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  1. #1
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    Question D70 Custom Settings

    I received my D70 (together with Tamron 24-135) yesterday from B&H.

    I have a question for other D70 users:

    "Do you have any 'recommended' custom settings?"

    I played with the camera a lot last night, trying out a variety of different things. I have to say that, the default settings for 'optimization' didn't look very nice? I tried changing the 'sharpness' setting, and it did look a little better, but I didn't see a significant improvement.

    Anyway, I just thought that I'd ask and see if any 'experts' have some good ideas for settings.

  2. #2
    Paint with Light PuckJunkey's Avatar
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    Congrats. I just received mine this afternoon, also from B&H. I have to say that as a rule, I don't like applying in-camera optimization settings from any camera. I prefer to shoot RAW files,and then bring them into ACR to make any exposure tweaks (you can do things like work the highlights and shadows, sharpness and tonality without permanently screwing up the file).

    So in short, no. If you're going to shoot JPEG, I would choose the Fine setting and maybe tweak the light temp settings for the various presets, but otherwise that's about it.


    If you don't mind I'd like to piggypack a question of my own in here. Why is it that my 512MB CF card will only hold 47 NEF files, when said files are 5+ MB in size? My math says it should hold closer to 90 when the card is empty, which it is right now. Reformatting still leaves me with 47.
    D200 = Digital F100
    I have achieved nirvana.

  3. #3
    Forever Learning coloradoamigo's Avatar
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    Nikon was very conservative....

    with how many pictures you can get on a CF card. I've had my D70 for over a month now and however many pics the camera says you can shoot, pretty much double it and that is what you will get. For instance, on my 256mb Lexar, the camera tells me I can shoot 23 raw files, but I got 44 out of it. With my 1G Sandisk, I think it tells me 94, but I went well over that (something like 120), and it still said I had 30something pics left, meaning I probably could have gotten about 40-50 more.
    I don't know why Nikon set it up that way, or maybe there will be a firmware fix, who knows? It doesn't much matter to me as I know about how many pics I can get off a card.

    Regards,
    Brian

  4. #4
    Paint with Light PuckJunkey's Avatar
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    That's reassuring. I thought maybe the earth had spun off its axis and normal mathematical rules no longer applied to memory cards.

    [Just tested it out. Got 94 shots on there, exactly twice as many as was noted. However, you can't always use the twice as many rule because in the middle of shooting a lot of times the same number gets repeated. Definitely a firmware bug IMO. It's OK to be a little conservative but realistically, you should know how much space is left with an accuracy of +/- 4 images.]
    Last edited by PuckJunkey; 05-13-2004 at 10:39 AM.
    D200 = Digital F100
    I have achieved nirvana.

  5. #5
    has-been... another view's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PuckJunkey
    If you don't mind I'd like to piggypack a question of my own in here. Why is it that my 512MB CF card will only hold 47 NEF files, when said files are 5+ MB in size? My math says it should hold closer to 90 when the card is empty, which it is right now. Reformatting still leaves me with 47.
    Can't answer specifically about the D70 but looks like a great camera. I have a Fuji S2 and get about 38 RAW files on a 512mb card. This is also a 6mp camera, and my files are over 12mb each so the math works out. How do you come up with 5mb from a RAW file on the D70? It is a 6mp camera, isn't it? RAW files are different from manufacturer to manufacturer which should explain the difference between 38 and 47 files per card, but I can't see 90 being possible on a 512 - there's not that much difference.

  6. #6
    Paint with Light PuckJunkey's Avatar
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    All of the NEFs I have shot are between 5 and 5.3 MB when I check the file size on my system. Remember Megapixel doesn't literally equal Megabyte. Different file formats have different means of data compression, different size file headers and the like. As you noted, the reason you can only get about 40 RAW files from your Fuji, is because they are interpolated to 12MP (from 6) before being written to the card.

    Essentially, you have a 6MP camera that writes 12MP files. Most DSLRs do not have this functionality. One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the S3 Pro is because of the new sensor and algorithms that will likely be in place for this 6 to 12MP conversion. The effect should be nearly the same as having a true 12MP sensor.

    16x20 and 20x24 prints, here I come!

    ;)
    D200 = Digital F100
    I have achieved nirvana.

  7. #7
    Tech.Support
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    Lightbulb

    D70 calculates RAW file size from Umcompressed RAW
    but it can take only compressed RAW which the size is always half of uncompressed file.

    So when setting RAW for D70, the picture really can take double from the counter.
    D70 writes Compressed RAW. However, the size of the compressed RAW file is not fixed and changes according to the scene shot.

    Hence, the only way to give an estimate of the counter is to use the Uncompressed RAW to calculate it. This is one reason why the counter does not appear to be counting correctly.

    secondly, the fast writing speed of the D70 compared to the D100 and D1 series, enables files to be written faster to the card, resulting in faster clearance of the Bufferspace, hence it will appear that the D70 shoots more than the allocated buffer...which is not true since the Buffer is able to handle just about the figure mentioned for unCompressed RAW.

    Indeed the Compressed Raw is half the size nearly of the full Raw. However when you insert a empty card in the body you will see the number of frames you can shoot in Full Raw size. While taking shots the body will recalculate the amount of space used on the card and give the remaining number of frames, but still in Full Raw.
    So in fact to figure out how many frames you can still shoot roughly you have to double the amount of remaining frames the counter shows you.

    The case is similar also with the D2H and any other rmodel having compressed Raw. As an indication i can tell you that with the D2H the compressed Raw file size varies between 3.1 and 3.3 MB. As the size variation depends on the image data. So you can shoot about 155 images on a 512MB CF Card.

    Hope this is not too complicated to understand.

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