I was just wondering if there was any owners of this camera out there.. I believe I am going to be buying it soon so I was just curious what people have to say about it... also if you have any complaints about it, it would be very helpful to know
I have a D70 and i really like it. From what i have read the 70s isn't too much different so im sure you will like it just as much. I can't really think of anything i could complain about it.
"A piece of toast with butter always lands butter side down, and a cat always lands on its feet. What happens if a piece of toast is tied butter side down to the back of a cat? Does it perpetually hover above the ground in indecision when dropped?"
Yeah I have the superseded D70 too. I can't see any reason that I will ever need to buy another camera. It has all the features you could hope for. My only recommendation would be to go for a deal where you get some bonus lenses if you can, that will usually save you a substantial amount compared to buying them seperately.
I know that the included lens in the Nikon bundle is of a better quality than the one Canon supply with the EOS350D - I can say that from personal experience with the Canon and reviews I have read of the NIkon - but you are often better skipping the lens bundle options and getting a body only and a descent lens seperately if your budget will stretch to this.
just want to make sure you get at least close to the 18mm of the kit lenses, its really nice, and a standard 28 or soemthing with the crop factor would be annoyingly 'unwide'
I had two Nikor lenses bundled with my camera, both of them are excellent. But yes, you are better off buying a good quality lens seperately than getting cheapo ones in a package deal.
If you go to a small camera shop and deal, you should still get a lower price on a camera and lens of your choice if bought at the same time. Get yourself some memory and a tripod at the same time and really barter;-)
as soon as i get the money (few days hopefully for grad) i will be getting a D70s with 28-80 and a 70-300 both Nikon lenses also a 1gig 80x card camera case and all the little extras batts. wires, card reader, case (even though i already have a pelican best case ever) so forth for $1500 Canadian
"A piece of toast with butter always lands butter side down, and a cat always lands on its feet. What happens if a piece of toast is tied butter side down to the back of a cat? Does it perpetually hover above the ground in indecision when dropped?"
i would be careful with ebay and that kind of money. I have heard stories from people who sent their money away, and never did get the product they paid for.
"A piece of toast with butter always lands butter side down, and a cat always lands on its feet. What happens if a piece of toast is tied butter side down to the back of a cat? Does it perpetually hover above the ground in indecision when dropped?"
Yes sorry for the delayed responce.. it is from a store off ebay that has won several awards from ebay for customer service, has a warantee, and ive bought lots of stuff on ebay and not yet have i had a problem so i would say it is fairly safe... however i still feel better buying from a store rather then an individual
The D70 is a super camera and is built like a tank. Mine has been through one major sandstorm, several rainstorms and plenty of snow & ice. Have taken about 10,000 exposures with zero problems for the first year. D70s has only minor changes, so it is a great choice.
Some lessons I've learned: First, teach yourself how to use D70 manual exposure mode and spot metering. My resuts got a lot better after I realized matrix metering and "P" mode were making the "wrong" exposure decisions in all but the simplest lighting situations. Second, I started off with the D70 and a couple "bargain" lenses. I still have the D70, the "bargain" lenses are gone. They just didn't give me the quality I wanted. Third, Nikon lenses come in (at least) two quality levels. The lower cost ones are not all that great.
I'll admit, I'm fussy about photo quality and getting more so as I learn from my own results and photos others post on Caedes. Bottom line, I wasted at least 50% of what I spent on "bargain" lenses (= what I paid, less what I sold them for).
"It is important to remember that these things, the machinery of photography, are no more than a means to an end. It is easy enough - and a blind alley - to mistake those means for the end itself." - Charlie Waite
2 questions (even though I am a Canon person myself):
1) How can you tell ahead of time if the lenses will just be a waste of money?
2) Darryl (mayne) mentioned small stores may haggle a bit. Does this mean non-chain stores? How does one find such stores? Are they safe regarding warranty and returns?
Good questions. About the only answer I have to #1 is to read a LOT of test reports. In addition, I think price can also be a very rough guide to quality, but only in conjunction with tests. For example, Nikon makes a 70-300 zoom for about $129 and another with similar specs (but ED glass) for about $300. (Both are rumored to be made by Tamron and the designs seem quite similar to the Tamron 70-300). When I got the D70, I bought a Tamron 70-300 for about $200 as an "affordable" medium zoom. Didn't read any tests, just bought it. Never got very good results with it, and when shooting into the light, the chromatic aberration was just awful, photos were trash. When I went back and read the tests on this lens, the results were not so hot and ca was mentioned. I ended up giving the lens away because I didn't feel right selling something of such low quality. So, at least in this case, both the test results and the price were signals about quality I should have paid attention to but did not.
Regarding stores, since I do my research on line, I also buy there, mostly from B&H. (Adorama and 17'th Street also seem to have good reputations). B&H are reasonably priced but not the lowest price. There are plenty of "bait and switch" artists with low up-front prices, but B&H have a strong ecommerce website and I have never had a problem. A friend at work bought a D70 from an internet "storefront" with hot sounding prices. Paid about $150 less for the camera, but, oh by the way, their special D70 did not come with a battery / charger and these were $300 extra. At the very least you could use B&H or Adorama to benchmark "New York" pricing and use that info to haggle with your small camera store.
"It is important to remember that these things, the machinery of photography, are no more than a means to an end. It is easy enough - and a blind alley - to mistake those means for the end itself." - Charlie Waite
Also, i don't think i would worry to much about warrenty stuff. From my experiance with non camera stuff the store you buy it at doesn't care about what the manufacture says is their warrenty. After the 30 day return policy is over you are ussually on your own sending it off to the manufacture in a box or whatever. I'm not totaly sure that is true about cameras but i wouldn't doubt it.
"A piece of toast with butter always lands butter side down, and a cat always lands on its feet. What happens if a piece of toast is tied butter side down to the back of falling cat? Does it hover above the ground in perpetual indecision?"
As far as after sales service goes, I think generally specialist camera stores are the way to go. Since they only deal with cameras & camera equipment, it's logical to assume that they will have a greater understanding of the procedure; also, since you are a photographer, they have a greater interest in keeping you happy and promoting future business. If you buy online or at a supermarket type store (eg Walmart) I would imagine you would be "on your own" as Milo said.
You can call Nikon headquarters to see if the store you are dealing with is an authorized dealer. Also you should get at least 5% off if you pay cash instead of a major credit card. Everytime a credit card sale is made, a fee has to be paid to the credit company. You will find that a higher end camera body will likely be substantially less moola in the lower 48. Canon Canada jacks their wholesale rate and in turn retailers must pass this cost to the customer to make a living. I haggled with B&H with my 20D and got an extra $50 nocked off the body. Even after 6 months, I still notice that the Canadian price is higher than what I paid at B&H Photo.
I mentioned to Darryl that I was thinking about the Canon 17-85mm and the 50mm prime and the Sigma 105mm macro. We didn't talk much about the 17-85mm, but he said that the 50mm would probably be useful in a lot of circumstances and that the 105mm works well with the 20D. The 105mm is pretty fast, f/2.8, and it comes in Nikon fits as well. The 50mm is basically the cheapest speed you can get ranking in at f/1.8 for less than $100. It has amazing image quality for it's price, but it is unmovable at basically the easiest to produce mm level. I am pretty sure Nikon has an equivalent, but if not, a 3rd party brand that makes Nikon fits must have one.
Edit: Check out the Nikon Normal AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D Autofocus Lens, or, if you have some extra cash, check out the f/1.4 sibling.
I purchased the 17-85 IS lens for my EOS350 and it has to date proven to be an excellent allround lens although magpie that I am, I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to an L Series replacement - either a prime lens or a broad range telephoto.
Well, I want to make sure that I am not throwing away my money on beginner stuff, but even so, I am fairly certain that all of the L-Series is out of my range. If there is a moderately priced lens that anyone recommends, I am all ears, but seeing as the 17-85 is already a stretch, I wouldn't be able to afford anything with extensive zoom. Either way, thanks for the opinion.
Would it be possible to change the thread name to "Nikon D70s and Competition"? :-)