saskalex
Member
I came to the Nikon D70s after many years of dedicated film photography (Leica, Olympus OM4, Nikon). Comparing my photographs from that era with those I get with the D70s, I find that the 6 megapixels of this camera produce images as good as, or better than, any I have obtained with 35mm film. That goes for resolution, gradation and – even more – for grain and noise, respectively. With ISO 400 film, the highest sensitivity I used, grain is always evident; I have to set the D70s to at least ISO 800 before I can see the equivalent noise, and below that value noise is just not a problem when looking at prints from a normal viewing distance. I therefore conclude that for my needs (8-1/2x11 size prints, rarely 13x19), 6 megapixels are more than adequate. Beyond that, it seems to me that megapixels in a camera are like the horsepower rating of a car engine, a capability hotly discussed but rarely used to the limit.
Build qualiy, convenience, feature set, and image quality of the D70s are, in my view, excellent.
Problems:
I feel the smallish view through the finder is the only functional weakness worth mentioning. One gets used to it, but then picking up an F80 again and looking through the finder is a bit of a shock. This is why I rated Ease of use at 4.5.
A few comments on body design and "styling":
– The neck strap eyelets are not too elegant. They should be recessed into the body as on the Olympus E-500. Also, they are not well placed; the camera tips forward even with the lightest lens mounted.
– The red triangle on the hand grip (added for "brand recognition"?) is superfluous, but at least it does no harm.
– The tacky "wedge" motif on top of the hand grip and on the flash cover, meant to produce a "dynamic" look, is OK for a motorcycle but out of place on a camera, and unworthy of Nikon. (I understand the idea came from an Italian automotive designer.) The wedge point over the sub-command dial gets in the way of the index finger operating the dial.
>> Postscript re Capture NX software, trial edition: abysmally bad.
Build qualiy, convenience, feature set, and image quality of the D70s are, in my view, excellent.
Problems:
I feel the smallish view through the finder is the only functional weakness worth mentioning. One gets used to it, but then picking up an F80 again and looking through the finder is a bit of a shock. This is why I rated Ease of use at 4.5.
A few comments on body design and "styling":
– The neck strap eyelets are not too elegant. They should be recessed into the body as on the Olympus E-500. Also, they are not well placed; the camera tips forward even with the lightest lens mounted.
– The red triangle on the hand grip (added for "brand recognition"?) is superfluous, but at least it does no harm.
– The tacky "wedge" motif on top of the hand grip and on the flash cover, meant to produce a "dynamic" look, is OK for a motorcycle but out of place on a camera, and unworthy of Nikon. (I understand the idea came from an Italian automotive designer.) The wedge point over the sub-command dial gets in the way of the index finger operating the dial.
>> Postscript re Capture NX software, trial edition: abysmally bad.