Most importantly, from what I learnt, no matter how good your camera is, make sure you get a good lighting source. If you are inside a poor lighting area and you tend to shake a lot, then you get the blurry picture just making your $$ camera like a cheap thing. That is of course if you want to take natural colour of the area and can be easily eliminated by using the built-in flash but isn't going to produce nice lighting effect though. Also, take note of the ISO setting according to the lighting, lowest ISO for bright day light or good lighting source, higher ISO for poorer lighting environment.

Therefore, practice with handling your camera and once you get use with it and if you feel confident with your skills, then time to get an speedlight upgrade

This post has been edited by nFiniteFX: Aug 16 2007, 06:26 AM

Yeah, for DSLR, nothing comes in one package. DSLR is a very versatile camera and that is why, you need an appropriate lenses for the function you need. For the macro, I could suggest this http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/le...28_if/index.htm

It's the best lens from Nikon but it's gonna cost you a lot for it.

This post has been edited by nFiniteFX: Aug 16 2007, 10:55 AM

Kitlens is just like a basic lens for you to start-up and go using it out of the package. It's actually quite good for a group pics or landscape. I mean, I got my AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED (3.8x) along with my D70s, its actually a good lens, very practical lens for everyday usage. Unless, if you want to go into more specific area, then, you should purchase additional lens to accommodate those fields. Maybe you should check out Nikon site for more details on specific lenses functionality. http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/lens/af/index.htm

1.) Actually, any lens can do that, its just the matter about your camera whether it can produce such image. Of course, most of the DSLR could do that, therefore your D70 should have no problem. Make sure you try to specify the area of the focus you want, then there will be the blurrish effect on the background you want

2.) I suggest you get a dry box. Easily obtainable from any photography shops. Make sure you put in some silica gels to absorb any nasty moisture in the air. You wouldn't want your internal DSLR grow some fungus.

3.) I took most of my photos mostly in jpeg in fine quality mode. I never use RAW mode at all, because I don't tend to fix up my photo after taking them. RAW mode is only useful if you happened to have any small dust or spots on the photos you taken, then you could use the provided Nikon software to remove it. Never tried this function before though just only know the usefulness of RAW mode. But be warned, it takes up a lot of your memory card space.

Yes. Slow shutter = use tripod = good for night/low light conditions. Faster shutter = otherwise.