or apeture priority?

It depends. :- Sometimes you want autoexposure, and you're trying for a
certain effect. It may be that you want shallow depth of field to blur out
a distracting background, so you've set the aperture to f/4 or so. Or
you're trying to freeze motion or let motion blur, so you've set the
shutter speed to one you want, and you're willing to take the aperture the
camera gives you. With my FM2n, which is totally manual, I'd think about
both shutterspeed and aperture, but if the subject was in motion, I'd
either have to hurry or miss the shot. With my auto-everything camera set
on aperture priority and f/8, though, I'd be pretty much set for whatever
crossed my path.

For more depth
of field I need a larger F stop which means I'm stuck with a lower
speed, right?

I think you have it backwards, depending on what you mean by larger
f/stop. f/2 is a larger opening than f/16, which some think of as the
larger number -- it's a fraction. So f/2 has a narrowed depth of field, but
you could use a faster shutter speed because the aperture is open more than
with f/16.

What speed is the slowest that I could shoot hand held? I
get an awful lot of blurrred shots from shake.

Faster. Use a faster shutter speed. No one knows what your slowest handheld
speed is.

So I ought to set to
shutter priority in low light situations & chose what maybe 1/60 as a
max for hand held shots? Then I could adjust the exposure compensation
to underexpose & fix that in photoshop rather than lose depth of field.

Who knows? If you're really shaky, 1/60th second may not be enough. The
rule of thumb in 35mm photography is a fraction the numerator of which is
1, and the denominator of which is two times your focal length. If you're
using a 50mm lens, that means 1/120 (the closest to 1/100). For a normal
lens in 35mm, your 1/60th second wouldn't be enough for 'normal'
photographers. if you're shakey, double it again.

For a D-70, you've got either a 1.5 or 1.6 multiplication factor on top of
that. A 50mm lens appears to be a 75mm lens on some digital cameras, so
double that, then double it again: 1/250 or 1/500.

SNIP
If I
wanted to blur the background more I would... hmm scratching head I

Use a wider aperture. f/2 or f/4. Note that some lenses are not at their
sharpest wide open, so you have trade-offs.

would use a small f stop? So I'd use aperture priority 'A' mode? Should
I change the ISO for this situation in low light?

Depends on what your shutter speed is with the preferred aperture. Can you
hand hold at the preferred aperture and the indicated shutter speed?


If I was shooting a moving object, I'd use shutter priority at a high
speed & accept limited depth of field if it was less than full sun?

Depends. Generally yes, if you want to freeze motion. Notice, though, that
many photos of racers let the moving subject blur or track the subject,
blurring the background so that the viewer gets a feel of speed.

SNIP
Are the other preset mode any use? I guess the flower is for macro but
am not sure what it changes. Sports, portrait (white balance for good
flesh tones?) I don't know what the other icons mean.

Read the manual.

SNIP
I tried setting the ISO mode to auto since that's not the default but
haven't studied to see what that does. I'm pretty ignorant about the
function of the ISO setting frankly. What was it for film you'd use 100
for outdoor & 200 for indoor? Sorry my ignorance is showing, I'll bet
I'm not the only one.

You're not the only one not to read the manual. In film, I use ISO 50 slide
film for outdoors during the day, but I'm often in sunny places. I don't
have a standard film speed that I use for indoors, but I use a fill flash
(not a built-in flash -- my FM2n doesn't have a built-in flash), sometimes
two (one on the camera and a slave off the camera). On the page at
http://www.cieux.com/stbarth/lem.html
the top two photos are with a slave flash and the on-camera flash. Notice
that the interior and the sunny outside are balanced and that the light
doesn't fall off in the distance. I used ISO 50 film for these photos.

The time to use a higher ISO setting is when you can no longer handhold the
camera without a flash (and you want to). At some point, a higher ISO will
result in artifacts in the image -- blots of color that aren't there in the
real world, similar to grain which shows up in faster films. You may use
flash indoors and out in dim light, but that introduces other problems
which you didn't ask about. :-

--
Phil Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed
The Civilized Explorer | spam and read later. email from this URL
http://www.cieux.com/ | http://www.civex.com/ is read daily.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 14:39:07 -0800, paul wrote:


Sorry but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all
these things.

Sounds like you should return the camera, get a full refund and then
head down to your local convenience store and buy a disposal camera.
Shouldn't be too much to "read" to run that.

Well, a digital SLR is not a film SLR. Sure, you can change lenses on both
of them and some of the basics are the same. But a D70 is not a replacement
for a film SLR. It's different.

You must learn the basics from either the manual or a reasonable book. There
is no other way!

If you do not like the manual that came with this camera, you should take a
closer looks at:

Magic Lantern Guides, Nikon D70, Simon Stafford, Lark books, New York
(2005).

Gregor

PS: Skip "Auto mode" and only use rarely "Program mode". "Auto mode" is junk
and "Program mode" is for the "lazy" people.

"paul" wrote in message
...
I used to know how to use a 35mm years ago then nothing then had a small
P&S digital & took thousands of pictures enjoying that thoroughly so I
figured I was justified in getting a nice DSLR but I really don't know how
to use it. I'm wondering if folks could share some tips here. I'm sure I'm
not the only moron with a D70.

I haven't explored the P mode yet. As I understand I should be able to
program several custom pre-programmed modes for my own purposes. For
instance, that'd let me turn off the darn flash & have a setting for shade
white balance with the exposure compensation darkened a bit. Do people use
this P setting much, am I understanding the intent?

Unfortunate that exposure compensation doesn't work in green mode. I guess
that's usable in P mode?

Why would I chose shutter priority or apeture priority? For more depth of
field I need a larger F stop which means I'm stuck with a lower speed,
right? What speed is the slowest that I could shoot hand held? I get an
awful lot of blurrred shots from shake. So I ought to set to shutter
priority in low light situations & chose what maybe 1/60 as a max for hand
held shots? Then I could adjust the exposure compensation to underexpose &
fix that in photoshop rather than lose depth of field.

Digicams are supposed to have more depth of field but maybe not so for
DSLRs, I read that's was due to the tiny CCD in cheaper digicams. If I
wanted to blur the background more I would... hmm scratching head I
would use a small f stop? So I'd use aperture priority 'A' mode? Should I
change the ISO for this situation in low light?

If I was shooting a moving object, I'd use shutter priority at a high
speed & accept limited depth of field if it was less than full sun? I'm
just not used to thinking about these things.

Are the other preset mode any use? I guess the flower is for macro but am
not sure what it changes. Sports, portrait (white balance for good flesh
tones?) I don't know what the other icons mean.

The D70 gives pretty washed out bland colors compared to other digicams
but there is a setting to bump up the saturation. I don't know why anyone
would want such washed out colors unless that's a more 'pure' raw image
for processing. I do a lot of work in photoshop and am much more competent
with that than I am with this camera but still it's a lot of work to have
to process every single picture. Ditto for sharpening but my understanding
is that sharpening should never be done until the final step so I think it
ought to be turned off on the camera.

I tried setting the ISO mode to auto since that's not the default but
haven't studied to see what that does. I'm pretty ignorant about the
function of the ISO setting frankly. What was it for film you'd use 100
for outdoor & 200 for indoor? Sorry my ignorance is showing, I'll bet I'm
not the only one.

How the heck do I toggle the focus across those 5 zones? I just move it
around & push the shutter half way but I think I read somewhere that the
exposure only locks partially with a shutter press & recomposition. Sorry
but I just haven't had the patience to read the manual about all these
things.