No Fluff or Mumbo Jumbo - "Just The Basics" on Digital Cameras

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Review

8/27/05

Nikon D70S

Welcome the D70s

When I first started this web site, 95% of everyone who viewed it were first time digital camera buyers on a budget.  In other words, a typical “Wal-mart shopper” looking for an entry level, CHEAP, easy to use camera.

Things have changed somewhat.  Luckily this site still helps those who are late at getting on the digital bandwagon, but there is a newer level of buyer out there too – those buying their first camera, but who are willing to pay a premium price to “get the best”.  There are also those who after using their entry level camera for a couple of years, have an interest to get a bit more serious about their photography, who wish to upgrade to something more advanced.  Enter the Nikon D70s digital SLR.

I will provide links at the end of this section to much more elaborate reviews on this particular camera.  Some of the following discussion will highlight what a digital SLR camera is, and if you "really" need one...

What Is A Digital SLR?

A digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera is a completely different beast than consumer cameras on the market today.  First and foremost are two things – the level of image quality over consumer models (much better), and the ability to interchange lenses onto the camera body, making the camera very versatile for every type of photography from close-up (macro) shots all the way to long telephotos for wildlife pictures.  You pay for the privilege of owning a “DSLR” however, in that prices currently START at around $899.00 for a camera body with basic lens, and can easily climb into the thousands of dollars. 

The beauty of DSLRs is that they allow you to use interchangeable lenses, so you can custom taylor your setup to the type of photography you like to do.  There are long range zooms for wildlife photography, "macro" lenses for extreme close ups, and in-between lenses that offer a wider angle with zoom, too.  Those of you who already have a collection of more modern lenses from a particular brand can save a few bucks, as many newer lenses that work on film SLR bodies will also work on a DSLR body, with one hitch – since a DSLR sensor (which captures the light and image) is smaller than a 35mm film frame, there is a magnification factor in a lens.  In other words, multiply by around 1.5X when using your film lens on a DSLR.  A 50mm lens therefore, acts like a 75mm lens on a DSLR.  100mm = 150mm, and so on.  Great news for those who like zooms.  Not so great for those who like wide angle shots, as you’ll have to pay $$$ for a super wide angle to get a decent normal wide angel on a DSLR.

DSLRs are much faster in operation than most consumer cameras.  Many of you will know how with your current digital camera, you sometimes miss a shot, because there is a slight delay from the time you press the shutter button until the photo is actually taken.  This is called "shutter lag".  DSLRs take a photo almost instantaneously when you press the shutter button, focus more quickly, and when in "burst" mode, take a series of photos in rapid succession quicker and in greater numbers per burst than consumer cameras. 

Unlike consumer level cameras which act more like electronic video cameras in many ways, DSLRs use both electronics and internal mirror systems to direct images to the optical viewfinder and the sensor when taking a photo.  Because of the way this works, you cannot use the color LCD screen on the back of a DSLR to compose your images like you do with your cheaper digicam.  You only use the LCD for making menu selections, and viewing photos you’ve already taken.  DSLRs come with larger and clearer optical viewfinders than consumer level digicams do, so you’ll be using this to compose your images.  Last, DSLRs do not offer a movie mode as do consumer models.  If you use the movie mode a lot on your camera, don’t buy a DSLR thinking you’ll get a better camera with a better movie mode… you’ll get no movie mode.  DSLRs are for super good still shots only – no movies.

The Nikon D70s – Bang For The Buck

The Nikon D70s is a newer model, replacing the older D70.  There isn’t a lot of difference between the two, really.  The new “S” model adds a slightly larger LCD screen (2 inches), quicker focusing, and some other internal tweaks.  Those of you who may already own a D70 can rest assured you don’t need to go out to get the S-model to upgrade.  Those buying their first DSLR will probably want to spring for the new model, as you’ll be getting the most up-to-date technology.

A pocket camera you will not get with any DSLR.  The D70s is around 5.5 inches by 4.5 inches, by just over 3 inches thick, with a solid body – nearly as tough as metal but as light as plastic.  You WILL need to use the included neck strap with these babies, as once you get the battery installed, you can easily be lugging around a couple of pounds or more depending on the lens you attach as well.  The front of the camera is pretty basic with the lens mount, lens release button, and as a nice touch, an auto focus assist light emitter which sends out a bright beam of light to help the camera focus in lower light conditions.  The camera top has your power and shutter buttons, and a basic LCD screen which gives you the current camera settings, how many photos are remaining on your inserted card, etc.  A mode dial allows you to use the camera in full auto mode, as well as partial manual controls over shutter speeds and/or apertures, and some scene assist modes for various types of scenes.  

The back of the camera has the majority of your control and menu buttons, the 2 inch color LCD screen with a plastic screen protector, and memory card assess door.  The bottom is standard with the slightly fiddly battery compartment door, and tripod socket.

With the “kit”, you get the camera body, a basic lens (mentioned below), neck strap, cables for viewing photos on a TV if you wish, a proprietary battery and charger, and software for viewing and basic editing of your images. 

For much more details specs on the D70s, such as shutter speed, aperture ranges, and more, visit Nikons spec page by clicking  HERE.

The Cost Of Owning A DSLR

Before you decide to take the plunge into DSLR ownership, you must remember that buying the camera with a starter lens isn’t where the money stops flowing.

The average street price for the D70s is around $1,150.00 U.S. for the camera body and a kit lens which is a “AF-S DX Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED” lens (gee, say THAT with your mouth full!).  This is a good starter lens to get you going, too.  It sells for around $300.00 or more by itself in stores in my area, and you’ll only save about $150.00 if you buy the Nikon body only without the lens, so it’s well worth springing for it up front.  Remember, although it’s an 18-70mm zoom lens, this is the film camera rating – on a DSLR, this will roughly equal 27-105mm.

DSLRs do not come with a memory card.  The D70s uses Compact Flash cards (which are usually the cheapest), so you need to factor in one of those during your purchase.  A 512 meg card is a good place to start.  The battery is a proprietary one, and extras will set you back around $50.00 each, but the included charger is quick and the battery holds a very good level of power, allowing for hundreds of shots between charges.  For everyday photography or day trips this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re going on an extended vacation you’ll want to splurge on an extra battery.

Don’t forget to protect the front of your lens!  You can screw “filters” onto the front of DSLR lenses for a variety of effects.  Filters are just a thin metal or plastic band with a layer of coated glass in them, and a screw thread on one side.  You screw them onto the front of a lens for protection or effects.  For example, if you take lots of photos around water, glass, or metal, you will want to invest in a “polarized” filter, which greatly reduces sun glare on these objects.  At the very least however, you should buy a “UV” filter which looks like clear glass, but does help reduce UV haze a bit.  Leaving one of these on the front of the camera lens at all times will help protect the main lens element from scratches, smudges, and damage.

Of course, there are other lenses to think about, too.  The kit lens if you buy it with the camera is a very good lens for the price, but the maximum zoom is only around 105mm – about twice that what the human eye sees.  If you want to take photos of wildlife, you will want a nice 300mm or so zoom, which at the very basic level starts around $200.00, but can go into hundreds of dollars if you get a high quality lens with “Vibration Reduction” which stabilizes the lens from hand movement while you focus it.  Take photos of jewelry or stamps or other small items?  A good “Macro” lens is in order.  Heck, I could spend all day talking just about the variety of lenses available for DSLRs, but you get the idea – once you upgrade to a DSLR you are upgrading to a potentially expensive hobby and can literally spend thousands of dollars if you choose on accessories.

The Advantages – Screw The Cost

Sounds like I’m talking about financial doom and gloom, eh?  All is not dark and dismal… once you see the output from your DSLR photos, you’ll be happy you spent the money (well, until the VISA bill arrives that is).  DSLRs use physically larger sensors in them than consumer models use.  This means the tiny light gathering diodes on the sensors are larger as well, and gather more light and details than consumer cameras do.  As a result, providing you’re using a decent lens, you’ll get images that are sharper, clearer, and have less digital “noise” in them than you see on your smaller digicam photos.  In other words, the images from a 6 megapixel DSLR camera will be much better than those from a 6 megapixel consumer level camera, especially in lower light conditions, which we will talk about next. 

Most smaller cameras allow you to adjust the iso setting (similar to film speed) for better low light snaps, but once you get up to iso 400 the amount of noise in the image is pretty bad.  The D70s has iso settings from 200 through 1600, and while at 1600 there is certainly visible noise in the images, they are much more useable than those you get from consumer level cameras.  If you visit museums or other places that don’t allow the use of flashes, this type of thing comes in extremely handy.

Another advantage is sheer speed of use.  Let’s say you have young kids or pets.  You aim your current consumer model camera at them, press the shutter button, but there is a delay or “lag” from the time you do this until the camera actually snaps the photo.  The kids aren’t laughing anymore!  The pets are out of the frame!  ARGH!  Well, DSLRs are nearly instantaneous when it comes to this.  Press the shutter, and poof, it takes the photo with an almost nonexistent lag compared to consumer models.  There is also a big speed increase in shot-to-shot times,  allowing you to snap off a series of shots one right after the other, or even use the “burst mode” and take a whole series of shots in rapid succession.  If you take lots of child/animal or sports pics, this speed advantage alone is worth the cost of a DSLR.

Image Quality

As I talked about above, with larger chips and better lenses, DSLR photos as a whole are superior to consumer camera shots.  The D70s has a top pixel image size of 3008 x 2000 pixels (roughly 6 megapixels) which will allow for excellent 8 x 10 and 11 x 14 prints once they’ve been adjusted for printer output.  You can even go larger once you know your way around a decent image editing program, and how to adjust the photos for larger print output.  DSLRs typically do less processing of the images in-camera compared to consumer models.  Consumer models will add more contrast, color saturation, and sharpness to the image so you don’t have to worry about it later.  DSLRs do less of this, as it does damage the quality of the images, and leaves the photos with more details but less processing so you can tweak and adjust them yourself in an image editor software program later, to make them just the way you want them with minimal damage to the image. 

The software supplied with the D70s is ok, but you will want to invest in something a bit better such as Paint Shop Pro 9, or, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. 

I found the pictures taken with the D70s to be very good.  The camera overall does a good job with light metering, evening out bright and darker areas correctly in nearly every contrasty scene I took.  Details were good, and colors though a bit muted (and again expected on a DSLR) were nice.  Most other models of DSLRs have a minimum iso speed of 100, and the D70s starts at iso 200, which does cause some noise to creek in the photos in dark areas even on sunny shots, but the noise only really becomes noticeable at iso 800, and even then it has more of a film grain look to it than the “electronic noise” you see on other models.  The 18-70 kit lens captures plenty of details, but does show a bit of “barrel distortion” when at full wide angle (the curvature of straight lines near the edge of the frame).

Complaints

No camera is perfect, so here are my gripes, even though they're relatively minor.  My biggest "why'd they do it this way?" gripe is the auto focus assist light.  A small lamp on the front of the camera that shoots out a bright light in low light conditions that helps the camera to focus.  Nice touch, but it's a bit cramped, and close to the lens barrel area.  Even using the relatively short kit lens that comes with the camera, the body of the lens blocks some of the light from this lamp.  I found that the light still works most of the time regardless, but it seems as though some of the effectiveness might be blocked by this design flaw.  The lamp SHOULD have been placed a bit further over or higher, perhaps.  I might also have issues with the battery compartment door being a bit cheesy, but this is common unfortunately with most digital cameras.

  Compared To Others

There are now several entry-level DSLR models on the market, and Nikon is even selling one that’s less expensive than the D70s – the D50, for $899.00.  With a resolution of also 6 megapixels, you might think splurging for the D70s is a waste of money, but I have handled the D50 and the overall build quality isn’t quite as good and solid as the D70s (although it's still good overall).  After viewing a larger number of sample images from the D50 kit lens, I found the image quality to not quite be up to the same level as the kit lens that comes with the D70s, with the D50 lens images showing just a bit less detail, and more “purple fringing” around the edges of items in high contrast shots.  A slightly slower overall operating speed puts the D50 in line as a very basic beginner’s DSLR and while still good, not up to the D70s level.  If you're on a very tight budget the D50 would not at all be a BAD alternate choice - but if you can afford a bit more, the D70s would be my way to go.

Canon is also on the market with their Digital Rebel XT, 8 megapixel DSLR.  It’s not a secret that I do personally usually prefer Canon over most other brands (at least at this time in the digital camera revolution), but in the case of the Rebel XT, I found the more plasticy feeling body, tight handgrip (cramped for larger hands and fingers to hold), and harder to handle control buttons, to be less thrilling for the price than the D70s.  The Rebel XT also has a cheaper kit lens with it, which shows the same quality issues as the cheaper lens that comes with the Nikon D50 (maybe a bit worse, even).   The extra 2 megapixels are nice, but you’ll get images that are very close to the Rebel with the D70s, with a better body, and a much better kit lens for only a little more money.  

Conclusion

Ok, enough talk.  If you've caught the photography bug and consumer camera models just aren't cutting it for you anymore, then it may be time to upgrade to a DSLR.  You need to have the patience to learn the trade as DSLRs are not "point and shoot automatic" cameras, and, you need to have the funds to add a few extras like large memory cards, an extra lens or two, external flash, etc.  If this doesn't deter you, the Nikon D70s would be an excellent entry into the DSLR world.

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