D40 / D70 - Thoughts Please

ed_o_brain

ed_o_brain

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Daniel
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Hi,

I pined after a dSLR for what seemed like ages. I took my mum shopping for a new compact one day and while we were in Jessops I noticed the D40 going for what I thought was a good price. I asked for a closer look and holding it my hands... it was a done deal!

It's a great camera and a big step up from the finepix S5600 I was using before.

I followed up this purchase with a couple of AF lenses, thinking it was cheaper to buy those and put up with manually focussing them for now and upgrade my camera at some point in future.


I've now got a D70 in the post which will focus the AF lenses. I'm wondering, what other useful benefits are there of the D70 over the D40? (and of course vice versa)


I have read that the D40 has slightly better metering and would give slightly better IQ. Is this true? Is the difference in IQ actually noticable in the real world?

I'm tempted to keep the D40 because I bought it new and it has the two year Nikon warranty on it. I also thought that if ever I'm asked to do any photography work, it would be good to have the D40 as a backup camera.

And using both cameras I can equip each with different lenses and get a bit more flexibility in some situations where I might need it.

But would it be better to sell the D40 and use the money for a flash gun? Or maybe even a home portrait kit? (A couple of studio lights/brollys/soft box and a background)

One of the things I really want to do is get better portraits of my children, both candid and posed.

But I'm keen to explore all the other aspects of photography too, particularly landscapes and capturing any scenes of interest.

Thanks
Ed
 
I reckon you'll have a bit worse noise control, but then you'll be able to AF (with more areas to use) and take bracketed shots for HDR stuff... they'd both be great cameras to keep, that probably what I'd do.

Great for taking out two lenses without needing to swap anything but the camera your holding too! Maybe use the D40 for higher ISO shots?

I'm not actually sure how good the D70 is in IQ terms, but the D40 is bloody good.
 
Not so sure about the noise being better on the D40.I thought the sensor was exactly the same.
The D40 does have a newer metering system I believe,although there really is nothing wrong with the D70 metering.
I also believe the focus system on the D70 is more advanced.
People will talk about improved image rendering engines and crap like that but put 2 images side by side and Il bet you £100 you wont be able to tell the difference in the real world.

Check them side by side.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/com...debyside&cameras=nikon_d70,nikon_d40&show=all
 
The D40 has 10mp and the D70 6mp but I doubt you will see any difference. The bigger pixels on the D70 will give better low light results I feel. D70 is a wonderful tool which I use in preference to my D200 on many occasions.5
 
mjwman,

D40 is 6.2 MP, the D40x has 10 MP and I think that's the one you are thinking of.

D70 has arrived. It is bigger than the D40 - I didn't think it would be that noticable. I get RSI and one of the effects of that seems to be not having that much strength in my hands and also my hands tiring quite quickly, so I think that alone is a good enough reason for me to hold onto the D40.

Any idea where's best for compact flash cards? I only got a half gig one with it. And once already I have had to take it out and put it back in to get it to work. I hope that was just a one-off or it's just the card that's dodgy, not the camera.
 
Oh dear, I'm sorry I thought we were talking about d40x too... I was too quick to reply so am probably wrong about the noise levels.
 
mjwman said:
The D40 has 10mp and the D70 6mp but I doubt you will see any difference. The bigger pixels on the D70 will give better low light results I feel. D70 is a wonderful tool which I use in preference to my D200 on many occasions.5
Click to expand...

The D40x is 10 mp, the D40 has the same 6 mp sensor as the D70.
 
Forget pixels, the most important difference between the D70 and the D40/D40x is the size, shape and weight of the bodies. Keep whichever feels best for you because the better handling camera you have the more lifely you are to a) take it out with you and b) get that shot when you do.

I have a D70s and wouldn't want to go any smaller than that simply because I've big hands.
 
I've just been on a short photo walk with the D70 and we 'bonded' straight away. I'll admit tho I had to consult the manual for a couple of functions.

The smaller LCD display isn't so useful as the larger one on the D40. It's handy having seperate wheels for arpeture and shutter speed. It feels a little more responsive than the D40 and is a bit quieter.

But the big difference is the speed of the auto focus with my AF D lenses. Okay, there is no comparison to the D40 as the AFD lenses are manual focus, but it's a world apart from the focus speed of the 18-55 AF-S kit lens on the D40.

I tried the 18-55 AF-S kit lens on the D70, but it was just as slow in comparison to AF D.

Are the more expensive AF-S lenses any faster to auto focus, e.g. the 17-55 f/2.8? Not that I'm in the market for one of those...

No more new kit for me for a while!

It seems to be quite a logical arrangement, keeping the D40 for use with the AF-S zoom lenses and using the D70 with my AF D primes.

The extra bulk didn't seem to make that much difference in actual usage. Does make me wonder what a D80 would be like..... :)
 
Thats strange, the 18-55 kit lens should focus at exactly the same speed because the motor is in the lens itself.Do you mean the D70's auto focus is slower at finding the target?
 
What I meant to say, was the AF-S lens (the 18-55 D40 kit lens) was just as slow to focus on the D40 and the D70. And it's the motor speed. That lens is much slower to turn then both the AF lenses I have.

I know in terms of construction, the kit lens is built right down to a price. So I was wondering if the more expensive AF-S lenses were any faster?

And just to clarify, I'm not talking about the camera finding a lock and how long it hunts around. It is the motor speed. On the other hand, I've found the D40 is still able to focus in conditions that are too dark for the D70. In fact, the D70 has caught me out a few times like that. I understand it was an improvement made when Nikon introduced the D70s.

I've decided I want a camera with all the features of both the D40 and the D70. That is to say, good IQ, lower noise at ISO 800 (where it really does seem to start getting quite noticable on the D70). So hopefully there is a D80 on the way.

My equipment list is actually starting to look impressive.
 
I thought that the D80 is not so hot in terms of noise at higher ISOs. In tests I've seem online, the D40 is much better in that respect. Obviously the D80 has better handling and 10Mpix but seek advice if you are buying it to have better noise at higher ISO.
 
wildtracks said:
I thought that the D80 is not so hot in terms of noise at higher ISOs. In tests I've seem online, the D40 is much better in that respect. Obviously the D80 has better handling and 10Mpix but seek advice if you are buying it to have better noise at higher ISO.
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone else has found the same as what I thought I saw. d80 is still loads better though :)
 
i gotta say the D70 is one of the best dslr's i have ever owned, outside of pro range, i have never had a canon that matched it, including 400d, my d200 aint that far in front if im really honest, its a great camera to hold as mentioned. good luck
 
hmmm.
cant say I agree with the noise thing.
I own both the D70 and the D200 and I find the high ISO images from the D200 far better than the D70 images.

Interestingly Ken Rockwell has done some exhaustive testing on this issue.
Heres one comparing the D300,D200,D40 and the 5D.
Obviously the 5D loses less detail at the very high ISOs because of the bigger sensor advantage.
The D200 and D40 images are shown side by side.The D200 images look far better to me,especially from 1600 upwards.

http://kenrockwell.com/tech/iso-comparisons/2007-11/index.htm
 
One thing that ive noticed on my D300 compared to my D40X, is that its not so much that there is less noise (Although there is) but that the noise present is a lot less intrusive. Its seems to be more luma noise than chroma noise which I find gives a much more pleasing result.
 
Just to clarify, I found the D40X to be slightly better noise-wise than the D80. Not so much at high ISO's but across the board. It's not significant, but the first time I noticed was when I was taking shots of the moon at 300mm and on macro shots.
 
I'de like to see that comparison. I want to upgrade from the D40 (not 40X) to enable the use of non AF-S lenses and have a slightly better grip when using bulkier glass. My only concern is the noise issue at ISO above 400. The comparisons I saw showed the smaller 6mpx looking better when amplified than the D80 and the D200 for that matter. I know both are better cameras for many other reasons, bt I am just talking about the noise/ISO.

I'll take a look at the Ken Rockwell link now.

Do post some shots taken in low light on both cameras, especially of dark coloured surfaces.
Cheers
 
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