Nikon D70 Review - Great Entry Level Digital SLR

There are basically three types of photographers in the world, those who use and love Nikon, those who use and love Canon, and those who rather not get into an argument that has no end.

Well I am fan of Nikon, I own a Nikon F5 film camera and have never really been impressed with digital.(not enought pixel depth) But for convience and my scrapbooking wife, I finally made the jump to a Digital SLR (DSLR). The great thing about any SLR is that you can change the lens, so when my wife got the D70 she had a lot of lenses to chose from from my collection. Nikon developed the F-Mount in the 1960s and pretty much everything since then works on this camera. The D70 is based on the Nikon N80 body which is a strong plastic body covered with a rubber grip. This is nice because if you have ever picked up a Pro level Nikon/Canon made with a magnesium shell, the first thing that comes to mind is it weights like a TANK!!!

I have played with the Canon 300D Digital Rebel, had the D70 near by to compare and one of the things that I kept noticing is that the Rebel felt cheaper in quality and design. The D70 would quickly focus on an object, the Rebel seemed to flounder on white on white. It also seemed that the Nikon had more metering options (Three), the Rebel only had a default AUTO option. Also one area that I like to use is EV compensation values, the Canon is from -2 EV to +2EV. However the Nikon is -5 EV to +5 EV, a better range than my F5! Battery life is something that has almost shocked me on the D70, I think I have recharged the battery two or three times and one or two of those times it was because I did not believe it was still nearly fully charged. My wife has taken around 2000 shots in the four months since purchasing it. I do know that if you use the camera to transfer images to a computer, it will drain it quickly.

I would HIGHLY recommend the D70 Outfit, the only difference between the Body Only and Outfit is the superior lens that comes in the kit. It is a 18-70mm F/4-5.6 Nikkor lens designed to work with Digital SLRs, it is made with Nikon's very best ED glass. Most of the ED lenses Nikon produces are the best lens you can buy for ANY camera. Lenses made with ED glass are usually the most expensive lenses you can buy, Nikon is really almost giving away this lens. It lists at over $550 MSRP and is a great lens to have.

So in the four months we have owned this camera, we have been to two weddings and a trip to London and Kuala Lumpur. It has held up to the Nikon name of quality and durability, my F5 is also getting a little lonely but I am sure I will go back to it soon. The only thing that I might wish would be diffent is I wished it had a ISO 100 mode, but the broad range of the other features make up for any missed features.

If you already own Canon SLR lenses, it probably would be best to stick with Canon and the Digital Rebel; but then again there is always eBay. But anyone who is buying their first SLR/DSLR this is by far the best reviewed camera in its class. Of course if you already own Nikon SLR Lenses, I recommend the Nikon D2X AND a D70 for when you are out of the studio. ;)

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