Are you looking for a professional grade digital SLR? Well, the Nikon D70 should certainly be in your list of potential cameras to get. Amongst all the digital SLR cameras out there, the Nikon D70 offers the best combination of design, optics, resolution and user controls. In short, it comes very close to what you want in an ideal digital SLR. This Nikon D70 review will run through the features of this amazing camera and also highlight its shortcomings.

The Nikon D70 digital SLR camera
 

Design and Construction

Measuring approximately 5.5” by 4.4” by 3.1” (WHD), the Nikon D70 has a solid construction and feels extremely professional. It weighs a hefty 21 ounces. Comparing it to a Canon Digital Rebel (it’s direct competitor), I could feel that the D70 is heavier and more substantial. There’s also a good non-slip hand grip to make sure you don’t lose grip.
 

Optics and Resolution

The Nikon D70 has an image resolution of 6.1 megapixels. This means pictures can go up to 3008 x 2000 pixels, which is enough for producing almost any size print. The included 18-70 mm Nikkor lens allows a 3.8x optical zoom, which should carry you through a variety of shooting conditions. 

To take commercial grade pictures, you need to reproduce colors vividly and clearly. The Nikon D70 has an advanced system LSI processor to do just that. Colors produced from the camera’s CCD sensor are amazing. For the best performance, the optical system in the D70 also has wonderful features like optimized auto white balance, auto tone and color control. These diminish digital noise in long exposure shots for cleaner overall results.
 

User Controls

I found the user menus in the Nikon D70 to be logical and intuitively organized. The 1.8 inch LCD screen is bright and clear. The controls are very user-friendly, with oversized control panels, jog switches, and mode dials. Analog controls are also found on the camera for a variety of functions.

The Nikon D70 offers many, many manual control options. We’re talking about aperture and shutter priority modes, manual exposure and adjustable exposure bracketing functions. There are also three metering and focusing modes, while the shutter speed can be set as high as 1/8000 second – great for freezing action shots.
 

Storage and Transfer

Storage of photos is made easy with the Nikon D70’s support for CompactFlash memory cards (both Type I and Type II). The camera is also compatible with MicroDrives, so you can throw in a hefty IBM 1GB microdrive if you need extra space.

Transferring loads of pictures from the D70 to your PC is a breeze with its support for USB 1.1 connectivity. The lack of USB 2.0 support was a little surprising though –hopefully Nikon will include this in the next version of this camera.
 

Battery Life

What about the Nikon D70’s battery life? The camera is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack or three CR2 lithium batteries. The battery life is, in a word, amazing. Even after going through a thousand photos, the battery remained at full power.
 

Shortcomings

Despite it’s wonderful features and stellar performance, the Nikon D70 is not short of some quirks. Let’s see what they are:

• Lack of an ISO display through the viewfinder. You have no idea what the ISO is when framing a shot.
  

• The bundled software is pretty bad. For such an excellent camera, I thought more decent software would be included.

Still, these are small issues. The great feature set and performance of the Nikon D70 far outweigh these problems.
 

Conclusion

With its top-notch performance and high resolution at an affordable price, the Nikon D70 digital SLR is one of the best selling digital SLRs in the market. The easy-to-use features cater to a wide range of users – from novices to experienced photo enthusiasts. So be sure to consider this camera when you’re shopping for that digital SLR!

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