Just get the feel of a Kodak SLR/n. Even a greater mistake. 😉
Leen
Once upon a time there was a big little boy in a camera store called Grant-ilocks…
🙂
Patti
Grant, just when are you gonna get that D70 ?? 😉
Ray
The evil demon in me says buy it. My stable inner-self says stay the course, don’t vary from you plan. My main plan was to finish off my lens selection before I moved on to a dSLR. I have enough money to buy one but not both if I am smart I will acquire my lens first. Then one or two years down the road a dSLR. Oh the lens I am in the market for is
http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=5&pro ductNr=1960NAS For what it is worth it cost more than a D70 with the kit lens.
Grant
My Minolta A1 focuses differently that my previous digicam (an Olympus C-700). It doesn’t focus "on the fly" as I pan it around like the Oly did. I have to partially depress the shutter release to even get a focus lock in the viewfinder. However, when the picture is actually taken, it hasn’t failed me yet. One feature I like is that when the shutter release is partially depressed, a small red square appears in the viewfinder to indicate the exact spot where the focus has locked on to.
That’s not to say that the sample you looked at may not be defective. I’m just finding that different digicams can have significantly different approaches to focus, exposure control, and who know what else!
Dan
Dan
I appreciate your reply but this one was defective! The camera would lock on the object at about two feet distance. The red square would light up and within a fraction of a second the camera would go wonky searching in and out for focus. The funny thing is that it snapped into focus almost instantaneously and then drifted like crazy. I am sure this is not indicative
of Minolta as a whole, just a camera that got through QC a bit to early. Still it was humours seeing the salesman’s reaction.
Grant
Interesting, Dan. My G3 can do either, depending on how the menu is set up, although it only works with a single AF point at a time. The continuous focus is not particularly impressive – it seems to wander off with every slight move of the camera or subject. The single focus mode which only refocuses when you half press is much more reliable – slower but it is in focus on the right thing 95 per cent of the time.
Susan S
Well, Grant, I can’t blame you for not buying the D70 right away, having looked at this lens (1:2.8… OMG !). Sure thing, after that, we’ll all call you Mister Dixon, no more Grant (too familiar !)… Just kidding here, no unkindness intended.
Would have I not bought a new computer this year, I would have ventured into a higher performance lens. The one I have is fine, but I lack the big aperture, and at maximum zoom, there are some color aberrations. Not as much as with my [I’m gonna trash it at some point, rest assured] 100-300mm, though. But still, I wish for a bigger zoom (28-135 instead of 28-105) and IS (Image Stabilizer) would be nice to compensate for the lack of a greater aperture.
But, the Finance minister kindly reminded me the items of my 2004 wish list, starting with a jaw surgery (1000$ in all), an iBook (2000$), an iPod (being the sensible person I am, hum, hum, I chose the 15GB unit) and Final Cut Express (380$). He also added Mister Visa isn’t gonna pay for all those (and I thought Visa was my friend… What a drag!) He finally added that I was free to reorder those items on my list, add and or remove some or all, but, his point was I believe, don’t go and complain about your choices later. He’s such a supportive person… 🙂
On that, he invited me to shop at Walmart, where none of these items can be found, including the 28-135 IS Canon lens, politely (still firmly) added to leave the Visa home 🙂
Ray
P.S. Of course, I will probably get none of these items, except, of course, the only one I really don’t want, but must have.. The jaw surgery ! Btw, I’m scheduled for June the 2nd. 33 nights before being on the other side…
Yep, that sounds like a clunker Grant. Good thing you got to try it out in the store. I bought mine mail order, so it’s a good thing it worked out of the box.
Susan, that is interesting about the G3. It wouldn’t surprise if the A1 can do both also. It has a gazillion menu options that I haven’t even explored yet! It’s kind of humiliating to always come on here and admit how much I don’t know about it.
Dan I’d be surprised if it doesn’t (it costs about twice the price of my camera here!) In fact the continuous focus setting on the G3 works best if you half press first anyway. I’ve still got stuff on the G3 that I’ve never used. I don’t even know if the movie function works for example! One thing I ought to play with but never have is the continuous shooting to rapidly fire a whole sequence of images. And it virtually never moves from aperture priority.
Susan S
Yes, the A1 has several focusing modes. I have to say I find the autofocus trickier than it was on my s400, but it also has a manual focus and I like that best of all.
Susan, does the G5 do the multiple bracketing that the A1 does? I mean you can bracket for saturation and contrast and stuff as well as for exposure, although I haven’t used that much.
Don’t overlook the rebate link on the web page!!
JP
Ray, it’s nowhere near the lens that Grant is contemplating, but the Canon 17-40 f4 will be my next lens purchase. Working nearly full-time now, so maybe….
🙂
Susan, do you have the Canon telephoto lens for your G3? I just got the one for my G2 (being discounted and probably going out of stock soon) and hope to give it a go this weekend. Of course, I’m only starting from a 3:1 zoom so the effect won’t be much, but….every little bit.
Chuck S.
Chuck, I assume you’ll be coupling it to your 10D, right? I haven’t used anything wider than my 20mm Sigma DG EX. Did you try it at the store? What was it like? I’m still having a hard time with a 20mm, so I figure I’ll have even more trouble with a 17mm.
Every time I walk in the camera store, I take a deep look at the 28-135 IS… Still, I haven’t try it because I know I’ll walk away with a heavier Visa card 🙂
Ray
Chuck – no I don’t have the teleconverter – it’s pretty expensive here, and I decided that i’d rather save the money to put towards a nice long lens for the dSLR that lies in the future! When I want longer than the G3 can give me, I really want quite a lot longer – more than a teleconverter, and probably more than I’d really ever afford in an SLR lens either! In practice I’d probably get more use out of the wideangle converter (I used to use the 28mmm on my SLR a lot) but that is really expensive and there is enough barrel distortion on the lens at wideangle as it is.
Barbara -The G3 (and I think the G5) can bracket just exposure and focus. I use the former from time to time, and I’ve tried the latter occasionally with macro photos of insects.
Why worry so much about lenses?
About 99.99% of my images have been made with just only two lenses: the Mikon 1.8/50 and the wonderful Tamron 4-5.6/24-135.
I know, sometimes I would have liked to own a wider angle, but almost always I have found a way to change my angle of view and obtained equal quality results.
Having invested heavily in glass in the past, when I decided to go digital I had to buy new optics. I found out that limiting my expenses doesnot make me less happy.
Leen
Grant, I recently threw the wraps off the nikon fm3a. It’s been sitting in a safe and dark place. It’s a film camera. What it all comes down to is this- I bought it not as much to make images, but to own a fine piece of metal. I pointed down my street, advanced the film and pressed the shutter! I don’t know when I will finish the roll of film. My nikkor lenses from thirty years ago look so pretty hooked up to the fm3a body.
BelAir camera in L.A. is having a tax free promo on all cameras except tne D70. I guess I will be patient and wait a little longer. Buy it already!!
Leen said:
"I found out that limiting my expenses does not make me less happy."
Very sage advice, happiness is not about what getting you want, it’s about wanting what you’ve got.
JP
Digital SLR wonders;
NIKON
CANON
FUJI
MINOLTA
OLYMPUS
KODAK
no particular order…..
(sorry if I missed your camera)
anyways Grant, I’m not sure how you came across your G1…how long did it take you to break down and buy that ?? You CAN have your cake and eat it too ya know. Cake=digital Eat=film 😉
Freekiest thing just happened…I just had to edit my post….words were on the bottom of my reply that I didn’t put there !!!!!!!!! Now I’m really weirded out !
Jodi
First off Minolta doesn’t make a dSLR. Second I my first digital was purchased on a whim, I was in the store and the price was right. It was a Nikon Coolpix 800 and it was a good little camera. Later I researched the Canon G1 for about a week and it got rave reviews in all the cyber digital hangouts. It was and is a piece of shit! Finally I don’t buy or eat cake, although I do make them for others. 😉
g.
Grant, it’s all in your perspective. What if you thought of the D70 as an ‘essential’ accessory for the 17-35 f2.8 Nikkor? Like a high-priced lens hood, but on the other end! 🙂
Yep, that’s right, James. EVF beats an LCD by a long margin, but it’s not as good as real TTL. Minolta is supposedly going to have a true SLR this fall sometime.
OK then, thanks for the info…still a SSSSWWWWEEEETTTTT camera though 😉
All of my film SLR’s were Minolta, I waited patiently but temptation got the best of me.
—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/ wrote in message
Yep, that’s right, James. EVF beats an LCD by a long margin, but it’s
not as good as real TTL. Minolta is supposedly going to have a true SLR this fall sometime.
No question about it. After all it’s what comes out of the camera that counts, not how you go about getting the end result. Some of my favorite photos displayed on this forum have come out of Barbara Wayne’s Minolta s414.
—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/ wrote in message
OK then, thanks for the info…still a SSSSWWWWEEEETTTTT camera though
😉
After all it’s what comes out of the camera that counts, not how you go about getting the end result. Some of my favoritephotos displayed on this forum have come out of Barbara Wayne’s Minolta s414.
Ain’t that the truth! Barbara Wayne is definitely a gifted photographer. Her recent Automobile Abstracts are almost sensual! Maybe she could give us all a few pointers?
I don’t know if I will ever own a dSLR camera…or if I could ever frame a shot like Barbara…but I do want to learn to take the best photos I can, with the camera I have.
Patti
I’m using the Canon 17-40mm F/4L, on an EOS 10D. WOW!
Bill Crocker
wrote in message
Ray, it’s nowhere near the lens that Grant is contemplating, but the Canon 17-40 f4 will be my next lens purchase. Working nearly full-time now, so maybe….
🙂
Grant, I made the same mistake last week. I looked at several dSLR’s and the next thing I knew I walked out of the store with a new Olympus E1, two lenses and a flash……..I hate it when that happens!
