Nikon D70s - Excellent entry level prosumer DSLR!

INTRODUCTION:

This review will be edited and re-edited over time as I become use to, and learn more about the D70s. I purchased the camera / lens combination - but this review will apply to the body only variant as well.

BODY:

The D70s is a Digital Single Lens Reflex (D-SLR) camera which looks to the average person as simply a 35mm camera. It has all the standard trappings of a 35mm camera including eyelets to connect neckstraps, a mode dial to select any number of pre-set automated features, an accessory shoe to attach a flash unit, a power switch to turn the camera on and off, a focal plan mark, remote cord connector, lens release button, depth of field preview button, viewfinder and diopter adjustment. But, that is pretty much where the standard SLR features end and the power of digital begins.

From a D-SLR standpoint this camera just about has it all. The body houses command and sub-command dials which allow the user to make selection refinements depending upon the current menu option, a USB port to connect to your computer, a Bracketing selection button, ISO selection button, White Balance selection button, Image quality selection button, Playback zoom button, Focus Selector lock, and a control panel that – at a glance provides an almost unlimited amount of information about the camera settings and state.

LENS

The stock lens included with this kit is the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm 3.5-4.5G ED DX. While a stock lens, it performs quite well. Despite reports of visible linear distortion in the kit lens at both wide and telephoto use, - I have discovered no such distortion after shooting over 2000 images. That being said - a full disclaimer is probably necessary - I am not a pro shooter nor have I used Nikkors pro glass. I find that the lens focuses quickly, accurately and delivers a clear, clean shot. The only complaint I have is in regards to speed. I would love to have a faster lens, but until I really get into shooting and making money at it, the faster f/2.8 Nikkor pro lens is simply out of my reach at $1,250. Besides, at a street price of about 1/3 the pro lens and half the weight - it's really a great lens. And for those not familiar with the delta, this lens equates to approximately 27mm - 105mm when shooting with a standard 35mm SLR. This all has to do with the way Digital SLRs capture the image, not necessarily the lens. Suffice to say that a 1.5 ratio is applied when calculating a DSLR to Film SLR lense equivilance.

VIEWFINDER

It has been a number of years since I worked with 35mm bodies, so it was nice to discover that Nikon had included with this unit an adjustable diopter viewfinder. With this unit, those of us with glasses don't necessarily need to go out an purchase diopter modifiers – just simply slide the modifier up or down. The unit included with the basic camera body has a range of -1.6m to +0.5m with additional corrective lenses available separately to provide -5m to +3m correction.

The Viewfinder display has also advanced quite a bit from my 35mm days. This unit houses an 8mm reference circle for center-weighted metering and the capability to display a grid, for those of use who haven't quite yet got the rule of thirds down. Think of it like a tick-tack-toe layed across your display.

The display also has focus brackets (areas) both inside and outside of the center-weight display. When using auto-focus, the focus bracket used to focus the lens highlights so that you know exactly where the center of focus is. If the camera has focused on the wrong point, you can release the shutter button, re-frame the image and depress the shutter button slightly to regain proper focus, then without releasing the shutter button, reframe your picture and shoot the frame by depressing the shutter release the rest of the way.

Across the bottom of the viewfinder display is a wide array of information. From left to right -

A focus indicator. This is a small circular led which, if the subject is in focus, will light and emit a small beep. If the LED flashes, then the camera was unable to achieve proper focus.

Focus Area / AF Area Mode Indicator. The D70s provides five focus areas to cover a wide area of the frame. The settings for this LED include Single Area, Dynamic Area and Closest Subject. The focus area can be manually selected if closest-subject priority is not selected in the auto focus mode. The closest-subject priority is automatically selected by the camera when the mode is set to Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Landscape or Night Portrait modes.

Auto exposure lock / FV Lock indicator. This is a pretty detailed subject to get into. Let's say that when you compose the frame you want, either the focus or light reading is not properly set for what you want to shoot. You simply release the shutter and recompose the image with the subject centered. Now, you depress the shutter button about half way in order to focus and take your light reading. With the shutter button still depressed, you use your thumb to depress the AE lock button, recompose the frame and shoot the image. Once you depress the AE button, the AE indicator will light in the viewfinder.

The shutter speed and f-stop indicators appear next. Now, it's the shutter speed which has taken me a little time to get use to and here is why – they use a 0 that is about half the size of the other numbers (1-9) in the shutter speed display. For example, the shutter speed of say 1/25th of a second would be displayed as 25. Fine. But a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second would display as 25 with a half size zero at the end. So, mentally, it just looks – well – wrong. Perhaps it's just something I need to get use to, but I always have to stop and take a second look at the display. Something in my mind tells me that the reading is (say in the example above) saying 1/25th when I know it should be well above that – and it forces me to pause. Again – probably just something I need to get use to.
Next is the Electronic Analog / Exposure Compensation indicator. This is your standard mathematical type line indicator with zero (0) in the center, a plus sign on the left and a minus sign on the right with a couple signal-type bars between. When manually setting the camera or exposure compensation, bars illuminate to indicate the exposure level (plus or minus) over the light reading.

Next are the flash compensation, exposure compensation and ISO Auto indicators. These three indicators appear stacked atop of eachother and indicate whether or not the settings are used (either on or not).

To the right of these are the number of exposures remaining on the current memory card with estimated numbers displayed up to 999 and 1.0k displayed if 1000 or more images remain.

Finally is the flash ready indicator.

All of this information, and more, is also displayed next to the shutter release button in the control panel.

Across the top of the camera body is the Mode Selector dial, Accessory shoe, Control Panel, On/Off Switch, Shutter Release, Exposure Compensation, Meter Mode selector, LCD Illuminator and Focal Plane mark.

The mode dial has 11 settings broken down into two groups, the Digital Vari-Programs and the Exposure Modes.

Among the Digital Vari-Programs are: Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-Up, Sports, Night Landscape and Night Portrait. Each of these modes pre-set the camera shutter and f-stop (aperture) to modes designed to produce the best photograph for the subject (vari-program) selected.

Among the Exposure Modes are Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Auto Multi-Program.

In manual mode the user has full control of the shutter speed and aperture. Aperture-priority allows the user to set the aperture and have the camera automatically set the shutter speed. Shutter priority is the opposite with user selected shutter speed and camera set aperture. Multi-program, perhaps it's just me, but I don't understand the difference her between the Multi-program and fully automatic. So I will leave that to someone else to discuss, at least until I have had more time with the unit.


The D70s is basically an upgrade from the earlier D70 model. It features fully automatic capability as well as a number of pre-set selections for such shoots including Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Night Landscape, Sports and Night Portrait.

It also has the capability to utilize a number of memory cards including CF and Microdrive. I found this to be particularly appealing as I have a number of these cards lying around from older cameras.

The D70s is very similar to it's older sibling the D70. It has a 6.1 megapixel format, shoots RAW, JPEG and another selection for combined RAW + JPEG of the same image. It has a very fast power up sequence - less than 1 second and a pretty fast button to shutter response time.

The D70s uses the proprietary Nikon EN-EL3a battery - but check out the Nikon website. Earlier versions of this batter have been recalled. If you plan on purchasing the D70s - make sure that you don't get a recalled battery. The camera can shoot a large number of images on a single charge. I don't recall the exact specification, but I clicked off almost 1,000 images in various modes before the battery required a re-charge.

The body houses a 2 inch LCD monitor and the shutter has a 3fps for 144 consecutive shots. However, this requires certain settings and media.

The camera also includes a pop-up flash unit which works fairly well out to about 15 feet. This flash also functions as a commander unit for the SB-600 (see accessories).

There are a number of accessories available for the D70s including the SB-600 and SB-800 flash units. These are highly adjustable flash units which can be mounted on the camera itself via the accessory (NOT HOT) shoe, and can be controlled remotely. This works very well if you want to have a multiple light source environment. The on camera flash functions as the command unit for the SB-600, and the SB-800 can also be used as the command unit for multiple slave unit combinations. The only thing I don't like about this scenario is that there isn't a way to have the SB-600 or SB-800 work in a slave configuration without having a master flash unit fire from the camera.

Well, thats not exactly true either. You can use the SC-27 or SC-28 remotes (wired) which provide about 3 feet of distance. The main difference being that the SC-28 comes with IR focus capability.

Also, Nikon just announced the SU-800, a master control unit which attaches to the D70s and fires slave flash units. The nice thing here is that the SU-800 is not, in itself a flash, only a control unit. Excellent for that 90 degree side lighting scenario that I am looking for.

I have been field testing this unit for a couple months now, have shot over two thousand images and can't find anything wrong with it.

If you use the Nikon digital lenses, you have full auto capability, older lenses require manual intervention of course.

The camera comes with some software - but as a Mac user I preferred iPhoto, until I purchased Aperture.

The images all contain NITF data - but this camera does not have the ability to record GPS information, something I really like to have in order to automatically record where I was during the shoot. The only shortfall I can find. I understand that the newer D200 is suppose to supply that.

You can use the link to my home page to navigate to some images shot with this camera, or you can go directly to http://www.gilsstills.com. All the images there have the metadata posted, so you can easily see which frames were shot with the D70s.

Updates to follow as I use the camera more.

Above the viewfinder, as with most 35mm cameras, is the accessory shoe. It should be noted that this is an accessory shoe and NOT a hot shoe. The differences are subtle, basically, you should only connect Nikon flash units (called speedlights) to this unit. The D70s allows connection of a line of SB units. The user guide makes specific warnings about connecting other devices, especially devices which exceed 250V (negative or positive), which will damage the camera.

Surrounding the accessory shoe is the built-in speedlight. This flash provides minimal flash capability with a stated rating of 15/49 at ISO 200, and 11/36 at ISO 100. The speedlight automatically pops-up when the camera light meter deems necessary, unless you have turned off the auto-flash selector.

The Meter Mode selector allows the user to select from three types of metering; 3D Color Matrix, Center-Weighted or Spot.

In 3DCM exposure is based on information from all areas of the frame, but is only available when using type G or type D lenses.

Center-Weighted metering provides the greatest weight to the area in the center of the frame.

Spot metering meters about 1% of the frame in the center.

Next to the Metering Mode Selector is the Exposure Compenstation Button. Pressing this button and then rotating the command dial allows the user to selecting varying degrees of exposure compensation from -5 to +5EV in increments of 1/3 EV. Changes of course are reflected both in the Viewfinder and Control Panel.

The back of the camera body is where it gets really busy. In addition to the monitor, the user has selectors for Exposure Bracketing, Shooting Modes, AE/AF lock, Main Command dial, Playback button, Menu Button, ISO Sensitivity Button, White Balance Button, Enter Button, Delete Button, Focus Selector Lock, Multi-Selector (4-way) dial, the Memory Card Slot and Memory Activity LED. Additionally, many of these buttons serve multiple purposes.

The camera access door is on the bottom of the camera battery. This model of Nikon does not have a battery grip which provides extra shooting capability, but there are after market speed grips being produced which provide the option of supporting two Nikon EN-EL3 batteries thereby doubling the shooting capacity of the D70s.

INITIALIZATION

Basic setup of the unit is fairly simple and straight forward. After charging and installing the battery (a couple of hours to charge) the user selects a language, sets the date and time and you are done.

MOUNTING LENSES

The D70s utilizes the standard Nikon lens mount. Turn off the camera, align the dots and spin the lens counter-clockwise into place until it locks. To detach the lens press the lens release (next to the lense barrell on the camera body) and twist the lens clockwise until it releases.

MEMORY CARDS

One very nice feature of the D70s is its wide support here. The D70s supports a number of memory card formats, however various shooting capabilities are enhanced by the higher end cards. The D70s supports Compact Flash Type I, Compact Flash Type II as well as Microdrive cards. However, the higher speed shooting capability will only bee achieved when using specific camera settings and specific lighting conditions combined with SanDisk Extreme III or Lexar 80x CF cards. While these cards are available in high capacity models (up to 4GB) price places them out of my reach.

I settled on a 1GB Lexar 80x card for speed and a 6GB Hitachi Microdrive for capacity. If my finances can ever afford it I may opt for a 4GB 80x Lexar and one of those mini portable DVD burners or even a photowallet - if those are still available. Such a combination would seem perfect for long shoots where you didn't want to take a lot of heavy eaquipment - say on a vacation.

IMAGE QUALITY SETTINGS

Among the many menu options, the user will probably be most interested in the Image Quality setting. The D70s provides the user with five settings, each of the JPEG settings allows for 3 image size settings (Large Medium and Small):

NEF (RAW). The Nikon Electronic image Format is a raw format that records 12-bit CCD data saved directly into the card in this compressed format. Images shot in this mode are about 5MB in size and using a 256MB card provides the user with about 44 images and a buffer capacity of 4.

JPEG FINE. In this mode the camera uses a compression ratio of 1:4 and produces images of 3,008 x 2,000 pixels. This mode produces images about 2.9MB, 1.6MB or 0.8MB. Our 256MB card will store 73, 130 or 279 images with a buffer size of 9, 7 and 19 (L, M and S respectively).

JPEG NORMAL. In this mode the camera uses a compression ratio of 1:8, producing images of 2,240 x 1,488 pixels. Using our 256MB card for measurement, the image sizes are 1.5MB, 0.8MB and 0.4MB. Card capacity is 144, 253 and 528 and Buffer Capacity is 12, 7 and 27 (L, M, S).

JPEG BASIC. In this mode the camera produces an image compressed at 1:16 with 1,504 x 1,000 pixels. Card capacity of 279, 481, and 950. Buffer capacity of 19, 7 and 49.

Finally, there is the NEF + JPEG BASIC. I don't know why anyone would shoot this mode, but it results in both a RAW image and JPEG BASIC image of the same frame.

When using either of the NEF settings, the image size is fixed with no user selection available.

All of this information comes into play when using the continuous shooting mode. In this mode, Nikon advertises a 3 FPS capability for a maximum of 144 frames. In order to achieve this, the user must bee shooting in Manual Mode, with Manual Focus, and a shutter speed of 1/250th or faster. The user must also be using the 80x CF card and to achieve the greatest number of shoots, the user must also be shooting Basic Quality + Small Size.

Finally, the detail in the frame itself. For example, a photo of a plain white sheet of paper will be a different size than a photo of a forest of trees. There is simply different data stored and more of it despite the settings of the camera.

Once the camera buffer fills, it must be written to the memory card before any more pictures can be taken. Writing time varies depending upon the speed of the card and how full the buffer was at the time you stopped (or it stopped you) shooting.

ACCESSORIES

There are a number of accessories available for the D70s including the SB-600 and SB-800 flash units. These are highly adjustable flash units which can be mounted on the camera itself via the accessory (NOT HOT) shoe, and can be controlled remotely. This works very well if you want to have a multiple light source environment. The on camera flash functions as the command unit for the SB-600, and the SB-800 can also be used as the command unit for multiple slave unit combinations. The only thing I don't like about this scenario is that there isn't a way to have the SB-600 or SB-800 work in a slave configuration without having a master flash unit fire from the camera.

Well, thats not exactly true either. You can use the SC-27 or SC-28 remotes (wired) which provide about 3 feet of distance. The main difference being that the SC-28 comes with IR focus capability.

Also, Nikon just announced the SU-800, a master control unit which attaches to the D70s and fires slave flash units. The nice thing here is that the SU-800 is not, in itself a flash, only a control unit. Excellent for that 90 degree side lighting scenario that I am looking for.

FIELD USE / TESTING

I have been field testing this unit for a couple months now, have shot over a thousand images and can't find anything wrong with it. I have read a couple articles in which the authors describe artifacts around the image edges. Judge for yourself at my website http://www.gilsstills.com.


LENS COMPATABILITY

If you use the Nikon digital lenses, you have full auto capability, older lenses require manual intervention of course. And, while Nikon still uses standard 35mm Focal Lengths to identify their lenses, the user must mentally correct that values for Digital at about 1.5:1 – so a 70mm lens (35mm SLR) equates out to about 100mm (D-SLR). Also, older lenses will not provide the same functionality as the new digital lenses.

SOFTWARE

The camera comes with some software - but as a Mac user I preferred iPhoto, until I purchased Aperture.

IMAGE FORMAT

The images all contain NITF data - but this camera does not have the ability to record GPS information, something I really like to have in order to automatically record where I was during the shoot. The only shortfall I can find. I understand that the newer D200 is suppose to supply that.

You can use the link to my home page to navigate to some images shot with this camera, or you can go directly to http://www.gilsstills.com. All the images there have the metadata posted, so you can easily see which frames were shot with the D70s.

Updates to follow as I use the camera more.