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First off, I've had a D70 for almost 2 years now. (early 2007 update: almost 3 years now! And my 2nd D70 is awesome, too! Yes, I love this camera so much that I bought a 2nd one after owning my first one for over 2 years...)

I paid $995 for my D70 camera body back in Feb. or March of 2004. When it was released, this was an absolutely mind-boggling, un-heard of price tag! Now the D70 has been replaced by the slightly improved D70s, and yet it's even cheaper than the D70! At the reputable dealers like Adorama, you can buy the body for as little as $820!!! (BEWARE of the Brooklyn area code 718 scam group! ALWAYS check Reseller Ratings to see if your potential camera store has GOOD rating! Thousands of people are falling prey to the HUGE digital photography scam business these days...)

At any rate, I'll simply start by saying that the D70 is a fantastic camera. It is what I used to capture many of the images here on my website, and it is a delight to handle and use. It is worth hundreds more than it sells for, and that's the bottom line.

Nikon has been setting the standard for low prices ever since the D70 came out, recently releasing their D200 at $1700, an un-prescedented price for a fully-professional, weather-sealed DSLR camera body. If Nikon wanted to, they could sell it for $500 more and barely scratch the sales volume... With this in mind, let's get to the review!
(Pictured above are the D70 in front, then the D200, and the D2X, Nikon's flagship model DSLR cameras.)

(Note: Above you can notice one drawback of the D70, it's small viewfinder. Many complain about this, but it is not directly an "image quality degrading" feature, and many get by with it. It's just one of the trade-offs for getting a camera so cheap and lightweight. Complaining about a small viewfinder is silly when you're trying to travel small/light and don't have a huge budget for a FF DSLR or a D200 / D2X etc.)

(Note: Pictured at right is my N65 film camera on the tripod. But this is only because I needed my D70 to be able to take a picture of the setup! The below final result picture was captured with my D70.)

The first thing that sets the D70 apart from it's (indirect) competition, the Nikon D50 and the Canon 300D & 350D, is it's "dual command dials", among a few other asorted additional features such as 1% spot metering, compressed RAW format, and comprehensive, up-to-date iTTL flash compatibility... (The D70's hotshoe is fully compatible with the LATEST Nikon flashes, and the D70's pop-up flash can even act as a wireless commander! I do this all the time with my SB800 and SB600 and the results are stunning while the ease-of-use is delightful...)

For futher comparison, the Canon 350D and the Nikon D70 have White Balance fine tuning, the Nikon D50 does not. The 350D and D70 have DOF preview, the D50 does not. The D70 and the D50 have a "joypad" direct- AF point selector, the 350 does not. (You must hold a button and "scroll" through the AF points, a nuisance to those who frequently change AF points.) The cameras are all incredibly light, with the 350D being the reigning champ, the D50 next and the D70 last. (out of the 3)

Other cameras like the Pentax *istD lineup, the Minolta Maxxum 7D & 5D, the Olympus E-1, E-300 & E-500, and the Sigma SD10 are ALL very incredible cameras, too! The best thing to do when purchasing a camera is to go down to a local shop, ask to see one of EACH different camera from Canon / Nikon / Pentax / Minolta / Olympus / Sigma, and buy the one that you "connect" with the most, the one that strikes you as the easiest to handle. Everyone has different mental patterns and habits, so not everyone is going to prefer the same camera!

If you have done this and are further INTERESTED in the Nikon D70, or the newer D70s, then read on. If you are simply buying a camera online as a spur-of-the-moment purchase, you should reconsider...

I forgot to detail "the first thing that sets the D70 apart..." so I'll do that now. This is something that is a bit hard to follow along with if you yourself don't have a D70 with you for reference, but just read it a few times and hopefully you'll understand what I'm saying: If you shoot in the modes Program, (P) Apeture, (A) Shutter, (S) or Manual, (M) you are doing so because you want CONTROL over your images. These modes can do the same exact things as the scene modes "running stick figer mode" (action) or the "flower" (closeup) etc. etc. Honestly, I've ONLY shot in Auto, P, S, A & M modes, I've NEVER used one of the scene modes.

The advantage of the TWO command dials on the D70 is this: You can control your apeture and shutter speed directly, without having to hold down any buttons and turn a dial at the same time. On the D70, (if you turn custom function 14 to ON) the rear command dial controls the apeture in ALL P/S/A/M mode, and the front command dial controls the shutter speed.

Depending on what mode you are in, you can not only directly control these settings, but you can also directly dial in any exposure compensation! I'm working on a tutorial article concerning how to "master" the D70, which I will link to here when it's done. This will further expand on the D70's dual-command dial advantage, for those who actually havea D70 in their hands to relate with.

HOWEVER, there is one drawback that is involved:

When you're in P/S/A mode and you have any EV comp. dialed in, on the D70, and then switch to M mode, the camera takes that EV comp. and turns it into the correct, "0" exposure for the M mode light meter! Sure, there's a little /- sign right next to the light meter, but I'm just too dim witted to keep track of this on the fly. In this respect, I have decided that maybe having one command dial (ala D50) isn't such a bad thing, especially since they put the /- (also the "button-plus-dial" apeture button) in a very nice, accesible location compared to where it is on my N65. Mostly though, I will welcome not being able to accidentally dial in the WRONG "0" exposure in M mode, that's for sure. If you plan on shooting with your DSLR in P, S, A and M modes a lot, you will have to watch out for this whenever you are using some exposure compensation. The problem is, in P, S and A modes, the exposure compensation SHOWS very very plainly on the light meter exposure scale in the viewfinder. However in M mode, this "compensation" hides as the little tiny /- sign in the corner, and you can actually dial your exposure to make the light meter read "zero" in the viewfinder when it's actually over or under-exposed.

In the end, I think that the advantage can greatly outweigh this small drawback, if you are not as simplistic (read: dim) as I am.

The D70 has served me incredibly well. It has difficulty with JPG capture and rendering yellows and greens well, but a lack of white balance wisdom is usually the cause of this. If you are big on control and wish to fine-tune your images for JPG capture, then the D70 will serve YOU well.

However, I must confess my true opinion: JPG is not the absolute best way to go with this camera. The D70, as is typical of Nikon's DSLR's, ROCKS at RAW (NEF) capture, and I shoot RAW almost exclusively now. With the D70, one HUGE advantage for the "average shooter," and a BIG reason to shoot RAW, is it's compressed NEF format. This is something the D50 and many other cameras do not have. The D70's compressed NEF format however, combined with a moderately fast computer and some good software, is just as fast as, if not faster than, JPG "workflow". For this reason, I really like the D70, and I will miss compressed NEF (and the cheapness of CF cards) if I were to use a D50.

With the D70's JPG files, I can "easily" shoot a very sharp picture that I can make a 20x30" print with, but it requires that I get the exposure, white balance, and other various in-camera processing settings VERY spot-on, BEFORE I click the shutter. With RAW capture, I simply worry about the exposure, like one does with film. The color, the sharpness and the other settings, all can be perfected at a later time. Some call this cheating, I call it shooting a "digital negative."

In short, It takes a lot of skill to master any DSLR. The D70 may require a bit more fine tuning than other cameras. Cameras like the Canon 350D and the Nikon D50 are well-known to "yield better results" in JPG capture than the D70, but they simply are more optimized for shooters who want the camera to take care of more things. A D50 "Auto Mode" JPG image may look different, probably better, than a D70 "Auto Mode" JPG image. If you are not ready to take full control of the complicated camera settings of DSLR, or are not interested in learning them, then I must reccomend one of the other models. However, if you are getting into DSLR photography large for the purpose of gaining the most control, then the D70 may be just the camera for you! In the hands of those who are very skilled, and I am hardly as skilled as some, the D70 will produce awesome images that really turn heads.

I highly reccomend it. It's features, full-compatibility with other Nikon equipment, and it's size / weight / price make it a wise decision for many different types of photographers, from complete beginners to National Geographic pros.

If, that is, you have gone into a camera shop, held the D70, and are "in sync" with it's ergonomics. This is most essential!!!

D70, 80-200 AFS @ 80mm; f/3.5 & 1/250 sec, monopod. JPG capture.

This is a typical example of what the D70 can do, if you put a good lens in front of it. Wonderfully sharp, very good detail. Try downloading the original image and sharpening it with Unsharp Mask in Photoshop at intensity 300 and radius 0.3 and see just how good it looks!!!

There's a little warm/green-ish -ness which is typical of the D70, this I would want to edit out. Of course, this is greatly due to my WB setting being a little off. MANY people reccomend PERMANENTLY setting some WB compensation in the "optimize image" settings, mabye plus 6-9. I however, would simply have preferred to shoot this image in RAW, and set the WB correctly on the computer. But this is just my preference, your needs may differ.

The main point I wish to get across is that the D70 is an amazing piece of imaging equipment, it is truly one of the PREMIER affordable DSLR that gives maximium control to the photographer at an incredibly affordable price, while yielding high-quality results that are good enough for exhibition prints! I am entirely pleased with my D70, and I will continue to use it happily until it "croaks". Even then, I will always have either a D50 or a D70 in my posession, simply because they are SO small, light, affordable, and yet high quality! I think that even a well-paid professional would benefit from having one of these types of cameras in their bag. In fact, if I were ever a well-paid professional, I think in some situations I'd chose this or a D50 as my primary camera, even. They're THAT good!

-Matt-

Supplemetary notes:

The D70 viewfinder is slightly smaller than 20D viewfinder; but slightly larger than 20D viewfinder with he DK-17M eyepiece magnifier. The DK-17M fits on the D70 (and the 20D, D50, and D200 etc. etc.) if you custom modify (read: sandpaper and glue) the adapter #2370. I have no comparison yet concerning D70 VS D200 as far as the viewfinder is concerned, but I know the D200 viewfinder is substantially bigger and allegedly brighter.

The D70 viewfinder is much smaller than an "average" full-frame 35mm viewfinder, such as my N65, but the DK-17M closes much of the gap. However any older professional 35mm viewfinder like the one in my venerable FM2 is still enormous and super bright compared to the D70. Without the DK-17M on the D70, the FM2's viewfinder is as tall as the D70's viewfinder is wide. Big difference!

PS: Here's a good example of what a quick edit can do with the above D70 image. It took less than 30 seconds, probably under 15 if you know what you're doing and you know what result you need. Or, I could have easily achieved this result by setting the custom hue adjustment to +6 or +9 K.

Worst case scenario, if images are consistently needing the same correction you can create an "action" in photoshop and do a "batch process" which edits all the images in a folder I pick, while you go have a sandwich or something.

Speaking of having a sandwich...