D70 Issues –> pelican cas –> images posted

[Rob Snowhite]

Spent the weekend out on the Eastern Shore.

There were birds galore, flocks of snow geese that took 5min to fly past us.

1. I had started noticing my autofocus on my D70 + tamron lens did not appear to be focusing on my target. I thought it was the wind blowing my contacts around and that the camera was working fine.

2. I had perfect sunrise light in a clear sky with egrets maybe 20 feet away in the water. I snapped lots of pics of them using autofocus on auto function as again it was windy and i was having trouble seeing what i was doing. All pics came back overexposed. The shots with my 35mm nikon lens looked to have come out with a proper exposure though can’t remember if the autofocus was working then.

Anyone with similar experience with either/both?

I have not uploaded them to the internets yet to share/help diagnose.

Thanks.

[Shannon Drawe]

First – check your metadata.

[josh w.]

My D70 pretty consistently overexposes by 2/3 to 1 stop… I have correction pretty much always dialed in.

[Shannon Drawe]

For sure. The Nikon AF mechanics have made quantum leaps since the days of the D70. shannon

[Rob Snowhite]

i’ll check the metadata and i will play with the focus lock button too

---

Now i’d like to get a pelican case to protect my camera and lenses.
i have a D70 and would most likely take with me ~ 3 lenses.

What

[mick mccorcle]

Have you checked with the Nikon website to see if your D70 firmware is up to date?

[Steve K.]

What

[John Bennett]

I had perfect sunrise light in a clear sky with egrets maybe 20 feet away in the water. I snapped lots of pics of them using autofocus on auto function as again it was windy and i was having trouble seeing what i was doing. All pics came back overexposed.

Not being a Nikon shooter I didnt read this thread till now, figuring I couldnt help.

Auto focus and exposure/metering problems are two very different things. Posting a pic or two and the meta data might give us an idea of whats occured, then again it might not.

On the surface what your describing is a common problem, especially if your in any auto modes. Its likely not a problem with the lens and quite likely has more todo with the metering mode used and auto exposures.

If you allow any camera to set your exposure values it wants to compute the exposure based on nuetral Gray.

Thus a white bird on a bright sunny day without any overrides from you will always be overexposed. The brighter the day, the hotter the whites are going to be. If you expose for the “scene” you blow the bird. If you expose for the bird, you underexpose the surroundings.
White/black birds for the reason are nightmares to shoot. Expose fo the whites and you clip the blacks, expose for the blacks and you blow the whites.

If you want detail in pure white birds, the best time to shoot them are overcast days.  Its the difference between underexposing on a bright day to preserve your highlights and going with a closer to “proper” exposure that results on overcast days. If your shooting white birds on sunny days you have underexpose by quite a bit to prevent over exposing the bird, from 1 to 2 stops. It keeps detail in the whites, but renders the rest of the scene failry underexposed.

Details preserved in the highlights but overall its underexpsed

Exposed for the scene and blacks but the white breast is blown to hell and back

Poperly exposed
Whites blown to hell and back

Expose for the whites though and everything else will be underexposed.

White birds are best shot on overcast days.

[Rob Snowhite]

ok, here are a few from last months trip, 2nd day birds not uploaded yet
1. over exposure
2. lint on lens grrr

one of my higschool mates, spin rod, sigh

[John Bennett]

Thats pretty much a classic example of what I’m talking about Rob.
In the first pic the “entire” scene seems well exposed…averaged….However the white bird is blown to hell and back. The only way to over come that is to meter for the bird. Either by using a spot meter on the bird, or by reducing the exposure, if the scene is averages or matrixed. Either way, the end result is a White Egret thats exposed better, at the cost of underexposing the scene.

if you look at the 2nd and 3rd to last the white birds are better exposed (details are visible) however its looks like a) those were shot on an overcast day or b) the image is “underexposed” relative to what otherwise would have been a proper exposure. As there arent really any shadows being cast by the birds I’m leaning towards overcast.

J

[Anonymous]

I have the Pelican 1400.

[keith b]

it must be awesome to have the talent to see what you guys are talking about and to have the vision to see the differences in the subtle color stuff you mention.
I look and see good pictures.
😕

[mike j]

The D70 with a newer lens can do 3D Matrix metering, where an older lens may only support Center Weighted or Spot.

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