My darling wife picked up a Nikon D70 with a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens at a yard sale for me. Camera and lens look great. Discovered how to check the "click count" and it is about 25000. How long should I expect this camera to continue to be usable? I want to get out of auto mode and start learning about Aperture mode. Any advice on learning with my setup? Thanks
Just getting started - is this a good camera to learn with ?
- Thread starter Alpoetman
- Start date
That's not a bad little camera but definitely starting to show it's age with megapixel count and CCD sensor. But, not a bad camera by any means. 25,000 shutter actuation's isn't much, tons of life left in her. You should be able to get 50,000 out of it no sweat, and likely will continue working to ~100,000.
The lens is a great score, and will be sure to give you some fine shots with it!
The lens is a great score, and will be sure to give you some fine shots with it!
$40 was a steal, even if just for the lens alone! You did mighty fine on that acquisition sir. 
Nikon's approved CF card list for that body shows cards up to 4gb, so you should be safe staying within that limit. You really won't need a very big card for that body, as the images it produces are somewhat small in size you can fit a ton of images on a ~2gb card. If you'd like to review the list of approved cards for yourself it can be found here: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9601/~/approved-cf-cards---d70-/-d70s
Nikon's approved CF card list for that body shows cards up to 4gb, so you should be safe staying within that limit. You really won't need a very big card for that body, as the images it produces are somewhat small in size you can fit a ton of images on a ~2gb card. If you'd like to review the list of approved cards for yourself it can be found here: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9601/~/approved-cf-cards---d70-/-d70s
The thing is when the camera was made some of the larger capacity cards where not invented,the files will not be that large so a 16gb should be plenty or even an 8gb,my first DSLR was a D70 and i still have it,try not to go above 400 iso and stay lower if you can or you may have noise problems in your images.
Oh and welcome
Oh and welcome
$40 was a steal, even if just for the lens alone! You did mighty fine on that acquisition sir.
Nikon's approved CF card list for that body shows cards up to 4gb, so you should be safe staying within that limit. You really won't need a very big card for that body, as the images it produces are somewhat small in size you can fit a ton of images on a ~2gb card. If you'd like to review the list of approved cards for yourself it can be found here: https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9601/~/approved-cf-cards---d70-/-d70s
You posted that while i was typing
$40 was a steal, even if just for the lens alone! You did mighty fine on that acquisition sir.
Not me, my lovely wife got the great deal! Credit where credit is due.
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8T94sdiNjc
Read this:
Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed
Then read the camera manual:
http://download3.nikonimglib.com/archive2/7ryhK00bgRTu01KTO0M46ZjRUC29/D70_EU(En)05.pdf
The camera manual will make more sense once you thoroughly understand exposure principals. Plenty of info around on exposure principals, but those first two links are my favorite for beginners.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Congrats on a very well-spent $40!! What a deal...
You can find many great books that will speed up your learning process but one I can suggest is, The D70 Digital Field Guide. It's small, easy to understand and will get you up and running successfully with your new camera. There are other much bigger, heavier, tome-like books for your camera that delve into every minute aspect of every single feature from A-Z but the field guide is a little more user-friendly in my opinion.
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@nickt gave you some invaluable advice if this is your first foray in to photography. You need a strong grasp on the basic principles if you want to get creative and make shots turn out the way you expect them too.
Never use auto mode!!! Never ever ever ever. To me that's the cardinal sin of DSLR usage.
Sent from my HTC One M8 using Tapatalk
Never use auto mode!!! Never ever ever ever. To me that's the cardinal sin of DSLR usage.
Sent from my HTC One M8 using Tapatalk
coolbus18
Senior Member
Welcome aboard. This is from Nikons site: http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/archive/N70 AF.pdf
Well, you have a very sharp, fast lens in the 50mm f/1.8. Do you know which model it is. It's auto-focus, I assume? Regardless, the lens alone is worth well over $40.
I have spent a silly amount of money on new cameras and lenses in the last year, and my two old D70 bodies sit for days and days without use, but I DO still use them. They aren't great for low light, but these will still do just fine for most photographic needs. Have fun with your new toy!
I have spent a silly amount of money on new cameras and lenses in the last year, and my two old D70 bodies sit for days and days without use, but I DO still use them. They aren't great for low light, but these will still do just fine for most photographic needs. Have fun with your new toy!
Aperture mode is one of the best modes. Simply just set ISO and aperture to good choices so that your resulting shutter speed and flash power can do what you need done, for the specific scene.
Many users use only Auto mode, because of course they can't be bothered to learn how to do any more. Compact cameras and smart phones for example. Nothing really wrong with that, it is their camera and their choice, and it produces pictures, but if your goal is to learn photography, then Auto is the worst plan. Certainly true in the beginning, and then after the short beginning, Auto is of no use to us, counterproductive, it just gets in the way.
The first plan is to learn about exposure. Shutter speed, f/stop, and ISO.
Not meaning necessarily just to acquire a bright enough exposure, but meaning to learn how fast or slow shutter speed varies the picture, when you might specifically want either one for what it can do for you. And to learn how stopped down or wide aperture changes the depth of field of the scene, changes what we see there... to be the way you want it to look. These are the tools that we use.
This exposure stuff (shutter speed, f/stop and ISO) is easy, and it should become second nature for us. We may not always even realize we think about it, we simply just do it. Like driving and turning left at the corner, we simply just do it, long after it was necessary to think about how to do it. But it is always really good to know how. Knowledge that will be useful, and last your lifetime.
Then, even if you do do use an Auto mode sometimes, you now know how to watch what it is doing, and how to override it when necessary.
There is a lot of good stuff on line, but to grasp the ideas, a good first look is the Peterson's book Understanding Exposure, $17 at Amazon, or our public libraries here have it. Try your libraries, they will have something.
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Bourbon Neat
Senior Member
Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new camera, I hope you enjoy photography and your time at this site.
Nikon | Download center | D70
http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/lenses/AF/AF50mm.pdf
Nikon USA is a valuable resource too = free stuff
Jr_Explorer
New member
First... The D70 is an AWESOME camera. It does something that no current camera can and that is a full flash sync (no hi-tech tricks) and 1/500 shutter speed. An 8 gb CF card will work great and give you about 1,200 shots IF you shoot NEF & JPEG. It gives about a gajillion shots if you just shoot JPEG's! LOL!
Go to Strobist.com and start learning. I've shot weddings with D70's and for 90% of what you need they are perfect. And for $40 for that camera and lens I hate you AND Your wife!
Have tons of fun.
Go to Strobist.com and start learning. I've shot weddings with D70's and for 90% of what you need they are perfect. And for $40 for that camera and lens I hate you AND Your wife!
Have tons of fun.