Nikon D70

SLR is still the craftsman's choice for professional photography. However, Nikon D70 has changed that by bringing the craft to the digital dimension without changing the art of handcrafted image capturing in the classical sense of the art of photography. Simply put Nikon D70 has brought the art in digital science. The modifications are inline with not changing the craft but in enhancing the true craftsmanship of professional photographic imaging. Not cheats, just the same old lights and shutter speed combination. The master is still the eye of the photographer and not the eyepiece, that's classical Nikon art of photography.

The nikon D70 was (and still is) my second DLSR i bought. i bought it second hand barely uesd (1995 clicks). it always produced fine images and though i had to learn to get used to it i still have no regrets for buying it. It is still a very good camera no things you don't need , even so many possibilities that i some times can be confusing.

i just can recommend this fine piece to every body who want a decent camera and not is going to make A0 enlargements.

Good points are: resolution

brand resputation

durabuillty

ergonomics

quality of camera , images

feel, handling

monitors (resolution and place)

Bad points are: heavy with kit lens 18-70 dx, small monitor

I have a D70s. I used to use the std 28-70 and also have a zoom lens (70-300) and an SB600. The camera extremely versatile. Have travelled extensively with this camera. Early on, shot mostly in Auto with fantastic results. Camera has allowed me to grow and experiment with other fine features - producing even better results! I am currently coupling this camera mostly with the 18-200 VR lens. All lens' I have used are Nikon. Also have a tripod for those landscapes and lowlight conditions and a remote (really like this as well). Camera Buttons are intuitive.

Overall the Nikon D70 is a nice camera and I have been using it for a few years.

The Nikon D70 makes a fantastic first DSLR. If you are wanting to take the plunge and move from a 'prosumer' camera this (or it's replacement the D80) would be a good choice. Brought out as direct competition to the Canon Rebel 350. IMHO it beat the Canon in everything.

I like the Nikon D70 and think it is great for the price I paid for it. Quick and efficient. Fairly simple to use without much need to refer to instructions.

This Nikon D70 is a very versatile camera, and easy to use. Colour and contrast in final prints are spot on, instant viewing on the LCD monitor and very easy to hold. The bad points are only minor, but on the replay view of your shot you can only zoom in on part of the image unlike my Fuji Finepix S5500 where you could zoom in and pan around the whole picture. A really good mid-entry camera.

In general my Nikon D70 is excellent for its price, however within 6 months I have dirt on the CCD which refuses to budge even with a pro air-blower. Yes I do interchange lenses (standard/telephoto), but I'm always careful doing it and wouldn't have expected dirt to get in that way so quickly. Also I take some Astronomical shots, and would have liked a remote that locks the shutter open.

I was a real fan of the last generation of Nikon 35mm AF SLRs, which atoned for weaknesses in their feature set (no built-in ability to leave the film leader out of the cartridge upon rewind, no mirror lockup) with superb ergonomics and useability. Plus, most Nikon lenses, also despite their often hamfisted engineering, do manage to put as fine an image onto film as any other - better with wide angles, indeed. Alas, with digital trending to more-or-less supplant 35mm (and even medium format) film within the course of the next couple of years, image quality is far less clearly defined by the quality of ones lenses, and the characteristics of the film used. Rather, in the digital realm, the camera's (or digital backs) themselves - and the complex algorithms deployed to created a full color photographic rendition from the limited, monochromatic data siphoned from the sensors of modern digital cameras - impacts image quality far more dramatically. In this regard, I find Nikon, as a company, consistently makes the wrong decisions. The first wrong step is in not recognizing how essential the sensor itself is, to the quality of a digital image. This has lead to a situation where Nikon leaves the development of the sensors used in its cameras (and to some extent, the design of those sensors as well) to other companies. Consequently, not only is Nikon not in control, ultimately, of the quality of sensor that goes into its digital cameras, but they are missing valuable opportunities to learn and grow from the process of their design, manufacture, and integration. This is the reason why the D100 and the D70 have such drastically divergent image quality, although each uses the very same sensor. The D100 is notorious for its soft images - the result of a very strong anti-aliasing filter. After hearing the complaints, Nikon - not really being in control of the manufacture of the sensors and, thus, without sufficient internal resources to affect a redesign had it wanted to, did the only thing it could to improve image sharpness in the D100's successor: weaken the anti-aliasing filter. This did improve the crispness of the images the D70 makes, but it also, sadly, highlights the reason the D100's low pass filter was so strong to begin with: to control the moire and color aliasing inherent in the sensor design.

With it's weaker anti-aliasing filter, I'd say more than a quarter of the images I made with my D70 were so badly marred by moire and/or color aliasing, as to be unusable for prints beyond 5" x 7". And I owned two of them, so if you're wondering if I got a bad sample, I didn't. And the problems I experienced are so well documented by other reviewers, and illustrated in the many sample images available for review online, I have to wonder how and why so many people are buying this over-hyped, under performing digital SLR?

Granted, I am extremely discriminating about image quality, and being digital rather than analog is no excuse for poor image quality. And, yes, the D70 is very handy, fast to use with its superb ergonomics, and has a very nice set of features to keep the average user on the road to discovery for quite some time, in these modern times, getting high quality digital images demands much more of a camera. The sensor and the image processing algorithms used to create a full-color image from its data, are second only to the lens in determining ultimate potential image quality. It is here that the D70 falls well short. Yet, it's just another in a long line of arguable Nikon image quality compromises: the D1X with its odd-shaped rectangular pixels that enhanced horizontal resolution which reducing it vertically; the D100 with its anti-aliasing filter which not only controlled moire and color aliasing at the expense of fine images detail when its competition managed to achieve both from its sensor design; the D2X which is hopelessly low on resolution (especially viewed against its competition) and comparatively noisy.

I've read on Nikon's website, in reference to the moire issues with the D70, that because they are committed to providing the sharpest possible images, they are willing to allow a certain risk (reality?) of moire. Yet, while acknowledging its undesirability, Nikon provides no real solution beyond the laughably ineffective Color Moire Reduction function of their hideously clunky, buggy Nikon Capture bloatware, instead leaving the user to rely on equally ineffective third-party tools to deal with the problem they created. I don't know about you, but to me, this seems contradictory to their much-ballyhooed Total Image Quality marketing spiel, apparently designed to seduce amateurs into the Nikon system with promises of image quality, which thus far, has only really been seriously approached by a single, "pro"- priced product: the D2x.

No, the D70 isn't a great camera. But it IS a triumph of marketing for Nikon.

Kudos?

Nikon D70 - I use this camera profesionally for wedding photography and it doesn't disappoint my clients at all. The colours are natural (Canons are overblown). Metering is slightly overexposed (1/2 a stop maybe) but is easilly adjusted.

If you are used to SLR's generallly this camera will not disappoint. Turn on time is instant and there is no shutter lag at all.

I have never run the batteries down despite usually taking 300 to 400 images at a wedding.