Nikon D70s optimal settings

[djwixx]

Does anyone know if there are any tricks (within the menus) to making sure the D70s (18-70 kit lens) takes crisp shots. Image optimization is currently set to normal and I've tried a mix of the other settings but nothing really makes an obvious different. There are many occasions when everything seems to be setup but pictures then look very soft and not very saturated. I normally set white balance to -3 which seems to give richer colours. ISO is invariably always at 200, not auto.

Most pictures I take with the D70s need work.

http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/71521029 is an example that I haven't done anything to. The 'fixed' version is http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/66224157

I'm still on the low end of a learning curve, so feel free to be blunt!!!

Thanks.


P.S. I thought I better mention I don't mean aperture etc.

[dang]

DSLR's are set with lower sharpness than P&S cameras as a general rule for good reason. In camera sharpness doesn't give as good a result as sharpening in a program. Saturation is something more to do with personal taste, but shooting in RAW and processing in 16bit can give amazing results. Though you don't have to go to this extreme, all shots require some amount of post processing to get the best results. I'd suggest working on learning programs such as Photoshop which will help. If you begin doing a lot of "in camera" setting adjustments, you're only putting off what you'll eventually need to do anyway. Sorry, but there's not an easy way out.
Just my humble opinion, and you're welcome to yours.

Here's an excellent site to look through to begin understanding processing you might like: http://www.normankoren.com/sitemap.html

Hope it helps, and happy shooting!

[tuckeruk]

OK, first and most important questions:

1. How are you viewing your pictures to determine sharpness? No picture will look sharp viewed at 100% on a computer monitor.

2. Are you shooting in jpeg or RAW?

3. Are you applying sharpening to make up for the softening applied by the anti-aliasing filter?

Some settings that I have found to work well on the D70s:

Sharpening: +2
Tone comp.: Auto
Color mode: IIIa (sRGB)
Saturation: Enhanced
Hue adjustment: 0

WB: Auto -3
EV: + 0.3

[djwixx]

OK, first and most important questions:

1. How are you viewing your pictures to determine sharpness? No picture will look sharp viewed at 100% on a computer monitor.

2. Are you shooting in jpeg or RAW?

3. Are you applying sharpening to make up for the softening applied by the anti-aliasing filter?

Some settings that I have found to work well on the D70s:

Sharpening: +2
Tone comp.: Auto
Color mode: IIIa (sRGB)
Saturation: Enhanced
Hue adjustment: 0

WB: Auto -3
EV: + 0.3

1. My determination of sharpness is based on comparisons with results of various Canon P&Ss, so probably not the best basis, but it's all I have.
2. I use JPG. I know RAW is the way I should be going (and I did for a while), but to be honest I found JPG quicker to post process for PADing!!
3. I'm ignorant to what anti-aliasing filter is, but I find I have to use a reasonable amount of Unsharp Mask is Elements (3.0) to get what I consider sharp results. See comparisons with the two links I posted.

For close up work (portraits or near by objects) the results are always great, but for landscapes I always seem to miss. I took a load of shots of large rock formations with small trees in the foreground using F22 (aperture priority) focused using various points, including a guestimated hyperfocal distance, all in good light (11am behind me) and I threw ALL the results away.

I'll try your recommendations and see what the results do.

Thanks for the tips so far.

[tuckeruk]

OK, firstly DSLRs are generally heavily limited by diffraction at smaller apertures. If you look at the lens test conducted with a D200 at http://www.photozone.de you will see that maximum sharpness on large aperture lenses is nearly always at f/5.6 (not at f/8 or f/11 as it was on 35mm film). Smallest useable aperture before diffraction completely ruins sharpness is usually between f/11 and f/16 (this depends on the lens, your subject, and your own standards. Worth doing some personal testing here).

As to DSLR vs. P&S sharpness, a P&S is sharper, always, unless you add sharpening to the DSLR image. This is because DSLRs are aimed at a market where users prefer control over all aspects of the photograph, including sharpness. In-camera sharpening (jpeg) or post-processing sharpening (USM) are part and parcel of DSLR photography.

Hope that helps.

[tuckeruk]

Oh, and don't forget to check you depth-of-field for any given aperture and focal length: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Edited to add:

The 18-70mm (in common with most modern lenses) has a sucky compressed distance scale, so when I'm out shooting landscapes I just remember that at 18mm focal length, a distance setting of 9ft renders everything from 4ft - Infinity in focus at f/8. Some complex distortion at 18mm on this lens, but nothing that one button press of PT Lens won't fix: http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/

[djwixx]

Oh, and don't forget to check you depth-of-field for any given aperture and focal length: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Excellent - THANKS.

[boliston]

I think I prefer the original to the "enhanced" version. I usually set my d70s as follows:

sharpness: highest setting
contrast: lowest setting
WB: Manually selected to cloudy/sunny/flash/incandescent etc
colour mode: IIIa (or Ia for portraits)
ISO: Manually set depending on light levels but ideally 200

These are of course only starting points and can all be freely adjusted in capture nx to get the result I want.

cheers - Adrian

Does anyone know if there are any tricks (within the menus) to making sure the D70s (18-70 kit lens) takes crisp shots. Image optimization is currently set to normal and I've tried a mix of the other settings but nothing really makes an obvious different. There are many occasions when everything seems to be setup but pictures then look very soft and not very saturated. I normally set white balance to -3 which seems to give richer colours. ISO is invariably always at 200, not auto.

Most pictures I take with the D70s need work.

http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/71521029 is an example that I haven't done anything to. The 'fixed' version is http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/66224157

I'm still on the low end of a learning curve, so feel free to be blunt!!!

Thanks.


P.S. I thought I better mention I don't mean aperture etc.

[frim]

http://www.pbase.com/dlcmh/d70_postsbydavidchin

[djwixx]

The 18-70mm (in common with most modern lenses) has a sucky compressed distance scale, so when I'm out shooting landscapes I just remember that at 18mm focal length, a distance setting of 9ft renders everything from 4ft - Infinity in focus at f/8. Some complex distortion at 18mm on this lens, but nothing that one button press of PT Lens won't fix: http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/

Even better - THANKS again. That is one thing I always mess up. There's a landscape nearby that I keep trying to get and never manage. I'll try it and see what happens.

THANKS AGAIN.

ADDED:
I tried a few test shots at F8,
http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/71741774
http://www.pbase.com/djwixx/image/71739654
And they came out a lot better than I have been used to, after using the above advice.

THANKS.

[365digital]

Hello DJWIXX I posted some of what you're looking for long time ago in one of my post and I have the same settings tuckervuk is using TUCKER just wondering if tucker saw my settings or just a conisidence
http://forum.pbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=21748&highlight= take alook at my post and see if is haelpfull REMEBER THOSE SETTINGS WE ARE USING ARE ONLY FOR ( P) PROGRAM ONLY .now I have discover another way in manual settings use the lower IOS 200 in the d70s and try using if is sunny f6 or highter and move your speed to 800 some times I get diferents results USE the setings tucker gave you is you fell more confortable with them but play around with manual also ,,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID86/15189.html
IF YOU WANT TO GET THE BEST PICTURES FROM YOUR D70 NIKON THESE ARE THE PERFECT SETTINGS
OPTIMIZE IMAGE SETTINGS( CUSTOM)
SHARPENING +2
TONE COMP. AUTO
COLOR MODE (IIIA) FOR LAND SCAPES (IA) FOR PEOPLE
SATURATION ENHANCE
HUE ADJUST (O) THEN SET YOUR WHITE BALANCE TO AUTO-3
SET YOUR SPOSURE COMPOSSITION +0.3

REMEMBER WHEN SETTING YOUR CAMARA GO TO (P)PROGRAM AND GO FROM THERE GOOD LUCK LET ME KNOW IF NEED ANOTHER INSTRUCTION I'LL TRY TO HELP YOU OR DIRECT YOU TO THE BEST NIKON FORUM FOR YOU QUESTION
http://pbase.com/bornpainter

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[tuckeruk]

Bornpainter if you are J3R, a fellow Nikonians member, then I did indeed first learn of the settings from your Nikonians forum thread (and what a thread that was). Note now that many are claiming your settings as their own, including one famous (infamous?) US web photographer 'expert' and reviewer.

I quickly changed to using RAW with Adobe Photoshop/ACR (which doesn't honour any camera settings) so the settings are irrelevant for me.

[djwixx]

Bornpainter - thanks for the information. I'm curious why I would do it in P mode? I only use A or M and the once the custom settings are set they are available in any mode. I'm not sure what you mean by ISO 200? Personally I found auto ISO was killing a lot of shots so I use ISO 200 for everything. I've found a narrower aperture and a longer shutter speed catch everything I need without the noise, but obviously I have to use a tripod.

I'm probably missing the point somewhere?

Thanks again.

[365digital]

Bornpainter if you are J3R, a fellow Nikonians member, then I did indeed first learn of the settings from your Nikonians forum thread (and what a thread that was). Note now that many are claiming your settings as their own, including one famous (infamous?) US web photographer 'expert' and reviewer.

I quickly changed to using RAW with Adobe Photoshop/ACR (which doesn't honour any camera settings) so the settings are irrelevant for me.

hi tuckeruk , no I'm not J3R from nikonians , I'm a nikonian menber too, that's where I found this settings , that's why I put the link in my post . j3r it's a good photographer and I admire him for his work. when I said my setting Is because I have my cam set up folowing JEr sugestion I have no idea who create them since I have seen This setting in diferent treads so who ever create them, they work good until you decide to play with diferent settings so far I'm shooting in M A .

[365digital]

Bornpainter - thanks for the information. I'm curious why I would do it in P mode? I only use A or M and the once the custom settings are set they are available in any mode. I'm not sure what you mean by ISO 200? Personally I found auto ISO was killing a lot of shots so I use ISO 200 for everything. I've found a narrower aperture and a longer shutter speed catch everything I need without the noise, but obviously I have to use a tripod.

I'm probably missing the point somewhere?

Thanks again.

HI there I didn't know those settings were available in A & M I thought they were only for p mode thanks for letting me know, yes you're right the auto ISO is not too good for me either I have it off too, you're doing verygoog , I saw your gallery and you're 10 times better than me as a photographer I"m still in the proccess of learning , did you click the link for a nikonian tread that talks about your question?try it