It's a boy!

[ssra30]

Well, I took the plunge and join (the other) darkside, so to speak. I am now a pround daddy of a baby Nikon D70!
Unfortunately the housing won't be available in time for my dive trip in April but hopefully I will have a chance to use it underwater sometimes during the second half of the year.
Last time I used SLR camera was about 12 years ago with my Pentax SF-10 (I think)
Now I have to figure out all these lenses and ports stuff.

 

[Dee]

Congratulations, Dad!

 

[clive francis]

Well, I took the plunge and join (the other) darkside, so to speak. I am now a pround daddy of a baby Nikon D70!
Unfortunately the housing won't be available in time for my dive trip in April but hopefully I will have a chance to use it underwater sometimes during the second half of the year.
Last time I used SLR camera was about 12 years ago with my Pentax SF-10 (I think)
Now I have to figure out all these lenses and ports stuff.

nice one, where did you get it and how much?

how about a review?

it is being made in Thailand is it not?

 

[ssra30]

nice one, where did you get it and how much?

how about a review?

it is being made in Thailand is it not?

Yes, the camera is made in Nikon factory here in Thailand. However, the retail price of the camera plus kit lens is almost $US500 more than the retail price in the US. :frown2:

I still am trying to figure out all the function and won't get it wet for quite a few more months yet. I will try to do some kind of a review but I don't really have any previous experience with other digital camera to compare it with, beside the Oly C4040 and 5050.

4 members of my dive club (myself included) bought the camera at the same time and pretty much looking at the same housing so we will be a rather boring looking group of u/w photographer/divers, I'm afraid.

 

[clive francis]

Yes, the camera is made in Nikon factory here in Thailand. However, the retail price of the camera plus kit lens is almost $US500 more than the retail price in the US. :frown2:

I still am trying to figure out all the function and won't get it wet for quite a few more months yet. I will try to do some kind of a review but I don't really have any previous experience with other digital camera to compare it with, beside the Oly C4040 and 5050.

4 members of my dive club (myself included) bought the camera at the same time and pretty much looking at the same housing so we will be a rather boring looking group of u/w photographer/divers, I'm afraid.

i don't know how much it is in the US as i'm in the UK, what did you pay?

you could set up a tripod and take a fixed photo with the d70 and the 4040 in auto setting and compare the pics for exposure and clarity etc.

and you could try some low light photo's this would test autofocus and how long they took.

cheers

 

[ssra30]

In Thailand, the D70 with 18-70mm kit lens is around $1750 ($1299 retail in the US).
I will try to get comparison picture between C5050/D70 this weekend. I don't have any tripod though since 99.9% of pictures I take are underwater. On land, I have a lazy photographer syndrome!
Autofocus is definitely significantly faster with D70.
Oly RAW format (ORF) is 2560x1920 while Nikon RAW format (NEF) is 3008x2000 but ORF is about 7.1mb while NEF is around 5 mb so Nikon definitely uses quite a bit more compression with its RAW file. There is no option for uncompressed RAW file like in Nikon D100. As a result, I can fit almost 200 pictures on 1 GB card with D70. Also the proprietary battery on D70 is supposed to be good for well over a thousand pictures so look like I won't have to open the housing too often when I am on the boat (except for changing lenses/ports).
Writing speed is significantly better with D70 as well. With Transcend 45X CF card, C5050 takes about 4 second to write each picture. Its buffer will hold 3 RAW pics (in sequential mode) then I would have to stop and wait quite awhile before I can shoot again. D70 buffer will hold 4 NEF (shoot at 3fps) then after the buffer is full, I can still keep on shooting in sequential mode at about 1 fps smoothly. May not be great for land photography but it is about the right amount of interval for my Ikelite strobe to recycle as well.
There is no delay when I shoot picture one at a time, just shoot, recompose, adjust whatever then I can shoot again right away unlike the Oly 5050 where the LCD monitor would freeze until it finishes writing file to CF card before I can use the LCD to compose again.
Nikon View 6.2.1 is significantly better than Camedia that came with Oly 5050, as far as using it to view RAW file, the layout is better thoughtout.
There is no noticeable shutterlag like the C5050 either.
I really like the camera so far but unfortunately Ikelite does not support the 70-180mm macro lens that I want to use so choices for housing will be quite expensive. I think I will have to sell one of my kidney to finance my new baby!

 

[chippy]

Welcome to the dark side!!!

You'll love it, and judging by yor C5050 pics, I can't wait to see your DLSR ones!!

 

[ssra30]

OK, here are a few test shots, sorry I don't have the tripod so it is not exactly identical but lighting is the same.
I shot the D70 with ISO 200 which is the lowest it would go with 70-180 zoom set at 70mm so it is equal to 105mm.
The Oly 5050 was shot at ISO 64 (which is what I use most of the time due to lowest digital noise at this setting) and ISO 200 just for comparison. Both cameras were shot in full auto mode in RAW mode. I use photoshop CS to resize and convert to JPEG otherwise no other adjustments were made.
I apologize for the lack of imagination for the test shots and my messy desk :54: . I am stuck at home while my dive buddies went diving this weekend due to work so I am a bit sulky right now.

Nikon D70 ISO200, F4.5, 1/25s, no flash

The dimensions are a bit different. I set the width of NEF file and ORF file to 600 pixels and kept original ration so the Nikon file became 600x399 while Oly is 600x450

Before you ask, I shot the Oly first then download the picture then reload my D70 and by the time I figure how to hold the heavy beast still for long enough (well, heavy in comparison to the Oly, the weight is mostly on the lens) all the little droplets of water had evaporated by Bangkok nice and toasty weather!

 

[ssra30]

C5050 ISO64, 1/25, F2.6, no flash

C5050 ISO200, 1/60, F2.6, no flash

 

[clive francis]

nice comparison shots, you can see the noise in both the oly shots, more so at iso 200.

but the nikon looks darker, kind of green tint