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The
First Days with the Nikon D70: Turning on the Heat
by Andreas Voigt
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TWO
DAYS LATER ...
A
couple of days later I am sitting at Delicate Arch in Arches
National Park in Utah and waiting for the sunset. On my way
to Arches National Park I stopped in Page, Arizona for a visit
to the Antelope Slot Canyons. The D70 performed flawlessly in
the dark slot canyons with exposures in the range of several
seconds
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Delicate
Arch
Arches National Park, Utah
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One
major advantage of digital over film is the instant feedback
through the preview and histogram function. Especially in difficult
shooting conditions like the slot canyons, the preview takes
a lot of guessing out of the workflow. Also, the wireless remote
ML-L3 was able to play out its full potential. In order to protect
the camera against the fine sand in the canyons I had the camera
fully enclosed in a plastic bag with a hole taped to the protective
UV filter.
I
was able to trigger the shutter without having to reach
for a mechanical release under the plastic bag. Another
significant advantage is the approximately 180 compressed
raw files per 1GB compact flash card. I cannot imagine
that I will ever again deal with the hassle of changing
film after every 36th frame.
Is
is already the fourth day in a row I have been hiking
up to Delicate Arch. I had no luck with the sunsets in
the previous days. Each day, right before sunset, clouds
covered the sun. At 3 o'clock clouds start to move in
again -a bad omen. But I decide to make the best out of
the situation and explore the capabilities of the D70
for infrared (IR) photography. Partially clouded skies
usually make for some great IR photos. As it turns out
a Wratten 87C IR filter delivers quite decent black &
white pictures after post processing in Photoshop. |
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It
is still a couple of hours until sunset and I take the time
to play around with the D70. One of the things I am not so fond
of is the viewfinder. While most of the necessary info is bright
and clear, the eyepoint got reduced from 24mm (D100) to 18mm
(D70). But after a day of shooting I got used to the D70's viewfinder.
The
D70 does not come with a mirror lock-up or mirror pre-release.
I managed without any of these features on my F100 and
do not miss those options too much, but I hope Nikon could
be able to fix that issue with a firmware upgrade. Apart
from that, the Nikon engineers have put some serious brainpower
into improving the handling of the D70 compared to the
already awesome D100. It starts with minute changes, such
as selecting the metering mode (3D color matrix, center
weighted or spot metering). On other camera models like
the D100 or F100 the metering mode switch is located next
to the flash shoe. The D70 offers quicker change of the
metering mode using the command dial plus metering mode
button. I wish the metering mode would be displayed in
the viewfinder.
One
of the best improvements is the procedure for ISO sensitivity
selection. Changing of ISO sensitivity on the D100 was
only possible via a combination of the main command dial
and mode selector dial. Once you were in the process of
changing the ISO, the camera was locked and you could
not take any pictures until you switched back to either
one of the shooting modes. I lost countless pictures because
I forgot to switch back to shooting mode. The D70 is always
ready to take a picture! ISO is changed by pressing the
sensitivity button (ISO) next to the LCD on the back and
rotating the main command dial. The D70 is ready to take
a picture once you tip the shutter release button.
Since
my first day with the D70 in Death Valley I am totally
hooked and did not use the D100 again.
Earlier
that day I took some pictures of cacti with the new SB-800
flash. I sincerely hope that Nikon has heard of the "Three
strikes and you are out" rule. For my F100 I bought
a SB-28, for the D100 I bought the SB-80DX and now for
the D70 I bought the SB-800. Nikon Marketing must be very
pleased with me as role model customer, but I hope i-TTL
is the end of the odyssey. Once you manage to leave behind
your hole in your budget you can fully enjoy the benefits
of Nikon's great new i-TTL flash system. The flash sync
of up to 1/500s is already worth the upgrade to the D70/SB-800
combo.
Just
for the record, the sky got completely covered with clouds
by sunset. |
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