NIKON D70 Digital SLR Camera -- Body Only ( Lens Required )
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Nikon Expects to ship the D70 SLR Begining in March 2004By placing your Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera order today, you can firmly establish your place in line for this exciting new product.Our orders are always filled in the order that they are placed, and your credit card will not be charged until your order has shipped. Order today and be the first to get this exciting new item! The highly anticipated Nikon D70 6.1- effective megapixel digital SLR camera - designed for both experienced and amateur photographers - Is Here!Catch all the action: With 3 frames per second and a Dynamic Buffer that lets you capture up to 144 shots in sequence, you'll capture every special moment you want to photograph. More speed: Featuring a 1/8000 second shutter speed and a synch speed of 1/500 second for flash. Easy-to-Use Features: Flexible Digital Vari-Program modes, a Nikon-exclusive feature, lets photographers begin shooting right away by setting the camera on a specific auto mode. Portrait, Landscape, Close-Up, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Landscape, Auto. Versatility: Choose from a variety of file formats, including Nikon's RAW mode (NEF), JPEG formats or Nikon's exclusive compressed JPEG + NEF combination. A Real Turn On! Just switch it on and you're ready to take pictures. No waiting for the camera to start up. Complex Technology That's Simple to Use: The D70 displays menus with simple or detailed information on a bigger LCD viewing screen
Delivering top-notch performance and high resolution at an affordable price, the Nikon D70 digital SLR offers easy-to-use yet powerful features to a wide range of users--from novices to serious and experienced photo enthusiasts. Its DX format 6.1-effective megapixel CCD sensor is optimized to deliver images with excellent sharpness and clarity, and it's compatible with Nikon's DX Nikkor lenses.

Optics and Resolution
The D70 incorporates a next-generation 6.1-effective megapixel DX format CCD image sensor that produces 3008 x 2000-pixel images, and is optimized to deliver a wide dynamic range and superbly sharp details. It also has 2240 x 1488 and 1504 x 1000 resolution modes.

Nikon programmed the D70's advanced system LSI processor for improved performance to produce vivid colors and clarity, optimized auto white balance, auto tone and color control, and to run real-time processes that diminish digital noise in long exposure shots for cleaner overall results.

More Features
The Nikon D70 has been designed to offer faster operation at nearly every level of performance, with the camera ready to shoot the instant it's turned on. Compressed NEF (RAW) files are processed and stored exponentially faster, making shooting in compressed NEF mode easier and more convenient than ever. It can shoot a rapid 3 frames per second for a continuous burst of 144 pictures (using the JPEG Normal/Large setting and a 256 MB CompactFlash card) due to improved buffer memory handling, faster image processing, increased memory card access speed, and greater system bus bandwidth.

Other features include:

Storage and Transfer
Images and video are stored on CompactFlash memory cards (Type I/II), and the camera is compatible with MicroDrives (no memory card is included with this package). Files can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB 1.1 connectivity, which means it can be connected to any USB-based Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software.

Power and Size
The camera is powered by a rechargeable lithium-Ion battery pack (EN-EL3, included) or three CR2 lithium batteries (with supplied MS-D70 battery holder). It measures 5.5 x 4.4 x 3.1 inches and weighs 21 ounces (camera body only without batteries).

What's in the Box
This package includes the Nikon D70 camera body, strap, body cap, eyepiece cap, LCD monitor cover, USB and A/V cables, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (EN-EL3), battery charger (MH-18), CR2 battery holder (MS-D70), and Picture Project CD-ROM. Optional accessories include: Rechargeable Li-ion Battery (EN-EL3), Multi Charger (MH-19), Quick Charger (MH-18), AC Adapter (EH-5), Speedlight SB-800/600, Nikon Capture 4 (ver.4.1) Software, Semi-Soft Case (CF-D7)0, Remote Controller (ML-L3).

1 when it works it's great
My camera is at Nikon for second repair, First time the Flash would not retract, They fixed that problem, Now it is back as the camera does not recognise that a memory card is present. I m now in my second week of waiting for this repair.
2 Great Camera, Watch out for scammers even here on Amazon
This is a good camera. The only real complaint is the lack of raw jpeg or tiff storage (you can store raw or compressed jpeg only)

That means a lot of dark room work, or a lot a reduction in printable size. ISO Range is also limited to 200 in the lower end.

A word of caution. When you see this camera selling for new at a price that is significantly below what the Amazon vendor Adorama offers (A reputable lower prices kind of firm) be very cautious.

There are a lot of scams where they offer you a ridiculously low price ($500) for new camera but only if you contact them first. Then they try and upsell you and if you dont buy a bunch of over priced very expensive garbage they cancel your order, but then they have you credit info.

[...]look at Genius Cameras to get a good idea of how this works.

Good luck, great camera.
3 A mind of its own...
Sometimes it won't let me take a picture. I finally figured out why - different focusing systems are very particular. Read the manual chapter on focusing. You'll learn about its different modes and each mode's requirements.

I've owned the D70 since the first day it was available in the U.S. of A. It's a great camera with too many features to ever use. Oh yea, that's because its Japanese!
4 A Great Digital SLR
This camera is awesome! I have a Nikon N80 35mm film camera and the D70 is basically a digital version of the N80. They look and perform in very similar manners. The D70 is slightly taller and heavier than the N80, though. I do want to warn people that digital photography with a D-SLR is different than film photography with a 35mm SLR. It takes practice and a little time to get used to it. But once you do you'll love it!

The D70 has pretty much everything a digital SLR needs. It takes exceptionally sharp pictures with the 6.1 MP sensor. The rechargeable battery lasts forever. So far I've taken about 200 pictures (some with flash, some without), reviewed the pics on the LCD and experimented with various menu functions and the battery meter hasn't gone down any yet.

The menu on the D70 is expansive. It has all kinds of customizations to make the camera fit your personal preferences (Like which control knob changes aperture or shutter speed, bracketing order, self timer length, etc). The camera also includes many white balance settings and adjustments like vivid, saturation, contrast, etc.

The camera can take pictures in 5 different options: NEF(RAW), JPEG fine, JPEG Normal, JEPG Basic and NEF+JPEG Basic. And the pictures can be taken in 3 sizes: L (3,008x 2000), M (2,240x 1,488) and S (1,504x 1,000).

The D70 has a very fast write time to the memory card. Plus it has a memory buffer which lets you continue taking pictures even while the camera is writing to the card. Because of this I would recommend saving some money by buying a basic type memory card. I don't think you really need a "high speed" card. When I was testing out my camera, with a basic card, I was able to take 7-8 JPEG Fine pictures in about 3-4 seconds before the camera's buffer filled up (as soon as a picture is written to the card the buffer frees up space and so you can continue to take pictures but the picture taking rate slows down, maybe 1/sec. instead of 3/sec.)

The viewfinder is very clear and has a bar at the bottom that tells you shutter speed, aperture, metering numbers, etc. You can elect to add horizontal and vertical lines to the viewfinder as one of your custom settings. I would recommend doing this since it helps you keep things leveled up.

Auto focus is fast and pretty accurate most of the time. Of course you need AF lenses to utilize this feature. There is really no "shutter lag." As soon as you push the shutter button the camera takes the picture. Also, there is no start up time when you turn the camera on.

There are a few things I wish the D70 had. First, I wish it had a bigger viewfinder (like the one in the N80). Second, I wish it had "live view" on the LCD monitor like point and shoot cameras. As far as I know no D-SLRs have "live view." Since SLRs have a through the lens viewfinder the camera's mirror (which flips up when the picture is taken) blocks the digital sensor. Third, I wish it had a sensitivity speed of ISO 100. And fourth, I wish it had a mirror lockup mode for taking slower shutter speed pictures (The mirror can be locked up for cleaning, why not for picture taking!).

In conclusion, this is a great camera and you will not be disappointed. I think it is a steal for $1,000 since it has many professional D-SLR features. I would definitely buy it again and I very highly recommend it. Best of luck in your digital photography endeavor!
5 Brilliant.
Love the camera. Perfect for move from film slr to digital slr. I love this camera. Will keep it for life.
6 Nikon D70
I really like this camera. The best thing about it is the speed, which operates as fast as you can press buttons. The picture quality is wonderful and the size and handling are exemplary. The only negative I could say is that it is Nikon's least expensive DSLR and feels that way. Not exactly "cheap" feeling, but more like "well made in Thailand" rather than "well made in Japan". The best way to sum up this camera is that if offers all the speed, flexibility, customization, and picture quality of cameras costing 2 or 3 times more, but wraps it in a package that feels like a budget camera. The plus side of this though is that you don't feel so bad traveling around with it, being paranoid about it getting stolen, damaged, etc. - it's not a huge cost to replace it compared to more expensive cameras that offer the same performance and picture quality. I used the money I saved on the body to buy quality Nikon lenses and am exrtemely pleased with the quality of pictures I'm getting. I would buy it again in a second.

(...)
7 Good camera, horrible service and dust inside lens
Nikon service is deplorable. D70 dust fibers in lens seems to be Nikon's Dirty Little Secret. 178$ in warranty cleaning and I can see the swab streaks on outside yet they did not remove dust from interior of the lens. This is not a joke. I have receipts, letters and store representatives as witnesses of defect. P.S. I guess if they don't fix it Nikon pretends they forgot your correct address as they did this to me and to others, news groups. This is days after purchase not a week. They have had the equipment for over two months yet are incapable of performing the correct repair. Are they total imbeciles? Are they illiterate? Do they want to remedy a factory defect? Who knows, all I know is that my D70 kit is not growing in value at the Nikon factory and that it's happening to other people too. Maybe they will fix it in time for the next model release. A company's warranty repair record should concern anyone making a large purchase. It does not matter how many bells and whistles a product has when it functions, if something goes wrong and your warranty is harmful instead helpful, you've bet on the wrong horse.
8 No Mode on Display?
What is up Nikon? How do I know what mode I am in when it is dark? Sure there is a backlite LCD panel but it doesn't tell you what mode you are in. And since the program dial just spins around you can't count back what mode you are in either. I guess I will have to carry around a pocket light. Why did Nikon take away such a basic feature. Also the AF illumin. light doesn't stay on long enough and takes too long for it to light up again. Oh and fix the dust on the CCD issue. Come on camera guys we are forking over thousands of dollars for this stuff and still dealing with dust? Even the cheaper digitals have solved the problem. Overall not a bad camera. WB is too warm on A with flash. Nikon still has some homework to finish.
9 FANTASTIC--You won't be dissapointed
I've had this camera for three months and have shot several thousand pictures. I tried the Olympus 8MP 8080 but it was noisy except for ISO 50 like all prosumer ZSLR's. I exchanged it this beauty and after the first day never looked back.

Everything you've read is true, GREAT pictures, NO more shutter lag, battery lasts about 4x longer than compact cameras since you set up the shot from the viewfinder not the LCD which uses power. Plus the battery is powerful, 1400mAh. I now rarely use Photoshop. It's easy to use and has many, many functions including the ability to fine tune the white balance--very useful and many development options.

The lens is top notch, not like the kit lens with the Canon Rebel. To compliment this lens I picked up a Nikon 28-200. Great lens for about $300.00 that also works very well for macro shooting since it focuses up to about 15 inches. Add an extension tube and you can photograph the pollen in a flower with razor sharp results. No need to pick up a macro lens this one does it all plus it's a great lens for walking around. Don't get the Tamron 28-300 since images are soft between 200-300mm and it will depreciate faster than any Nikon lens because of the name. I also picked up a used razor sharp 70-210 f4.0-5.6 lens for only $150.00 which is much, much better than the new 80-200 or 80-300 more expensive Nikon lenses.

Pros:
Simply great shots
Ease of Use
Instant On
Super Fast
Lots of Features
Software: Nikon View browser is very good--included
Software: Nikon Capture 4--great but only a 30 day trial verison supplied

Cons:
Software: Nikon Capture-to open NEF files is $99.00, should be free
Wish the LCD was bigger but it is standard size
Light on top panel should be on-off instead of staying on for just 10 secs
Light on top could be brighter or indigo blue for easier read
Auto White balance runs a little cool/blue

White Balance Tips:
For most shots simply set the Auto White Balance at -2 or -3 setting and leave it there. This will warm the shots very nicely.
For outdoor shots on nice days use the Cloudy or Shade setting. The Daylight/Sunny setting is little cool-blue. With Cloudy the added warmth or red looks great. But you won't go wrong with Auto -3 outdoors.
Use Shade setting with a -2 or -3 setting for spectacular red sunsets.
Flash portraits use Flash setting with a -1 or -2 for warmer skin tones
If you use a warming or colored filters be careful since Auto White balance will compensate for the effect.
Shades of red get stronger by using the settings in the following order-Sunlight--Flash--Cloudy--Shade. Negative numbers in the fine adjustments add red, positive numbers add blue. So Incandescented adds blue/cool and +3 adjustment adds more blue. at the other end of the blue-red spectrum, Shade with -3 is the reddest/warmest. This is great for special effects--Incandescent on a cool snowy day adds blue and makes your shots look cold.

Software Tips for RAW/NEF files:
If you want to shoot the best quality and have the greatest freedom editing you can shoot in Nikons RAW format called NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) but you will need a RAW converter.
Nikon Capure software, 30 day trial included with camera, has the best converter and is a great editing program but limited--no layers or selection tools.
Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements 3.0 has a RAW converter so you don't need to buy Nikon Capture but it does do a better job,particularly with White Balance.
Photoshop Elements 2.0 can be used for NEF if you load Nikon View (included) since it does include a light version of Nikon's NEF converter--crude White Balance and Exposure only.


You will not be disappointed with this great camera.
10 Tons of great features, and a few heartbreaking shortcomings
This review of the Nikon D70 is written with an eye towards comparisons with the Canon digital rebel. I just spent two weeks playing with both cameras and debating which to keep and which to return to the store. As these two cameras are similar in price and intended target customers, I suspect many camera-buyers are having this dilemma.

What I liked about the Nikon D70:

1. High quality sharp pictures with remarkably low noise even at highest ISO settings. Even its maximum ISO of 1600 is decent, compared to the Canon digital rebel, which looks awfully noisy at the same setting. (But the Canon goes lower, to ISO 100, where it approaches photographic perfection - more on this later.)

2. Instant on. The camera can shoot immediately after you flip the on switch whereas the Canon has a 2-3 second delay. This is a bigger deal than you may think; you'll really appreciate it when something interesting suddenly appears while your camera is turned off.

3. Way nicer manual controls. I found the D70's 4-way button and two thumbwheels much easier to use by touch than the Canon's 4 overly recessed buttons and only one thumbwheel.

4. Fast playback. Reviewing pictures and deleting them is MUCH faster on the Nikon than the Canon digital rebel, even when using slow cheap compact flash cards. On the Canon, it's frustrating to scroll (slowly) through hundreds of pictures to find the one you want. It's very easy to go into "thumbnail" mode on the Canon, where scrolling around is REALLY SLOOOOOW.

5. Exceptional battery life. You can go for hours if not days of heavy shooting without recharging. The Canon Rebel's battery life isn't bad, but it's not as exceptional as this.

6. Lots of miscellaneous features. Here are two I found useful: You can change the Nikon's self-timer delay (to 2, 5, 10, or 20 seconds) whereas the Rebel's is stuck at 10 seconds. The Nikon handles auto ISO nicely: you can tell the camera exactly what threshold the shutter speed has to drop below before it will increase ISO.

These points make the Nikon fun and powerful to use. But alas, it's not perfect. There were several things I didn't like, and they affected the most important thing of all: picture quality. Here they are:

1. Color balance!!!!! The Canon rebel's white balance almost always gets it right, whereas most of the Nikon D70 pictures I took were slightly bluish or yellowish. Although the Nikon's white balance is customizable, there was no single setting that rivaled the Canon's ability to automatically correct color hues. At default settings, my Nikon pictures came out bluish in bright sun, correct in the shade, and yellowish indoors. Adjusting the automatic setting to improve one situation invariably makes others worse. I ended up setting the white balance manually for almost every shot, and also doing a lot of post-processing. For this price, I would prefer a camera that got things 90% right by itself, leaving only minor tweaks to me. I should also warn you: adjusting white balance takes a trained eye - it is no problem for a professional, but is difficult for amateurs like myself to do correctly.

2. No ISO100!!!! I have to question the sanity of the people at Nikon on this point. At ISO 200, picture noise is low, but not silky smooth like Canon photos at ISO 100, which are as close to PERFECT as I've ever seen. Those Canon pictures have so little noise you feel like you're really there, instead of looking at a photograph. It's beautiful, and the Nikon's lack of ISO 100 keeps me from fully embracing this camera, despite everything else it has to offer. Though the difference is only noticeable when cropping and enlarging, I'm often cropping interesting tidbits in my photos, which is why I bought a 6MP camera in the first place. What Nikon did is analogous to making a car that can go 200mph, but then making the engine quit everytime the speedometer hits 100.

3. JPEG compression "flattens" fine details. The Nikon's highest quality JPEG setting makes fine details look flat. By contrast, the Canon's highest JPEG setting is almost indistinguishable from RAW photos. Again, this is only noticeable when enlarging and cropping, but if you weren't going to do that, you probably didn't need a 6 megapixel camera in the first place. This is not a problem for professionals, who shoot RAW anyway, but it is a problem for folks like me who don't want every photo to be 5-10 megabytes.

All three of these shortcomings degrade the final image, and cumulatively outweigh all the nice features I liked. What's most heartbreaking about the shortcomings is that they are not limitations of the camera itself, but of the firmware/software. They could be fixed with an extensive firmware update, if Nikon wanted to release one (but they don't, as far as I know). I'm personally most upset about the lack of ISO 100 (any firmware hackers out there who can add it?)

In summary, this camera is very powerful, with a user interface that is fast, a pleasure to use, and very full-featured. But the most important thing, picture quality, lags behind the Canon Rebel. Expert photographers may be less bothered by picture quality issues because they can be mostly (but not entirely) compensated by shooting raw and post-processing. However, doing so requires gigantic memory cards, large computer hard drives, and extra conversion/processing time. Because I was looking for maximum quality at minimum hassle, I had to go with the Canon rebel in the end, despite Nikon's vastly superior user interface.

I should mention one final thing to consider: lenses. In the long run, you'll spend more on lenses than on the camera itself, and you'll also keep them longer, so it's worth looking into the lenses you'll want. I happen to like image-stabilized zoom lenses (for cloudy days, twilight, and indoors) and Canon has a much better selection of these than Nikon. On the flip side, the Nikon may be more compatible with third party lenses, particularly those by Sigma. This is a big deal because there are some very good (and relatively cheap) lenses by Sigma, and because Sigma lenses have trouble staying compatible with Canon bodies, but seem to work stably and well on Nikon bodies.
11 Shutter Lag?? Not Hardly!
Lets get to the main point of buying a DSLR - I wanted fast & sharp results with versatility included. This is what I wanted and this is what I got! The price couldn't get much cheaper or it'd be an absolute steal (not that it already isn't). I feel like a real professional just HOLDING the D70. Truth is, I wouldn't give up this baby for the world. Digital SLR's are so much better than some cheap point and shoot restraintive camera. Break free and buy a D70! Look at the flawless reviews, try it out, and see for yourself. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!
12 Best color accuracy ever
Pros: All the advantages of a D-SLR (fast ISO speed, super-low noise, wide range of aperture and shutter speeds, versatility, huge buffer, compatibility with high-speed cards, etc.); unmatchable color accuracy and brilliance; beautiful style, battery life (After I took 500 regular photos and 20 flash photos, the battery still showed full. NikonÁ?s claim that the battery can last 2,000 photos may not be too far from truth); reasonable price.

Cons: The camera has a few minor annoyances, but the most horrible thing about this camera which may apply to all other D-SLRs is the dust problem. Knowing that D-SLR is very vulnerable to dust, I never took off the lens (included in the kit) after I first mounted it on the camera. Yet, the dust still somehow managed to get into the low-pass of the CCD anyway, though I have strictly followed the professional standards in avoiding dust from getting into the camera. After less than two months of use, I found a few consistent light dots on bright areas of the photos such as the blue sky. However, I was delighted to find cleaning the CCD is not as difficult as I first thought. Just strictly follow what the manual says and it took me less than 2 minutes to get the dust off the CCD, though I couldnÁ?t see with my eye any dust on the CCD itself. I hope Nikon can make better seals around the lensÁ? mount in its next version of affordable D-SLR or enable the camera to clean its CCD like Canon 10D or Olympus E-1.

13 Here comes the death of 35 mm film!
Well, I have 26 years of serious experience in film photography. Last years I switched to "digital darkroom" and used to scan 35mm film with dedicated film scanner. The modern films (especially Fuji Astia 100F) give you far more detail (even in 35 mm format) than "six miserable megapixels" could handle. Because of that, I was not in the rush to switch to dSLR. But I've compared a few digital cameras, applying my own standards and quality expectations. Prosumer models were frustrating because of noise and slow performance. I liked the "bold" feeling of images produced by Pentax *istD, but the resolution was far below expectations (many prosumer cameras give you more detail). And the Nikon D70 finally seduced me! The resolution is really high, for the megapixel count, and the color is neutral, with "cold and digital" feeling (not as "live" as one of Pentax *istD or Fuji S2 Pro), but this is really a subtle thing. What is really amazing is the speed of performance: D70 takes the shot almost instantly and in the next fraction of a second you can see the result on LCD display! Even at ISO-1600, the noise was lower than I could imagine, so this level of sensitivity is not "just there" but is really usable, for extream conditions. However, I would use the lowest ISO when possible. The camera is is FAT-32-aware, so I enjoy the ability to use a 4 Gig microdrive, which can store almost 400 pictures in RAW format or countless thousands of jpegs. As to file formats, I was not impressed by jpeg compression in this camera, even in "fine" setting, but this may be a result of my "puristic" standards. However, when I converted a couple of RAW files in my Photoshop CS, the conclusion was like this: "Hmmm... I can work with that!". This camera will make me forget about 35 mm film. However, it does not substitute film completely (the resolution for big enlargements is still low, and the dynamic range is still narrow). So, I will use the combination of medium format Penatx 67 II for "seroius" landscaping/portrature and Nikon D70 for action shots and experimentation. I give 5 stars to D70 not because it would satisfy all my photography needs but because of amazing value for money it offers today.
14 Amazes the most professional of photographers.
I got frustrated taking pictures and not being able see what I was getting in the viewfinder. And I was even more frustrated with the shutter lag. There was no choice. I had to move up to an SLR. I read everything, and spoke to top commercial and news photographers about what to get. They naturally, chose top of the line Canons and Nikons. When the D70 came out, I tried it and fell in love with it. You flick a switch and it's on. Hit the shutter and you have an instant picture. Of course the quality is supurb, but what makes it a joy is that it's easier to use than a prosumer digital camera. I started off with the kit lens and within two weeks moved up to the Vibration-Reduction 24-120 lens. It's slower than the kit lens, but the vibration reduction compensates for it. News photographers have told me that the D-70 works as well as their top of the line Nikons, but they wouldn't use one because it isn't built to take the beating they give their cameras. Once you get the camera, you won't be able to put it down. It makes me wonder what Nikon will come out with next.
15 Destined to become a Nikon Legend
I have been a Nikon user for over 20 years, and owned at least six different bodies and lots of lenses. My all time favorite is the FM2N. Why Nikon? It's the lenses! Nikon seems to understand this is the main selling point of their system. SO they have never changed the F lens mount. You can use older manual focus AI and AIS lenses on the D70. The bad news: The meter won't work. However on a digital SLR, the LCD confirmation mitigates this since you can check your exposures. You could also use a handheld light light meter. More good news: depth of field preview works with AI and AIS lenses! So I've been having a great time using my manual lenses on the D70. This camera is really a winner and costs no more than some of the ridiculous "prosumer" digicams out there. It's far more versatile.

It's easy to use-if you've used another digicam or even a recent Nikon 35mm SLR. The fact that I've been able to figure out most settings necessary without even cracking the manual is impressive.
The flash syncs at 1/500! This makes for some really creative fill flash outdoors or in the studio. All necessary settings are within easy reach, and no stupid five click deep menus for stuff like ISO. All the important stuff like ISO, Metering pattern, Exposure modes, White Balance, etc. have a dedicated button right on the body. No fumbling to change stuff while shooting.

Shutterlag is virtually non-existent. It's almost as good as my FM2N. But face it, if you want zero shutter lag then get a manual 35mm camera! However with the D70, you will not notice it.

The Lens-the kit lens is a 18-70mm (27 to 105mm). It's pretty good, and the color has that gorgeous Nikon hue. It's bright for a zoom. A lot of people are criticizing this lens unjustly. It does have a lot of barrel distortion on the wide end, but for landscapes you'd never know. It's got a very good wide angle range for a digital lens. It's a great value, and way better than any junk Sigma puts out.

ViewFinder-Some have slammed the viewfinder. It does take a little getting used to, like looking down a long dark corridor at first. But it's just as bright as any AF SLR once you get used to it. I think Nikon designed it this way to get people used to the CCD aspect ratio. It's kind of like watching a DVD in letterbox format. Good news: the viewfinder has a diopter for eyeglass wearers.

Picture Quality-This is where the rubber meets the road. At all ISO settings, the images are superb. Colors are saturated and lifelike, with the "Nikon Pop". They remind me of a good ISO 100 slide film like Kodak E100G, or Fujichrome Velvia 100. Best of all, the grain is very low, even ISO 1600 is not bad when printed to 8 x10. This is a huge advance over my older Canon G2 digital. Like I said, think ISO 100 slide film.

This is destined to be one of Nikon's legends, like the N8008, N90, FM2N, etc. You get a lot of value for your money, much more than the Canon Digital Rebel. A lot of pros are buying D70s for backup, and the Press Photographers Association of Japan just picked the D70 as new camera of the year! What else could you ask for? This is a top drawer camera with a great lens.

16 Canon biting its nails...(for now)
Like Ken Rockwell said, this is the finest digital camera under $3000. I am an advanced user and have used this machine to do all kinds of photography..action - using telephoto lenses, portraiture - in my makeshift studio using studio strobes, microphotography (not just macro) at 9X magnification by mounting on an old Olympus bellows and using Olympus macro lenses(dont ask me how), and even everyday street shooting with a zoom lens. This camera excels in everything it does. Image quality when shooting RAW at ISO 200 and subject properly illuminated by multuple strobes, is simply unmatched.

However nothing is perfect, and I am less than 100% satsified with the white balance. When WB is set on 'strobe', flash exposures come out a tad warm. Thats not a problem at all as it can be corrected in a flash in photoshop. Better still, is to do a "measure" by shooting a gray/white card in the same light that will illuminate the subject, and let the camera load a 'custom' white balance.

17 Ape finds mysterious monolith and . . .
No kidding, I'm almost a raw amateur. I put down photography 20 years ago and finally decided to buy another camera - I knew it'd be digital, hardly anyone talks about film these days - so I started looking around the very day the D70 came out. Knew nothing about it, only that I couldn't find one at five different stores I stopped at in the Boston area. One look at the specs and the price, though, and I knew a fixed lense digicam was a serious waste of money for a compromise.
Bought the camera with the 18-70mm lense as well as a 70-300mm zoom I needed for flexibility. Looked at the manual. White balance? What's that?
Took the camera out to a nearby lake. What pictures! Razor sharp. First vari-setting I tried I could see the needles in the tops of evergreens fifty feet away on the LCD screen. Bright display, fast starting, good viewfinder. Been learning its foibles ever since.
Comments: In bright sunlight there's a necessity to back off the ISO, white balance or exposure; but on the other end of the scale, I've taken images at 8:30 p.m., no flash, and liked the mood the camera captured.
Yes, incredibly flexible. I like to shoot close-ups of swamp plants 20 feet away. The 18-70mm seems to shoot a sharper picture, and the zoom leaves blur around the edges when I push its limits, but I'm really pleased with how handy this camera is, quick, adaptable, easy to use, high visibility.
Problems: No handgrip available, I have to make one. Also (maybe it's my big hands) the on-camera adjustment for shutter and aperture, done while focusing through the lense, seem a little difficult to adjust to. No biggies, considering everything else.
Seriously, I'm still marveling at my good luck! What a piece of technology!
18 Wow! The D70's amazing!
I've been using a Nikon F4 for over 12 years and had no intention of going digital until a friend loaned me his Canon 10D- what a great camera. Shortly thereafter Nikon released the D70 enabling me to acquire a reasonably affordable digital body and to keep using all my great Nikkor glass. Although the D70 feels like a toy compared to the F4 it takes fantastic pictures - as good or better than my best taken with Velvia at least up to 8x10 (printed using an Epson SP2200/Epson Premium Luster Paper). The D70's easy to use and has all the feature's you'd want. I usually shoot on manual, but the D70's "autopilot" programs are great & shooting at ISO 1600 gives nice results. "Optimizing" with PhotoShop has been infrequent. The only problem I've encountered so far is that the CR2's (not cheap) go very quickly - but the rechargeable batteries last "forever". The D70's a no-brainer.
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Almost one year & about 15,000 shots later the only thing I miss about my F4 is not being able to shoot quickly, not being able to take full advantage of my 17-35 mm zoom and not getting enough arm exercise (so I still use the F4 for these purposes). The D70's fantastic!!
19 Just Two Words: "Holy 11x7, Pic Man!"
First, I'm at the bottom of the barrel among my "expertise" when it comes to REAL cameras. Almost all of my total experience is with cheaper digital cameras (well, I owned a Kodak 110, once) ranging from the Casio DC10 to a Fujifilm S602Zoom (which has all but been abandoned by Fuijfilm!!!).

So, with that thought in mind: WHAT A CAMERA! Details galore. Color that's amazing. Point-and-shoot never looked so great! And that's with just two days of "outta the box" settings.

For those of us who don't know the difference between an SLR and a Space Shuttle, this camera is both a savior and a potential demon. It's taken me three hours of flippin' through the manuals for both the camera and the SB800 flash I bought, just to figure-out how to make the flash a remote slave. One (experienced?) reviewer says "it'll take you fifteen minutes to figure-out the settings." Well, yeah... if you're experienced. For me, it's taken three days just to feel comfortable enough to test a few of the billions of possible settings.

This ain't no slam; just be warned that you've got four years of college ahead of you if you want to approach the full capabilities of this camera. The nice thing is, your pictures will look GREAT, Fabulous, Astounding and Sensational without knowing a lot, and you'll have an enormous amount of future improvements as you master more of the features and art!

One serious warning: the dude at the camera store (yes, I pay more, but they're the professionals who are there when you have questions, and SOMEONE has to support them!) informed me that Nikon has decided that their newer cameras will NOT work with other brands of flashes, and even with Nikon's OLDER flashes! Like some cell phones that fry a third-party batteries, Nikon has decided they've had enough of "the competition" being attached to their cameras. He says he's considering buying a D70, but the fact that many of his non-CPU-driven lenses will either not work at all, or reduce the built-in functionallity found in the camera. Check it out before you buy, if you have lenses and flashes laying around you'd like to use!

Best money on a camera I've ever spent. And in all likelyhood, the LAST camera I ever buy!

Thank, you Nikon!!!

20 The affordable digital SLR is here!
Simply put, the Nikon D70 is the finest camera I have ever used. As an amateur photographer I have owned a variety of Nikon SLRs during the age of film photography. That is until the digital bug hit me with the introduction of the Olympus C2020 (a superb camera in its own right). I have anxiously awaited the day when I could return to the SLR and do it digitally. The D70 has made my day! This camera is incredibly easy to use and intuitive right out of the box. You can easily operate exposure controls, flash, and etc. without going through menus. All the settings can be seen in the viewfinder and the control dials are in the right places so you don't have to take your eye off the subject. It felt like coming home again to use an SLR, shoot through a viewfinder, and quickly and easily adjust exposures. Since there is no shutter-lag with this camera, and image writing to the card is fast, you don't have to anticipate your shots. Image quality is phenomenal and the 6 megapixel count assures you of excellent "darkroom" control. There are so many image capture options available in its menu that it pays to test the camera for settings that satisfy your needs (e.g. regulating sharpness, contrast, and tonal distributions). But even the default automatic settings provide photographs that can be beautifully printed right out-of-the-box. The 18-70mm DX lense that comes with the kit (equivalent to 27-105mm for 35mm film) is a great buy and delivers excellent image quality. I only wish its filter size (67mm) matched any of the filters that I had acquired for my old lenses. For the serious amateur who wants the level of control and image quality that only an SLR can provide, the Nikon D70 is definitely it. The affordable digital SLR has arrived! Sorry, Kodak, the era of film photography has truly come to an end.
21 It was worth the wait. This is THE one!
I have been holding out for a few years now to get a digital SLR because what I saw before this was simply not worth my money. I have to say I am glad I waited. Hats off to all those who were involved in designing and making of this camera. (Whoever they are would have gotten a big bonus if I were the boss ;-)

I got this camera for a trip coming up. I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile to sink the money into a camera before a major trip. I was also concerned about whether or not I‰??d have enough time to learn to use the camera. So I got it just to see and I have been in love with it ever since. I now have had the camera for 3 days now and it is definitely not going back! There are so many great things about this camera but here is some of what excites me:
1) Picture quality - I have taken test shots under different lighting conditions and most of them came out great without any special setting outside of the usual aperture and shutter changes. This camera makes me look good.

2) The lens - It is sharp and it has a zoom range that is useful for most daily shootings.
3) The button layouts and menus are intuitive.
4) Love the instant gratification and the fact that I can see the mistakes I made so that I can make instance correction by taking another shot......great for learning
5) The camera is smaller and lighter than my regular SLR and has an on camera flash. All of these features are all very convenient for traveling.
6) I can charge the battery independent from the camera so that I don't need to worry about losing the camera in a hostel somewhere ;-)
7) I can get good pictures in low light conditions that I couldn‰??t get decent shots for using my regular SLR even with 800 ISO film.
8) Last but not least.....the camera feels solid and feels like a regular SLR

I am confident that I will get better pictures on this trip particularly because of #4.....no one will even have a chance to see those bad shots, ha.

22 You can't go wrong with this camera
I am not a professional photographer, but I learned to shoot with a 35mm Nikon n70. I made the transition to digital with an S1, and recently purchased a D70 kit (including the new AF lens). It is tremendous. The auto mode produces nice picturesif you want point and shoot functionality, and for long time Nikon SLR users, you will take 15 mintues to figure out where everything is, because it's all where you'd expect Nikon to put it. Highly recomeded!
23 Just took it to Disney!
Sorry to inform all of the final death of film photograhy. Finally, a full featured digital SLR that makes no compromises is available for the consumer market. The camera is amazingly fast, works in the dark, has a great integrated flash, is easy to use, has a battery that lasts for days, and is fully compatible with all nikon AF lenses. Not only that, it takes pictures that will shame the 150 year old chemical film process into oblivion. I own a nikon 5700 and I am happy to report that this camera simply blows it, or anything else in the market at any price, away. Thank you Nikon, this is the digital camera all photo buffs have been waiting for!
24 Want a digital SLR? This is the one to get!
I have a Nikon D100 and love it. But if I were in the market today, the D70 would be the one I selected. At $999 (body only) this is absolutely an outrageous bargain, and Nikon has plainly positioned this camera price/feature-wise to dominate the market.

This camera and others like it herald the death of film. This camera will produce breathtakingly good images and you don't have to pay to develop them before you view them. Just take your CF card and attach it to a reader and you can review the pictures on your personal computer. Then select the ones you want and print them yourself (good printers are pretty cheap these days) or submit them on-line to any number of professional printing houses who will mail you wonderful prints in a day or two. And you can process the images with any of several superb (and inexpensive) programs giving you a "digital darkroom" capability that far exceeds what an expensive and messy film darkroom could achieve with film. The digital darkroom is a reality!

The D70 has all of the features that a serious amateur (and even a pro, IMHO) will want. First the basics: this camera will use all of the Nikon D and G autofocus lenses. Put in a 512MB CF card and it will take 51 RAW pix or several hundred JPEG pix, depending on your setting. These 6 Megapixel pictures are indistinguishable from film for essentially all purposes. What's not to like?

The D70 has improved Through-The-Lens metering, and improved buffering. This means that your images will likely be perfectly exposed each time. It also means that you can take many pictures in rapid sequence, and the camera will be able to keep up with you. Although the D70 is positioned slightly below the D100, in reality Nikon chose to improve these features somewhat over the D100! The D70 is not a "crippled" D100 the way the Canon Digital Rebel is a crippled Canon 10D (Canon's fine competing product to the D100). Although the D100 has some features that the D70 lacks, the D70 shows that Nikon has learned from the comments and requests of D100 owners by providing a bigger and faster buffer allowing users to take pictures in rapid-fire sequence.

Although the D70 is somewhat lighter than the D100, it is solidly built, and I like the heft and feel of the camera--it does not feel flimsy. It is light but solid. The menus are intelligently set out, and after an hour or so, most users will no longer need the manual.

The D70 is a winner, and the only problem that prospective buyers will have with it is finding one.


Thursday, 04-Dec-2008 19:44:40 CST
Quote of the Day:


There are no winners in life, only survivors.






Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's

incomplete and saying: "Now it's complete because it's ended here."

		-- Muad'dib, "Dune"