Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera Body Only

Picture quality
The D70's picture quality is as good as the D100 and better than the D1X or the D2H (though it will be surpassed when the D2X is released in January 2005). As well as being 6 Mega Pixel, when shooting in RAW format you get 12 bit depth and the ability to change white balance and exposure after the event. If you are using Photoshop CS or Nikon Capture, there are many more final adjustments direct from RAW.

Speed
One of the main differences between the D100 or D70 and the D1x and D2h is speed. The D1x and D2h have rapid Firewire while the D70 and D100 have slower USB2. On the other hand, if your computer isn't a Sony or an Apple Macintosh, it's quite possible that you don't have a Firewire port anyway. The D1x and D2h also shoot quicker and take more shots before their buffers are filled up and you have to wait. On the other hand, the D70 is still pretty fast, and is actually faster than the D100 when shooting compressed RAW.

Features
The D70 really comes into its own on features. As well as full Manual, Aperture and Shutter priority, and Programme, it has seven different pre-programmed modes including night-time portrait, night-time landscape, and full hand-holding auto. The Auto setting even pops up the flash when it thinks you don't have enough light. Annoying if you are a serious photographer in a serious mood, but great for the beginner or when you just have to get the shot and don't have much time to think about it. It has all the features of the D100 except the extended ISO settings Hi-1 and Hi-2. It's also got some very nice extras like automatically recognising when you are photographing in portrait format and rotating the picture accordingly.

On the other hand, the D70 doesn't have any of the high-end features like GPS compatibility or wireless linking that the D2h offers, Nikon very accurately having guessed that if you need someone to tell you when to use a flash, you won't be covering major sporting or news events.

Weight
At just more than half a kilo without the lens, low weight is the D70s strongest feature. The flip side of this is that, unlike it's pricier cousins, the D70 doesn't have a metal frame. It's probably not such a good choice then if you're thinking of the more rugged end of amateur or professional use.

Who is it for?
At more than £600, this clearly isn't going to be a first camera for anyone. If you don't have much Nikon glass on your shelf already, you would do well to at least compare the D70 with the equivalent offerings from Canon, Sigma and Fuji. Although Nikon has been regarded as the choice of the professional for more than thirty years, Canon equipment today is equally good. Although I've never seen a professional turn up with a Sigma or a Fuji camera, a lot of the photographers I work with are turning up with Sigma as well as Nikon lenses.

In my opinion, three kinds of people will want to take a good look at the D70.

Serious enthusiasts will find the D70 an attractively priced entry-level to Nikon Digital SLR - especially if they already own a substantial investment in Nikon glass.

Professionals who want a second body in the bag will appreciate the light weight and low price tag - although carrying a second body is nowhere near as obligatory as it was when I started twenty years ago.

There's one other group which is often overlooked. A lot of people take photographs today as part of their paid jobs who aren't and never will be 'professional photographers'. This is an ideal camera for a press officer or a journalist - light enough not to be a burden, clever enough to look after the technical side of things, flexible enough for advanced work where time and training allow.

Lenses
Nikon package this body with a number of lens options, the most common of which are the 18-70 DX and the 28-80 AF G. When choosing a lens, you need to remember that Nikon digital SLRs effectively multiply the focal length by 1.5, so that 18-70 is the equivalent of 27-105 for 35 mm film, and 28-80 becomes 45 to 120. More importantly, though, Nikon make various ranges of lenses for different sections of the market, and neither of these packaged lenses are ones you will necessarily want to live with. A better choice is the higher quality 18-35 ED, which is available with the kit although harder to find. If you are buying the body, you might be better off choosing the 12-24 DX ultra wide, the 35mm f2, and something longer that suits your budget, your requirements, and your willingness to cart the huge masses of glass around that characterise Nikon premium zoom lenses.

Recommendation: if you are a Nikon owning enthusiast, a professional photographer who needs a backup body, or you need to take pictures for your job but don't want to dedicate your life to the art of the image, then you won't regret getting the D70.

The performance of this camera is overwhelmingly good. Here are some highlights:
-great colour and image clarity.
-pretty good noise performance (though fractionally less good than some Canon bodies in some situations)
-ready to shoot as soon as you switch on, it's instant. switching off likewise.
-Pretty good frame rate at 3fps for the money. The buffer is big enough to shoot a good number of photos quickly even if you're CF card is a slow type.
-Fantastic battery life.
-intuitive controls.
-great build quality and handling. (may be plastic but honestly it feels very solid and it's quite robust)
-18-70ED DX kit lens gives great image quality for the money and covers good useful range of focal lengths. To get any better you need to spend big money on lenses.
-many photographic controls like flash compensation that some other cameras (such as EOS 300D) don't offer.
-Can do cool infrared photography with the right filter and custom WB setting.

Basically everything is right about this camera, except for the following things, but i'd buy it again with no second thoughts. I still give it 5 stars because it is such a huge improvement over other digicams in it's price range.

-viewfinder is a bit small (but not really a big problem)
-changing focus from continuous to single-servo requires menu fiddling, i'd like it to be in the M/A switch like more expensive bodies.
-Won't work with older D-TTL flashes such as SB-50DX (though some say D-TTL won't be missed!)
-DoF preview button is in a stupid place
-no ISO or WB info in the viewfinder. Easy to leave in wrong setting and mess up pictures with excessive noise or wrong WB used in previous shots.
-button overloading can cause confusion, eg trying to change ISO for the next shot when the menu or image review is shown on the rear LCD means you change to multi-thumbnail view instead
-'vari programs' ie automatic modes for portrait or landscape etc don't give a strong enough effect. (eg doesn't use wide enough aperture for portrait, doesn't use small enoguh for landscape) They also lock almost all camera settings (especiallu frustrating with WB, see below). This makes them useless to anyone but a complete beginner, and they don't produce as good results as they could. Nice idea, but it's time Nikon sorted out the implementation. This is true for all Nikon SLRs that have them IMHO.
-default WB (white balance) settings are too cold, and auto produces horribly coloured, unpredictable results. You need to learn to use the manual settings, once you have this figured though, results are great. I use cloudy -2 for almost all outdoor photography, flash for flash (duh!) and usually custom or incandescent (bit too warm still) for indoors.
-usb transfer is slow (USB 1.1 speed), but you want to use a card reader anyway to save battery.
-Supplied 'picture project' software is complete junk that patronises you. Go to Nikon's website and download Nikon View, which is far superior.