I went today to get my Nikon D80 at a local place here. When I walked in I ask the sale lady to let me see it and to compare it to the D40X and XTi. Well as soon as I got the D80 on my hands I remembered why I like it so much, but with my limited budget as only going to be able to get it with the 18-55 lens. Well I told the lady that I was looking around for D70s. She told me she has one personally and that she loves it, even with the 18-55mm lens and a 70-300. She told me that she had a D70s in stock with a Nikkor 18-70mm f 3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom lens which is a $250-$400 lens. So I told her that I want to take a look at it. She brings the box in and everything is sealed. As soon as I start looking at it, it looks pretty much just like a D80. So I was happy with the feel. Other than that the MP is the only difference (D80 is 10 vs D70s is 6)+ some other small features. Well I liked the lens it came with. I was very please on the difference from the regular 18-55mm lens. Well when I was done talking to the lady she looks at me and says since you are military I let it go for $450 with the lens. I couldn't argue with that considering used ones goes for about this to some cases higher.

Well I went out as soon as I got back to the hotel and play around with it a bit. I stated shooting in RAW to get a hang of it. So far I'm happy with it. Tomorrow I will go and get me either a 50mm lens or a 70-300 + and better flash with the money I saved. Here are some quick pics of that I took of my kids. I didn't feel like breaking out the tri pod so I didn't get to flashy. The pics have been formatter to JPG so it lost some of the quality. Over all I'm very happy with it.

 

Good price.

Don't be afraid to use fill flash.

 

those are very nice picturess

 

Yeap, CTWENTYTWO was not kidding when he said it gets expensive. Just went today and got me a Nikkor 70-300mm, 2 UV and circular polarized filters and a bag, about $800+ worth of stuff. I'm going to wait to the end of the month to get me a 50mm lens, external flash (Nikon SB800) and something with a good wide angle. I still learning the camera but I got a interesting trip ahead of me (Ca. to Va.)

 

Dont forget a tripod with that new lens, unless you have lots of light for a quick shutter and good at handheld techniques, even the IS will not help you when zoomed

BTW there is no need to shot RAW unless you plan to edit heavily or you have space to spare on your card. On a trip where lots of photos will be taken and only a handful will be worth keeping, the extra space becomes a concern along with the cards write speed.

I shoot at the lowest compression JPG the camera offers, even when I do jobs for magazines that require RAW/TIFF I give them a JPG converted to TIFF. At JPG 1:2.7 compression you wont see a difference until the image printed full scale


Never mind, just read you have a tripod

 

try making the exposure to -7 your pictures look a little over exposed.

 

Yeah found out that shooting RAW should only be done for pictures that you want a good resolution, not for every common picture. It is a PITA to transfer them to a JPEG format after wards.

Yeah, it was the first time I took the camera out to try it.

 

Congratulations, what kind of polarizers did you get? My first filters were the cheap $20-40 ones... but I learnt quick from ghosting on night shots to get the best filters with the multiple coatings. My 77mm filter for the wide angle was killer... $150 (Hoya Pro1 digital), and the 72mm for my other lens from B+W MRC was another $120+. It's the small stuff that piles up.

But can you imagine what the pros pay for their top of the line lenses ? Maybe they write it off as "work related expense."

 

Just got me some PRO UV filters. So far I haven't notice no ghost. My brother has over $20K on equipment.

 

SNAP Rick, you finally got your camera. I'm still trying to learn your old one I bought off you. I can't seem to get the damn thing to not blur, no matter how still I am and I believe action mode is on. Either way, good to see you got your camera. Get a 4GB card then you can shoot as much raw stuff for memories you want!