Getting close with a D70
This page was created in about 2005 and is now very out-of-date as regards my own photography, but kept here as it may still be useful! The principles apply to DSLRs quite widely, so may be a useful guide to using other cameras too.
The Nikon D70 is a very nice modern digital SLR, which comes usually with an 18-70mm zoom lens. This is the kit I bought, but I want to be able to use my old manual Nikon lenses too. They cost me a lot of money, and at least some of them are just superb lenses anyway. The lens mount is mechanically the same, and the D70 handbook says that with some exceptions, they can be used. You don’t get most of the camera features, though, and the handbook leaves you on your own when it comes to learning what you can do.
Here are some of the issues:
So how can I take really good close-ups with a D70?
There are quite a few ways to do that, including but not limited to:
Here are some examples of the same subject taken by various methods. The subject is a few 22mm-wide postage stamps stuck to a parcel - flat, to avoid depth of field problems. The tubes are a set of three (by Vivitar) with depths of 12, 20 and 36mm. All images are the whole of the D70’s frame, as much magnified as possible. The Micro lenses are at closest focus; with all the extension tube options, any lower magnification is also possible by a combination of focusing movement and removing tubes. The actual quality of all the results is good - sharpness, freedom from distortion, and so on.
The Nikon D70 is a very nice modern digital SLR, which comes usually with an 18-70mm zoom lens. This is the kit I bought, but I want to be able to use my old manual Nikon lenses too. They cost me a lot of money, and at least some of them are just superb lenses anyway. The lens mount is mechanically the same, and the D70 handbook says that with some exceptions, they can be used. You don’t get most of the camera features, though, and the handbook leaves you on your own when it comes to learning what you can do.
Here are some of the issues:
- No autofocus, obviously.
- No exposure metering, apparently.
- No depth of field preview.
- Limited flash features
So how can I take really good close-ups with a D70?
There are quite a few ways to do that, including but not limited to:
- Buy the Nikon AF 60 f/2.8D Micro lens. I don’t have this lens, but it is said to be excellent. This is possibly the best solution, but costs money and if you already have suitable glass in another mount, we might like to look at alternatives. Depending on your needs, you might also require extension tubes.
- Put a close-up filter on the kit lens. This works well, you get all your electronics, autofocus and exposure metering work fine. However, you can’t get really big close-ups.
- Mount the kit lens (set at 70mm) on extension tubes. This works badly for two reasons. Firstly, the tubes I used were ordinary mechanical ones, so as well as losing all electronic function, the kit lens (which does not have an aperture ring) can’t be stopped down and must be used at full aperture. For much macro work this is useless. I guess if I bought some tubes with contacts in them, this problem would be solved. Note that autofocus may well not work at big magnifications even with wired tubes, as the image will get too dim. But you would be able to control the aperture. However, none of that would solve the second problem, which is that the optics of the kit lens dictate that the subject needs to be incredibly close to the front element of the lens - as close as a few millimetres for big magnifications. This is highly inconvenient, and can make it impossible to light the subject.
- Use a Micro-Nikkor that you already have. I have two, the 55mm f/3.5 and the 105mm f/2.8. These are really good lenses, especially the 55/3.5 (I think I just happen to have a good one - it is sharper than the later 55/2.8’s that I’ve tried). This works well, either with or without extension tubes. You can control the aperture, though it is a real pity that you can’t get a d.o.f. preview. Subject distances are normal for the lens in question (i.e. perfectly reasonable). No metering, but see above for how to overcome that.
Here are some examples of the same subject taken by various methods. The subject is a few 22mm-wide postage stamps stuck to a parcel - flat, to avoid depth of field problems. The tubes are a set of three (by Vivitar) with depths of 12, 20 and 36mm. All images are the whole of the D70’s frame, as much magnified as possible. The Micro lenses are at closest focus; with all the extension tube options, any lower magnification is also possible by a combination of focusing movement and removing tubes. The actual quality of all the results is good - sharpness, freedom from distortion, and so on.
Some examples: |
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