Please help

[bwalker]

I loaned my camera tomy friend a few weeks ago, and now all of my pictures seem hazey and realy crappy. I will attach a picture (if I can) to demonstrate the issue

Also, this is a Nikon D70 with a Nikkor 55-200 lens

it looks so dame\ned fuzzy. what happened? All of mylens take the same type of pictures so I know it is not them because they were flawless 2 months ago before I loaned out my camera. also, these photos were shot in

RAW

[Skyman]

It looks like they set the iso to 1600. Try changing it to something lower and seeing if that fixes the problem?

[bwalker]

that did not really help. I tried setting ISO to automatic and it still did not really help either. any other suggestions? I know I am not saying this correctly, but the pictures look pixelated

[Frog]

Have you gone through all your settings?
What setting is it under image optimization?
Is it shooting raw, jpeg fine, basic, ?
Also what size?

[another view]

It really looks like high ISO to me too. If you put it on automatic then there's a chance that in that test, it chose a high ISO again - so this really didn't eliminate that possibility. Try manually setting the ISO at 100 or 200 and going outside in the middle of the day (the quality of light you'll have is not great but it'll serve the purpose).

Did you ask your friend what he changed? I borrowed a camera from a friend as a backup for shooting a wedding years ago when I only had one. It was the same model as I had, but he had his set up totally differently (custom functions, etc). The first thing I did was to write down all the settings, then I set it up to match mine. After the wedding I put it back exactly as it was before I returned it to him. I wouldn't want him to not realize it was set up differently while out on a job, and then have to figure out everything that was changed - that would not be cool...

[bwalker]

I set the ISo down to 200 (the lowest it will go), it did help, but the pictures still seem kind of grainy.

I asked him what he changed, and he said he could not remember and that several of them had played with the camera (great!) as mentioned before, I am shooting in raw. I assume that I may also need to have the camera cleaned properly

[another view]

I still think it might be a setting - sensor cleaning is needed to take care of small black spots that can show up. Check the manual, all the menus and custom settings and return the camera back to "default" in any way you can. I'll bet there's one setting in there somewhere that's causing the problem, but it may take some time to find it.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I don't loan out my stuff other than in case of returning the favor for what I mentioned above.

[Frog]

I think its on jpeg basic and/or maybe small image.
Don't loan out to that friend again, especially if he let others play with your camera.

[Franglais]

This looks like noise, as though the camera is at 1600 ISO. Notice that the light flowers on the right look pretty clean, the green bits in the middle are starting to look lumpy and the guy's dark suit is full of coloured speckles (noise is typically worst in the dark parts of the image).

As a professional once said to me - the good photographer never lends his gear. People just don't know how to look after it.

[Nick McC]

Well I shoot in raw/jpeg basic so I can get both types of pictures (only way to get both... although I have yet to mess with raw), and the images aren't nearly that grainy. If it isn't high ISO then I wouldn't know what it could be, but if you press the BKT and metering buttons down at the same time for a couple seconds it will return your camera to factory settings - which will solve the problem if it is an issue with the settings.

[bwalker]

I returned to default settings and it got better. not sure what he f'd with, but it goes without saying that I will not loan him my primary shooter again. on a brighter note, my wife just gave me a D200. so I will now start to play with that one and see how I can screw it up

[freygr]

that did not really help. I tried setting ISO to automatic and it still did not really help either. any other suggestions? I know I am not saying this correctly, but the pictures look pixelated

No do not use Auto ISO setting with a D70. For best results set your ISO to 200. You only need to increase the ISO for low light shoots.

I use aperture priority and that way I can adjust the F stop to get the DOF I wish.

Also for best results make sure the JPG is set to normal or fine and the image size is set to Large, I use RAW+JPG basic. I print from the RAW and all quick viewing is from the JPG.

With the cost of CF and SD cards being at a all time low, go out and purchase sufficient cards so you are not trying to save space. by cutting down the file size using JPG Basic and image sizes smaller than LARGE, which all reduce image quality!