I can think of a lot of features I'd love to see on my D70. For one, it would be great to have a real, honest to goodness "point and shoot" setting for those times when you don't want to futz around with settings and curves -- where the image doesn't have to be perfect, just bright and colorful. Couldn't this be done with a hack?
What's wrong with the P&S setting provided by Nikon (Auto)? Or for that matter, what is wrong with the other idiot modes (which I believe Nikon literature refer to as "scene modes")?
Nah. They still look a little on the dark side. I usually use the P mode with a custom curve, and the shots still aren't as good as decent point and shoot at first glance. Don't get me wrong, however. The basic image from a DSLR will blow away most point and shoot cameras. Just takes a bit of tweaking here and there. I will say that every once in awhile I will use the sport mode as it automatically sets the focus to continuous. Also, I think the closeup mode makes reds and greens pop for flowers. Normally, however, I usually use P, A, S, or M.
That requires a hardware hack - which can be done for good money. see: http://home.carolina.rr.com/headshots/Nikonhome.htm
I never tried it, but the "Direct Print" option under "optimize image" in the menu is supposed to do that isn't it? It is a couple of menu clicks away - and is only available on M, A, S, and P modes. I wouldn't be getting up my hopes for useful firmware hacks - even if hardware features had been disabled - which I doubt. Comparison of the Canon firmware binaries side by side would have made deciphering it easier for the hackers when they did the 300d hack. I have to wonder if they had some inside knowledge too. You'd have to be quite brave to want to be the first person to try it.
There is no suitable matrix chip to use in that lens. You can use a chip for a different maximum aperture and then dial in exposure compensation to account for the difference. I don't know if that's the only reason it's not straightforward. Of course, if you *really* meant "good money", you can spring for a D2x, which will meter with the manual lenses.
*That*, you can -- if you have the right lenses. It requires a CPU chip installed in the lens. However, if you mean by a firmware hack to the D70 -- I am afraid that won't happen, for one major reason. Cameras like the N90s (which will meter with the AI lenses with no CPU) have a sensor which tells the camera body how far the lens is stopped down below the maximum aperture, at which metering takes place. This senses one of two projections on the aperture ring. The D70, however, has a sensor for a different projection. All it tells the camera is that the apertue ring is set to the smallest aperture, so the body can control the actual aperture by limiting the travel of the actuator from the camera body to the lens inside the lens mount area. It has *no* way to tell what aperture the lens happens to be sit to, unless the lens is fitted with a CPU to tell it both the maximum aperture and the current setting. Even the possibility of stop-down metering is made more difficult by the lack of a mechanical depth of field preview button. The button which they *do* provide only works with a CPU lens, and only in certain modes. Enjoy, DoN.
Naturally! I wish Nikon would make a DSLR with the same spec and construction as an F100. The D100 is based on an F80 and won't meter old lenses. I don't like these moster-sized cameras anymore. The D70 would be perfect if it could meter with the old lenses.
On 18 May 2005 23:15:49 -0400, (DoN. Nichols) wrote: I may have this wrong, if so, please correct me, but: if you dial-in or select the aperture on any lens, even the non-CPU ones, that aperture isn't actually used (the blades don't close) until the shot is taken, right? (Or a DOF preview is used). Therefore, given that a manually-metered shot can be taken with non-CPU lenses, the body must be able to tell the lens to "stop down now, the picture's about to be taken". If so, I'd be very surprised if the firmware _couldn't_ (at least in theory) get the body to tell the lens to do this while it meters the shot. You would effectively be restricted to apperture-priority metering, but that would be better than nothing. Or have I missed something? Regards, Graham Holden (g-holden AT dircon DOT co DOT uk)
One has to wonder what the added cost would be for that feature. After all, Nikon still makes and sells manual lenses, so by omitting it they are obsoleting some of their own *current* products, which doesn't really make a lot of sense.
That is correct. Except that with a non-CPU lens, the only way to select an aperture is to rotate the aperture ring on the lens. I believe that the camera body does not know how to select an aperture without the CPU in the lens. Correct -- by a solenoid actuating the lever, I believe. And with a non-CPU lens, the lever goes the full distance, leaving it up to the aperture ring to limit the actual aperture. In theory, yes. I don't know what kind of power drain on the battery this might involve. O.K. As a check I've just tried several lenses. The DOF preview button works *only* with CPU equipped lenses, and *only* when the lens is set to the smallest aperture so the camera can control the aperture. Granted -- this could be changed in firmware -- but I suspect that they do not expect the typical purchaser of the D70 to be able to deal with stop-down metering (in spite of the fact that many have used it quite successfully through the years since TTL metering came into SLRs.) But -- I think that either transferring metering information from another lens (or a hand-held meter), or even *guessing* and tuning with the histogram might be better in the long run for anything where stop-down metering would be adequate. Obviously, anything happening quickly needs a faster way of metering, so a CPU-equipped lens is a better choice. Just that it, at best, is an awkward way to do the metering for anything quick, and you can get a better final exposure value by the guess (or separately meter) and then fine-tune with the histogram. The one older lens in my collection with which I would *really* like to be able to work, an 80-200mm f4.5 zoom with the push-pull collar zoom (and rotate the same collar for focusing), I would want quicker metering than stop-down metering added as an afterthought to the camera's controls could give me, as I would be using it photographing things which were changing quickly, not a tripod-bound stationary subject type of shooting. Probably allow the DOF button to work with a non CPU lens, as long as it was set to above minimum aperture, and turn onn the metering with the DOF preview button in manual mode would be the best choice with the available controls. Enjoy, DoN.
<huge snip, sorry> So does a manual aperture lens still wait for the shot to stop down? If not, they are all dark & hard to see but it sounds trivial to allow a menu setting to simply meter the light coming through.
In most of what is below (starting with the next block of quoted text), we're assuming that you mean a lens for which the aperture choice is made from the ring, but which remains at maximum aperture until the shot -- as is normal for almost all lenses made for SLRs. The ones where the aperture is set immediately as you turn the ring are the ones made for Rangefinder cameras, or for medium format or large format non-slrs. (In medium format TLRs, the taking lens stops down directly with the setting, but the viewing/focusing lens remains at maximum aperture.) An exception to this behavior is when the SLR lens is mounted on a bellows or simple extension tubes with no stop-down linkage. For the Nikon lenses, there is a tab inside the lens mount diameter at about the 3:00 point as viewed with the lens pointed to the subject. The tab is spring-loaded, so when the camera is not holding it against the spring, the lens stops down to whatever aperture is set on the aperture ring. With a bellows, or a simple extension tube set, there are no provisions for transferring the action of the matching tab in the camera body to the control tab on the lens, so the lens will be stopped down to whatever is set on the aperture ring -- or on a 'G' series Nikon lens, it will be fully stopped down, as there is no way to control the aperture other than via the tab. Note that there have been lenses designed purely for mounting on a bellows, which will not focus when mounted directly on the camera (so-called "short mount" lenses). These will not have the aperture control tab, and will stop down immediately. I have seen enlarger lenses used for this purpose. Hmm ... as photoprocessing moves more and more to digital, you may find older enlargers and their lenses on the market for quite reasonable prices. And enlarger lenses are optimized for closer work (probably 2:1 down to 10:1) instead of for infinity. Precisely so. A menu entry to allow metering while you hold the DOF preview button engaged might be a possibility, but otherwise, the camera has no way of knowing what the light passed through once it stops down will be, since unlike some of the other Nikon camera bodies (the N90s is the one which I know from personal experience), there is no sensor for the tab which shows how many stops below maximum aperture the lens is set, so it can't adjust for the falloff. All the D70 and D100 have is a sensor to tell (from another tab nearly 180 degrees around the aperture ring) that the lens is set to the smallest available aperture. I hope that this helps, DoN.
