d70 macro settings

Hi all,

Just got my ikelite ittl housing for my d70. Purchased a 60mm lense with an ike flat port and ds125 strobe. I am used to shooting at f5.6 for macro with my old oly 5050. Could anyone out there tell me what the best starting point is for fstop and shutter speeds for shooting little critters with the d70 and 60mm? If I have a good starting point I could control the exposure up or down with the ittl for better results.

Thanks in advance,

A new d70 shooter

Hi there, macro is actually really user friendly with this set up. Shutter speed is a non-issue unless you are looking at trying to shoot up and get some blue backgrounds.

Basically i would suggest setting it to 125 and leaving it. If you want to experiment with blue backgrounds, drop it to 40.

With a 125 on full with a diffuser it all depends on how close you are to your subject.

I would suggest from 2 feet away f-11-16

1 foot away 16-22

Also, i find it much easier to use AF-C on macro because trying to lock focus with the shutter half way down in AF-S and recomposing is a process that just creates frustration.

Mike

Thanks mike. I will use your recommendations. Thanks for helping a newbie.

gianster

I agree with Mike.....we start with f22 at 1/125...AF-C

Karl

Hi firstly

shooting macro with your D70 is not like shooting macro with you 5060.

the DOF "depth of Field" on your 5060 at 5.6 will be much much higher than the DOF on the D70 using a 60mm as you may already know Aperture effects your DOF.

A wider aperture like f5.6 you'll have Less DOF than say a setting of f11 or f16

your primary concern shooting macro is FOCUS, you want your subject to be as tack sharp as you can get it. If you choose an aperture that is reducing your DOF you may well find that you subject becomes a little soft depending on where you focused.

to combat slight errors in focusing you could choose much smaller apertures to give you maximum DOF

I personally always use F11 F16 & F22 on my Nikon F80 & will continue to do so using my D70.

As for shutter speed. the i suppose i would have a think about a few factors

1. What i need to capture the subject in the way i wish to capture it

2. what kind of exposure do i require of the background surrounding my subject

normally however "speaking for myself here" i tend to expose my subjects when shooting macro Totally with Flash, as when using such small aperture settings, to get any kinda background exposure you'd have to have some crazy slow shutter speed.

But creativity is in the mind of the person who holds the shutter button.

Also i'd shoot in MANUAL mode

I agree with all the suggestions except AF-C I prefer to use AF-S. I make a lot of use of the 5 focus areas to limit recomposing.

You got your iTTL housing ??? i want mine too

I think what Mike V. is saying is that in AF-C you don't have to recompose by lifting your finger off the shutter release and re-lock focus. You can still use the 5 area focus with AF C. For example, if I am shooting a fish profile, I will use the right focus area in AF-C. If the fish moves a little, I don't have to recompose using focus lock again, I just keep concentrating on the composition and not worry about the focus. It is actually nice using AF-C, but it does take some getting used to. This is not to say AF-S will not do the job, just that there are a couple of options available. You can still nail a winner either way.

Joe

Great advice so far! The 60mm is a great macro lens to start with - it gets a focus lock pretty quickly and is very sharp.

Cheers

James

My 35mm camera didn't have AF-C so I'm used to using AF-S. I tried AF-C but went back to AF-S. I'm not saying that AF-S is the right thing to use and AF-C is wrong. I think there are benefits to both and you should try them and use what suits you.