D70 Newbie

[moles]

Hello people.
I have just purchased a D70 after owning a coolpix 3200.
Only had the camera for 2 weeks so am fairly new to all of the different settings and other controls. Anyway I am slowly getting through the manual and doing most of my learning on the camera by adjusting settings and comparing the differences to understand what I have just changed. I am using Manual on the mode dial and can get ok pictures with the lowest aperture no and a slow shutter speed, the colours are reproduced well but mostly come out blurry. When I increase the shutter speed the sharpness of the pictures is excellent but the colours fade away to a darker shade and no matter what I do I cant seem to get any colour back into them. I have tried adjusting the WB,ISO settings,Exp Comp with no joy, all I get is a brighter picture but lacking in colour. Should I be aiming to get the exposure display meter in the middle for each shot?- as this often results in blurry photos. The lense is the 18-70.
Sorry for the long post.....

[simpo two]

moles said:

Hello people. I have just purchased a D70 after owning a coolpix 3200.

The Nikoncopter is filling up nicely

I congratulate you on trying to learn every function!

Okey doke... basics. For every scene there is a correct exposure. This is made up from a combination two factors: (1) shutter speed and (2) aperture. You can have a fast shutter speed and a big aperture (eg f/2.8) or a slow shutter speed and a small aperture (eg f/22). Both let the same amount of light onto the sensor and both give the correct exposure, but with secondary effects we'll leave for now.

On Manual, you control both of these factors. When you get a picture that's bright enough but blurry, it means your shutter speed is too slow for hand-held work. As you are already using the largest aperture, you either need to use a tripod, or get morelight on the subject, eg use flash.

When you try to reduce camera shake by increasing shutter speed, your pictures are dim becasue you have reduced the amout of light reaching the sensor and have not - in this case cannot - increase aperture.

You are finding out all sorts of interesting things but not the right ones! (but no knowledge is wasted)

Yes, on Manual you should be aiming to get display meter in the middle for each shot - but I suspect you are working in low light and the lens you have is simply not fast enough (not a big enough max aperture). If you had, for example, a 50mm f/1.8 lens, it would increase your chances of getting a correct exposure.

Basically, you're trying to break the laws of physics and that comes later

Have fun experimenting and feel free to mail me offline if you get stuck again.

'Doctor D70'

[Paul.B]

Simpo - You are going to be rather busy over the comming weeks

(Waiting for UPS to do the business!)

Paul.B

[moles]

Thanks Simpo I understand about the light getting into the camera but I didn't know if there was anything that I was totally missing. The shots im having trouble with are indoors and the flash is always on so it looks like some more lenses are going to have to be purchased!. So the best thing I can do is to use a low aperture and find a balance on shutter speed?.

[simpo two]

moles said:

The shots im having trouble with are indoors and the flash is always on so it looks like some more lenses are going to have to be purchased!. So the best thing I can do is to use a low aperture and find a balance on shutter speed?.

Hmm - I don't know why the flash wasn't lighting the scene properly - assuming the subject was in range.
Try setting the camera to P/Program mode and seeing if it can do it on its own. You may need to add flash compenastion. If it works OK, then your settings need tweaking.
The Nikon iTTL flash system is fearsomely complicated and I haven't explored it so can't help you if you're playing the Manual game. Where I leave off, Nikonians takes over - as you're hungry for info, consider joining - it's the Nikon version of PH!
www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID86&conf=DCConfID3

[falcemob]

Why not just put it appeture or shutter priority and let the camera do the rest until you get used to it. Then go on to use manual modes. BTW what's the point in buying an automatic camera and going straight to using it manualy?