[Leica] Re: OT D70

[MEB at GoodPhotos.com (Michael E. Berube)]

I agree with Mark only insofar as if you can still find a D100 and a D70 in the 
same shop to compare them both side to side. Once you do, I'm sure that you'll 
buy the D70. If I want to fondle a camera for how well it is made, I'll pull 
out my M4P or IIIc, if I want a camera body that will allow me to make great 
digital files with all the nice glass that I've got, I am more concerned with 
how it performs than if it happens to be consumer friendly as well.

I bought a D70 in April the day they hit the shelves and took it with me (and 
my D100 that I had had for a 18 months) to Scotland to photograph a wedding for 
a client. When I returned back home to the States the first thing I did was to 
sell my D100 and to buy a second D70 body. I can honestly say that I've never 
taken a photograph with either of my D70s in any of the PHD modes. I use then 
in Manual, Aperture or Shutter Priority just like I did with my D100 and my 
F100 before them. If your wife doesn't need the vertical grip or its10 pin 
connector that the D100 has as an option, the D70 is a better camera in EVERY 
respect. The ENEL3 batteries last longer in the D70, the NEF files are smaller 
yet write to card faster than the D100 uncompressed, the WB and metering is far 
superior. The ONLY complaint that I had with it is that the better iTTL flash 
system cannot be used with the older flash systems only the latest SB800 or 
forthcoming SB600. The older flashes (even the DX flashes) provide only M or A 
modes. A minor thing to over come especially if you need to buy a flash anyhow. 
(and the little pop up is great for fill and close portraiture in a pinch.)

I sold my D100 to a photojournalist who needed a back up to her D2h. She had 
thought about the D70 but dismissed it out of hand because everyone told her it 
was not a 'pros' camera. They said that about the N90s too and while it wasn't 
my cup of tea, thousands of pros made millions with them. I don't worry over 
much about keeping up appearances, I worry about my camera not getting in my 
way from doing what I want to do with it. The D70 is a great body for Nikon 
glass, pro or not.

Carpe Luminem,
Michael Eric Berube
GoodPhotos.com


On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 10:24:43 -0700 (PDT), lug-request@leica-users.org quoth unto 
the boundless Ether...
>On 5/31/04 10:00 PM, "Bill O'Connell" <woc2@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>My spousal unit is thinking of getting a D70.  ....
>>Her primary film camera is the N90S which she likes but wants to do
>>more digital.  Looked at the D100 but have been told the D70 better
>>in many ways being a much newer release, although perhaps a
>>'lesser' model, and the D100 is due for replacement this fall.  We
>>have some trips and family wedding coming soon so she does not want
>>to wait for the new D100, nor is she convinced the extra 1,000 or
>>so that it will probably cost will be worth it to her.  The D70
>>seems to fit her wants and needs so I'm looking for some input from
>>some that may have one, or perhaps rejected it for whatever reason.

Mark Rabiner responded:
>She should hold both cameras in her hands before a decision is made.
>The d100 might cost a little more and not be quite so cutting edge
>but is not quite such an overt embarrassment as the d70 is. Nowhere
>as near as bad as the canon rebel though. Both have flowers and
>mountains and other pictogram modes which are an insult to anyone
>with the slightest pretense of doing serious photography. And I'd
>hate to spend anything near that kind of money without the back idea
>of doing non brainless photography.
>Spend a grand and set it at "flower" to shoot a flower?
>I think most people can deal with the flexible Program mode to do
>the same thing.
>
>
>Mark Rabiner Photography