Overall Product Rating:

Pros: Excellent image quality. Fast response times. Nikon system.
Cons: None - not even the plastic body.

Recommended: Yes
Has Owned Product: 12 Day(s)

Comments:
I have put off buying a digital SLR for four years now waiting for Nikon to get their act together. When the
Canon 10D came out I almost strayed from my Nikon system of lenses, flashes, and other accessories to
Canon. But I waited and waited and at times it was quite frustrating. The D100 came out and I almost made
my move, but I just felt is wasn't the camera for me. The higher end Nikon digitals that followed were the
same -- most were much too expensive to justify buying for my use. Too much money and not enough of
the right features for an advanced amateur photographer. My job calls for producing high quality images for
educational media development and web-based instruction. As a faculty member at a large University, I
need to be able to have a highly dependable, high quality, and flexible digital camera to take with me for
research and teaching purposes. I have bought a number of 35mm Nikon SLR's, lenses and accessories over
the years. I have also bought several Nikon Coolpix digital cameras (Coolpix 5000 and 990), but no high
end SLR digital to take advantage of my Nikon system accessories.

Finally Nikon made its move with the D70. When I first heard of the camera I thought it was an inferior
camera to the D100, given its model number, but outside of losing Nikon's battleship tough metal body, the
camera is far from inferior to the D100. The image quality is far and above any of the Coolpix cameras I
have owned.

The greatest part of this SLR is my ability to use my Nikon lenses again. I had gone from my 35mm SLR's to
digital due to the need to turn around images quickly. I have used the D70 for about three weeks now and it
is a fantastic tool. The image quality is wonderful. I have added the DX Fisheye, which I have used for shots
of equipment controls and photography in tight quarters. The Nikon Capture software offers a conversion
program to change the fisheye shots to a flat image. This works well for most shots -- there are some
limitations. But overall the DX lenses (the Fisheye and the 18-70 that came with the camera) are excellent
lenses for the cost. My 105mm Micro-Nikkor lens works very well on this camera. The macro images are
stunning. The camera features and the large print menu are easy to follow. The large print menu is
especially helpful for vision impaired older folks like myself.

I haven't seen a situation where the camera has failed to take an excellent image. There have
been a few images where I have contributed to poor output, but when I have used the camera the way it was
designed the output is excellent. The response time is more like a 35mm SLR than any digital camera I have
ever used. The ability to fire off multiple shots when bracketing shots or just catching several angles quickly
is excellent. The built-in flash is excellent -- much better than the Coolpix flashes and pretty much better
than my N70 with a similar built in flash. The battery life on this camera is superior to any digital I have
seen. The batteries are large and give you much more shooting capacity than the Coolpix batteries.

I could go on and on about this new camera, but just read the DP Review web site (dpreview.com) and get
the details. I can attest to their points that Nikon has missed few points in this excellent digital SLR.