new to digital

smidgen

I am about to buy a Nikon D70. I already own a point-and-shoot Sony DSC-S70, but am new to digital SLR's. I have some questions before I actually by the Nikon.

I am buying the camera to replace the Nikon FG I currently use in my potrait business. The FG is almost completely manual and my lenses fixed. I have never worked with zoom lenses or autofocus lenses. I am excited about getting to use autofocus lenses because my specialy is babies and children and they are always on the move. One of my questions is, with the D70, is the autofocus fast enough for photographing children? Also, I would really like to use a zoom lens because so often I miss out on a perfect moment while I'm changing lenses. How much does using a zoom lens affect image quality? My third question: Is the print quality from the D70 up to professional standards?

Davidoff

smidgen wrote:

I am about to buy a Nikon D70. I already own a point-and-shoot Sony DSC-S70, but am new to digital SLR's. I have some questions before I actually by the Nikon.

I am buying the camera to replace the Nikon FG I currently use in my potrait business. The FG is almost completely manual and my lenses fixed. I have never worked with zoom lenses or autofocus lenses. I am excited about getting to use autofocus lenses because my specialy is babies and children and they are always on the move. One of my questions is, with the D70, is the autofocus fast enough for photographing children? Also, I would really like to use a zoom lens because so often I miss out on a perfect moment while I'm changing lenses. How much does using a zoom lens affect image quality? My third question: Is the print quality from the D70 up to professional standards?

Hi, welcome. Ok, I don't own a D70, nor any dslr, so I'll talk from what I've heard. I also find interesting the fact that there's a nikon FG-20 here in my house, fixed 50mm and no auto focus too http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/blitzchampion/nikon.jpg

I think its more than fast enough to photograph kids, in fact that's one of the pros of dslrs, they'll focus on racing cars, so infants should be very easy. The quality of the zoom will depend on how much you spend, but I've heard some good things about the kit zoom, so....
I guess the print quality will greatly depend on the size of the print and of course the type of file you use. I hope that helped, but you might want to wait for the updated D70s.

luckyrwe

If you want to have fast AF, make sure that you get the AF-S lenses. They cost a little more but are lightning fast a the motor is in the lens. I got my wife the D70 with 18-70 lens for her birthday. She already has the 70-300ED. The 70-300 is not AF-S and focus is very slow. Of course AF-S costs more! A zoom can degrade quality but stick with the ED glass for the best results.

Is the camera professional? Depends on what you want to do. I had the (lesser) D100 and shot weddings withit and took it to work. I went through 3 D100s in 2 year. They cannot take a beating. You need metal bodies for that. The image quality is a result of the lens, I think that will decide its professionalism more than the body anyhow. 6 megapixels is very good but having it on a DSLR makes it even better.

ian408

If you do a little searching on the site, you can find other threads that
reference your questions.

The D70 is a fine camera as are the Nikon series of lenses. HarryB shoots
with Nikon (I think he's recently upgraded to a D2H). His results are
stellar.

The most important question you can ask yourself is about the lens systems
you might need/want for your camera. The body is disposable in comparison
to what you'll spend on serious glass.

Which ever way you go, best of luck with your decision.

Ian