Nikon D70 Review

Overall Rating

Very close to 35mm feel, instant-on, shutter fires immediately when pushed; kit includes a wide range very quiet lens; teriffic fill-in flash

After getting used to digital rangefinders, the camera's mirror is loud and can cause camera shake at low speeds

I've had a Nikon F100 for many years, but was using it somewhat less than my two digital rangefinders (first an Olympus 3040 and then a Pentax Optio-S). I was waiting for a new Nikon that would use my existing set of lenses. Reviews of the Nikon D100 were mixed, and the other Nikon SLRs were VERY expensive.

In addition to the Nikon D70 Digital camera-kit, I bought a second battery (it's not clear that I needed it, but I like to have two; the camera comes with a battery holder, so that you can go to a camera store and buy 3 conventional LI-Ion batteries instead if you have to. I figured that they would be so expensive that the rechargeable would pay for itself in one or two uses. I also got a 40X 1 Gigabit card. According to the information window on the D70, it will hold 291 photos at highest resolution, saved as JPEGS.

The D70 has that GREAT Nikon feel in your hands. The controls work very much like the D100; you can put in on the "P" setting, and use the rear dial near the shutter to change the F stop/shutter speed, or you can put it in one of the other traditional modes -- M, S, or A. Or, you can put it into "Auto", and then it takes photos almost on its own, including popping up the included flash. If you are an experienced SLR user, you may prefer to use the P setting, rather than "Auto", to assure that the flash isn't popping up for half of your photos. In the P mode, it behaved just like my F100, but with the added convenience of a built in flash if I wanted it.

The shutter has no lag whatsoever, as near as I can tell, and the "kit" lens, an 18-70 (that translates to 27 to 105 in 35mm terms) AF-S model. Although it is only an F3.5-4.5, it is small and convenient, and it focuses VERY quickly and quietly.

The buttons on the back of the camera are very intuitive. I was able to take photos straight out of the box, make a wide varitey of adjustments, and view them, including technical information and graphs. Still, it pays to read the manual on this camera, especially to set the controls the way you like them. Some of the menu features are "hidden", unless you turn them on, and you won't know that without reading the manual.

Picture quality is excellent. You can see the texture of skin and the detail of hair in a way that was largely lost in much of my digital photography.

Of course, as compared to "cheaper" digital cameras, this has much faster lenses, with the ability to control depth of field -- you can actually blur the background when you take portraits, something that had to be done artificially (with software) with my previous digital cameras). My only complaint is that you are aware of the "clunk" of the mirror as you fire the D70's shutter, and some of my handheld photos at 1/20 of a second or so seem ot have a little camera shake, something that I often seemed to avoid with my digital rangefinders. It may be that I simply have to get "back in shape", or I may take to using the flash more.

While the flash is a "head on" design (and I really prefer a bounce), it does a great job on fill-in flash, and it is really convenient. Just remember to use the "P" mode, rather than "Auto" if you don't want it to pop up every time you take a picture in less than perfect light. My Nikon SB-28 worked well in the D70's hot shoe, although it took a little tinkering to figure out the right setting. I'm pretty sure that it does NOT work in TTL mode.

It does not appear that there are any disabled features on the D70, although I guess we'll find that out when they release (if they release) an improved D100. In the meantime, I have been very happy with it!