Yes, we were at it again - three photo-amigos were out and about at 6 am in the Blue Hills walking around Houghton's Pond to capture some nature shots, and also Pond Meadow Park in Braintree to maybe find us some mushrooms! :)

Posted by: Liz Feitelberg

Encho_451

Стъкло....

Модел фотоапарат : nikon D70

A quad-tone rendering of an image which was created by stitching together several individual photos.

Met Nikon D70

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2008-9-25 photo session we carried the photo session out.
Model: Aneta G
Photo: Tomasz Kochanowski
style/make-up: Ilona Błaszczak

In spite of coolness and the brief day managed to do a few interesting takes. More on fotograf ślubny Opole

The first possibility is the D50. I saw it on E-Bay and its price is good (especially in UK); it uses SD memory and it support near all the lenses, even the old ones (so you know why I cannot buy a D40 or a D60); using film for years, I have not "DX-only" lenses). Price is 200-280 €; at Mapcamera in Tokyo they sell it used at near 34.000 yen or 210 €.

The second possibility is the D70/D70s. The price is near the same (a little more expensive in Japan than the D50, don't know why) , it uses CF cards, it has near the same resolution of the D50.

The cons about Nikon cameras: I absolutely need to use my hi-quality M42 lenses on my dslr (first of all the Zenitar Fisheye, some Revuenons and some CZJ...Crop factor, I hate you!:-)) and all the adapters have a cheap glass lens inside for reaching the infinite focus, and this lens seems to have really poor quality...On Internet I read some interesting stories.

The last possibility is a Canon 350d. It's cheap as a Nikon and its various adapters are more compatible with different lenses; in this situation I'll need a Nikon-F adapter with chip and a M42-Canon adapter (the glass lens is not necessary because of Canon manufacture, increasing photo quality).

The cons about this possibility: adapters are always adapters and even with the one with chip you'll lose the AF of the Nikon lenses and you can obtain only the Canon "beep" when the focus is ok...

Without the preset scene mode, the D300 has somehow forced me to get myself more into the real photography.  I have been lazy when I was with the D70, using all sorts of preset mode, Portrait, Landcape, Close up..... as well as different color management and curves!  

Anyhow...thats the fun part of the Nikon D300!  Making every D300 user has its own unique setting and color output. More challenging, more fun, isnt it?

Magnesium alloy body frame with weather proof, it feels solid like a tank!
I am sure it will help me to keep precious moments of life for the next 4 years!

Matt Swann of Scattershot Genius, California, Pismo Beach

Stats:

105mm macro lens, 1/1250, f/5 and ISO 400.

The original shot was then converted into black & white in Aperture, where Matt knocked down the blue channel and kept the red + the green, resulting in the final image.

..............

This shot of the seagull, is so crisp it looks like that little bugger is going straight for your eyes, or at least for your sandwich!

Matt said "I used my D70's continuous auto focus mode to keep focus on the seagull's eye as he flew - I can't remember whether he was landing or taking off."

Whether it was going up or down, Matt managed to get a beautiful image of the creature in flight, the light perfectly capturing each feather, an incredibly hard shot which would have taken a very steady hand, not to mention a bit of nerve. Well done Matt, Green i Design thinks you rule.

I own a Nikon D70, D200 and D300. As expected, the the higher the model number, the more capable the camera. This makes sense! However, if you look at the entire collection of D-series model numbers, it gets very confusing. For example, the D40 is newer and more capable than the D50 or the D70. The recently announced D60 is even newer and more capable. Now, Nikon skips from the D300 to the D700? I feel like I need a decoder ring!

I decided to capture several of web pages for offline reading (using Adobe Acrobat 9 of course!) from dpreview.com, kenrockwell.com, and wikipedia and study them on my recent flight from London to home. I had some time to kill and was ready for a break from the job after a long week of meetings. After studying each of the 19 Nikon D-series cameras, I now understand the entire lineup much better than before. From looking at some of the popular photography message boards, I noticed that many others share my confusion so I felt that my research was blog worthy.

I created a simple grid showing every Nikon D-series camera sorted by release date of the camera. I’ve selected a handful of attributes to put in the columns of my grid. I don’t propose that these are the only attributes worth considering when evaluating a digital camera so don’t base any purchase decisions solely on my grid! The attributes selected are used to illustrate the high-level differences between each camera model.

* The D300 and D700 will do 8 FPS if used with the battery grip
** Higher ISO speeds are available via "boost" but quality suffers dramatically

Here are my conclusions on the basic numbering scheme of the Nikon D-series (feel free to correct me):

• Dx = Pro-level camera. The priority is in features and ruggedness, not size and weight. Check out the frames per second (FPS) on the D3 compared to the Dxxx and Dxx models. It’s obvious that this camera is for hard-core photographers. Take a look at the photographers on the sidelines of an NFL game. You’ll see a lot of D3’s. These photographers need very fast frame rates, huge storage capacity and a camera that can survive an occasional 300lb collision! Nikon focuses on giving professional photographers what they want and spare no expense to deliver. Take a look at the price of the D3 and you’ll see what I mean! It ain’t cheap! I want one but I can’t justify the cost. I do just fine with my D300.
• Dxx = Entry-level camera. Although these cameras are categorized as “entry-level”, they are extremely capable and solid cameras. Entry-level describes pricing more than capabilities. Many of these cameras are used by pros, sometimes as a backup camera. I know a professional photographer that carries a D70 as a backup to his D2Xs. He knows that if the D2Xs fails, he can keep doing his job and deliver good images using the D70.
• Dxxx = High-end amateur and pro. These cameras fill the gap between the previous two categories. Their specs are very good and many pros find them more than adequate (including myself).

Below is a illustration from wikipedia that further breaks down the categories:

DX vs. FX

The Nikon D-series cameras followed a long line of 35mm film SLR cameras. The size of a 35mm film frame is about 36mm x 23.9mm. When the D-series was launched, Nikon and others wanted to use a similar size digital sensor because it would allow all of the lenses to have the same angle of view as they did with the 35mm SLRs. Unfortunately, a sensor this size was not practical at the time so Nikon went with the smaller 23.7mm x 15.7mm sensor (now known as the DX format). Photographers using lenses from the their 35mm cameras had to re-calibrate their brains when thinking about focal length to adjust for the difference! The DX sensor is smaller so the image projected by the lens is cropped. As a result, photographers using their existing lenses had to multiple focal lengths by 1.5 to estimate the new results. For example, with a 35mm film frame, a 200mm lens provides 4X magnification, but with the smaller DX sensor, the resulting image is equivalent to a 300mm lens (200x1.5) resulting in a zoom of 6X. Although this sounds like a nice bonus, it made wide angle lenses not so wide when used on a DX camera.

In 2003, Nikon introduced DX lenses. These lenses projected an image that matched the size of the DX format sensor. A list of Nikon DX lenses can be found here.

The Nikon D3 is the first Nikon digital SLR to use a sensor that is the same size as the original 35mm film frame. This new format is called "FX". There are several advantages of a larger sensor, one of which is that the non-DX lenses work as expected. However, if you use a DX lens on the Nikon D3, it only projects the image on the middle 5.1 megapixels of the 12.2 megapixel sensor.

The new Nikon D700 is the first Dxxx series Nikon SLR to provide a FX format sensor. Now it starts to make sense! The Nikon D700 is basically a lower-end version of the Nikon D3 providing a more affordable alternative to the Nikon D3 for photographers that desire the FX format. The Nikon D300 is basically a DX format equivalent of the D700.

My assumption is that there will be more DX format DSLRs and will most likely be named the D400, D500, etc. I suspect that D700 was chosen as the FX model number to some room for future DX additions.

FYI - I'll personally skip the D700. I'm still very happy with my D300 and my Nikon 18-200mm DX lens. I do own a few non-DX lenses, including one of my favorites, the Nikkor 50mm f1.4, but I don't have a real need to switch to a FX format camera, especially considering the cost of the upgrade.

If you are a photographer looking to purchase your first Nikon DSLR, don't let the whole DX vs FX debate frustrate or confuse you. You'll be happy with either format. My recommendation is to go with one of the Dxx models and later get yourself a higher end Dxxx. I often recommend the D60 or D40 to friends as a first DSLR. If you are on a very tight budget, a used D50 or D70 is a fine choice. All of these take fantastic pictures. Most are sold as a kit that include a decent starter lens.

If you want to read more about DX vs FX, I'd suggest the following:

• Bjørn Rørslett's D300 review - dedicates a substantial page discussing DX vs FX
• Ken Rockwell's article
• Thom Hogan's article

By the way, although I am obviously a "Nikon guy", there are equivalent cameras in the Canon lineup that are fantastic choices as well. I'd like to see a similar breakdown of the Canon DSLR models to the one I provide above. I did find a timeline of Canon DSLR articles on Wikipedia.

To learn more about any of the cameras mentioned above, visit one of these great sites:

• Ken Rockwell's site - reviews and discussions of just about every digital camera
• DPReview.com - great reviews, all brands
• Nikon's site
• Thom Hogan's site

Other good comparisons:

• Nikon DSLR Comparison Guide (PDF)
  
• Nikonians.org comparison chart

NEW - Nikon D700 brochure (10.5MB PDF) - http://nikonusa.com/Assets/Digital-SLR/25444-Nikon-D700/PDF/25444_D700_brochure.pdf

NEW - dpreview.com has a great side-by-side comparison tool.  Below are 3 sets of comparisons:

• Dx models
• Dxx models
• Dxxx models

NEW - http://www.nikond700.com - tons of information about the new Nikon D700 including the following D300 vs. D700 size comparison:

Below are a few pics I've shot with multiple Nikon cameras (and one Fuji - sunset out plane window). To see high-res versions and the EXIF data to see which camera shot what, go to http://gregorywilson.smugmug.com. Dpreview.com also has sample images for all of the cameras mentioned above.

The Nikon D70 

It is second SLR and it is my first DSLR!  The D70 was the first consumer level DSLR introduces in 2004 Spring, marketing at US$1099. I could still remember the day that I was waiting for its official release! I placed my order from Circuit City on Stevens Creek in Sunnyvale, California!! Had to waited for a week for the stock to arrive and the sales told me that I was the first patch of customer to be able to get the D70 around the Silicon Valley area!  

The built quality of the D70 was really really nice, hard and sturdy body.  Reliable and the extra extra long battery life was really surprising. The D70 had brought me a lot of fun! Capturing over ten thousands of pictures and sure its a great camera for a beginner to enter the Digital photography era.

This is the first picture with the D70! Do not know what I am doing but from the picture, you can see the boxes :P

Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D70

I am the proud owner of a new PC.

I was getting a little frustrated with the laptop, external monitor and plethora of attached back up drives, et cetera and decided to do something about it.

Built from scratch for a very reasonable price and, I reckon, good for 5 years.

The machine comprises 4 cpu cores, 8gb ram and 2 terrabytes of storage - Photoshop loves this PC, especially after I granted it access to a full 3gb of ram in the Preferences.

One thing I was looking forward to is being able to see all my images.

Vista 64 is fussy about drivers and software. My new vista install does not have a color profile for my monitor, so I did this blind.

Suzy, getting ready for a Murder Mystery party and looking as lovely as she always does. hmmm :)

Flowers from our floral garden.