I Have A Life.

I am so fortunated that I could got my D70 body right before the beginning of spring break. I purchased the body on April 1. (What a great April Fool!)



When I got a new F100 body after using FM2 for years, I was overwhelmed. That's a lot to hassel and learn to take a picture with F100, and the pictures I took with new F100 were not as good as those with FM2. It really took a long time to adapt F100.



Now I am having the same problem. Buying a new body means the whole new learning begins. On the last 4 days, I have took about 400 photos with D70. I must say, I am not really able to control the camera well. I always get wrong white balance. I even have not learn how to enter the custom setting menu. However, there are still something can be evaluted in two days. Anyway, here is my personal opinion.



1) Speed (4 ☆s)

The respond speed of D70 is really comparable to film camera. However, D70 is still not as fast as my F100, of course, see how much I invested on F100, hehe ;)



2) Handle (5 ☆s as a woman)

Although I am a woman, D70 can eaily fit into my hand. At those positions where our fingers rest, the rubber is made softer and thicker; the make my right hand feels really comfortable to hold the body.



2) Auto Focus (2 ☆s)

The area of focus sensor is too wide. It adversely affects the acturacy of D70. I have tried to use it with 3 lens to do AF, but no one passed. Even with 50mm/1.8, I still have to use MF frequently to adjust the lens. The AF gets before when SB-800 is used



3) Ease of Manual Focus (3 ☆s)

I give 3 stars as I compare D70 with F100 and FTN. Although D70 would never bit F100 and FTN on MF, it doesn't mean its MF function is very difficult to use. Actually, since the AF is still not reliable enough for me, I used MF most of the time in the last 2 days. It is OK in cloudy day and shadow. MF is more difficult in dim environment. The AF/MF switch is well designed. It is easier to operate the the same switch on F100.



4) Dynamic Range (4 ☆s)

I am very enjoy the wide Dynamic Range of D70. It really gets a lot of detail in high contrast shooting condition. The photo of leave I posted today has image of leaves on the background. That was a very high contrast environment. If I had shot with E100VS, the background would be black and only black.



5) Image Quality (4.5 ☆s)

Well, this is only my personal opinion. See what can I get with ISO1000. Happy!



6) Metering and Tone Curve (5 ☆s)

Metering of D70 is basically accurate. Before I had D70, I have told our people that Nikon's cameras always get 0.3ev underexposure. The feedbacks from users prove that I am always right on this point, but now I found that my argeement was wrong. The underexposure is not because of the preference of Nikon firm cameras prefer oversaturated color, but the tone curve characteristics of ccd in Nikon digital cameras. So when you know how to adjust the curve right on D70 or on your PC at home, you will find the metering is very impressive.



7) Battery (3.5 ☆s)

Can't use AA battery :(



8) The build of D70 is great. (4 ☆s)



9) 95% frame coverage of view finder

It makes me have to crop every photos now, but it is actually not a big deal.



10) DOF Preview Button is at a wrong position.



Overall, this is a very fine camera for me.