Nikon D70s SLR Digital Camera Kit w/ 18-70mm Lens (6.1MP, 3008x2000, 4x Opt)

Reviewed by: MORE4MY$

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Gets you shooting quickly, overall manual is easy to understand, intuitive settings (but read the manual first)

Weaknesses: Just a bit overwhelming with all that you have to learn; it would be nice if Nikon included a cable release.

Overall Evaluation: I'm an advanced amateur photographere. Lots of experience with 35mm and large format cameras. I decided to take the plunge into digital during the Christmas holidays because one of the online stores reduced the price of the kit to $1025. Special holiday incentives from the store (Circuit City). I was looking at both the D70s and the Canon 20D. The Canon was several hundred dollars more expensive than the D70. What eventually eliminated the Canon for me was that it was hard to see the menu options that are listed on the monitor: the test was smaller than the D70s. And if the Canon was hard to read in the store with the store's even fluorescent lighting, I knew that I was going to have problems reading it in the field. So even though the Canon might have a better reputation, I went with the Nikon. Yes, the Nikon seems heavier than the Canon. But the "extra" weight seems to me to make the camera seem steadier. Again, I've never owed a point and shooter or another digital camera. Yes the body is made of plastic but that didn't bother me. I just have to make sure that I don't drop it. "Assembling" the camera was a breeze. Nikon did a great job of creating a quick start poster that tells you everything you need to do to get shooting (in point and shoot mode). I think that I was up and shooting within 30 minutes (and I'm a slow reader) -- of course that's after you've charged the battery. Getting additional information about using the camera (where you take control of the camera) was clearly written in the in-depth manual. A word of warning: glance over the first few pages of the manual where they list every part of the camera. When I tried to get through this section, I was overwhelmed by all of the parts. Go directly to the section where it starts talking about shooting with the camera (more or less a repeat of the quick start poster). Don't even try to learn the parts in those first few pages. The manual is clearly written so following along and learning to use the camera is a breeze (especially if you've owned an SLR before). There's nothing too complicated and if you read carefully, you won't get frustrated (I skimmed one section and decided that my camera wasn't working right; reading the section over a bit more carefully, I realized that I had to get out of automatic mode or out of RAW image capture to follow the instructions in the manual). One problem with the manual is that it has all of these icons that they use to cross reference different sections of the manul. These icons are annoying and take up space unnecessarily. But the writing is clear and concise. The engineering of the camera makes accessing different features easy. Somebody was really thinking when they designed it. The menus are easy to read and use. It feels like an old friend once you get through the manual and learn about all of the features. It really is intuitive. I shot a christening with the camera. Nothing could have been easier. I left it on point and shoot mode and got some good images. A friend performed an experiment comparing the results of an image shot with a D70s and Canon 20D. Other than the Canon feeling a little bit bluer, I couldn't tell any difference between the images both of which were blown up to 13" by 19".