Nikon d70 VERY bad moire

[mikelangelo]

Hello all,

I just bought my first dSLR, the famous d70 kit, and after spending some one long night with the manual, I went on a trip around Honk Kong. To my amazement the camera produced a very distinct moire in EVERY picture I took at the skyscrapers. I can’t understand how come other people haven’t notice the same distinct problem. Could it be my particular camera? I have shot almost the same scenes with CANON S40 and there was absolutely no problem.

I know that this topic has been discussed quite often and even Nikon published some explanations at:
http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=WRUFmt9h&p_lva=&p_faqid=9544&p_created=1080656943

But as nobody else seems to complain about it some much, I decided to ask the forum about it. Any ideas? Should I avoid certain situations, like bright light, wide angle, focus to infinity? I could get images with moire every time. even by taking pictures of my hotel room walls or my shirt.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers
Mike

P.S
For those of you curious how much is the camera here: kit + spare battery + 512 fast transcend CF + light tripod(normal) + nikon bag is 10250. It is much cheaper than my normal place of residence.
Here is a link:
www.dcfever.com

[Ray Schnoor]

I have heard of this problem, but have yet to see it in any of the photos I have taken with my D70, so I cannot shed any light on your problem. If we could see some of your photos, that may be a help. If as you say that this is in "all" of your photos, you may actually have a bad camera. Maybe you could exchange it for a new one.

Ray.

[George Riehm]

I agree with Ray. I have only had this problem a couple of times when window-screens were in the picture. I changed the aperture by a couple of stops and it pretty much disappeared.

Sometimes it can also be the picture size you are using for review, and the type of display you are using (i.e. CRT or TFT/LCD). If you are reviewing them on the LCD on the D70 then magnify (zoom-in) and the problem should go away.

The D70 takes extremely sharp pictures and sometimes moire and "jaggies" are caused by the display. Once you blow them up a little the problem goes away.

Actually, come to think of it, I haven't seen moire since I adjusted the sharpness. Sorry I don't remember what setting, but I'll check tonight.

[mikelangelo]

Hello again,

and thanks for the quick answers. Take a look at the pictures and at the perticular details I am talking about. Every time I tried to take a picture of that type of buildings, this was the result. I did not try tweeking any of the setting, I was just trying the full auto for the landcape program.

I am quite happy of all the other features and now that I read the manual :) and know more about what I should be able to do, I guess I could try to work around this issues.

Still its quuite strange that a camera like S40 or even sony p9 did not produce any of the moire in my previous attempts.

Cheers
Mike

[George Riehm]

Mike. Unfortunately the frames are so small I could only make out detail in the first one. I have the optimized image setting at "sharper". Give it a try.

[John_Reed]

Take a look at the pictures and at the perticular details I am talking about. Every time I tried to take a picture of that type of buildings, this was the result. I did not try tweeking any of the setting, I was just trying the full auto for the landcape program.
Mike, I'm no expert on Moire patterns, but you'd get a lot more feedback on your images if you posted them on-line at a larger size (up to full-size, if you wish), and then provided an image link for viewing here. I'd suggest using Smugmug (http://www.smugmug.com); they're cheap (if not free for limited use), very reliable and easy to use. If you feel inclined to sign up, you could benefit George Riehm (a Smugmug user) by referring to his e-mail address.

[George Riehm]

Thanks John. I'll try and repay the favor.