Update on D70 First Post 17-55 vs 18-70

[paulfrye]

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important, and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[Brenda in TX]

That is one gorgeous picture.

--
Brenda

 

[MichaelBe]

That blossom looks too perfect to be real. Great shots, both of them!!

Michael

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

--

'Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgement'

 

[paulfrye]

Thanks, Brenda. The D70 is providing the quality I hoped it would. I'm also testing the 17-55 and it looks like a winner, too.

Regards,

Paul

That is one gorgeous picture.

--
Brenda

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[paulfrye]

Thanks, Michael,

The flower is real. We have three different kinds of Camelias in our garden, some whites, a hybrid pink and this pink...so I picked the prettiest one, of course. The detail of the 17-55 brings out a little more texture than the 18-70, but the 18-70 certainly does a good job, too.

I'm mostly impressed with the quality of the D70. I believe a lot of people are going to be very happy with it.

Regards,

Paul

Michael

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

--
'Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the
experience usually comes from bad judgement'

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[Chris MacClellan]

Is the 18-70 on the top?? I think the top image looks more detailed.

Mac

 

[cookie0001]

The flower is real. We have three different kinds of Camelias in
our garden, some whites, a hybrid pink and this pink...so I picked
the prettiest one, of course. The detail of the 17-55 brings out a
little more texture than the 18-70, but the 18-70 certainly does a
good job, too.

I'm mostly impressed with the quality of the D70. I believe a lot
of people are going to be very happy with it.

Regards,

Paul

Michael

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

--
'Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the
experience usually comes from bad judgement'

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

Great shot. Ihave picked up my D70 but it had a 28- 80 lens which i have taken back I'm waiting for the 18-70 lens Looks like the right choice . How do you guys post a picture????

 

[paulfrye]

Hi Chris,

I think the top photo looks more detailed because it has all the water droplets. The photo is very sharp...no problem with that. The real difference between the two lenses is in tone. The shot with the 17-55 has a richer tone. As a result the flower has more texture, too.

Lighting is also part of the attraction in the second photo...so you cannot truly make a direct comparison. I could probably have gotten close with the 18-70 in the same light. It is an excellent lens and by no means should this be considered a serious test.

Regards,

Paul

Is the 18-70 on the top?? I think the top image looks more detailed.

Mac

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[paulfrye]

cookie,

Good idea to make sure you get the 18-70 over the 28-80. To post a picture sign up for an account at a provider like http://www.pbase.com which provides a limited account for free.

Upload a jpeg photo. After uploading view the picture; use right click on the photo to open a new photo in its own window. Copy the URL from that window and simply paste it in your msg.

Looking forward to seeing some of your shots.

Regards,

Paul

Great shot. Ihave picked up my D70 but it had a 28- 80 lens which i
have taken back I'm waiting for the 18-70 lens Looks like the
right choice . How do you guys post a picture????

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[Roland Wooster]

Paul,

Beautiful pictures, love the warm tones of the second shot. Can I please request that you post some more pictures taken under identical conditions and thus comparing the 18-70 and 17-55 directly, same exposure settings etc?

I'm torn between the two lenses and need to see whether it's worth an extra $1100 to me.

Thanks,
Roland.

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[paulfrye]

Hi Roland,

I'll try and do a direct comparison tomorrow, if possible. I certainly understand the question.

Regards,

Paul

Beautiful pictures, love the warm tones of the second shot. Can I
please request that you post some more pictures taken under
identical conditions and thus comparing the 18-70 and 17-55
directly, same exposure settings etc?

I'm torn between the two lenses and need to see whether it's worth
an extra $1100 to me.

Thanks,
Roland.

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[John Lai]

Paul,

The quality of the 17-55 picture has been a bit favoured by the better lighting which gives the picture better contrast, colours, sharpness and depth.

Much has been said about distorsion of the 18-55 @ wide end. Could you post a comparison with the 17-55 lens, a rectilinear building for example.

Best Regards
John

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

 

[Joe_Farrugia]

Can you post any 100% crop of people shots (or full size if you have a pbase account) PLEASE...

Small samples are useless for comparative purposes, other than assess colour. (Not even good for tonality, downsampling "compresses" tones)

THANKS in advance for you kind help!

--
Joe Farrugia

 

[lharris]

I guess it is in the eye of the beholder or the most knowledgeable. I got my d70 last night and almost passed on the kit lens. I love the first shot--at least for my eye. Glad I got it.

I am new to dslr - had to be shown how to put the lens on.

Hopefully my reasonable experience on the 8700, 717 and new A2 will have some crossover.

I do not know how to use USM so any basic settings for the camera or USM are very welcome.

When I try formulas on the A2 that have been posted, the results are magical..

Wonderful shots. I only feel slightly less broke!!!

Looking at the 28-85 2.8 or 28-105 VR as my second lens. I have handshake and want more zoom. I was told the 2.8 will address the handshake---but I wondered about the VR lens for the increased reach.

Comments welcome. I tried the 2.8 and it is a hefty 20 ounces and a hefty $575!

Comments welcome.

Gorgeous photos. I could almost smell them!

Linda

The flower is real. We have three different kinds of Camelias in
our garden, some whites, a hybrid pink and this pink...so I picked
the prettiest one, of course. The detail of the 17-55 brings out a
little more texture than the 18-70, but the 18-70 certainly does a
good job, too.

I'm mostly impressed with the quality of the D70. I believe a lot
of people are going to be very happy with it.

Regards,

Paul

Michael

Not a direct comparison..but it gives you an idea. First shot
taken with D70/18-70mm/fill flash. Second shot taken with late day
direct sunlight, 17-55mm, and no fill. Both shots processed with
USM in Capture and Photoshop and resized the same way.

Shows three things. A pro lens does help, lighting is important,
and the D70 is a heck of a camera.

Regards,

Paul

18-70mm with fill flash



17-55mm with in late day direct sunlight



--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

--
'Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the
experience usually comes from bad judgement'

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches'
ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

Great shot. Ihave picked up my D70 but it had a 28- 80 lens which i
have taken back I'm waiting for the 18-70 lens Looks like the
right choice . How do you guys post a picture????

 

[kkay2000]

Good shots! Thanks from Georgia.

 

[paulfrye]

Good shots! Thanks from Georgia.

--
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

• Herbert Kaufman

 

[paulfrye]

Hi Linda

I guess it is in the eye of the beholder or the most knowledgeable.
I got my d70 last night and almost passed on the kit lens. I love
the first shot--at least for my eye. Glad I got it.

I think you'll be very happy with the 18-70 lens. I believe it will become a classic and is probably the perfect lens for starting out.

I am new to dslr - had to be shown how to put the lens on.

Hopefully my reasonable experience on the 8700, 717 and new A2 will
have some crossover.

I do not know how to use USM so any basic settings for the camera
or USM are very welcome.

To get the most out of your camera, I would suggest learning how to work with NEF files. For this you'll need to learn how to use Nikon Capture. Capture allows you to treat a NEF file like a negative and you can change almost all settings that were used in the original photo, and you can change them back, as desired. This is the power of the NEF files. But that is an advanced step...so if you want to walk before you run, simply read the manual for your camera and use the settings as desired. The D70 is much more forgiving of those starting out than the D100 was.

As for USM, Unsharp Mask, I prefer it over standard sharpening because it does not create as much unwanted noise. With the D70 this is less critical than the D100. If you do use it, I would suggest setting Sharpening in the D70 to low and then adjusting USM to a setting of about 48,5,8 in the Capture program. After you save your file as a TIF or Jpeg to work in Photoshop you can also add some more USM there to say about 80,0.7,5 (These are settings you'll see under those options and Photoshop is slightly different than capture.) Only other major setting to be concerned with out of the box is white balance. Auto should work under most outdoor situations. If you want your photos to be slightly warm, then set to Cloudy. Indoors you can set to flash (which will work better than auto under most mixed light conditions). You can also adjust white balance in Nikon Capture if you use NEF and if you get it wrong and need to change.

There is a wealth of information on the settings and processing of the D100 in that forum. Discussions go back almost two years on any subject...so simply peruse and you'll find what you need there, in addition to this new forum.

Don't fret...mainly just shoot, experiment, and adjust and you'll do fine. I'm sure that there will also be a third party handbook written by someone in the near future to help out, too, in addition to the manual.

When I try formulas on the A2 that have been posted, the results
are magical..

Wonderful shots. I only feel slightly less broke!!!

Looking at the 28-85 2.8 or 28-105 VR as my second lens. I have
handshake and want more zoom. I was told the 2.8 will address the
handshake---but I wondered about the VR lens for the increased
reach.

I would hold off on buying another lens for awhile. The 18-70 is a great all-around lens and should get you going until you figure out what you need down the road. The AFS 24-120 VR would be a good lens for shaky hands...but all of them take practice to learn how to use with less shake. DSLR photography is less forgiving of shake due to the 1.5 focal length (over 35mm factor). For exampal with the DSLR lens set at 70mm you'll want to at least use a shutter speed of about 125s to reduce affects from shake. There is also a great hand-holding technique developed by a pro named Ron Resnick who has a big following on these forums.

He basically grabs his shoulder with his left arm and rests the lens on his forearm/elbow as a support. This also snuggles the camera right up to your face and will help reduce shake. Try it to see if it helps.

Ron has a wealth of info on his site, too at http://www.digital-images.net

Comments welcome. I tried the 2.8 and it is a hefty 20 ounces and a
hefty $575!