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More importantly, let’s hear your thoughts on the new Nikon D70!

I’m being flippant (duh), but seriously – I know you’ve a Canon D1 or something now, but what’re your thoughts on a DSLR priced at $1,300 that’s supposed to be the equal of some of its $3,000+ brethren? Amazing? Too good to be true?

(And I like the new TXP look, by the by.)

Well, I have a Canon D60 (retail ~$2000), which has been discontinued, and replaced by the Canon 10D (retail $1499). Canon also has the 300D (Digital rebel), which retails for $899.

I wrote a bit about the D70 a few weeks back (and there's an in depth review at DPReview.com), but essentially, I was saying that if you’re going to buy a digital camera, these new low end Digital SLR’s like the D70 and Canon 300D give you the best bang for your buck. There is just no comparision between a six megapixel image from a DSLR and a 6 megapixel image from a consumer grade digital camera. The sensor size and quality are a big jump up from consumer grade sensors, and thus, the image is of much higher quality.

But, yes, it’s true: I paid over two grand for a six megapixel DSLR, and you can now get one for less than half that. And, oddly, that doesn’t disturb me in the least. I’m happy to see this kind of digital image quality reach a price point where more people can consider it.

My apologies – I can’t keep all these D-this and D-that numbers straight! I have a Nikon Coolpix 775, the dinky 2.1 megapixel consumer camera, and frankly, I’ve been pretty pleased with the results I get from it. I’m no Reid or Noah, of course, but for my purposes, I was happy.

But of late, I’ve gotten the bug to get back into sports photography, something I’d dabbled in while writing for one of those local weekly rags with two writers and an editor (and cover stories about the latest argument over riparian rights at road-ends) for a couple years. They gave me the use of a CLASSIC old Canon 35MM (the really heavy metal type, with the telephoto lens that made the camera feel like it was 20 pounds), and I loved nothing more than to plow through all our B&W film shooting games. I knew nothing about the profession, of course, but when you’d capture that ONE image, it was well worth it.

There’s a site called sportsshooters.com that seems to be a community of sports photogs, and a couple of discussions on the D70 in the forum included a few pic samples. It would appear, in the right hands, that the D70 could be used for this purpose.

I know you do a lot of studio-type work to pay the bills, but do you have any experience in this arena? While the not the best option, would the D70 potentially fit the bill?

(And why did I post as “Curious Reader” the first time, rather than myself as I’ve done in the past? No clue. Must be the drugs.)

Before I got the Canon D60, I used a Nikon 990, and while it’s a great little camera, it was most frustrating when it came to anything resembling “action” photography.

Digital SLR’s greatly reduce the problems of “shutter lag” (the length of time between you pressing the button, and the recording of the image). They aren’t quite as fast as a film shutter, but the average person won’t be able to tell any difference at all.

Where some of the Digital SLR’s fall down is in the area of autofocus. My D60 is guilty of that. It does not focus nearly as quickly as my film based EOS cameras. I know they improved that on the 10D, but I have no idea whether this is an issue with the D70, since I’ve never really dealt with Nikon autofocus.

The true pro sport shooters are using the Canon 1D or 1D Mark II, which shoots about 9 frames per second and has a massive memory cache for storing that burst of big images. It also runs about $4500.

My guess is that the D70 would be fine for most anything but the most sressfull situations … where you need that 9 frame burst. I think the D70 shoots 3 frames per second, for up 12 frames. That’s quite workable for most “action” shooting.

Absolutely. It’s amazing how slow the shutter speed is on something like my 775, where catching a shot of my toddler is akin to catching a cheetah while on foot. I think the lag must be in the neighborhood of a good two seconds or more.

Phil claims the lag on the D70 is non-existant; as you point out, it’s probably TECHNICALLY slower than a film SLR, but not noticeable to someone like myself.

As for autofocus, I can recall the frustration of getting a good action shot with that old Canon – everything, of course, was manual, and frankly (not knowing any better way) I’d aim and focus on a spot in an area I anticipated action to be occuring soon (such as in the paint for basketball, or near the rim, or the top of the net in volleyball), then take shots as players entered that zone. Thankfully, my paper bought that black and white film in bulk. ;)

I actually own a Canon Rebel 2000 (film), but expense has prevented me from using it much, especially for “play” shooting (I bought it when my first child was born, and haven’t gotten NEARLY the use out of it I should). I have no idea how well it would work for action photography, but I may just have to do that, out of curiousity. A relative (amateur) bought the Digital Rebel 300D, tried it for shots of her son diving, and returned it. She’s been a “serious hobbyist” for years, so I don’t know if it was an operator issue or not (she went back to her solid, metal Canon 35MM).

Anyway, thanks for the impromptu lesson in DSLRs. I think I’ll give that Rebel another shot – the more experience I get before sinking $1000+ into the D70 the better. :)

I’m no expert, but I suspect that the amount of fluid needed for a normal “dose” is a factor in price as well. I’m not likely to purchase a gallon of NyQuil, or gallons of any of these other expensive liquids. If it became commonplace to buy them by the gallon, their price would probably decrease… supply and demand, that sort of thing.

Yes, the “serving size” should be part of the equation, surely. As should rate of consumption.

For instance, don’t balance it out at “per gallon”, balance it at “a month’s worth”.

Coca-Cola is $0. (I don’t drink it.)
Luzianne Iced Tea is $7.
Black printer ink is $12.
Gasoline is $50.

That’s the scale people think in.