# Nikon D40 vs D70



## passerby (Feb 15, 2008)

I saw this review of D40 vs D70 once I have bought my camera. My motto is and always: _picture worth million words_. I saw pictures here that made me thinking of how the cameras behave. The problem was/is - I don't know what the scene originally look like!! Is that 2nd woman in the last picture has red hair or blond hair?

I know the colours of the objects around me. I took a picture, and in an instant I can see if this my camera produced (behave) differently. But I don't know the two persons in the pictures here. This is the reason why I tried to set the camera to see exactly as what I see.

As one of the viewer, you need not be influenced by other people opinions, that include the OP poster. So my advice is to look at the photos only and decide which one is acceptable.

Oh btw, the d40 there use the 18-55mm lens and the D70 use 18-70mm. The camera were set to P - I think. Happy scrutinizing.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=23171124


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## SpeedTrap (Feb 15, 2008)

This would be an issue of white balance, try shooting the same but change your white balance.


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## bhop (Feb 15, 2008)

Personally, I think the d70 has done a better job in most of those pics.  Most of the d40 pics have blown out highlights resulting in loss of detail.  As far as color, I agree with SpeedTrap, white balance settings or adjustments later on, can fix any problems there.


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## passerby (Feb 16, 2008)

bhop said:


> Personally, I think the d70 has done a better job in most of those pics. Most of the d40 pics have blown out highlights resulting in loss of detail. As far as color, I agree with SpeedTrap, white balance settings or adjustments later on, can fix any problems there.


 
As I pointed it out that we don't know what the persons there look like originally. The OP poster did not mentioned of altered colors. So which camera produced the exact natural colours? we don't know really. Plus both cameras were set in auto according to the default manufacturer setting.

What I am trying to point here is - one of those camera *does not, or at least did not produce natural colours*. As which camera, I don't know.
By right camera suppose to produce exactly what the photographer sees. Since there are two results from the same scene therefore one of them is faulty. I am very certain my d40 produces exactly as I see it, or at least very close to it. I am using centre weight metering mostly though. 

I don't have d70 so I can't compare or comment to it. Maybe it was just his camera, I don't know. If you have both cameras or anyone here have them it is good idea to replica the test.


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## DSLR noob (Feb 16, 2008)

To get the most realisitc photos, make sure the camera isn't set to bump sharpening or saturation or contrast any. Get good glass. Shoot with a 35mm lens (because on a crop body, that is close to what your eyes sees) Anyone done a study to see what aperture value a human eye has in indoor lighting, out door, in-between (you have more DOF in bright areas because your pupils are closed down more), and set custom white balance with an 18% gray card. The human eye sees about 30 to 40 frames per second so shoot at 1/30 of a second or so and voala, the most realistic images ever.


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## TamiyaGuy (Feb 18, 2008)

I find that the D40 is the better performer there. The indoor photos might look a bit blown out in some places, but the D70's pics look way to dark for me. In the D40, the person's face is exposed very well, with some of the background appearing too light as a consequence (but that happens with all cameras).

In the D70, the brightest background elements are exposed perfectly, but at the cost of the person's face being very dark, and the focus of a portrait should be the person't face, not the windows!

Well, just my 1.0249p


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## Tayfun (Feb 18, 2008)

As my opinion D40 photos are better. But I think the lens can cause also the difference. For example the "KENT" word backwards the girl in the first photo is sharp in the photo of D40 but blurry in the photo of D70. The exposure can also be effected by the lens, some lenses give darker photos so I don't think here we can compare these two performers.


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## Stranger (Feb 18, 2008)

D70 is a much more capable camera than the d40...

I would be willing to bet the photo quality of the two is about the exact same.. I hear the D40 look a little better straight out of camera because of the processing the camera does.

and the 18-70 lens is much better than the 18-55


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