Nikon D70s Body only

No questioning the Nikon quality..it's robust and solid like it's reputation but not the best buy in it's class for the amateur. I should state at this stage that I'm no professional although I do use the camera to back up my magazine articles so I hope you'll find my views useful.

The D70s is fast and produces great images but you need a good understanding of light and exposure to get the best out of it. To this end I would recommend ...
...The D70 is powered by Nikon EN-EL3 Lithium-Ion battery pack which lasts for ages but note, when it goes, it gives you very little warning so I always carry my charger with me for quick hotel charging. If you spend ages in the field, my advice would be to buy a spare battery.

In short, the D70s is not the simplest of cameras to use; it does have pre set exposures and a fully automatic mode but these can disappoint. However, if you know ... more

No questioning the Nikon quality..it's robust and solid like it's reputation but not the best buy in it's class for the amateur. I should state at this stage that I'm no professional although I do use the camera to back up my magazine articles so I hope you'll find my views useful.

The D70s is fast and produces great images but you need a good understanding of light and exposure to get the best out of it. To this end I would recommend weaning yourself off the automatic functions as soon as possible. I use the camera with a DX AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm for general use and back it up with a 55-200mm for more precise work. One downside of the first lens is that you do get some vignetting at the widest angle - especially with a filter. The camera uses a D lens mount so will take a wide range of other manufacturer lenses. The camera offers three Auto Focus modes with five focus area selections and I found the AF selection button to be easy to use. There's also a useful AF assist light for dark conditions. Apart from the fully automatic exposure option, you have six other pre-set options including Portrait, Landscape, Close up, Sports, Night Landscape and Night Portrait but, again, you'll get the best out of this camera by mastering the manual options which offer both aperture and shutter priority as well as fully manual settings. There is also a flexible auto setting which allows you to play with the cameras automatic settings using the master dial - ie one click to the left or right stops up or down. There is also a great bracketing feature which offers two to three variations over three frames with a simple push of a button.

The LCD screen is small by modern standards at 1.8" and 6.1 megapix is on the low side compared to newer models. It has built in fully automatic speed flash with red-eye reduction but watch the auto function as it pops up at the most unexpected times. It comes with a standard ISO hot shoe. For diverse lighting conditions, you can fiddle with the white balance mode which offers six manual settings in addition to auto and this also has a bracketing function. There is a continuous shooting mode offering three frames per second using JPEG format. There's also a self-timer and remote control mode. You can also shoot in RAW mode with JPEG formats in basic, normal and fine.

The D70 is powered by Nikon EN-EL3 Lithium-Ion battery pack which lasts for ages but note, when it goes, it gives you very little warning so I always carry my charger with me for quick hotel charging. If you spend ages in the field, my advice would be to buy a spare battery.

In short, the D70s is not the simplest of cameras to use; it does have pre set exposures and a fully automatic mode but these can disappoint. However, if you know your stuff then the Nikon is a very decent camera for the money. That said, I can't help but wonder whether I'd have been better gunning for the Canon EOD350 instead. 

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