Nikon D70SOUTFIT User's Manual
Contents
1. If the flash is down press the flash button and the flash pops up 2a If the flash is up press and hold the flash button and turn the front dial to change the flash exposure compensation This sets the brightness of the flash makes the flash brighter makes it dimmer This setting only changes the brightness of the flash It leaves the background ambient exposure alone Set it to if your subjects are getting washed out If you run out of flash power beyond 10 to 20 feet then setting it to can t make the flash any brighter If you set flash exposure compensation to anything other than zero you ll see a little bolt icon in the finder and on the top LCD 2b If the flash is up press and hold the flash button and turn the rear dial to change the flash sync mode You ll see it on the top LCD in the box with the bolt FLASH SYNC MODES Select these by holding down the flash button on the left side of the flash hump and spinning the rear dial Your selection is shown on the top LCD in the box with the bolt Normal blank which is the default In Program and A exposure modes the shutter won t stay open longer than about 1 60 second You can change this minimum speed in custom function 21 which defaults at about 1 60 second forget the exact default because have mine set to 1 15 In this mode you won t get blur indoors but you may not get more than a very black background either Choose a longer speed like 1 8 in CSM 212. SLOW eye and SLOW icon This is the SLOW mode and redeye don t use it for the same reason don t use Redeye REAR called REAR on the top LCD Normally the flash goes off the instant the shutter opens With long exposures and blurred ghost images you ordinarily get the ghost streaming out in front of the subject Think about it if a car is driving the flash goers off and freezes it then the car moves forward You ll have a ghost image ahead of the car which usually looks stupid Select REAR mode to have the flash go off as the shutter closes Now you ll have motion blurring behind the frozen flash image Another reason to select REAR is because the flash goes off at the end of the exposure People presume photos are made the instant a flash fires then leave This wreaks havoc with long exposures If you use REAR mode with long exposures they ll stay put and not move until the end Of course you ll also want to select flash lock to eliminate the preflash Read about flash lock later on my Custom Menus pages REAR doesn t do anything with short exposures REAR also engages SLOW but SLOW doesn t light up on the LCD This lack of the SLOW indication is a flaw in the firmware No big deal In REAR the D70 s exposure setting in Program mode chooses slower shutter speeds and small apertures if you re in daylight Trick FV Lock Mode You set this in the Custom Menus Check it out it prevents people from blinking with flash CONTROLS AND SE
3. add it It s great having everything you shoot have your contact info embedded It also allows you to prove ownership in a third world country when catching a thief with your camera Help the cop go through the menus and read your personal ID information USB leave it at mass storage Use whichever works better with your computer Dust Ref Photo is used to take a picture of the dust on your sensor If you pay Nikon another 100 for Nikon Capture software you can use this to erase the dust more easily from your images shot in Raw You people know who you are don t do this Firmware Version lets you check the firmware version This lets you confirm if your camera is up to date with Nikons free firmware updates Image Rotation sets a flag in vertical images which keys most software to display the image vertically It does not actually rotate the images it just sets a flag Someday the camera s firmware will work properly and rotate the image itself but no camera does that yet That s It Enjoy Ken Rockwell 15 of 15
4. expose properly and automatically Manual sets the power manually Commander mode lets you control an SB 600 or SB 800 by magic have a page on using the Wireless Flash Modes If you forget to set it back to TTL the flash goes off but has no effect on the exposure Be sure to check this before thinking your camera is defective if your flash doesn t come out in your picture 20 Flash Sign Leave this ON Turning it off extinguishes the bolt in the viewfinder if you need flash This is more than an idiot light the matrix meter analyzes the subject s lighting ratio and turns on the bolt when the ratio exceeds the camera s or aesthetics dynamic range This is why you ll see the flash bolt come on even in direct sunlight if you have deep shadows Ken Rockwell 13 of 13 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide 21 Slowest Shutter Speed This sets the slowest shutter speed the camera will use in low light in the P and A modes in normal flash sync set this to 1 8 indoors if people hold still Default is 1 30 usually leave it at 1 15 Set this slower to let the ambient light have more effect indoors with flash and set it faster to stop your kids from leaving weird blurry ghosts behind them Use a higher ISO to get faster speeds and have the backgrounds fill in with ambient light 22 Monitor Off Time Delay This sets how long the rear LCD stays lit each time leave it at 10 seconds Set it longer if you want the screen to stay lit longer without hav
5. for still subjects and set AF C continuous to track moving subjects like sports 03 AF Area Mode Set Single area the default for still subjects Set Dynamic area for moving subjects Dynamic Area lets the camera select the AF areas by magic as the subject moves This really works and is perfect for birds and sports Use Closest Subject when you hand your camera to a non photographer It uses all the AF sensors and guesses that the closest one is your subject This prevents the common problem with people shots where the camera focuses in the middle on the wall behind them 04 AF Assist This is the little light that helps the camera focus in the dark Default is ON Set it to OFF if you re spying on people in the dark and don t want to be noticed 05 ISO AUTO This lets the camera increase the ISO automatically as the light fades would use it all the time except that a firmware flaw leaves this active even in manual exposure mode If you set it to ON you have the option to select the lowest shutter speed the camera will use before it starts to increase the ISO 06 NO CF Card Leave this to LOCK if you turn it off it will let you take pictures with no card You accidentally could shoot a wedding and not realize you have no card When set to ON it locks the camera if you have no card 07 Image Review This shows the photo you just took on the monitor after you take it set mine to ON unless don t plan to look at the monit
6. of focus without ever having to move any switches It s the best Non G lenses will have an aperture ring where the lens is attached to the camera Set this this ring to the largest number usually 22 if not 32 or 16 This number will be in orange on autofocus lenses There usually is a lock to keep this ring set there since if it comes off that setting you ll get an error message from the D70s D70 D50 MORE These are the basics Keep reading for far more explicit details at the end Ken Rockwell 4 of 4 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide CONTROLS 1 explain every button and knob CONTROLS FRONT of CAMERA Focus Mode the little lever at the bottom of the lens marked AF and M hidden above set it to AF This means Auto Focus M means manual focus In manual focus you have to twist the focus ring yourself and look for a sharp image in the viewfinder In manual you also can look for the green dot at the bottom left in the viewfinder The green dot lights up when you re in focus Depth of Field Preview the little button below the lens in the photo above Tap this to stop the diaphragm down to the taking aperture The viewfinder probably gets darker but look carefully and you can see what s in focus or not This analog feature is a remnant from film days Today most people look at the LCD playback Flash Bolt Button left side of flash hump as seen from the rear This does several things depending on how and when you press it 1
7. t smart enough to disable this automatically at normal shutter speeds so if you forget and leave it on your frame rate slows to a crawl even in daylight never use this setting IMAGE QUALITY This duplicates half of the QUAL button only use this menu if want to see this on the back of the camera instead of the top LCD IMAGE SIZE This duplicates the other half of the QUAL button only use this if want to see this on the back of the camera instead of the top LCD WHITE BALANCE This duplicates the WB button only use this menu if want to see this on the back of the camera instead of the top LCD ISO This duplicates the ISO button only use this menu if want to see this on the back of the camera instead of the top LCD explain the buttons duplicated by these menus here CUSTOM CSM MENU pencil icon Press MENU and select the pencil icon to get to the Custom Settings Menu Ken Rockwell 11 of 11 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide First select the Detailed mode under Menu gt Setup wrench Menu gt CSM menu otherwise you ll only to get the first few items R Menu Reset This returns everything below to factory default Play with everything below to your heart s content since if you do screw anything up this reset will fix it 01 Beep For God s sake turn this to OFF Beeping cameras annoy everyone and scream RUDE AMATEUR If you insist set this to ON only in private 02 Autofocus Use AF S default
8. the rest each time After a few months started to get errors These went away as soon as reformatted the card Reformatting completely renovates the card Erasing does not and may leave the potential for errors CONTROLS and SETTINGS BACK of CAMERA From left to right BKT don t use bracketing This control sets bracketing Hold it and spin the two control rings on the right of the camera while looking at the top LCD Rectangles also doubles as one of the two FORMAT buttons This controls the frame advance mode You hold this and spin the rear control dial When you see S on the top LCD you have the normal mode use which gives one shot each time you press the shutter Hold and spin to show rectangles on the top LCD and you re in Continuous mode In Continuous mode the camera keeps taking pictures for as long as you hold down the shutter button Pro cameras label the rectangles as C for Continuous Spin it some more and you ll see a clock This is the self timer in which mode the camera goes off a few seconds after you press the shutter The mode that shows a narrow black rectangle sets the D70s to respond to the EN L3 remote control AE L AF L Top center Hold this to lock settings while shooting You can alter what this button does in the custom menus get into more details under custom settings for this button Play gt Button Press it to see your pictures 1SO Checkerboard WB and QUAL ENTER Magnifying Glass But
9. Color Mode has three settings Mode la is default It s Nikon s secret code for standard sRGB sRGB is the world standard for digital images and the Internet Mode II is secret code for Adobe RGB which only hackers use Adobe RGB gives dull colors when used by anyone other than an expert in color management who prints his own work Even if you re an expert if you send your work out for printing 90 of the time the people doing the printing aren t experts and screw it up for you Ignore desktop armchair hobbyists who bleat on about the broader color gamut of Adobe RGB I ve created and printed 100 chroma grads in Adobe RGB and sRGB and Ken Rockwell 10 of 10 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide saw no difference when printed either on Inkjets or on the 250 000 Lightjet 5000 on Fuji Supergloss Oh well Using Adobe RGB is asking for trouble unless you really know what you re doing and have complete control over your process If you have to ask don t use Adobe RGB Mode Illa is secret code for a standard sRGB mode which gives bolder color use this all the time No have no idea how Nikon cooked up these numeric designations Saturation is the vividness of colors Enhanced prefer violent color so crank it up to I d use or if my D70 had it O Normal For normal people shots you re probably better off with 0 This is the default There is no AUTO saturation as on the D200 and on my D200 leave it cranked to anyway M
10. Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide from KenRockwell com 2006 KenRockwell com Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide INTRODUCTION This is how use and set up my D70 have a D70 the D70s is exactly the same start off explaining things so my mom can understand and get on to deciphering every menu item for advanced users at the bottom Ken Rockwell 2 of 2 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide BASICS CAMERA Many of these adjustments require you to be in be in the P S A or M exposure modes You set that on the top dial The cute preset modes often lock out some adjustments leave most settings at their defaults and use the Program exposure mode never use the cute little preset icon modes because prefer to set anything special myself ISO use 200 If the light gets dim and my images would get blurry from slower shutter speeds increase the ISO to 400 800 or 1 600 never bother with in between settings like 250 or 640 The D70 looks fine at ISO 1 600 if you need it I d much rather have a slightly grainy but sharp image than a less grainy but blurry one Unlike film the D70 looks great at high ISOs so use them anytime need them would love to use ISO AUTO but usually don t because it also remains active in Manual exposure mode This firmware defect defeats the purpose of the manual exposure mode Using menus to deactivate AUTO ISO for manual exposure mode takes more time than AUTO ISO saves Rats White Balance us
11. TTINGS TOP PANEL From left to right Exposure Mode Dial Left side use P for program auto exposure In this mode the camera chooses the f stop and shutter speed for you If want to use different apertures or shutter speeds rotate the rear command dial which selects alternate combinations of f stops and shutter speeds which give the same exposure Nikon calls this Program Shift A x is added next to the P on the top LCD to let you know you ve chosen a different combination for exposure If you want to use only one aperture or one shutter speed then use S or A mode If you want to set it the hard way use M manual mode Metering Mode ts little icon shows four corners and a central dot It looks a little like a use the default of Matrix which is shown by the four corners Spin the control knob while holding this button and you can select center weighted a circle and spot a dot never use these other modes Green Dot combined with metering button This resets many of the camera s controls to their defaults when held in along with the other green dot button on the top left of the back of the camera This is handy at the beginning of each day since it will reset everything from whatever whacky ISO white balance file format and other settings you were using the night before Ken Rockwell 6 of 6 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide Power Switch right side around shutter release ON unless the camera is put awa
12. an program the look of an image You can mimic the effects for which we used to have to select different kinds of film There are choices of several canned presets as well as CUSTOM which lets you set your own Remember to select DONE or OK when playing with the Optimize Image settings otherwise it won t remember You can swap between your custom setting below and a canned preset like PORTRAIT by spinning the top left mode knob Custom settings apply in the P S A and M modes but not in the SPORTS PORTRAIT etc modes The dummy modes like PORTRAIT override most of your manual settings and the camera reverts to your special settings when you return from one of the dummy modes There s nothing wrong with the dummy modes use them if they save you time use the PORTRAIT mode for people since usually have my camera s colors cranked up The mode knob makes it easy to swap Canned Settings don t use Nikon s canned Optimize Image presets of Normal Vivid Sharper Softer Direct Print Portrait or Landscape Feel free to play with them yourself This is a beauty of the D70 you can use whatever works for you Ken Rockwell 9 of 9 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide prefer my custom settings below because prefer to leave the chroma cranked all the way up and let the camera automatically control contrast and sharpening as conditions change Your style of photography will differ You can look at the images made with each of the canned set
13. der chooses the folder into which new photos are recorded New lets you make a new folder and name it Rename and Delete are self explanatory File Number Sequence This lets the camera number your images starting at the last shot you made even if you ve formatted your card leave this to ON If you turn this feature off you ll start from 0001 PG each time which is stupid It s stupid because In time you ll have 150 files all called DSC_0012 JPG on your hard drive You ll thank me when you try to put together a slide show and don t have to rename them all Also it lets you keep track of how many shots you ve made since it runs up to 9 999 shots before it resets Format this is the hard way to format a card If I m in bright enough light to see the dim red FORMAT buttons use those instead Professionals always reformat a card every time it s put back into a camera to prevent any potential for card errors CSM Menu As I ve suggested set this to Detailed to get the complete Custom Settings Menu Otherwise you only get a few custom settings DATE sets the time and date Ken Rockwell 14 of 14 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide LCD Brightness isn t LCD Brightness sets the viewing angle for the LCD not the brightness of the backlight leave it on 0 Only play with it if you look at the LCD from odd angles or work in very hot or cold temperatures Mirror Lock Up isn t This setting is used to lock up the mirror to clean the CCD never u
14. e AUTO 3 and use an 81A glass warming filter on the lens prefer warmer oranger images See more details about how to set these on my D70 Back Panel Controls page and details on why you care at my general White Balance page QUAL shoot JPG NORMAL This is called NORM and L on the top LCD which stands for NORMal JPG compression and Large 3 008 x 2 000 image size I ve made 12 x 18 prints of the same shot made in BASIC NORMAL FINE and raw saw NO difference Seriously if you saw these prints you wouldn t be able to sort them out either can see only the slightest differences on my monitor enlarged to 100 which is similar to a 20 x 30 print and my digital LCD monitor has 100 MTF pixel to pixel which prints don t Don t worry if you need space shoot BASIC and no one will see the difference The only way to tell is by looking at the file size I ll use BASIC for parties and sports when I m shooting many hundreds and hundreds of images at once In these cases I m more concerned with time wasted for the files to transfer copy and archive Basic looks 99 the same as FINE even blown up big l II use FINE on rare occasions where I m shooting just a few images and expect to peer at them very closely In these cases the extra size isn t significant if expect to be spending a lot of time analyzing each image don t use raw as you can read on my Raw vs J PG page avoid FINE JPG because NORM gives me the same results with
15. half the file size If shot FINE might run out of room on a card and miss a shot Missing a shot is a very visible defect and see no defects in NORM Nikon knows what they re doing That s why they call it Normal and that s why normally use Normal J PG OPTI MI ZE IMAGE prefer the vivid color get from Fuji s Velvia 50 film so tweak my D70 to give color as vivid as can get To do this go to MENU gt Shooting Menu camera icon gt Optimize Image gt Custom gt set Saturation to and Color Mode to Illa gt Done gt OK If you forget to select Done and hit OK it won t remember these settings Details are on the Shooting Menu page Ken Rockwell 3 of 3 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide For photos of people either set the colors back to normal or cheat and use the Portrait preset mode on the top dial FOCUS AF METERING Matrix LENS Many lenses have no switches or settings If so don t worry More advanced lenses have focus mode settings which will be either M A A or A M on older lenses On older lenses leave it at A which is Autofocus M is manual focus Sometimes you also have to move the switch on the camera which is a pain If the switch says M A A then use M A This gives autofocus and if grab the focus ring it instantly lets me make manual corrections As soon as tap the shutter button again get autofocus This M A setting if the lens has it provides both kinds
16. he AE L AF L button becomes the Flash Exposure Lock button Select this and when you press the AE L AF L button the flash goes off to measure and preset the exposure Now every shot fires the flash at the previously measured level without any preflashes This 1 eliminates any shutter release delay and 2 eliminates any potential for subjects eyes blinking 16 AE Lock more of the same leave this OFF If you turn it on it locks the exposure when you hold the shutter halfway This would mimic cheaper point and shoot cameras but is silly since 1 the camera has a dedicated AE L button and 2 one usually wants to lock exposure and focus on different things If your subject is conducive to locking everything at the same place you probably don t need locks at all 17 Focus Area Wrap leave this off If keep pressing the AF selector in one direction the selected AF area goes to the end and stops To go from far right to far left have to go left and pass the center If you turn this to ON wrap you can cheat and get to the left sensor by clicking one more time to the right from the far right sensor This is too confusing for me so leave it OFF no wrap 18 AF Area Illumination This lights up the AF areas in the finder leave it at AUTO in which it turns it on in the dark OFF never turns it on which is silly and ON leaves them on even in bright light which is stupid 19 Flash Mode leave it in TTL which lets the built in flash
17. if you shot them in a different camera without reformatting a bad idea or played with your camera deliberately to create new folders This is difficult with the D70 and cover it later Rotate Tall set this to NO If you set this to ON and if you have vertical images and set autorotate to ON vertical shots will rotate themselves on playback prefer to rotate the camera physically on playback When the camera does this electronically the resulting image is very tiny since the screen is much less tall than it is wide Slide Show Lets you amaze your friends with an exciting slide show on the tiny screen don t bother with this Hide I mage This lets you mark images not to play back on the camera even though they remain on the card Use this if you get an embarrassing shot of a friend and want to make them believe you deleted it Move the cursor left and right to select images tap it up or down to mark as Hide or Unhide and press enter to save Now the camera won t play these images even though it still tallies them in it s counter on the top right that reads 34 284 You can detect a hidden image because this counter will skip Print Set ignore this You can mark which images to print how many of each and if you want data and dates imprinted do all this in my computer MENUS SHOOTING MENU camera icon Press MENU and then select the camera shooting icon to get to the shooting menu OPTI MI ZE IMAGE This is where you c
18. ing to hit any keys Luckily the camera has such great battery life there s no reason not to set it for as long as you like 23 Meter Off This sets how long the meter stays on each time you tap the shutter leave it at 6 seconds Set it longer if you like I ve never had any battery life issues with this camera 24 Self Timer Delay leave it at 2 seconds since use the self timer to replace a cable release Set it to 10 seconds default for enough time to run to get into a picture You can set it to 2 5 10 or 20 seconds 25 Remote This sets how long the camera stays awake ready to release as controlled by the remote infra red shutter release If you set this too short the camera may go to sleep and ignore the wonderful little release before you get to pressing it Set it longer and the battery may run down faster but I ve never had a problem set this to 5 minutes After 5 minutes I ll have to use the rectangles button to set the camera back to remote release mode again SET UP MENU wrench icon Select the Set Up menu by pressing MENU and selecting the wrench icon Folders You can create select and rename folders on your memory card Normal people never use this menu The pro cameras have a trick which creates a new folder if you hold the button on power on but the D70 has no such automatic feature It s more of a pain to make new folders than it is to sort the images later from the same folder so don t bother Select Fol
19. leave mine on AUTO I ve never messed with the manual settings Sharpening is an artificial effect not to be confused with sharpness When first got a digital camera thought cool I m cranking this to 11 and realized my error Don t turn it up for no reason since the image can start to look artificial Play with it if you want I ve played with it out of curiosity and always leave it on AUTO Tone Compensation This is Nikon s code word for Contrast always leave mine set to AUTO In AUTO the D70 automatically applies the Zone System and adjusts contrast to match your subject for each and every shot The D70 automatically lowers contrast and increases dynamic range for very contrasty subjects and cranks it up for dull subjects I ve played with the manual settings out of curiosity Saturation varies a little with contrast too If you crank it to 2 it looks vivid and bold for flatter subjects but when you have a contrasty subject it s too much and blows out Leave it in AUTO and you won t have to piddle with it AUTO works great The CUSTOM Tone Compensation setting scroll down is for hackers If you pay Nikon 100 for Nikon Capture software you can create your own crazy H amp D curves and then go out of your way to load them into your D70 Once you create and load them you no longer need the software Custom curves are way beyond anything with which want to bother Real photographers pay more attention to their subject s lighting
20. n setting menus the will give more information about your settings Magnifying Glass Press to zoom in on image When you do this you can zoom in more by pressing the checkerboard button and spinning the rear dial You can use the thumb switch to scroll around the image ENTER Used while playing with the menus Lock Switch This is the L dot lock unlock switch below the four way thumb switch The dot unlocked position lets you move the AF area with the rocker button The L locked position prevents moving the selected AF area It doesn t lock your ability to navigate the menus which is a huge advantage over the older professional D1X usually leave it in dot to allow me to select different AF areas Trash Can Press once then press again to confirm and delete an image during playback Ken Rockwell 8 of 8 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide MENUS PLAYBACK MENU gt icon Press MENU and then select the gt play icon to get into the play menu Delete This is helpful if you want to delete all images while saving those for which you pressed the Key button to lock don t use this do all my editing and selection in my computer and do my in camera deletions one by one with the trash can key so don t use this Playback Folder The camera can record and play back from different folders leave this set to ALL CURRENT ignores photos in different folders You d only have different folders on your card
21. oderate tones down the colors which I ve never liked Moderate sounds like British understatement In America we call this dull and boring Personally want colors so bright you have to put on sunglasses or go directly to B W Your interests and taste will differ There is no native B W mode in the D70 Hue Adjustment Don t touch this This rotates all your colors to different spots around the color wheel If you use this to fix one color it screws up all the other colors God only knows why this adjustment is here DONE This is important after you play with all the above Optimize Image settings you must select DONE and OK for them to be remembered and take effect never trust this and go back in and check that my settings took hold LONG EXPOSURE NOISE REDUCTION NR Forget this It slows the camera frame rate down to half If you make exposures of a minute or more it will get rid of the minor purple haze in the corners but in exchange you have to wait around in the dark for another blank exposure as long as your first time exposure The D70 uses the second exposure as a reference to subtract from the first image to eliminate any camera induced hot pixels or haze Engineers call this dark frame subtraction You can see examples of this haze on my D200 Dark Exposure page I ve never seen this haze in any real night photography It only becomes apparent for astronomically long exposures of darkness pun intended The D70 isn
22. or after each shot When you use this remember that the functions of the ISO WB and QUAL buttons will do things you don t expect after you take a photo since the camera goes into playback mode for a few seconds after each shot Because of this make a habit of tapping the shutter button to return to shooting mode before make any ISO WB or QUAL adjustments Otherwise often would change something related to playback by accident 08 Grid Display These are fine horizontal and vertical lines in the finder leave these ON to help me keep my horizons straight Default is off 09 EV Step Your choice of 1 3 or 1 2 stop increments prefer the default of 1 3 10 Exposure Compensation leave this in default OFF This means you have to hold the button at the same time as turning the command dial to alter the exposure compensation If you turn it ON then any turning of the command dial will alter your exposure 11 Center Weighted This controls the diameter in millimeters of the area of the center weighted meter leave mine alone at 8mm since never use the center weighted meter anyway This control allows you to make your center weighted meter see a bigger area to make it more like an averaging Ken Rockwell 12 of 12 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide meter or make it smaller to be more like a spot This setting doesn t have any effect on the spot meter The spot meter is independent of the center weighted meter 12 BKT Set Thi
23. s controls what s changed when the camera brackets You can change it to alter the white balance or the exposure or just the flash or ambient light exposure don t use bracketing so don t use this 13 BKT Order This controls the order of the shots made with bracketing Normal first uses the metered exposure and then the altered versions You may select instead for it to make the underexposed shots first don t use this 14 Command Dial You may choose to swap which dial does what when setting manual exposure leave it in default OFF NO 15 AE L AF L This sets what the AE L AF L button locks when held and how leave mine in AE lock only since in AF S the AF locks when press the shutter half way use this lock in strong backlight point the camera down at something as dark as my subject press and hold the AE L button point the camera at the subject press and hold the shutter to lock focus move the camera again to compose then release the shutter This gyration of three camera positions saves me from having to use manual exposure and manual focus The AE L button locks exposure and the shutter locks the focus Slick TRICK Hidden in a screen below the first five options under CSM 15 is a sixth very special option Flash Exposure lock This is critical for people and pet shots Nikon keeps this even more secret by calling it FV Lock Scroll down past the bottom of the other five options to see it Select FV Lock and t
24. se this since find it easier to set the camera to Bulb and hold open the shutter It s not a lock up for telephoto lenses on tripods Video Mode sets the format of the video output Use NTSC 525 lines 59 94Hz in the Americas and Japan and PAL 625 lines 50Hz in Europe Language Set yours to Swedish then see if you can navigate back to English Fun Image Comment This lets you encode a secret text message into every file Mine is set to c KenRockwell com with my phone number You see this text looking at the EXIF data in software on a computer Our Japanese friends have still not provided us with a real symbol here You set this by going to MENU gt Setup Menu wrench gt Image Comment gt Input Comment gt add your message like you did on 1970s video games gt Enter If you forget to hit ENTER the J apanese will have a laugh on you since you have to start over So sorry When you get your text message spelled out go to Attach Comment and hit SET so a small checkmark shows Now go to and select DONE If you forget to check Attach it won t attach and if you forget to hit DONE it will also forget everything you just did So Sorry don t write the firmware To edit or remove a character select it in the Input Comment screen by holding the checkerboard button and spinning the rear control dial Now press the Trash button to delete or add a new character with the four way navigation switch and press the WB key button to
25. tings directly to see how you like them You also can use Nikon s free Nikon View software or look at the data on the D70 itself to read what values of contrast sharpening color etc were used for each preset The reason skip the VIVID preset is because it selects Mode Illa but leave the saturation at normal explain these below For photos of people either set the colors back to normal or cheat and use the Portrait preset mode on the top dial As mentioned on the top page using the preset scene modes on the top dial often override any settings you ve made only use P S A and M modes which unlock all the adjustments Of course using the top dial s Portrait mode sets the colors optimally for portraits and sets it all back when spin that dial back to P S A or M This trick saves me a lot of clicking around under Optimize Image but also eliminates my ability to alter the White Balance while in the top dial s portrait scene mode Optimize I mage Custom Settings As mentioned on the first page prefer the vivid color get from Fuji s Velvia 50 film so tweak my D70 to give color as vivid as can get To do this go to MENU gt Shooting Menu camera icon gt Optimize Image gt Custom gt set Saturation to and Color Mode to Illa gt Done gt OK If you forget to select Done and hit OK it won t remember these settings Here are what each setting inside the Custom option of Optimize mage does Sharpening
26. to lighten the backgrounds indoors but watch for motion usually use Normal mode since if don t can get some scary long exposures if I m not expecting them in the dark Red Eye eyeball icon never use this It shines an obnoxious light in your subject s eyes for a couple of seconds and then releases the shutter If set this mode by accident it bugs the heck out of me because the camera doesn t go off until several seconds after I ve pressed the shutter but I ve set no self timer It doesn t do much to reduce redeye anyway Skip this mode SLOW called SLOW on the top LCD This mode is very useful It lets the shutter stay open as long as it needs to so dim ambient light can expose properly with flash Of course if it s dark these exposure times can get long You can get blur from subject motion and camera shake In daylight Ken Rockwell 5 of 5 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide SLOW is the same as NORMAL since exposure times are short SLOW unlocks the camera in P and A exposure modes to make exposures as long as it wants to in dim light Have a look at most issues of National Geographic and you ll see many indoor shots made in this mode The background exposes correctly people may be blurred and a burst of flash freezes them along with the blurry ghost images Normal and SLOW do the same thing in S and M exposure modes since you or the camera may select any shutter speed in these modes regardless of flash sync Red Eye
27. tons these do different things depending on whether the camera is taking a picture or showing one If the camera is idle or you tap the shutter the camera is in the taking mode and the buttons do what the silver letters say ISO WB and QUAL If the camera is displaying an image the buttons do what they say in yellow checkerboard and ENTER I ll explain each of these as if they are seven different buttons below Often the camera is in playback mode from the last shot need to tap the shutter to put the camera back into taking mode for the ISO WB and QUAL functions to work make it a habit to tap the shutter button first before using those buttons just in case Ken Rockwell 7 of 7 Nikon D70 D70s User s Guide ISO use 200 as explained of the first page If you just took a picture be sure to tap the shutter button to return the camera to the taking mode If you don t and are viewing a photo you just made the button will swap among the various multi image playback modes WB White Balance use AUTO 3 A 3 and use an 81A glass warming filter as explained on the first page See my White Balance page for more details about what this adjustment does and why you care To choose different settings press and hold the WB button and turn the rear knob Look at the top LCD and you ll see the little sun and cloud etc icons cycle as you turn the knob To set the D70 to give accurate color under any arbitrary weird combination of lighting
28. y in a case The D70s only wakes up when you tap the shutter so it s off even when the switch is set to ON There is no battery drain unless the shutter is tapped and the camera wakes up The only thing the OFF position does is act as a lock against unintended operation Exposure Compensation This makes the picture lighter or darker Hold it and spin the rear dial to change the brightness of your pictures Remember to set it back to zero when you re done If you don t you ll see a in the viewfinder and the top LCD You can read the value of this setting on the top LCD and through the viewfinder which is great See more at How to Set Exposure Ignore Nikon when they suggest you don t use this with Matrix Metering do it all the time Backlight button on right with a sun on it press this to light the top LCD at night Format combined with backlight button Hold this along with its brother on the back left rear of the camera combined with the rectangle button You ll get a blinking For on the top LCD Hold both of these again and you ll completely reformat your memory card Professionals reformat a card each and every time we put a card in the camera This is because files and structures are sometimes picked up or changed when read with a card reader or used in any other camera Professionals prefer to be safe than sorry We don t use cards to archive previous photos One time kept saving my winner shots on a card by simply erasing
29. you can use a manual white balance mode called PRE set It s shown as the PRE icon on the far right of the top LCD just past the Shade icon Spin the knob while holding WB until you get to PRE Release the button Press and hold the WB button again for several seconds until it makes PRE blink Point the camera at something white or gray that s in the same light as the subject and press the shutter If Gd flashes you re good If nG no good flashes try again You can cheat 1 do and point the camera at a broad light source like a fluorescent fixture and get great results without having to carry or find a gray or white card The PREset mode is used to tell the camera what s supposed to be neutral Once you ve set this the camera corrects all the colors to keep neutral grays and whites as neutral grays and whites This usually gives great colors for everything else in the same light QUAL use NORM L or NORMal compression Large 3 008 x 2 000 J PEG as explained of the first page Checkerboard this lets you see one four or nine images on the screen during playback Press the button to switch among these modes Key In playback it protects locks the image from erasure Warning 1 it marks the file so well that it won t empty out of my trash on my computer unless go in and remark the file on my computer first Warning 2 these images are erased from your memory card when you format anyway don t use this lock feature Whe
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