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Reviews
In overall layout the D70 looks almost exactly like its sister, with all controls in the same places as on the D100. This makes moving back and forth between the two cameras a snap and gives the user no learning curve at all. Camera settings not controlled by the buttons and dials on the body are set on a series of four menus. The D70 menus are great. All of the icons and text are big and easy to read, and this makes setting just about anything very quick and easy. The LDC monitor is bright enough to easily see the menus outdoors in just about anything except bright, direct sun. I never had any problem seeing the menus by just turning and shading the camera with my shadow in the few cases when the outdoor light was too bright. I was also able to easily preview images.
Is
the D70 less noisy at higher ISO settings? Yes, it does seem to
be. I took some photographs in �available dark� inside a blacksmith�s
shop where the only light was from his fire and the glowing metal.
I shot these at ISO Among its other features, I was also delighted to find that the Nikon D70 offers automatic image rotation, a feature all digital cameras ought to have. I have spent literally hours of my time in Photoshop CS rotating single and groups of images to get everything in the right orientation. That�s time I�d rather use for other, more creative things.
One difference with the D100 caught me by surprise when I made my first landscape shots with the D70. In photos where there was lots of sky the Matrix metering system was overly influenced by the sky and produced significant under exposure in the rest of the image. I had to learn to manually compensate my images when I had a lot of sky in the photo, a nuisance and a problem I have not ever had with the D100. Because of this working with the D70 requires a more thoughtful approach to exposure. Of course if you have Photoshop or a similar image manipulation software app on your computer you can correct this after the fact, and I did that to a lot of images that I made without remembering to compensate the exposure. Were there other things I didn�t like about the Nikon D70? I�d be less than honest if I claimed otherwise. I do a lot of my photography as verticals and cameras without vertical shutter release buttons or a way to add them are a turnoff for me. Immediately after getting the D100 my first investment was the Multi Function Battery Pack and an extra battery, and I was very disappointed to learn that no such battery pack/grip was offered for the D70. Not only do I require a vertical grip but I frequently operate cameras by remote control using PocketWizard radio remote control, and there is no way to couple these to the D70. Those are special needs of mine, though, and I suspect they won�t impact the vast majority of the target audience for the D70 at all. The Nikon D7 comes with the 18-70mm f3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor lens when bought as a kit. I didn�t have particularly high expectations for this lens since kit lenses are usually cheap and low spec. I decided that an accurate review required that I use this lens for all of the photos taken during the review process, and I have to say that I was astonished that a low-priced lens like this could produce such great image quality. After viewing my first few shots in Photoshop I lost all concern about this lens and happily shot away with it for the rest of the article. The 18 � 70 mm focal length works out to about 27 � 105 mm in 35mm film camera terms, a very useful range. I wished a few times for a bit more reach on the long end, but it was never a major problem. Add a 70 � 210 or similar and you�d have a two-lens outfit, which could do just about anything. I was a little concerned initially that the camera might have trouble focusing on some subjects, particularly at the long end where the aperture drops to f/4.5, but the D70 just jumped into focus on every subject I tried it on. I�d heard reports that this lens showed vignetting at the 18mm end, so I made a point of making a lot of photos with the lens set to 18mm and looked for this in the images. I simply did not see it at all. There is some drop-off in illumination from center to corners, but it is actually less in my estimation than I have seen in many high quality wide angle lenses, and certainly is not excessive. Since no lens should ever be used without a proper lens hood, I was very pleased to find that Nikon has included the proper lens hood in the lens kit. �Bob
Shell
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Nikon
D70 Digital SLR
I�ve
now had over a month to work with the D70 and can say without question
that I am very impressed with this new and very reasonably priced
DSLR. Nikon certainly learned from the D100 and I suspect they incorporated
a lot of the feedback on the D100 into the D70. The first improvement
over the D100 that I put to use is the increased flash synch speed
of up to 1/500 second, more than twice as fast as the D100�s 1/180
flash synch limit. This makes fill flash shooting outdoors in bright
sun much less likely to lead to overexposed images, a problem I
had several times with the D100. Yes, there is a warning in the
viewfinder, but in a rapid-paced photo session it is all too easy
to concentrate only on the subject and miss the warning. 
Although
the D70 is smaller than the D100 and a bit lighter, it still fit
my hands very well and was well balanced even with a long lens.
It measures 5.5 x 4.4 x 3.1 inches as opposed to 5.7 x 4.6 x 3.2
inches for the D100, and weighs in at 21 ounces, 3.7 ounces lighter
than the D100. Small differences can mean a lot when you are talking
of ergonomics, so I was pleased to find the D70 still felt so perfect
in my hands. Also like the D100, the D70 was designed to look and
handle just like a 35mm film SLR, territory almost all of us are
well familiar with. Although it uses a much less expensive mirror
system in its viewfinder, I did not find the view through the D70
much dimmer than the D100 with its pentaprism. When manufacturers
first started using mirror systems to cut cost, size and weight,
the view was all too often dismally dim, so it is nice to see that
Nikon has managed to take advantage of mirrors without compromising
viewing quality. 
I�d
heard it said that the D70 produced better color than the D100,
but side-by-side shots did not bear this rumor out. Both cameras
produce great color, so there really wasn�t much of a need for improvement.
Personally, I like a warmer color balance in my photos, so rather
than using the auto white balance setting I set the white balance
for cloudy which warms up the images nicely in most types of light.
I have found that I do not like the auto white balance on digital
cameras, at least in all of the ones I have tested. The reason is
that most cameras give you great results and really accurate color
when zoomed out for a shot that includes your main subject and lots
of surroundings, but when you zoom in for that tight portrait or
close-up the camera is only measuring from the subject and this
usually throws the colors way off. Try it yourself with your favorite
digital camera and you�ll see why I stick with preset white balance
settings or custom white balance. 
equivalents
from 400 to 1600 with the long exposure noise reduction turned off
at shutter speeds as low as 1/8 second with the camera braced against
a beam in the building, and found the digital noise minimal in all
of my photos. Like other Nikon DSLRs the lowest ISO equivalent on
the D70 is 200. I really do wish these cameras went down to 100,
but that is only because my many years of working with ISO 100 film
has me seeing things in ISO 100 terms, and I know the correct exposure
for ISO 100 in almost all situations.