Well I went from elation to depression pretty quickly...my new D70 has a problem with moire, and problem is worse than I thought it would be.
First of all moire doesn't just occur in patterns (like fabrics), it occurs in thin diagonal lines, as one finds in architecture. Secondly the patterns are huge and very pronounced, and they affect the luminance channel as well, so zapping the color moire still leaves stripes which cannot be retouched.
I accept that all DSLR (except the Sigmas with the Foveon sensor) will produce some color moire. However in my years of shooting I've never seen a camera where the moire was a bad as with the D70. Even the Kodak 14n was better behaved.
Now I know that a vast majority of subjects are rendered faithfully by the D70, I just did an interior shoot and 95% of the pictures are moire-free. All of my outdoor shots are just about perfect...but predicting what will cause moire is difficult.
I called Nikon, fully expecting them to deny there was a problem. Guess what? They confirmed that there was a problem, asked me to upload some example files, and told me that they'd contact me when there is a fix.
Too bad for Nikon that I don't have time to wait around for a fix...I cannot trust the D70, there is no way to predict when moire will strike (I went looking for it, on a test shoot, and I didn't see any). But then in actual use, moire struck. D70 moire is very tough to retouch, and Nikon Captures anti-moire filter has very little effect.
This is unfortunate. There is alot to like about the D70, it is a very fast camera, and colors are quite accurate. Nikon will likely find a fix, but in the meantime they've lost a customer.
I was very wary and unebelieving when you exclaimed how well you thought the D70 handled moire. Now I'm thrown back into confusion about what entry DSLR to buy. Hopefully they'll have fixed this when I'm ready to buy...
btb103 wrote:
I was very wary and unebelieving when you exclaimed how well you thought the D70 handled moire. Now I'm thrown back into confusion about what entry DSLR to buy. Hopefully they'll have fixed this when I'm ready to buy...
When I went looking for moire, I couldn't find it (I shot brick houses & shingles & picket fences...no moire to be seen). I was briefly lulled into a false sense of security. I do expect a fix from Nikon though, and I'm sure it will be firmware or else an update to Nikon Capture. The D70 performs well in quite a few situations.
darn growing pains from this new baby , too bad Mark , I am sure there will be a fix for those of us who wait , man this is too bad , I really like the detail and the color from this camera , sorry it didn't work out for you man
jmcfadden wrote:
darn growing pains from this new baby , too bad Mark , I am sure there will be a fix for those of us who wait , man this is too bad , I really like the detail and the color from this camera , sorry it didn't work out for you man
J
Yeah me too, it is a nice camera in every other sense. I'm sending my files to Nikon, doing my part to help them find a "cure". Really, I'm sad... not mad.
sdai wrote:
Your sample is indeed pretty "bad" ... I just tried it with the DeMoirize plugin by Phase One in Photoshop ... pretty bad, a lot of artifacts.
I'm sure that shirt was a "worst case scenario" and the demoirize plugin did a really good job, actually...but you can see how it is impossible to correct for all of the artifacts.
they should have gotten it right before releasing it, but i'm sure everything will turn out okay. i just hate to see nikon shoot themselves in the foot with a sure-fire product...
dallen47 wrote:
Did you really buy it back?? I was going to unload my S1 for a D70 and hang on to my S2 ! What do you think Sdai ? Keep it ?
I sold the S2 in favor of the 1Ds in last May but I quickly realized there's a whole lot things that I'm missing so I bought a new one one month after ... if you ask me I'd rather buy a second S2 ... or simply wait for the S3 - which is very unlikely to be released before late fall.
Sadly my D70 will be going back also. If there was no moire problem I would sell my 10D and keep the D70. The D70 has / had so much going for it. If Nikon fixes this maybe I will puchase another.
How unfortunate. I look forward to a quick fix for that problem, as I think that little camera is one of the best on the market right now. I recommended one to my g/f, even though I know she would not be able to share my EOS lenses if she went that route.
In any event, she'll be purchasing in Dec/Jan, so hopefully things will be ironed out by then
I guess Nikon is willing to stick their head in the sand, while acknowledging that there is a problem. I still think software solutions are possible (the Bibble render, although soft, looks promising)...at least for RAW shooters.
This does not discredit the D70, it is a fast, sharp camera that does a great job photo most of the time, but the example photo Nikon chose has the exact same type of moire that I ran into with the shirt, and Nikon Capture cannot deal with that much moire. Note that the fabric in Nikon's photo has no printed pattern, it is the fabric weave causing the moire.
Nikon's other suggestions are, IMO, laughable. How is one to know if there is moire in a picture...the LCD cannot resolve that much detail to begin with, and they expect the photographer to change their composition in order to avoid the moire.
, man this is too bad , I really like the detail and the color from this camera , sorry it didn't work out for you man 
