Could someone tell me WTHTI?

[CAReefer]

Had the night off and have been playing with my Camera. I have the Nikon D70 for those that don't know.
I bought a 28-105mm macro lens sometime back and have been curious as to what this lower ring is for. If I unlock it, and rotate the dial I get an error message and can't take a picture. Any clues?



TIA and am always looking for tips on taking pictures of my reef.

Marshal

[marcrothschild]

any finger prints on the points of contact?

[CCG]

IIRC that ring manually adjusts the aperture of the lens when in manual mode. The aperture is what allows different amounts of light to hit the film/sensor. The larger the number the smaller the aperture and the less light enters the camera also the smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field. THT

Colin

[Orion76]

I think you use it with cameras that can't control the lens automatically so you don't use it on a D70.

[CAReefer]

Thanks for the replies fellas. So basically, it don't do a dang thing unless I go into manual mode. I have problems getting pics with a bright enough exposure so leaving it to the smallest numerical setting would be the way to go.

[skippyreef]

If you go into manual mode (if that is possible) then use that ring to control the aperature which in turn control the depth of field. Those number are knows as F-stops and are one way of controling the amount of light that enters the lense for an exposure of in this case a digital image and changing the focal length of the lense or the speed at which light is moved through the lense and captured on the film or CCD chip used in a digital camera.

read this article for a decent understanding of what si going on. If you can manually control F-stops you can do some cool things with picures! I still have a cannon AE-1 SLR for this reason but hope to catch up in the technology department someday with a real digital SLR like yours

http://members.tripod.com/~Prophotoman/fstop.html

[Orion76]

Thanks for the replies fellas. So basically, it don't do a dang thing unless I go into manual mode.

On the D70 you don't use it at all, in manual mode you control the aperture with the little wheel on your right index finger, the one right above the red swoosh on the front.

[CCG]

Just about everything you wanted to know about your camera. Check out the in depth review.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec.../nikon_d70.asp

Colin

[OUinLA]

I think you should still be able to use it on the D-70 but don't quote me, i'm not a Nikon user. As stated above, that is the F-stop ring and it does exactly what they said it did.

As long as you can still set a shutter speed, it should work.

[Orion76]

I have a Sigma lens with this ring too and if I take it off the default setting I get an error message in the F-Stop value on the lcd screen and the camera won't operate.

This ring does not come on the kit lenses that come with the D70 and it's sort of redundant because the F-Stop is controlled with the right thumb jog dial. I think it's there for use on older less automated Nikon models.

[OUinLA]

It's definately an older lens. Canon did the same thing with their lenses. Some of the older ones will work, but some won't.

[CAReefer]

Thanks for the info fellas. The ring on my lens will not allow the camera to operate if it is unlocked and rotated at all. I was just curious if I could use this to help my lack of skills.

Marshal