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Which camera to upgrade to?

which camera upgrade

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26 replies to this topic

#21
Merco_61

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One thing to remember when reading reviews of older cameras is that the rave reviews come from comparisons with what was available at the time, not what was yet to come. The consumer DSLR is still very young technology, and the improvement from generation to generation in sensor technology and signal processing is quite dramatic. 

If you read reviews of the D70, you will find that they read similar to the D90 or the D7200 reviews as it was cutting edge  in it's price bracket then. 



#22
Tony

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The D90 is always on the verge of overexposure, and often over the threshold. That is the main reason it gets the better S/N ratio compared to the D300 that meters more conservatively. I have always found the D90 gives overly bright captures. 

The "a little prone" part means slightly blown rather than sometimes blown IMO.

It is possible to program an offset into the metering, but then you get noise in the shadows and sooty shadows instead as the algorithm doesn't introduce highlight protection and just shifts the exposure downwards instead.

Going to a higher ISO would accentuate the problem as the exposure latitude gets less with more amplification of the base signal.

Okay, well I will scratch the D90 off the list of potential purchases.  Thanks Peter, greatly appreciated.  Tony



#23
etphoto

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One thing to remember when reading reviews of older cameras is that the rave reviews come from comparisons with what was available at the time, not what was yet to come. The consumer DSLR is still very young technology, and the improvement from generation to generation in sensor technology and signal processing is quite dramatic.
If you read reviews of the D70, you will find that they read similar to the D90 or the D7200 reviews as it was cutting edge in it's price bracket then.


Excellent observation.

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#24
Tony

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Oh My!!  Here is Tony again with his Nikon D70 and its issues.  He is like a bad penny, he just keeps turning up.   :))

 

I have posted this photo earlier in this forum and I wanted to upload it again in order to illustrate how the D70 with the Nikon Series E 1.8 lens not only took care of the reds and yellows, but also the white colors.  I failed to mention in earlier comments that the D70 also has issues with white flowers being blown out.  I am aware that photographs turn out better with the use of normal or standard lenses simply because there is less glass.  However I am impressed with the way the colors turned out here.  I do see a problem with Limited Dynamic Range as I can see some areas of over exposure.  The only adjustment I made to this pic., was downsizing in order to post it here.  Perhaps I should hang on to it and avoid red,yellow and white flowers, and practice with a CPL filter to avoid over exposures.  Many thanks for viewing.

 

Tony

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#25
leighgion

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Tony,

I've never owned a D70, so I don't know its particular idiosyncrasies. However, based on your postings that I've managed to get to, I don't believe that your camera has any special problems aside from being old tech.

Take my advice for what it's worth, but if I were you I'd do three things before looking at a new camera body:

1. Take more of an active hand in setting your EV compensation based on the scene. If you have to, do the old chimp, adjust and reshoot.

2. Shoot RAW

3. Make a serious effort to learn how to do the basics of RAW editing, especially managing exposure in post. You might need to do some homework about which piece of software to use. We can help there.

I'm by no means an expert, but all of the problems you've described that I've had time to read can be explained by exposure problems and the camera's JPEG processing going a little too far with contrast and saturation. If you take more control, I think your D70 might well deliver much more than you thought possible.


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#26
Tony

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Tony,

I've never owned a D70, so I don't know its particular idiosyncrasies. However, based on your postings that I've managed to get to, I don't believe that your camera has any special problems aside from being old tech.

Take my advice for what it's worth, but if I were you I'd do three things before looking at a new camera body:

1. Take more of an active hand in setting your EV compensation based on the scene. If you have to, do the old chimp, adjust and reshoot.

2. Shoot RAW

3. Make a serious effort to learn how to do the basics of RAW editing, especially managing exposure in post. You might need to do some homework about which piece of software to use. We can help there.

I'm by no means an expert, but all of the problems you've described that I've had time to read can be explained by exposure problems and the camera's JPEG processing going a little too far with contrast and saturation. If you take more control, I think your D70 might well deliver much more than you thought possible.


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Interesting that you should mention this since I have been making adjustments and presets on the D70, i.e. Saturation Level, Contrast Level and using the Raw setting.  I also need to consider making manual adjustments with the ISO levels.  The reason I have been doing this is because I also have a Pentax K100D Super body that has the blown color issues as my Nikon D70.  The Pentax does very well with exposure metering so nothing to concern myself with there.  Back to reality:  I have posted the questions on PentaxForums.com regarding the blown colors and I was informed that "All DSLRs Suffer the same problems, even the highest end bodies."  That is when I decided to try to exploit my D70 to its fullest potential.  It doesn't make sense to pay more for the same problems.  I will be posting my results in the very near future.  Many thanks,

 

Antonio



#27
TKC_TX

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My first DSLR was a D70 that I bought used. I sold it and treated myself to a shiny new D90 when they first came out in late 2008. At the time, the difference seemed Huge! Now, not so much. I Love my D90s. Of which I own 2, but time and technology has passed them by. They were made mostly irrelevant by the D7000 series bodies in my humble opinion. I also own a D300 and think it is noticeably better in every respect than my D90s. All that being said, at this point I wouldn't go looking to buy either. A D7100 will do most everything better and won't cost a Whole Lot more than a Good D300. I bought a D500 because the D300 controls layout kinda spoiled me and thanks to a good year at work I could afford it, but I realize it's out of a Lot of price ranges. If I couldn't afford that, a D7200 would have been my choice.


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