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Back to Full Nikon D70S Review
Go to Nikon D70S Data Sheet
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	*	Based on the existing D70 model, with updates to improve usability
	*	6.1 megapixel CCD, 3,008 x 2,000 pixel images
	*	ISO from 200 to 1600
	*	3 frames per second with instant power-up
	*	Part of Nikon "Total Imaging System"
	*	Compatible with >90% of all Nikon F-mount lenses ever made!

Manufacturer Overview

The new Nikon D70S is the latest in a long line of impressive photographic tools from one of the leaders of the photo industry. Long an established leader in the film world, Nikon is a name that is immediately associated with professional and quality photography. Though immediately identifiable with professionals, they are recognized as a maker of quality cameras for consumers as well. Their pro line of film cameras includes the legendary F3, continuously produced for over 20 years now, and new legends in the making, like the F5 and F100, known for their toughness and advanced features. The new Nikon D70S is an update to Nikon's previous D70 model, which continued a tradition of innovation that dates back to the early days of the Coolpix 900, and continued when Nikon rocked the SLR arena with their original D1 several years back.

Building on the D70's package - already rather strong for a "budget" DSLR, the Nikon D70S retains advanced features such as wireless TTL remote flash control and sophisticated tracking-autofocus modes right out of the box. (Achieving the wireless TTL remote flash operation in particular would require the addition of several hundred dollars' worth of accessories to most of the Nikon D70S' competitors.) New features include an improved AF system, larger LCD display, remote shutter release terminal, slight tweaks to the body design, and a new bundled battery / charger.

Even as the "bargain" digital SLRs market continues to expand, the Nikon D70S stands out for its rugged build, its advanced feature set, and the quality of the ED-glass lens that's bundled with "kit" versions of the camera. It's also the fastest camera in its class: With a fast memory card, the Nikon D70 can shoot continuously (without pausing) at 3 frames/second until the card is filled. Like other recent, higher-end Nikon digital SLRs, the Nikon D70S is compatible with the new AF-S lenses, as well as almost the entire range of previous F-mount AF Nikkor optics.

The Nikon D70S looks to be a useful update on its predecessor, particularly given that MSRP pricing is a good 10 percent ($100) lower than the original D70 when launched. Read on for our detailed analysis, and see how the updates have affected the package as a whole!

Nikon D70S High Points

• 6.1 megapixel CCD delivering a maximum image resolution of 3008 x 2000 pixels.
• 1/500 flash sync, 1/8000 second top shutter speed.
• SLR design with true, TTL optical viewfinder.
• 2.0 inch 130,000 pixel TFT LCD with adjustable brightness.
• Polycarbonate body over a metal frame for strength with low weight.
• Interchangeable F mount lens design accommodates a wide range of Nikkor lenses, type D and type G recommended. 1.5x multiplier applies to focal length.
• Body supports both mechanically-coupled and all-electronic AF-S lenses.
• Program, Digital Vari-Program (Scene), Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual exposure modes.
• Depth of field preview button.
• TTL flash exposure metering in three modes (with the SB-800 flash).
• ISO 200 - 1600 exposure range.
• White balance has auto, six manual modes, and preset option.
• Three color modes, plus contrast, saturation, hue, and sharpness adjustments.
• Built in, five-mode popup flash; can also act as a master controller, or "commander" for SB-800 and SB-600 flashes.
• External flash hot shoe.
• Continuous shooting, Auto Exposure Bracketing, and Self-Timer modes.
• JPEG, RAW (NEF) and JPEG + RAW (NEF) file formats.
• Uses Compact Flash Type I and II, plus Hitachi Microdrive
• USB cable for computer connection
• Captures up to 3 frames per second.
• Buffer can hold up to 144 large/normal shots (actually more, in our tests), with high-speed CF cards.
• Five-area AutoFocus.
• Included CD-ROM loaded with PictureProject software.
• Video cable for connection to TV
• Optional battery holder that accepts 3 CR2 disposable batteries. 

Nikon D70S - Comparison with other models

The market for affordable, fully-featured digital SLR cameras has really taken off in the last year or so, with offerings from several of the big names in photography. This being the case, I thought it would be helpful to readers to compare the D70S' features against those of the competition - Canon's EOS Digital Rebel XT, Olympus' eVolt E-300, Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D, and Pentax's *ist Ds. Here's the results of my poring through the spec sheets for the various cameras, as well as my own previous tests and reviews:

Nikon D70S - Comparison with other Nikon "prosumer" SLRs

I also felt that it might be useful to compare the D70S to Nikon's other current consumer-level digital SLR offerings, as well as to its predecessor the D70, to give a feeling of where the model is positioned in the overall lineup:

Executive Overview

The Nikon D70S represents a fairly minor evolutionary upgrade to the original D70, offering RELATIVELY minor tweaks (and a slightly lower price) to what was already a very solid digital SLR design. Like its predecessor, the D70S has a very professional look about it, but with a user interface that is quite straightforward and approachable. Equipped with a 6.1 megapixel CCD, the D70S captures high-resolution images with great detail and good color. While there is now at least one d-SLR in its price range with 8 megapixel resolution (the Canon Digital Rebel XT), it's my feeling that the difference in pixel count between 6- and 8-megapixels amounts to relatively little, on a practical basis. (Comparing the horizontal pixel counts between the two cameras, we find that the Digital rebel XT has only just under 15% more pixels laterally -- not enough to make a very noticeable difference in subject detail.) Leaving aside the matter of pixel count then, the D70S is a very capable camera, and it ships with a very nice lens.

Functionally, the Nikon D70S is replete with auto and manual exposure modes, ready for whatever type of shooting its owner desires, and with an instant-on feature that provides very short startup times for immediate picture-taking. It also offers several scene modes that bias the settings for the best results in a number of common shooting situations, making it easier for novices to bring back good-looking pictures with it.

Capitalizing on the broad line of Nikon optics, the D70S has a standard F lens mount that accommodates most of Nikon's 35mm lenses. This is one of the key advantages of SLR cameras: Interchangeable lenses offer greater flexibility than even high-end prosumer cameras, despite the latter's attachable accessory lenses. Use of the near-historic F mount means that a huge range of lenses originally developed for film cameras can operate on the D70S, although older lens models may have quite a few limitations. Nikon's "designed for digital" DX-series lenses, which feature a reduced image circle that is designed specifically to match the DX-format image sensors used by the company's digital SLRs, are also compatible with the D70S.

The Nikon D70S offers several focusing options, including Manual, Single-Servo AF, and Continuous-Servo AF for moving subjects. A five point AF system can be used in three modes: Single Area, Dynamic Area, and Closest Subject. In the first two modes, the user is free to pick a focus point. You can set the AF Point Lock switch to L to keep the focus point set indefinitely at the location you've chosen. Switch it to the dot, and it can be changed, but again only in Single Area and Dynamic Area modes. The MultiSelector nav disk on the back lets you move the focus point around in the viewfinder.

The AF system is an area where the D70S sports a number of improvements over the original D70. One such improvement is that when operating in an automatic mode, the AF system now continuously monitors the subject conditions (brightness, contrast, and available detail) at all five focus areas, and then automatically selects the best area on which to base its focus decisions.

The Nikon D70S features a true TTL (through the lens) optical viewfinder, complete with information display along the bottom. This shows shutter speed, exposure compensation, flash status, focus point and mode, focus lock, and flash status among others.

Custom setting 8 activates an optional Grid Display, useful for matching to the horizon line in landscape shots, walls and floors in architectural shots, or when using a tilt or shift lens. (The grid display can actually still just be made out even when turned off, but is not very obtrusive or distracting). The five focus areas are marked by round-edged rectangles that overlay the image. The selected point is highlighted in black in the viewfinder in Single Area and Dynamic Area modes, and whether chosen by the user or the camera, the active focus area will blink red before changing to a black highlight while the shutter button remains pressed. Unfortunately it can be rather difficult to tell which focus point was active if you're focusing in dim light, as the black indicator is near-invisible on a dark background, and the briefly blink of red light "bleeds" out to illuminate all of the other focus points, as well as the center-weighted metering circle and alignment grid (if enabled), almost as much as the active focusing point is illuminated. A clearer indication of which focusing point is active would be very welcome.

A diopter correction slider next to the viewfinder can be adjusted from -1.6 to +0.5 to accommodate eyeglass wearers; optional corrective lenses are available that extend the range from -5 to +3.

As is the case with most digital SLRs, the Nikon D70S' LCD monitor is solely for viewing captured images and displaying the menu system, not for framing shots. (I'm careful to mention this for those potential users accustomed to composing pictures in point-and-shoot rangefinder-style digital cameras, who are considering moving up to a more capable camera.) Also important to know is that digital SLR cameras capture only stills, not video or audio. The D70S features a slightly larger 2.0" LCD display, as compared to the original 1.8" LCD in the D70, although resolution is identical, at 130,000 pixels.

In playback mode five information screens are available, giving a great deal of detail, plus a histogram and highlight displays. The highlight display shows any blown-out highlights, flashing the overexposed areas from white to black. This is something we'd like to see on all digital cameras, including consumer models, to let you know when portions of a photo have been overexposed. 

Because this is meant as a consumer SLR, the Nikon D70S retains the healthy selection of Scene modes we saw on the original D70, in addition to the usual Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes common to most SLRs. The D70S has a full Auto mode for point-and-shoot convenience, as well as Portrait, Landscape, Close Up, Sports, Night Landscape, and Night Portrait. All are quickly selected from the Mode Dial, which turns left or right with no limiter built in. In other words, you can turn toward the icon you want, no matter where you are on the dial, and not worry about whether you're going to run into a limiter, as we see on Canon's competing Digital Rebel and Rebel XT models. A minor point perhaps, but one that makes mode selection that much faster.

In Program mode, where most intermediate photographers will probably spend a lot of time, rotating the Main command dial adjusts through the possible combinations of aperture and shutter speed while maintaining proper exposure. This feature, which Nikon calls Flexible Program (some manufacturers call it Program Shift), allows the user to decide dynamically whether they want to emphasize depth of field or speed of capture based on the scene. Flexible Program is not available in full Auto mode, or in any of the Scene modes. 

Using a combined mechanical and CCD electronic shutter, the D70S is able to achieve speeds from 30 seconds to 1/8000 second. This is the same as the original D70, and twice the maximum speed of its elder sibling the D100. In manual mode, Bulb is also available, up to a maximum of 30 minutes. Bulb exposures can also be controlled via remote, an important feature for blur-free long exposures. The shutter opens two seconds after the remote is activated, and doesn't shut until the remote is activated again, or the 30 minute maximum exposure time ends.

Nikon's trademark 3D color matrix metering is available by default when using G or D type lenses. It's considered "3D" because it gathers distance information from the lens to further optimize the metering's effectiveness. Inherited from the Nikon D2H and F5 by way of the original D70 is the very high resolution of this 3D matrix metering system. The Canon Digital Rebel has a 35 zone matrix meter, and the Nikon D100 has a 10 zone matrix meter, but the D70 and D70S have a 1,005 pixel metering sensor, separate from the main image sensor, that covers the entire frame. (Very impressive.) Matrix metering is useful for backlit subjects or when very dark subjects occupy a significant portion of the frame. Center Weighted metering is also available, which measures light from the entire frame, but places the greatest emphasis on a circular area in the center. Spot metering takes a reading centered on the active focus area, best when using the AE lock function, because it lets you meter off of a face or other area of primary importance and then recompose. The spot meter on the D70S bases its reading on approximately 1% of the total frame area, providing very precise exposure determination. These latter two metering options are only available in the Program, Shutter, Aperture, and Manual modes; the camera defaults to Matrix in the full Auto and Scene modes.

Sensitivity settings range from ISO 200 to 1600. In testing, we found that even ISO 1600 produced entirely acceptable results, with noise levels that were very low, to the point that 8x10 inch enlargements from ISO 1600 images looked quite acceptable for most uses. A special noise reduction mode can reduce noise in longer exposures with shutter speeds slower than about one second. When Noise Reduction is active, the time to process each image more than doubles, and "Job NR" blinks across the top of the status LCD while the processing is taking place. Surprisingly, my tests showed that (as with the D70) having NR active also slowed continuous exposures even in bright lighting, regardless of the shutter speed being used. This despite the fact that the NR processing is only supposed to apply to very long exposures. The amount of space in the memory buffer also decreases with NR on.

In Program, Shutter, Aperture, and Manual modes, exposure can be adjusted between -5 and +5 EV in increments of 1/3 EV. The camera can also be set to adjust EV in 1/2 EV increments, if you prefer. EV adjustment values show on the Status LCD only when the EV adjustment button is pressed, though in the viewfinder the scale is skewed on the exposure readout any time an exposure compensation has been specified. Exposure compensation is remembered even after the camera is powered off, but can be immediately reset to 0 - along with all other custom settings - via a two-button reset. This is performed by pressing both the Bracket and Exposure mode buttons, both being marked by an adjacent green dot. Hold these buttons down for more than two seconds and all settings are returned to default (see button listings later in this review to see which functions are reset by this process). This is a handy feature that I'd also like to see on other cameras, as it can be tedious resetting a large number of camera settings manually, or having to navigate the menu system to do so. 

Auto Bracketing can help you with EV adjustments of up to plus or minus 2 EV. The camera will take one shot underexposed by the amount you set, one at the "metered exposure" (determined by the camera in Program, Shutter, and Aperture mode; by the user in Manual mode), and one overexposed. The sequence can also be "metered," under, over. Three presses on the shutter are required to complete each bracketing sequence. The sequence can also be applied to flash exposures, and white balance settings. (White Balance Bracketing can only be done in JPEG mode.) In the case of White Balance, Auto Bracketing works a little differently. Instead of requiring three presses on the shutter to complete the sequence, only one press is required to produce the desired number of frames. Users choose between two and three frames and which direction they want to go. A little experimentation is required, as is a thorough read of the manual. The benefits of using this feature could be significant, however, when you're just not sure about the white balance settings and the shot is critical. 

White balance can be left in Auto, where the camera will adjust the color temperature from 3,500 to 8,000 Kelvin using both the 1,005 pixel RGB exposure sensor and the CCD image sensor. This is a wider range than the earlier D100's Auto White balance mode offered, but as I said in my review of the original D70, I'd still really like to see it extend lower, to handle the incandescent lighting so common in US interior spaces. The D70S still offers the same preset options, from Incandescent (3,000K) through Fluorescent (4,200K), Sunlight (5,200K), Flash (5,400K), Cloudy (6,000K), and Shade (8,000K). You can also preset a white balance by pointing the camera at a white or gray object, or it can be copied from an existing photograph. You can fine-tune the color balance of all white balance settings (except Preset) from -3 to +3 arbitrary units, for a more precise color balance. The D70S also offers Hue, Sharpness, Tone and Saturation adjustments. Hue can be adjusted from -9° to +9° in increments of 3°. Sharpness can be set to Auto, or set from Normal (0 adjustment) to Low (-2), Medium Low (-1), Medium High (+1), High (+2), or None (No sharpening is applied). Tone curves can be set to Auto or set from Normal (0 adjustment) to Low Contrast (-2), Medium Low (-1), Medium High (+1), High Contrast (+2), and Custom. Custom allows the user to download a custom tone curve created in Nikon Capture 4 on a PC. Saturation can be set from Normal (0 adjustment) to Moderate (negative adjustment) or Enhanced (positive adjustment).

There are three color modes, two of them sRGB, and one Adobe RGB. The first sRGB (mode Ia) is optimized for skin tones, and is the default setting. The second setting is Adobe RGB (mode II), offering a wider gamut than sRGB, meaning that it can capture and deliver more colors to a program like Photoshop, especially in the green range. It is recommended for photos that will be modified extensively on a computer. The second sRGB (mode IIIa) is optimized for nature or landscape shots, and apparently more closely approximates the color space of the previous D100. 

In more than a few ways, the original D70 and new D70S are actually superior to their higher priced predecessor the D100, and one of those is their continuous capture mode. They're not only faster at 3 frames per second compared to the D100's 2.5 fps, they also can capture far more frames without pausing. When using a fast Compact Flash card, like SanDisk's Ultra II, Extreme or Extreme III, or Lexar's 80x cards, the buffer doesn't fill very quickly at all, although the original D70 seemed to have a (very) slight edge in its ability to shoot continuously without pausing. The faster the card, the more quickly the camera can offload the data, and in the case of high resolution images saved with the "normal" JPEG compression setting, the buffer may never fill at all. This is truly amazing, and the original D70 was the first digital camera we'd seen that could do this. Note though, that this effect requires a card with a write speed rating of 9MB/second or more.

As with the original D70, the D70S offers support for Nikon's optional ML-L3 infrared remote control, which allows you to take a picture without touching the camera - great for reducing vibration in long exposures, or getting yourself into the picture. A new addition is a remote control port for the MC-DC1 electronic cable release, adding a second choice to the infrared remote control. Two remote modes are available - either Delayed Remote, or Quick-response Remote - and their operation varies depending on the focusing mode. In AF-S mode, the Delayed Remote function will trigger a two-second delay during which the self-timer lamp lights (allowing the camera time to stabilize, or the photographer time to lower their hand and pose as desired before their self-portrait is captured). The camera will then attempt to focus, and if focus is achieved, will fire the shutter. If focus cannot be achieved, then the camera will not take a photo. In AF-C or Manual focus modes, the Delayed Remote function offers the same two-second delay, but captures the photo immediately afterwards without attempting to focus (the same is true if the shutter-button was being half-pressed to lock focus when the remote was triggered). The Quick-response Remote mode has the exact same functionality in all focus modes as the Delayed Remote function, but without the two-second delay.

The D70S' built-in pop-up flash has an ISO 200 Guide Number of 15m/49ft (ISO 100 Guide Number would be 11/36; though the D70S' ISO starts at 200, so this is only stated for comparison with other cameras and flash units). When a CPU lens is on the camera, Nikon's i-TTL is invoked, allowing complex measurements via low-power "almost invisible" preflashes right before the main flash, that the camera combines with distance information from the lens' CPU. This is excellent for fill flash, because the D70 uses its 1,005 segment Matrix meter to balance foreground lighting against backlighting. When a non-CPU lens is used, the built-in Speedlight supposedly only works in Manual mode, but my test unit showed no difference in flash behavior when I tried it with a couple of my older lenses.

Flash sync modes include Front-curtain sync, Red-eye reduction, Slow sync with red eye reduction, Slow sync, Rear- and Slow rear-curtain sync. In full Auto, Portrait, and Macro modes, Auto front curtain sync, Auto with red eye, and Off are the only options. In Night Portrait mode, both Auto flash modes are of necessity Slow sync. Flash Exposure Compensation allows the user to adjust brightness from -3 to +1 EV, providing for very subtle fill-flash effects. 

The D70S uses Type I and Type II CF cards and MicroDrives. In addition to three JPEG compression levels, images can also be saved as NEF-format compressed RAW images, or simultaneously as RAW + JPEG files. Resolutions are 3,008 x 2,000, 2,240 x 1,488, and 1,504 x 1,000. When printed at 200 dpi, these can produce images as big as 15 x 10, 11 x 7.5, and 7.5 x 5 inches, respectively. A USB cable comes with the camera for uploads, as well as Nikon PictureProject software and a 30-day free trial of Nikon Capture. A video cable with a standard male "RCA" style jack is also included.

One EN-EL3a Lithium Ion battery pack powers the D70S, providing 7.4V at 1500mAh - just slightly up from the 1400mAh provided by the D70's EN-EL3 battery pack, which can also be used in the D70S. (Note that the EN-EL3a is actually compatible with the original D70 as well, although that camera is bundled with the older type). Though the battery looks very much like the Canon BP-511, they're not compatible. Along with the new battery is a new charger bundled with the D70S, the MH-18a. This charger (as with the slightly larger MH-18 that it replaces) is compatible with both the EN-EL3 and EN-EL3a batteries. The EN-EL3a gives very long run times in the D70S, but unfortunately there is no battery pack/vertical grip planned for the camera, an advantage that both the D100 and Digital Rebel have. The battery door is removable by gently pulling on it when opened about 45 degrees, but Nikon don't seem to have any plans to release a battery grip. (If you're interested in a vertical grip, the Harbortronics VG-D70 looks like it could be a good option. That grip included a fiber optic light pipe to couple to the original D70's IR remote port: I suspect they'll come out with a version for the D70S to take advantage of the new model's wired remote jack, but you'll have to check with them for more information.)

Offering the same 6.1 megapixel resolution as the original D70, plus the same sturdy, competent build, fast capture, and very nice kit lens, plus a new MC-DC1 cable release port, as well as improvements to the focusing, LCD, and bundled battery / charger, the D70S is poised to be a great seller for Nikon. This is an amazingly capable camera, with excellent image quality and excellent optics, at a very affordable price. While not offering quite as much resolution as Canon's Digital Rebel XT, nor the availability of a Nikon-designed battery grip, the D70S remains a very worthy competitor in the d-SLR marketplace.

Design

Sharing a body design that's almost identical to the original D70, the Nikon D70S' design feels reminiscent of earlier Nikon cameras such as the D2H and D100, but is simpler in appearance and smaller size than either. It is nonetheless quite attractive, built of a black polycarbonate body with red and gray accents. Anyone familiar with Nikon's film or digital cameras will appreciate the similarity of most controls on the D70S. The body's plastic body shell and smaller size are responsible for its low weight of 21.1 ounces, or 598 grams stripped of battery, lens, body cap, and monitor cover. With the battery installed (but no card or body cap), it weighs in at 23.8 ounces (674 grams), while fully loaded with the battery, a memory card, and the 18-70mm lens (with cap and hood) shipped with the "bundle," it weighs 39.3 ounces (1114 grams).

The D70S feels great to hold: Along with its predecessor, it's my absolute favorite of all the d-SLRs I've shot with, based on how well it fits my hand, and how wonderfully balanced it is when holding it. The grip and much of the body has a soft rubbery texture and the front grip itself is excellent. The sculpted CF door on the back serves as a great thumb hold, working well against the sharp angle on the front grip to provide a secure one-handed hold. With the 18-70mm lens attached, balance is superb. The handgrip is also long, allowing room for most users' pinkies to rest comfortably with room to spare. The index finger finds the shutter and power switch naturally, but the sub-command dial is a little low for my tastes. All that room I talked about for the pinkie is taken away as the index finger searches for the dial. I suppose the middle finger could stand in for the index finger when controlling the command dial, but that would significantly weaken your grip on the camera in the process.

The metal F-style lens mount is the D70S' most prominent feature, and certainly its most valuable, offering compatibility with a massive array of quality Nikkor lenses. A D-shaped button just left of the lens serves to release the lens lock. (All directions are noted as if reader were holding the camera face out.) Below this a switch facing off to the left chooses between AF and Manual focus modes. Above the lens release button is the flash pop-up button. Down and to the right is the Depth of Field Preview button. The AF assist light is above that, mounted almost flush with the camera's tumble-home taper. The Sub-command dial is also visible from here, right above the D70S' triangular red accent.

The right side of the camera has only the neck strap eyelet and a few screws to speak of. Despite its jutting angle, the eyelet does not jab into your hand at all.

The left side of the D70S has the other neckstrap eyelet and a rubber door covering DC in and Video Out ports. A separate rubber door below this covers the USB port; having this down low allows for fewer snags when uploading photos, as it keeps the cable close to whatever surface you have the camera resting on. A third rubber door at the top of the camera is a new addition, hiding the remote control port for the optional MC-DC1 electronic cable release, which allows you to take photos without touching the camera, reducing the risk of camera shake. Here you also get a better look at the AF/Manual focus selector switch and the Flash pop-up button.

On top we see the pop-up flash and hot shoe, both in-line with the lens. To the right of the flash gear is the Status LCD. Most of what's available through the viewfinder is available here, plus a few extras. Many features can be set here via button/dial combinations without having to enter the main menu, an excellent benefit as you become more familiar with the camera. Here we also have the shutter button, surrounded by the power switch. The Metering mode button is just behind that, and next to it is the exposure compensation button. The screen illumination button is just right of the status LCD. Both the Screen illumination button and the Metering mode button can be used in combination with the Continuous mode and Bracket buttons to either Format the CF card or Reset the device's settings to default when held down simultaneously for more than two seconds. (To finalize the card format, you have to release and press these buttons a second time; the same does not apply to resetting the camera's setup.) Left of the flash is the mode dial, which can be turned in any direction, without limit.

The back of the camera is actually the most changed area as compared to the original D70, although at a casual glance it looks almost identical. The change relates to the new LCD display which at 2.0" is slightly (0.2") larger on the diagonal. The smooth plastic area around the display has also been enlarged, meaning that it now covers almost all of the available area between the optical viewfinder, the bottom of the camera, and the controls on either side of the display. The arrangement of components on the back of the camera is fairly consumer friendly in appearance, but everything is still mostly in familiar places for pros who would choose the D70 as a secondary or tertiary camera. Eyeglass wearers will appreciate the reasonable standoff of the viewfinder, as well as its rubber eyecup, which now extends quite a bit to either side of the eyepiece itself, providing a better shield against glare. A sliding diopter correction control is nestled to the right of the viewfinder.

Just left of center is the 2.0 inch LCD that comes with a protective plastic cover to prevent scratches to the LCD (which, since the LCD is larger, is not interchangeable with the D70's cover and has a new part number). I find this cover a little annoying, for two reasons. Firstly, since it has been enlarged, it is now close enough to the Multi selector pad to make it awkward to press the left arrow on this pad, at least with my large hands. Secondly, my breath too often fogs the cover on the inside, and I cannot wipe it clean without first removing it. For these reasons, I often end up keeping the cover in the bag (but it is does offer some degree of protection for the LCD display when it is actually on the camera, it must be said). Upper left of the LCD is the Bracket button, which works in conjunction with the Main command dial on the right. The Continuous capture mode button is just right of the Bracket button. Down the left side of the screen are the Playback button, Menu button, ISO/Thumbnail button, White Balance / Protect / Help button, and Image Quality / Size / Enter / Zoom button. As with the D70, these last three buttons have integrated functions that on the D100 appeared on the Mode dial. Their presence here adds a little unnecessary complexity, but it also keeps truer to Nikon's Shot Priority philosophy. With items like ISO on the Mode dial, one couldn't just press the shutter button to enter capture mode, a major hindrance that I noted in my review of the D100. 

Above right of the screen is the Auto Exposure / Auto Focus Lock button. Below that is the Multi selector navigator, then the focus point lock switch and the delete button. Finally, there's the CF door, which releases with a sideways press on the latch. The door is gently spring-loaded to open easily, and a small rubber bumper against the upper right of the door hinge softly stops the door when fully open. Inside the CF compartment is a big button that releases the CompactFlash card with ease. 

The bottom panel has slightly raised ribs traversing it, to provide better friction when mounted on a tripod head. Otherwise, it's very flat, making for nice, level mounting on tripods. The metal tripod mount is aligned with the optical axis of the lens. (This will somewhat simplify parallax control on shots to be stitched into panoramas, but note that you'll still need to offset the axis of rotation slightly forward, to position it under the optical center of whatever lens you're using.) The battery compartment is on the right side of the body. A thumbnail-activated lock releases the battery door, and the battery falls free.- Note that there is no sub-latch to keep the battery in place in case the door opens accidentally. Opposite the battery compartment on the left side (when viewed from the back) is a very small rubber Reset button to be used as a last resort, when the camera cannot be reset by other means.

Viewfinder

Like all SLRs, by definition the D70S has an optical viewfinder that receives light through the same lens that will direct light to the imager when the mirror flips up and the shutter opens. Rangefinder-style cameras have separate optics for viewfinder and imager, so the image can be slightly off due to what's called parallax error. This is largely eliminated as a problem with LCD viewfinders on consumer-grade digital cameras, but delay can be increased because the LCD usually lags behind reality at least a little bit (not to mention that LCD displays are notoriously power-hungry!). An SLR design allows the user to see the very view that the camera will see at the speed of light, eliminating some of the lag factor. An illuminated display inside the viewfinder provides detailed camera and exposure information, including focus area indicators, focus confirmation, focus mode, shutter speed, aperture, metering, AE/FV lock, battery status, exposure and flash compensation, frame counter, and flash ready light. When activated through the menu, the view also includes an alignment grid, useful for lining up difficult shots. That this can be turned on and off indicates that an LCD-equipped mirror is employed in the Pentamirror arrangement (we're seeing lower cost SLRs sporting Pentamirrors rather than Pentaprisms. This is also true in Canon's Digital Rebel. Pentamirror finders are supposed to be less bright than Pentaprisms, but I haven't found any huge disadvantage among the cameras I've reviewed. A Pentaprism is a solid piece of crystal or glass that is more expensive than a set of mirrors, and that also adds weight to the camera body.)

The LCD panel is not usable as a viewfinder on digital SLRs, for the simple reason that the mirror is directing light to the optical viewfinder, completely obscuring the digital sensor until the time of exposure. It can, however, provide a good deal of information after an image has been captured, demonstrated well in the D70S design. No fewer than five different display screens are available, ranging from no information other than the 130,000 pixel picture, to very detailed lists of the settings, plus a histogram, and an overexposure alert. The histogram is a graph of how many pixels in the image have each brightness level. The brightness is the horizontal axis, running from black on the left to white on the right. The height of the graph shows the number of pixels at that brightness level. This kind of display can be very helpful in determining over- or underexposure. An evenly-exposed, low-contrast subject would create a histogram that stretches across the entire width of the display, using the full range of brightness values available. An underexposed image will have a histogram with all the data lumped on the left of the histogram, and an overexposed image would be bunched up on the right.

Another display mode that's useful is the Highlights display, which flashes any overexposed areas, alternating white and black. Few objects should appear as pure white in a well-exposed photograph, because few objects in the real world are pure, saturated white to our eyes. Obvious exceptions are light sources, like lamps and the sun. The flashing Highlights display is thus very useful for seeing any parts of the image that might be overexposed. It's particularly helpful when only isolated highlight areas are overexposed. Because the histogram display shows the distribution of all the pixels in the image, small overexposed areas don't produce a noticeable blip on the graph, making them easy to miss. The Highlights display takes care of that, by calling attention to overexposed regions very directly.

Though it's buried in the control buttons, the D70S has the ability to zoom in on photos up to 4.7x (an apparent slight increase in magnification relative to the 4x of the previous model) to examine focus and detailed framing in playback mode. The animated series of shots shows how this works. As you enter a zoomed playback mode, the display changes from a 3:2 ratio view, which shows the entire image, to a 4:3 ratio, matching the dimensions of the LCD. Once you've entered zoomed playback mode, pressing the Thumbnail display button (of all things) while rotating the Main control dial zooms in on the image. Once zoomed, you can use the Four-way rocker to move around inside the image. Pressing the Thumbnail display button toggles to a display showing the position for your zoomed window within the normal-sized image, indicated by a bold red outline. You can move this window around with the Rocker Pad control, and then pop back into the zoomed view by releasing the Thumbnail button again. This may all sound a little complicated, and it is, but after very little acclimation, I found I could move around within the enlarged display very fluidly using this arrangement. See the animated screen shot above for a whirlwind tour of the feature. Pressing Playback Zoom/Quality/Enter button zooms you in and out by 2x, and you can move around with the navigator button.

There is one really bizarre aspect to the D70S's display though, that was actually present in the D70 as well, but that I simply missed commenting on. (Actually, it was IR News Editor Mike Tomkins who first noticed this one.) With the "Rotate Tall" option enabled on the playback menu, vertical, "portrait-format" images are displayed on the rear-panel LCD oriented vertically. That's all well and good. The weirdness comes when you zoom in on a vertical-format image, and the zoomed image is confined to the same tiny area of the LCD that the full-sized portrait-format image was in! Whaat?!? Why can't the image expand to fill the full LCD screen as you zoom into it. Having noticed this, we then realized that the same thing happens with landscape-oriented images: The LCD screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but when you zoom into landscape-formatted images, only a 3:2 ratio area is actually used to display the zoomed image. Bottom line, you don't get to see as much of the image at once, and so have to scroll around more to see all of it. In fairness, I don't know how many other d-SLRs do this, but the Canon Rebel XT that I checked just now definitely makes use of all the available LCD area when zooming in on images in playback mode, regardless of their orientation.

Optics

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The D70S accommodates a wide array of Nikkor lenses via the standard Nikon F lens mount. It will work with older AF lenses that are driven by a mechanical coupling or with the newer AF-IF or AF-S Nikkor lenses with internal focusing motors. Despite this backward compatibility, Nikon recommends the D70S be used with type G or D lenses. These models included a microchip to communicate distance information to the camera, and the G models have apertures that work via electrical contacts, and so have no aperture ring on them (On older lens models, the aperture ring must be locked at its minimum setting to be used in automatic modes.) IX-Nikkor lenses, originally built for APS cameras, are expressly unable to work with the D70S, as are old "non-AI" lenses and a handful of mostly special-purpose lenses. (Consult the D70S's manual, page 184 for the full list of incompatible lens models.)

Functions and exposure modes available with a given lens will vary greatly depending on type. G and D type lenses include a microchip that communicates focal distance information to the camera. Lenses without the microchip will disable 3D-Matrix metering mode. See the table below for a brief idea of the functionality available with different Nikkor lens types (abstracted from the D70S' manual, used by courtesy of Nikon USA, Inc.)

The D70S comes in two packages, either bundled with a lens specially designed for the camera, or body only. As such we'll discuss working with the bundle's 18-70 f/3.5-8.5 IF-ED glass DX lens. As was said of the Canon Digital Rebel's 18-55mm lens, getting the camera without the lens would be a mistake, since it will only be available at a higher price than the bundle after the fact. Body only, the camera is $899 street, with the lens it's $1,199 street. Separately, the lens carries an official price of $400, with typical street prices in the range of $350. Though many prospective buyers will have a few Nikkor lenses, most consumers will not have an 18mm lens, something necessary to achieve true wide-angle shooting with the "DX" sized sensor used in the D70S and other Nikon d-SLRs. (An 18mm lens on the D70S produces the same field of view as a 27mm lens on a 35mm camera.)

This is an excellent ED glass lens, equivalent to a 27 - 105mm lens on a 35mm camera, with all the necessary electronics to make it 3D matrix metering capable, and a Silent Wave focusing motor. Frankly, as a bundle or otherwise, it's a bargain. Its closest equivalent among other Nikkor lenses is the AF-S 17-55mm F2.8G ED DX currently going for $1,400. That's more than the D70S and its lens combined, so unless you already own one of these, strongly consider the bundle. Admittedly a zoom that starts at f/2.8 is worth a lot of money, but the 18-70mm's range of f/3.5-4.5 is only a half a stop to a bit more than one stop slower, so consumers will do just fine with it.

The 18-70mm has an F3.5 - 4.5 range, something the Digital Rebel's short back-focus EF-S lens does not equal despite its shorter zoom ratio, coming in at F3.5 - 5.6. A look at both side by side tells the story, with the Nikkor offering a far larger objective lens, usually indicating greater light gathering ability. Another subtle advantage of the Nikon 18-70: It uses internal focusing, so the front element doesn't rotate when the camera focuses. This means that the angle of a polarizing or other special effects filter attached to the filter threads won't change as the lens is focused. Also, thanks to its use of the Silent Wave focusing motor, you can manually focus the lens at any time, without having to disengage the camera's focusing mechanism. All this is not to discount the achievement in quality, light weight, and low cost of the Canon EF-S lens, a surprisingly good lens for the money, but I mention it to underscore that for only $300 more than the Rebel's bundle, you're getting a lot more lens.

Nikon's ED glass helps minimize chromatic aberration, ED being the company's designation for their high-end line, which uses Extra-low Dispersion glass. The lens has an information window that shows the current focus setting in feet and meters, with raised gold lettering all around. Its mechanisms are all very smooth, with no slop or play, giving a feeling of precision. The hard rubber grips on the focus and zoom rings are textured such that they're easy to hold as well as tell apart by touch. The lens body is metal, with a spatter-painted black texture that matches the texture of the D70S' body. The front of the lens is internally threaded for a filter, and has external flanges for the included HB-32 lens hood. The overall impression given by the lens' appearance alone is one of precision and excellence. Using the lens tells the same story.

Focus options

The D70S lets you take advantage of auto or manual focus via a small switch on the front of the camera, next to the lens. Setting the switch to "M" puts the camera into manual focus mode, and AF puts it into Auto Focus mode. As just noted above though, AF-S lenses with the built-in Silent Wave focus motor let you manually focus the lens at any time, regardless of the cameras focus setting. To select between the two types of AF, you need to go to the camera menu and Custom Setting 2 and choose between AF-S (Single Servo) and AF-C (Continuous Servo). Single Servo simply means that the camera sets focus only once, when the Shutter button is first pressed halfway, and is best for still objects. Continuous Servo means that the camera continuously adjusts the focus, as long as the Shutter button is halfway pressed, and is best for moving objects.

There's an important difference between Single and Continuous Servo modes: In Single Servo mode, the shutter won't release unless the lens has achieved focus (Focus Priority). In Continuous Servo mode however, the camera will fire regardless of the state of focus (Release Priority). If you want to be sure that the camera is focused when you snap the picture, use Single Servo mode. Use Continuous Servo for moving subjects, and/or times when the specific instant of shutter release is more important to you than guaranteed sharp focus.

As discussed earlier, focus can be confined to one of the five specific focus points in Single Area mode, or with Dynamic Area which offers focus tracking. Single Area AF simply means that the camera sets focus based on the specific area you've designated. Dynamic AF employs all five of the autofocus areas. When Dynamic Area focusing is enabled, the camera first focuses on the subject in the chosen focus area. When the subject moves to a different AF area, the camera shifts the focus to "follow" the subject. This is great for irregularly moving subjects. (Sports and kids come to mind.) As with the D70, Closest Subject Priority occupies its own slot in the control system, whereas it was automatically enabled in both Dynamic and Single Area on the D100. This option means that the camera first focuses on the closest object that falls into one of the five focus points.

In Single Area AF mode, you can change the primary focus area by unlocking the Multi selector (the Four-Way Arrow pad on the back panel) with the sliding switch beneath it and then shifting the focus area using the up, down, right, or left arrow keys. You can lock the focus area selection by sliding the switch back to the lock position. By default, the D70S does not "wrap" the focus area selector as you scroll between focus areas. Through the Custom Settings menu though, you can opt for a "Wrap" function. What this means is that if you press the right arrow key again, after the right focus area is already selected, the selection will immediately jump to the left focus area. The same happens when moving the focus area selection vertically.

There are two methods by which you can lock focus on the D70S. The first is via the shutter button, placing your subject in the selected focus area, halfway pressing and holding the Shutter button, then realigning the composition and firing the shutter. (This is the default behavior of the shutter button, but it can be disabled.) Unlike most cameras, you can choose whether or not the shutter button also locks exposure, via an option on the Custom Settings menu.) Alternatively, when using Single Servo AF, you can press the AF-L/AE-L button to lock focus (and / or exposure, unless the button is set for focus-only in the Custom Settings menu). Keeping this button pressed will maintain the focus and/or exposure lock, even if the Shutter button is released. This lets you recompose the photograph without keeping your finger on the Shutter button, but on the AE-L/AF-L button instead. (Reducing the chance that you'll accidentally trip the shutter when you don't intend to.)

There are several options available for the AE-L/AF-L button, which can be set via Custom Settings Menu 15. You can program it to lock either focus or exposure separately, or both together (the default). You can also change its operation so a single press locks and holds the exposure setting. (No need to keep the button pressed down.) Finally, you can set the AE/AF lock button so it alone controls the autofocus system, meaning the autofocus won't actuate when the shutter button is half-pressed, only when the AE/AF lock button is pressed instead. Finally there's the FV lock option, which locks the flash level and keeps it locked until the button is pressed again. (If you're a novice user considering purchasing a D70S, and all this sounds confusing, don't let it worry you: The camera's default operation is very straightforward, but the availability of features like these is really liberating for more advanced users.)

As mentioned earlier, the AF system is an area where the D70S sports a number of improvements over the original D70. One such improvement is that when operating in an automatic mode, the AF system now continuously monitors the subject conditions (brightness, contrast, and available detail) at all five focus areas, and then automatically selects the best area on which to base its focus decisions. The improvements go quite a bit further than this though, many having to do with subject acquisition and focus accuracy. For instance, a new algorithm for measuring the subjects' distance from the camera improves the ability to acquire the subject, while newly-refined algorithms have improved focus performance when tracking slow-moving subjects. The lens-drive algorithm and AF-adjustment process have both been tweaked, improving focus precision, and focus precision has also been improved for subjects with high brightness. Finally, the algorithm for determining closest-subject priority has also been improved.

Everyone understands that lenses sometimes get dust on them and need to be cleaned, and there are a lot of lens-cleaning cloths, solutions and other accessories on the market that work well. BUT, what do you do when your sensor gets dusty? Dust specks on the sensor tend to show up when shooting at very small apertures, appearing as dark blobs on your images. They're distracting at best, a terrible nuisance at worst, if you end up having to retouch every image to rid of them.

Most of us are naturally leery about the idea of poking around inside the delicate innards of our d-SLRs to wrestle with recalcitrant dust specks. Gently blowing the sensor surface (actually, the surface of the anti-aliasing filter) with compressed air gets rid of some dust, but there's invariably a lot that just stays stuck, no matter what. So what do you do?

If you've got dust specks on your sensor (and sooner or later you will), you're going to need to clean it. There are a lot of products out there intended to address this need, but a distressing number of them work poorly (if at all), and many are grossly overpriced. Advertising hype is rampant, with bogus pseudo-scientific jargon and absurd product claims run rampant. And prices - Did I mention prices? How about $100 for a simple synthetic-bristle brush?

So how do you know what product to use?

We don't pretend to have used everything currently on the market, but can tell you about one solution that worked very well for us. The "Copper Hill" cleaning method is straightforward and safe, and in our routine usage here at Imaging Resource, highly effective. Better yet, the products sold by Copper Hill Imaging are very reasonably priced. Best of all, Nicholas R (proprietor of Copper Hill) has put together an amazingly detailed tutorial on sensor cleaning, free for all.

Sensor cleaning is one of the last things people think about when buying a d-SLR, but it's vital to capturing the best possible images. Take our advice and order a cleaning kit from Copper Hill right along with your d-SLR, so you'll have it close at hand when you need it: You'll be glad you did!

(Other than a few backlinks on their site, we receive no promotional consideration from Copper Hill. We just think their sensor cleaning products are among the best on the market, and like their way of doing business. - We think you will too. Check them out.)

Exposure

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Available exposure modes include Program AE, Manual, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority modes, as well as Auto and Digital Vari-Program modes (similar to the Scene modes on Nikon's consumer digicams), including Portrait, Landscape, Close up, Sports, Night landscape, and Night portrait. Shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/8000 second are available, plus bulb for exposures up to 30 minutes. In Program mode, you can use the Main command dial to adjust the camera's selection in favor of a higher shutter speed and a larger aperture, or vise versa if the options are available, handy for when you want to emphasize shutter speed or aperture.

ISO sensitivity ranges from 200 to 1600, adjustable by pressing the ISO button and turning the Main command dial to change the setting on the Status LCD. It can also be changed in the menu. A Noise Reduction mode in the settings menu reduces fixed-pattern image noise when shooting at the higher sensitivity settings at longer exposure times. White balance modes include Auto, which covers almost the entire range from 3,500K to 8,000K. It can also be set manually for Incandescent (3,000K), Fluorescent (4,200K), Sunlight (5,200K), Flash (5,400K), Cloudy (6,000K), Shade (8,000K), or Preset, which the user sets based on a white or gray object in the scene or a pre-captured photograph. My biggest gripe is that neither Auto nor Incandescent reach down far enough to handle the household incandescent lighting that's so common in the US. (Although Incandescent can be tweaked enough to almost get there.) Why can't digicam companies make auto white balance options with enough range to cover this very common light source?

White balance can be fine tuned by pressing the WB button and turning the sub-command dial. It can be adjusted from -3 to +3 in increments of 1, but the actual step size varies as a function of the white balance mode that's selected. See table below for details, which shows the lighting color temperature that each setting corresponds to. 

The D70S has three metering options, 3D Matrix, Center Weighted, and Spot. The 3D Matrix setting integrates exposure information from 1,005 areas across the entire screen, as opposed to most multisegment sensors that have from 10 to 35 areas to analyze. The scene viewed by the metering sensor is compared to a database of common photographic situations to help the camera decide whether the image consists of a backlit subject, for example, or else a dark foreground object. This information is enhanced (essentially made "3D") by the focus distance information shared from the microchip in the D- and G-series lenses. The net result of all this is a more frequently accurate metering response than that produced by center weighted metering, especially if the subject is off-center. In practice, I found the D70S' metering to generally be quite accurate. It seemed to have a tendency to slightly underexpose most shots by about 0.3 EV, but it was pretty consistent in this, leading me to believe that this might represent a deliberate choice by its designers, to avoid losing highlight detail. (The D70 had a similar tendency, but my sense is that the amount of underexposure is slightly less with the D70S.) Overall, I felt pretty confident of getting the exposure I expected with the D70S, after relatively little time spent with the camera.

As to the other metering options for the D70S, center-weighted metering takes a light reading from the entire image area, but places the greatest emphasis on a circular area in the center. In an unusual feature for an "entry level" d-SLR, as Custom Function menu option lets you select how large an area contributes toward the center-weighting. Options are 6, 8, 10, and 12 mm, with 8mm being the default (and the only area actually indicated in the viewfinder). Spot metering in the D70S takes a reading centered on the active focus area (about one percent of the frame), excellent for quick measurements from a face without having to close the distance much.

The D70S' Exposure compensation adjustment lightens or darkens the overall exposure anywhere from -5 to +5 EV units, in one-third step increments. It can also be adjusted to work in half step increments. Note though, that exposure compensation does not work in the Auto mode or any of the Digital Vari-Program modes. As noted above, I found the D70S to fairly consistently underexpose shots by about 0.3 EV, since most of my shots were better when I boosted the exposure compensation by that amount. By default, test shots captured under harsh lighting showed the D70S to be quite a bit more contrasty than I'd personally prefer, although the color from the D70S is excellent. There is a variable contrast control buried in the shooting menu that lets you adjust the contrast level to low, normal, or high. I found that this worked reasonably well, but didn't have as much of an effect when used to decrease the contrast as it did when increasing it. Overall, I'd really like to see more capability to reduce the camera's somewhat high native contrast than is provided.

An auto-bracketing feature takes three shots of the same subject with varying exposure values determined by either the photographer in manual mode or by the camera in all other modes. The exposure steps for bracketing can vary across a range of -2 to +2 EV (values are added to the already chosen exposure compensation value), in increments of either one-third or one-half. Through the Custom Settings menu, the Bracketing function can also be set to bracket exposure and flash-level, flash exposure only, or white balance only. (By default, both ambient and flash exposures are bracketed.)

The D70S also offers Hue, Sharpness, Tone Compensation (Contrast), and Saturation adjustments, accessed through the Shooting menu. I mentioned the contrast adjustment feature above, but its Custom option deserves special mention. What's unusual here (for an entry-level d-SLR at least) is that the Custom tone compensation option accepts downloaded tone curves from a computer. (If no curve is downloaded, the Custom setting defaults to the Normal setting.) This lets you completely define the camera's tonal characteristics via the computer, something that has heretofore only been available on the highest-end d-SLR models.

For those familiar with the concept of the "color wheel", which arranges visible colors in a circle, Nikon's Hue adjustment will make sense: It offers a range of adjustment from -9 to +9 degrees around the color wheel. (A complete circuit of the wheel being 360 degrees.) If you don't carry a degree-calibrated color wheel in your head, I've provided the illustration of a color wheel at right. The dark bars show the total shift that the full 18 degree range of adjustment offered by the D70S' hue control can produce. - As you can see, it's a fairly subtle adjustment. Note too, that the effect on any given color will depend on where that color is around the wheel. For red colors, a positive adjustment will shift the red toward orange, while a negative adjustment will shift it toward purple. For blues though, positive adjustments shift the color toward purple, while negative adjustments shift it toward cyan. The rollover image below shows the effect of going from -9 to +9 on the Hue adjustment - The -9 shot is visible by default, move your cursor over the image to see the effect of the shift to +9 degrees.

When reviewing images on the LCD monitor, you can call up a histogram and a highlight function to give you a complete readout on the exposure. This is a useful tool to examine your exposure in the camera instead of waiting to download images and then deciding to reshoot. As I noted in my discussion of these features in the Viewfinder section of this review, I'd like to see the Highlight function be a little more restrained in its reporting of overly-strong highlights. (Actually, the ideal would be to let the user select at what brightness level the highlight warning should activate. Why hasn't any manufacturer done this yet?)

Continuous Shooting Mode
Nikon claims that the D70S' Continuous Shooting mode captures 3 frames per second, depending on the amount of image information and available Compact Flash space. In practice, I clocked it at 3.05 fps, quite close. When using a fast Compact Flash card, like a Lexar 80x, or SanDisk's Ultra II, Extreme or Extreme III, the buffer doesn't fill very quickly. The buffer-frames-remaining counter decreases slowly but steadily in large/fine JPEG mode, very slowly in large/normal mode, and not at all at the large/basic quality setting. The faster the card, the more quickly the buffer can offload the data, and in the case of high resolution with "normal" or "basic" compression, the buffer may never fill at all. This is truly amazing, the original D70 was the first digital camera I saw that could do this. Do note though, that this effect requires a card write speed rating of 9MB/second or more. (Finally, a camera that really takes advantage of fast memory cards!)

Image Noise
Overall, the D70 has pretty good noise characteristics. The chart below shows a plot of noise magnitude vs ISO value for the D70S and several competing models, but as usual, the chart tells only a small portion of the story. While the D70S shows numerically higher noise levels, particularly at very high ISO settings, in actual fact, the noise pattern of the D70 is pretty finer-grained. This makes it less objectionable to the eye. Bottom line, I found the D70S's images shot at ISO 1600 to be quite acceptable for all but the most critical applications. For routine shooting of family memories, I have no qualms about running the D70S at its maximum ISO setting on a routine basis.

Flash (!)

Built into the D70S is a pop-up flash unit, which operates in one of five modes: Front-Curtain Sync, Red-Eye Reduction, Red-Eye Reduction with Slow Sync, Slow Sync, and Rear-Curtain Sync. Front-Curtain Sync fires the flash at the beginning of the exposure, with every shot. Red-Eye Reduction mode pulses the very bright autofocus assist lamp before the main flash exposure, to reduce the Red-Eye Effect in shots of people. Red-Eye Reduction with Slow Sync works in a similar fashion, but combines the flash with a slower shutter speed for night portraits. (This reduces the harsh effect of nighttime flash shots, allowing more of the ambient illumination into the picture.) Slow Sync mode works with shutter speeds as slow as 30 seconds (!) to preserve color in night shots. Finally, Rear-Curtain Sync fires the flash at the end of the exposure, producing light trails behind moving subjects, rather than in front of them. In all flash modes, the flash fires with every exposure. Closing the flash disables it completely. The Flash popup button to the left of the flash doubles as a Flash Compensation button, adjusting the overall brightness of the flash from -3 to +1 EV in one-third-step increments when used in conjunction with the Sub Command dial. Pressing the Flash popup button while rotating the Main Command dial cycles through the available flash modes.

The D70S' internal flash is fairly powerful, with a guide number of 15 meters or 49 feet at ISO 200 in TTL Auto mode, or 17 meters and 56 feet in Manual mode. (I assume that the decreased range in auto mode is due to the energy required to power the metering flash before the main exposure.) Most photographers will be accustomed to comparing flash guide numbers based on an ISO of 100, but the D70S's ISO scale doesn't go down that low. For reference though, the equivalent guide numbers at ISO 100 would be 11 meters/36 feet in TTL Auto, 12 meters/39 feet in Manual mode. These guide numbers mean that an f/2.8 lens will give you an effective range of 17.5 feet at ISO 200, an impressive distance for an on-camera flash. Even with the included 18-70mm F3.5-5.6, the working range drops only to 14 feet, still reasonable. The angular coverage of the flash is enough to cover the field of view of a 20mm lens on the D70S - not quite wide enough for the 18mm end of the 18-70mm zoom shipped in the kit.

One note on what appears to be an error in the D70S' manual (carried over from the original D70 manual, as I noted in my review of that camera). The manual states that the onboard flash will revert to manual-only operation with any lens that doesn't contain a CPU. (That is, for all except Nikkor D- and G-type lenses.) In actual use, I found this not to be the case, as the camera seemed to do a very good job of flash metering with any of several non-CPU autoaperture/autofocus lenses I tried it with. (Principally an old 24mm f/4 and my nice old 70-210mm f/4 zoom.) A CPU-equipped lens is certainly necessary to receive all the benefits of 3D Matrix Flash Metering (see below), but for the record, the D70S seems to do quite well with non-CPU lenses too.

Besides its slight limitation in angular coverage, my one complaint about the D70S' built-in flash is that it doesn't project very far above the camera body when deployed, at least not relative to the bulk of the 18-70mm kit lens. I found that it was quite easy to get shadows on the subjects if I left the lens hood on. Even without the hood, with the lens at its maximum 70mm extension and with fairly close subjects, I found I could end up with shadows where I didn't want them. Not a huge problem, you just need to back off a little bit on the zoom and shoot with the hood removed, but I mention it to hopefully save readers some blown shots.

Also included on the D70S is an external flash hot shoe, just behind the pop-up flash compartment. The hot shoe accommodates Nikon accessory flash units, as well as a wide range of third party flashes. The full range of flash sync modes remains available for compatible flash units. Different Nikon Speedlights offer different features when used on the D70S. The tables below (again used by courtesy of Nikon USA, Inc.) shows the features available when using various Nikon Speedlights with the D70S. (Note that while many older flash units will work in non-TTL auto mode with the D70S, the full power of i-TTL is only available with the new SB-600 and SB-800 models. Also, note that the SB-600 and SB-800 have powerful built-in autofocus assist illuminators that take over that function when coupled with the D70S. With older flash models, the D70S has to provide its own AF-assist lighting.)

The D70S's built-in Speedlight can also be used to control a number of SB-800 and SB-600 flashes in Commander mode for creating dramatic lighting effects. This mode does not allow for the built-in Speedlight to provide fill, however. The D70S will appear to flash, but the Commander flashes occur just before the shutter opens, to tell the other units when to fire, and what intensity to discharge at. (See the section on remote flash below, for more details.)

3D Matrix Flash Metering
The "3D" aspect of the Nikon metering system is that it uses subject distance information from the lens (only available with D and G-type lenses) to guide its exposure decisions. This is particularly key with flash exposures, because flash illumination falls off quite strongly as the subject gets further from the camera. With 3D Matrix Flash Metering users don't have to give a second thought to balancing the flash with ambient lighting. Just snap a few test shots to see how much fill you want, decide what level you need (for instance, -2EV). Then set that level of flash compensation, set the flash to "fill" mode, and that's it. This is really a case of technology working perfectly in the service of creativity. The camera just quietly does its job, so you can focus on composition, color, interacting with your subjects, etc. It doesn't remove the creative decisions of how you want to light your subject, it simply removes the technicalities from the equation.

Wireless Remote TTL (iTTL) Flash
The D70S retains Nikon's unique "iTTL" wireless through the lens flash metering and control first seen on the D2H, and first brought to an entry-level d-SLR for the original D70. When the D2H was first introduced, the phenomenal capability of iTTL flash operation actually struck me as a being a bigger innovation than the D2H itself.

Nikon has long been known for their 3D matrix metered fill-flash capability, and the exceptional ease it brings to fill-flash exposures. With iTTL (the "i" is for "intelligent" TTL), they're further extending the capabilities of their flash technology. In the D70, for the first time, iTTL made use of the 1005-element RGB sensor used for the main exposure system, and this capability has continued on in the D70S. Other improvements such as improved preflash metering accuracy and the extraordinary multi-unit, true TTL wireless flash autoexposure capability have been carried forward as well. To me, that's the most amazing part of the new flash technology: Not just that it provides automatic flash operation without wires, but that it offers true Through The Lens (TTL) metering for flash exposures, even with multiple remote flash units: With an SB-800 speedlight as a master controller, up to three separate groups of SB-600 and SB-800 strobes can be controlled independently, each group consisting of an unlimited number of units. The D70S itself can also serve as a master controller, although it can only control one group at a time, and its internal strobe can't contribute to the exposure when it's acting as a controller. (Note though, that if you mount an SB-800 on the D70S' hot shoe, the SB-800 can both act as a master controller, as well as contribute to the exposure itself.)

When I first heard about it, the whole wireless TTL system sounded like just so much magic, but it's actually pretty straightforward once you know what it's doing. (Straightforward, but no doubt requiring a lot of clever engineering.) The key to it all is strobe circuitry that can turn on and off very quickly, and fire multiple precisely timed bursts in a very short period of time. The iTTL system uses this capability in two ways. First, it uses rapid series of very brief pulses of the strobes to let the Master Controller "talk" with the various groups of remote units. The Master can command groups of remotes to fire either very brief pulses for metering, or more powerful flashes for the exposure itself. It does this by treating the flash head as a digital data channel, encoding commands about the type and intensity of pulse to fire in the form of rapid bursts of light.

The second way that the fast-pulse capability facilitates iTTL is by making it possible to determine exposure levels from multiple flash groups very quickly. (The speed is important, as you don't want the flash exposure determination to introduce an unacceptable shutter lag when working with multiple groups of speedlights.)

The way the iTTL system works is that the camera tells the Master controller to individually command each group of remote flashes to fire a metering pulse. Using its internal TTL sensors, the camera measures the amount of light coming from each strobe group, and integrates the light readings from all of the strobes with the ambient light coming through the lens. Via the Master controller, it then tells each strobe group how much light to emit for the exposure itself, and triggers them to fire when the shutter is opened.

If this sounds like a lot that has to go on before the shutter opens, that's because it is. It all happens very quickly though, without introducing an appreciable delay in the shutter release. (If you have several groups of strobes involved in a single exposure, and have quick enough visual reflexes, you can actually see a very brief period of flickering strobe flashes before the main exposure itself.)

The results are really pretty amazing. You can more or less scatter strobe units around the set any which way you want, and the iTTL system will deliver not only an accurate default exposure, but perfect control over the light being delivered by each group.

As noted, when the D70S is acting as a master controller, it can only control a single group of strobes, and can't itself contribute to the exposure while it's doing so. It's hard to overstate the flexibility and control this gives you though, as compared to conventional off-camera strobe systems. In particular, while it can only control a single group of strobes, there can be as many individual strobes as you like in that group.

As alluded to by the screenshot at right, the D70S actually has three separate modes in which it can control a remote flash: TTL, AA, or Manual. TTL mode works as described above, with the remote flash(es) firing a metering pre-flash, the camera reading the resulting exposure information, transmitting the needed exposure settings back to the remote unit(s), and then firing them all in synchrony.

AA mode stands for Auto Aperture, and describes the way conventional non-TTL autoexposure flash units commonly work. Based on an aperture value that you or the camera has selected, and the ISO you're currently shooting at, the camera tells the flash how much light it should be trying to produce. The flash then uses its own onboard light sensor to meter the flash itself, shutting off the flash tube once it's accumulated enough reflected light from the subject to account for a good exposure. While not as flexible as the D70S' TTL metering mode, AA mode worked very well in my tests, and is in fact quite powerful in its own right. This appears to be an area in which the D70S performs somewhat differently than did the original D70: The original model restricted your choice of apertures in AA mode, depending on the current ISO setting. The D70S appears to have removed that limitation. The manual also states that AA mode is only available when using a CPU-equipped lens with the SB-800, but here again, it seemed to work quite well for me with non-CPU lenses as well.

The manual mode in the D70S' remote flash control menu does just what you'd expect. It fires slaved SB-800 or SB-600 flash units at fixed power levels, with the power level selectable in one-stop increments from full power down to 1/128th power. (The external flash units have a greater range of control in manual mode than does the D70S' internal strobe. The internal strobe power can only be varied from full down to 1/16 power, while the SB-800 can have its power set as low as 1/128 when operating in manual mode.)

Caught in the Act: Advanced Wireless Lighting in Action
This really has nothing to do with the D70S's and SB-800's photographic capabilities, but it's a cool picture, so I thought I'd share it: Back when we first came in contact with the original D70, Luke and I were debating how many flash pulses we thought we were seeing coming from the D70 and SB-800 in wireless TTL mode while we were measuring the shutter lag in that mode. To settle the debate, I had Luke hold the SB-800's head directly above the D70's built-in strobe. I then took another camera, pointed it at the combination, and panned it rapidly with a long exposure, just as Luke pressed the shutter. It took a few tries to catch it just right, but the shot above shows that there are actually a total of five flash pulses emitted by the D70 and SB-800 in the process of making one wireless TTL exposure. (All this happens in about 0.6 seconds. As far as we can tell, the D70S operates identically to the D70 in this area.)

Here's what I think is happening in the shot above:

1. D70 fires a "wake up" series of command pulses, to get the attention of any remotes that might be out there, lying dormant. (Note that what looks like a single bright flash here is actually a very rapid series of communication pulses, carrying digital data from the D70 to the remotes.)
   
   
2. D70 fires a command pulse stream to instruct the remote(s) to get ready to fire a metering pulse.
   
   
3. D70 fires a single, (low power) trigger pulse. The SB-800 fires in synchrony with it. This is the metering pulse.
   
   (Then there's a pause, while the D70 digests the results of the metering pulse, and computes the correct exposure based on its TTL measurement.)
   
   
4. The D70 fires a series of command pulses, instructing the remotes to get ready for the main exposure flash, and telling them what power level to fire at.
   
   
5. The D70 fires a single trigger pulse. The SB-800 fires in synchrony with it. This is the main exposure flash.
   
   

Some Remote Flash Examples
OK, so all this technology sounds wonderful, but how well does it work? Without exaggerating, really, really well. The press of too-much-to-do kept me from spending more time with it, but I shot the images below for the original D70 review to give some idea of just how big a difference off-camera flash can make, versus the limitations imposed by the on-camera strobe head. Being able to move the light source around freely really opens up what you can do with flash photography.

In these photos, I didn't try to duplicate the same shot with on/off-camera lighting, as direct comparison without variations wasn't the point. - Although the photos of Micky Mouse the Cat (his name, no wonder he's neurotic) ended up being very similarly posed and framed simply because he was willing to sit more or less still while assistant Chris and I fiddled around with the camera, flash, and soft box. (We used a Photoflex medium Movie Dome for this shot, holding the soft box and SB-800 by hand.)

D70 / SB-800 remote flash examples (Click on a thumbnail to link to the full-res image)
On-camera	Remote
This is just a basic, on-camera flash shot of Charlotte the wonder dog. Blah. Typical unevenly exposed, stark, flat-looking amateur flash shot. (These four shots were all captured with "normal" (medium) JPEG compression, so if you see any artifacts, that's why.)	Here, Chis was holding the SB-800 overhead, with the leaves from a ficus tree casting some shadows on the backdrop. (Some other shots had more interesting shadow patterns, but Charlotte wasn't posed as well. The Wonder Dog isn't that Wonderful a photo subject...)
An on-camera flash shot of Mickey Mouse the not-so-Wonder Cat. (Burdened with that name, it's probably no wonder he's as cross-tempered as he is.)	This version was shot with the SB-800 held inside a Photoflex medium Movie Dome softbox, held a foot to 18 inches above Mickey. Hard to tell it's even a flash shot, the light is so even.

Onboard flash: Contributes or not?
Experimenting with these various remote modes when I reviewed the original D70, I initially was puzzled by the fact that the onboard flash did indeed seem to affect exposures somewhat, contrary to what the manual and Nikon themselves said. After a fair bit of experimentation though, I figured out what was going on, and the same applies to the D70S. It turned out that the shots in which I saw an exposure influence from the onboard flash were all taken at close range. After the remote units have been configured via the series of rapid communications pulses described earlier, they wait for a single (weak) strobe pulse to trigger on. The D70S' trigger pulse is quite dim, but at close range (a few feet or so), it's still bright enough to have at least a small effect on the exposure. The workaround (assuming that you indeed don't want the onboard flash to make any contribution to the photo) is simply to cup your hand in front of the camera's flash head. In my experience, there was always more than enough light left spilling around my hand for the D70S to communicate with the remote SB-800, while its effect on the subject itself was all but eliminated.

SB-800 Basics (and one important note)
Since so much of the D70S' exceptional remote-flash capabilities are tied to the SB-800 and SB-600 speedlights, it makes sense to include a little information about the SB-800 here. (SB-600 features are essentially the same, the primary difference being that the SB-600 can't act as a controller itself. It works as a highly-capable on-camera strobe, or a remote unit with the full capabilities of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, but can't control other flash units as a master.)

In truth, the SB-800 is really deserving of an extensive review in its own right, as there's not nearly enough room here to more than scratch the surface of its capabilities. If I can manage it (doubtful, given my perpetual review overload), I'll come back to it and do a more extensive writeup. In the meantime, here's a bare minimum of what D70S owners might like to know about the SB-800 and using it with their cameras.

The shot above shows the SB-800 perched on the stand that ships in the box with it. This is a very handy accessory for a flash that's likely to be used more often apart from the camera than mounted on it.

There's not a whole lot to see on the front of the SB-800. The flash head rotates 270 degrees horizontally, and 90 degrees vertically, letting you bounce the flash pretty much wherever you might need to when it's mounted on the camera. At the bottom of the front panel is a red-tinted window that hides the bright AF illuminator. This is a very bright red LED that's behind a diffraction grating. When enabled, it projects a crosshatched pattern whenever the camera's AF illuminator would normally trigger. Useful AF range will vary with the lens and aperture in use, but Nikon rates the range at 33 feet (10 meters) with a 50mm f/1.8 lens. Not shown in these photos is the included optional Quick Recycling Battery Pack, which attaches to the right side of the SB-800. (As viewed from the rear, on the left side in the photo above.) This is simply a small plastic compartment that attaches to the side of the SB-800, in place of its battery compartment cover. It carries an additional AA cell, boosting the total battery voltage, and reducing cycle times by about 25%. (Full-power recycle time with freshly-charged NiMH AA cells is nominally about 4.0 seconds. Adding a fifth cell in the Quick Recycling Pack drops that to about 2.9 seconds. Recycle time for less than full-power shots is proportionately faster.)

Also visible on the front of the unit is a small plastic cover that protects the external power terminals. These accommodate any of three different external power packs that Nikon sells, which provide both faster recycling (down to 2.0 seconds for full-power shots) as well as greater battery life.

Just visible on the right side of the flash (left in the photo above) is the small rubber flap that protects the external sync contacts. There are two sets of contacts here, a standard PC terminal, and a proprietary 3-terminal connector for use with Nikon's flash extension cords.

The rear of the SB-800 reveals its LCD panel and controls. At lower right is the on/off switch, with the Ready indicator light just below it. The lever that locks the strobe to the camera's hot shoe is at the bottom, and a red button labeled Flash at lower right is for test-firing the strobe. The gray button above the LCD triggers the flash in a modeling light mode, a very rapid series of strobe pulses that blend visually to produce a near-continuous illumination of the subject, so you can check lighting and shadows.

Below the LCD, a Mode button selects from among the SB-800's various operating modes. Options include TTL, Manual, Auto Aperture, Guide Number (essentially a finer-grained manual adjustment), and RPT, or repeating, in which you can program the unit to deliver a specific number of stroboscopic pulses, at rates ranging from 1 to 100 flashes per second. (The number of flashes will vary as a function of flash rate and power level. Power can be adjusted from 1/8 to 1/128 of maximum, and the number of flashes can be varied from one to as many as 90.)

At the bottom center of the rear panel, a 5-way rocker switch is used for navigating LCD menu items and manually adjusting the SB-800's zoom head. The angular coverage of the SB-800 can be adjusted to match the field of view of a 24-105 mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera. A wide-angle diffraction lens can be pulled out from above the flash lens and flipped down over it to accommodate lenses as wide as 14mm. Pressing the center of the rocker control actuates the Set button, which confirms menu choices. Pressing and holding the Set button for more than 2 seconds calls up a hidden menu that lets you switch the flash between normal, master, and remote operation, as well as set a variety of other less-frequently accessed flash parameters such as default ISO, LCD contrast and backlight, etc.

SB-800 Menu Screens
As noted above, there's not nearly enough space or time here to go into all the SB-800's features, but the menu screens shown below will give some idea of its capabilities.

SB-800 non-wireless mode menu screens
TTL Balanced Fill-Flash (TTL BL) mode will probably be what most people use most of the time. In this mode, the camera and flash work together to try to deliver an even balance between subject and background lighting. It displays the ISO currently selected on the camera and its resulting estimate of its working range at that ISO. Also shown are an icon indicating that the attached camera supports the Creative Lighting System, and current focal length and aperture setting.	Normal TTL mode is very similar to TTL BL mode, but here the emphasis is solely on the subject. Useful when you want to highlight the subject, and don't care (or may prefer) that the background is over- or underexposed.
Auto mode is the way most conventional autoexposure flash units work. In this mode, you set an aperture value on the flash itself, and the flash adjusts its exposure (as measured by its own internal sensor) to produce a good exposure with that aperture value and whatever ISO the camera is currently using. You can then manually adjust the actual exposure by varying the lens aperture.	Auto Aperture mode represents a refinement on normal auto operation. In this mode, the camera tells the flash what ISO, focal length, and aperture it's using, as well as any desired flash exposure compensation, and the flash calculates the needed exposure itself, and meters it with its own built-in (that is, non-TTL) sensor. Operation in this mode is similar to that in A mode, but the flash compensates for any changes in aperture, and you instead control the exposure by adjusting the flash exposure compensation setting.
In Manual mode, neither the camera nor the flash exerts any control over the exposure. You simply tell the flash what power level to use. Options range from 1/1 (full power) to 1/128.	"Distance Priority Guide Number" mode is something of a mixture of Manual mode and auto-exposure. It lets you set a fixed distance at which you want to achieve proper exposure, after which the flash will automatically adjust for variations in ISO and aperture. (The range of possible distances will of course vary directly with ISO and aperture.)
This is the SB-800's stroboscope mode. You can program it to emit rapid pulses of light at rates ranging from 1 to 100 flashes/second, with power levels ranging from 1/8 down to 1/128, and in series ranging from 1 to 90 pulses in length. (Note though, that the maximum series length will be a strong function of the power level selected, and a weaker function of the pulse rate.)

SB-800 wireless mode menu screens
Master controller: When acting as a master controller in Nikon's Creative Lighting System, the SB-800 can independently control exposure modes and power levels for itself and three groups of remote flash units. It can also be assigned to one of four possible control channels, so as many as four different photographers can use Nikon remote flash units at the same venue without interfering with each other. Note that in this mode, you can not only set the exposure levels of each group of remote flashes, but their operating mode as well. Options include TTL, non-TTL Auto, and Manual modes. (In the shot above, the master and Group B are running in TTL mode, with different exposure offsets, while Group A is set to Auto mode with +0.3 EV of exposure boost, and Group C is set to manual mode, at 1/64 power level.	This is the wireless mode that most D70S owners will likely use. (Unless they have multiple SB-800 units and run one as a master, attached to the camera.) Here, the only options are which channel and group you assign the flash to, and what focal length you set its zoom head to. (NOTE that you need to assign remote strobes to channel 3, group A in order to work with the D70S.)
For compatibility with older Nikon wireless flash systems, the SB-800 also supports the "SU-4" signalling system. In this mode, you can select either auto exposure, or a manual mode that lets you set the exposure of different flash units separately. (In the screen shot shown above, I've selected a power level of 1/3 stop below 1/2 power.) In this mode, there's no autoexposure option for adjusting the power of different units.	I wouldn't personally find a great need for it, but you can slave together multiple SB-800 or SB-600 units, firing in strobescope mode. The same range of control over power levels, flash rate and burst length are available remotely as when the strobes are connected directly to a camera. (I can imagine this being very useful for many scientific or industrial applications, using the SB-800s for time/motion studies.)

From the above, it's easy to see that flash photography is one area in which the D70S easily outdistances its competition. To even approach the capability offered by the D70S, you'd have to spend several hundred dollars more for a wireless strobe trigger system for a competing d-SLR. And even with a wireless slave system, you'd still lack the effortless TTL flash metering the D70S provides. If you have any significant interest in flash photography, the D70S really stands alone (along with its sibling the D70, and their big brother the D2H) in the d-SLR market.

A Real-World application: Nikon Wireless Lighting "Live" at a Trade Show
For an example of a very practical application of the multi-flash capability, see the video description of how we used an SB-800 and three SB-600s to create a very portable product photography setup for a trade-show environment. - We used this to capture a lot of great product shots at the Spring PMA 2005 photo trade show in Orlando, Florida. The roughly five-minute video describes how we set up and used the system. Very slick!


The shot at right shows the kind of results we got with our "portable studio" using the combo of the SB-800 and SB-600s. Pretty amazing for a kit we could fold up and sling over our shoulders. - Huge kudos to Nikon on this system.

Shutter Lag / Cycle Times

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported on (and even less often reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I now routinely measure it, using a custom test system I built for the purpose, accurate to 0.001 second.

Along with its other excellent features, the D70S is quite fast and responsive. Most impressive of course, is its continuous-mode speed and very long burst lengths (with sufficiently fast memory cards). With many cameras in the past, really fast memory cards often made a difference only in buffer-clearing speed, not so much in burst length or shot to shot cycle time. With the D70S and its predecessor the D70 though, we finally have cameras that can really take advantage of fast cards. With a card offering a write speed rating of 9MB/second or so, it can actually shoot at 3 frames/second (fps) in large/normal mode without stopping, until the memory card is filled. Even with slightly slower cards in the range of 24-40x, it shows surprisingly long burst capability and surprisingly fast post-buffer-fill speed. Shooting with either an 80x Lexar card or an Ultra II SanDisk card, I found that I could manage 15 large/fine JPEGs before the speed dropped below the 3 fps maximum rate (3.05 fps by actual measurement), and even then, the decrease in performance was very modest, with the frame rate dropping only to about 2.0 fps. (A little lower than that with the SanDisk Ultra II, with more shot to shot variation.)

To make the most of the D70S though, you really do want to have as fast a memory card as you can afford. When I put an ancient (1x speed?) 64 MB memory card in the D70S, its buffer depth in continuous mode dropped to 9 frames, and the post-buffer-fill cycle time stretched to 3.2 seconds per shot.(!) Take my advice, and make the small incremental investment to purchase a good, fast card to use with your D70S, rather than pinching a few pennies to get a bargain-basement one. It's an accessory that you'll be living with for a long time, and it can make a huge impact on the camera's responsiveness.

Startup time is another area where the D70S does really well. While we reported its startup delay above as being 0.4 second, it's actually pretty hard to come up with a consistent measurement for it, it's that fast. (Really, faster than our reflexes on the timer button.) Bottom line, the D70S can get ready to shoot a picture at least as fast as you can. (Editor Mike Tomkins may have figured out how the D70S manages to start up so quickly: It never entirely powers down! Here's what he found, in his own words:

It seems to me that the reason for this is that even when switched "off", the D70S is partly powered on. To confirm it for yourself, set the camera to manual everything, switch it off, remove the battery - then switch it on, and reinsert the battery while holding the shutter button down. You needn't shut the battery door, just pushing the battery all the way in is enough. If you do this, it takes - subjective guess - around 1 to 1.5 seconds to start up and capture a photo. Which is not to knock it at all, because it works - startup feels incredibly fast, and they've apparently managed to keep power consumption in this partly alive state VERY low since it will happily stay like this for days with no noticeable drain.

Shutter response was a little faster than the original D70, although not dramatically so. Manual-focus and pre-focus lag times were 0.134 and 0.106 seconds, respectively. Here's a brief table, comparing the performance of the D70S with that of the original D70, the Digital Rebel, the Digital Rebel XT, and Canon's EOS-20D:

Overall, the four lower-end cameras come in fairly close to each other with only the more expensive Canon EOS 20D performing notably faster. While the original D70 was dramatically ahead of the competing Canon Digital Rebel across the board, Canon has significantly narrowed the gap in their new Digital Rebel XT. Overall, the impact of the D70S's buffer capacity was subtle but dramatic. (If that's not an oxymoron.) It wasn't so much something that I was that much aware of while I was shooting, but rather that I gradually became aware that I never had to wait for the camera when was shooting in JPEG mode.

Operation and User Interface

While users new to the SLR world may find it a little intimidating at first, I think Nikon has made an excellent transition from the slightly more pro-oriented D100 to the more consumer-oriented body shared by the D70 and D70S. The controls are generally straightforward, though they may have a few too many buried functions to grasp at first. Fortunately for the new user, most functions can be performed via the onscreen menu as well.

I really like the overall control layout, which places the main shooting controls on top of the camera and the rest on the back panel. The Mode dial is dedicated to the eleven exposure modes and nothing else, keeping it simple for the user. Changing shutter speed, aperture, metering mode, etc. is quick and simple via the Main command and Sub command dials in combination with several buttons on the D70S. Once you know where they are and what they do, you'll soon ignore the menu altogether.

The LCD menu has been restyled with a new color scheme that offers much improved contrast and readability, but is otherwise unchanged with the same good organization and simple navigation. When shooting, the detailed information display in the viewfinder window does a good job of communicating current camera settings. Anyone already familiar with Nikon's SLRs, whether film or digital, will have no trouble operating the D70S. For less experienced users, an hour or two spent with the manual and camera together should be enough to get comfortable.

Praise and Complaints
As with the original D70, my biggest criticism of the D70S is the focusing indicators on the view screen. They're just not visible in too many lighting conditions. They're either not lit brightly enough in low light situations, with too much light bleeding from the active focus point into other inactive ones (and even into the center-weighted metering circle and framing grid), or in brighter, more complex scenes the black LED focus points disappear into the detail. I prefer the bright red LEDs on cameras like the Digital Rebel. Though the D70S' method looks more futuristic and stylish, it does no good if they're so subtle that the photographer doesn't know where the camera is focusing.

Also like the D70, I found the D70S somewhat prone to routine underexposure, albeit not quite to the extent of the original model. Where the D70 pretty consistently underexposed shots by between 0.3 and 0.7 EV, the D70S seemed to hover more near the 0.3 EV level. This does have the positive effect of helping hold onto highlight detail, but I suspect the average shooter (as opposed to enthusiast-types) will find this slightly annoying.

Other than those points, the Nikon D70S was very impressive. More technical details like Flash compensation, Auto White Balance Bracketing, and a smart interface combine with consumer oriented features like Digital Vari-Program modes to make for a camera that's friendly to both amateurs and pros. I particularly like that for both the D70 and D70S, Nikon took the ISO setting off the main mode dial (where it was located on the D100) and put it on a rear-panel button. On the D100, it was too easy to be in the midst of changing the ISO setting just as the best shot of the day happened in front of you. The camera wouldn't respond to the shutter until you rotated the mode dial back to one of the shooting positions. By contrast, the D70S is always a shooting-priority camera, always responsive to the shutter button regardless of what mode you're in.

Control Enumeration, Command Dials

First are the two Command Dials, the Main Command Dial and the Sub Command Dial. Most camera settings are made by pressing and holding the appropriate button while rotating one or the other of these two controls. Functions controlled by these dials are as follows:

Main Command Dial: The Main Command Dial is located on the back of the camera, in the upper right hand corner, right under your right thumb. Used in conjunction with other buttons, this controls ISO, White Balance, Quality, and AF Area Mode settings. It also enables or disables the auto-bracketing mode when used with the BKT button. In Shutter Priority and Manual exposure modes, this dial sets the shutter speed, although it can be made to control the aperture instead, via a Custom Menu setting (14). It moves between the continuous capture modes when the Shooting mode button is pressed, and modifies the Metering mode and Exposure compensation buttons as well.

Sub-Command Dial: The Sub Command Dial is located on the front of the handgrip, just under the shutter button, placed for your index or middle finger to grip. This dial fine-tunes the white balance across the -3 to +3 range (arbitrary units) when the White Balance button is pressed. It sets the resolution when the Quality button is pressed. In Manual and Aperture Priority modes, it sets the aperture value, although it can be made to control aperture instead, via a Custom Menu setting. It also controls the White Balance Bracketing when the BKT button is pressed. 

Control Enumeration, Top Panel Controls, Right

The controls on the right side of the top panel are the primary shooting controls, generally dealing with immediate camera operations. Refer to the photo at below to orient yourself for the locations of the individual controls.

Power Switch: Surrounding the Shutter button on the top right of the camera, this switch turns the camera on and off. (BIG PLUS: Unlike Nikon's models in the earlier D1 series, the D70S will delay switching off until it has finished writing any buffered images to the memory card. This avoids the problem of losing any buffered images if you shut the camera off too soon.) Camera startup is so rapid, our testing could not detect any startup time lag. An amazing first in a camera of this type and price point.

Shutter Button: In the center of the Power switch, on the top of the camera, this button sets focus (when in autofocus mode) when halfway pressed and fires the shutter when fully pressed. Unlike most cameras, you can choose whether or not the shutter button also locks exposure, via an option on the Custom Settings menu, and you can disable AF via the shutter button with another Custom Setting.

When an image is displayed on the LCD monitor, halfway pressing the Shutter button dismisses the display and readies the camera for shooting. (A partial expression of Nikon's "shooting priority" philosophy, a very welcome change relative to the D100's highly "modal" control behavior.)

Metering selector button: Just behind and left of the shutter release, this button used in conjunction with the Main command dial switches between Spot, Center-Weighted, and 3D Color Matrix metering options.

Exposure Compensation Button: Directly behind and right of the Shutter button on the top of the camera, pressing this button while turning the main command dial sets the Exposure Compensation from -5 to +5 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third step increments. One-half step increments can be selected instead via a Custom Setting.

Illuminate Button: Just to the right of the status display panel on top of the camera, this button illuminates the panel with a green light. Pressing and holding this button together with the Shooting mode button signals the camera to format the memory card. (The top-panel LCD data readout flashes "For," but doesn't immediately format the card. Press both buttons a second time to confirm the format operation.) Kudos on this card formatting shortcut!

Control Enumeration, Top Panel Controls, Left

The left side of the D70S' top panel is dominated by the Mode Dial. Refer to the shot below to orient yourself for the locations of the individual controls.

Flash Popup/Sync Mode Button: Just left of the flash in the front, holding this button and rotating the Main Command Dial cycles between the five flash sync modes (Fill, Red-Eye Reduction, Red-Eye Reduction with Slow Sync, Slow Sync, and Rear Curtain Sync). Pressing and holding this while turning the Sub command dial chooses flash compensation values. A single press and release on this button pops up the built in Speedlight.

Mode Dial

Much simplified from the D100, but unchanged from the D70, the D70S's Mode dial no longer attempts to do double-duty as a Function dial. All the functions are instead located on buttons that work with the Main- and Sub-command dials, better adhering to Nikon's "shooting priority" philosophy. (This was one of my biggest complaints about the D100's control setup, as covered in my D100 review.

• Program: Puts the camera in charge of aperture and shutter speed, though all remaining camera settings are available. (And you can vary the combination of aperture and shutter speed the camera has selected, by rotating the Main Command Dial.)
• Shutter Priority: The user controls shutter speed, from 1/8,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera sets the aperture value.
• Aperture Priority: The opposite of Shutter Priority mode, this mode lets the user control the aperture, while the camera sets the shutter speed.
• Manual: Gives the user complete control over the exposure (both shutter and aperture settings), and provides access to the camera's Bulb shutter setting for exposures longer than 30 seconds.
• Auto: The camera sets everything. Used for snapshots or users who just don't want to be bothered with the details of how the camera will do its work. Flash is set to front curtain sync.
• Portrait: Adjusts Aperture to soften background details to help the main subject stand out more clearly. Flash set to front curtain sync
• Landscape: Turns up color, saturation, contrast, and enhances outlines for city and forest landscape shots. Flash is turned off in this mode.
• Close up: Reds and greens are pumped up, camera sets center focus point, flash set to front curtain sync.
• Sports: Uses high shutter speed, camera switches to continuous focus, both flash and AF illuminator are turned off and will not fire.
• Night Landscape: Uses a slow shutter speed with no flash.
• Night Portrait: Uses slow shutter speed with flash, balancing the two so that night portraits look natural even with flash.

Control Enumeration, Rear Panel Controls

Most of the rest of the camera's controls are located on the rear panel. The controls along the top of the back panel generally relate to shooting settings, while those on either side of the LCD monitor are associated with playback and menu navigation. We'll start our tour at the top left. - Refer to the photo below to orient yourself. 

Auto Bracketing Button: Positioned in the top left corner of the camera's back panel and marked "BKT," pressing this button and rotating the Main Command Dial enables the Auto Bracketing function. Turning the Sub-Command dial instead of the Main Command Dial changes the bracketing step size. Pressing and holding this button in conjunction with the Metering Mode button resets the main camera settings to their default values. (Very handy for quickly getting back to "neutral" when you have a number of settings active. More kudos to Nikon for this useful shortcut.)

Shooting Mode Button: To the right of the Auto Bracketing button, pressing this button and rotating the Main Command Dial switches between Single frame, Continuous, Self-timer, Delayed remote, and Quick response remote modes. Pressing and holding down this button together with the Illuminate button formats the memory card.

Diopter Adjustment Switch: Sitting vertically next to the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece, this slide control adjusts the optical viewfinder to accommodate eyeglass wearers. (Range is -2 to +1 diopters.)

AE/AF Lock Button: Located just right of the viewfinder, this button locks the exposure and/or focus when pressed. The settings remain locked as long as you hold the button down, regardless of any action of the shutter button. Several options for this control can be set via Custom Settings Menu 15. You can program it to lock either focus or exposure separately, or both together (the default). You can also change its operation so a single press locks and holds the exposure setting. (No need to keep the button pressed down.) Finally, you can set the AE/AF lock button so it alone controls the autofocus system, meaning the autofocus won't actuate when the shutter button is half-pressed, only when the AE/AF lock button is pressed instead.

Multi selector / Focus Area Selector and Lock / Four-Way Arrow Rocker Pad: Just off the top right corner of the LCD monitor on the back panel, this rocker button with its associated locking switch (directly below it) controls the autofocus area in Record mode. (Unless the Closest Subject focus mode is enabled, in which case the camera automatically selects the AF area corresponding to the closest subject.) The switch beneath it unlocks the rocker control and pressing any side of the rocker moves the active AF selection in that direction.

In Playback mode, the rocker pad's up and down arrows scroll through captured images while the right and left arrow buttons cycle through various information displays for each image. When you zoom in on an image in playback mode, the rocker pad lets you scroll around the magnified image.

In any settings menu, the arrow directions on this control are used to navigate through the LCD menu system.

Delete Button: Just below the locking switch of the Four-Way Arrow pad, this button deletes individual images in playback mode, with a confirmation screen to give you the opportunity to change your mind.

Playback Button: Just off the top left corner of the LCD monitor, this button displays the most recently captured image, putting the camera into Playback mode. Once an image is displayed, the arrow keys navigate through the other images saved on the memory card. This button also dismisses the image display.

Menu Button: Below the Monitor button, this button displays or dismisses the LCD menu system.

ISO/Thumbnail View Button: Just below the Menu button, this button works in capture mode to set the ISO. Press and hold this button and rotate the Main command dial to adjust the ISO. When the camera is displaying captured images in Playback mode, pressing this button repeatedly cycles through four-image and nine-image thumbnail displays or a full-screen display. The chosen display mode remains selected indefinitely, even if the camera is turned off. When a thumbnail view is activated, you can scroll a cursor through the thumbnail images very rapidly with the rocker pad. Pressing the Enter button magnifies the image that's currently selected. Once an image has been magnified, turning the Main Command dial while the Thumbnail View button is held down changes the level of magnification, showing the current zoomed display area as a red-bounded rectangle. Releasing the Thumbnail View button displays the magnified portion of the image full-screen. See the previous Viewfinder section of this review for a more complete description of this function.

White Balance/Protect/Help Button: In capture mode, this button sets the overall color balance. Standard preset values are set by holding this button and turning the Main command dial, and include Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, and Shade settings. A PRE (Preset or Custom) mode is the manual adjustment. Turning the Sub-Command Dial in any exposure mode but Manual varies the white balance from the default for that setting. This lets you shift the color balance in relatively small increments, a very handy feature. Once the Playback button is pressed, this button write-protects individual images, protecting them from accidental deletion. (Note though, that even "protected" images will be lost when a card is reformatted.) If an image is already protected, pressing the Protect button removes protection. Finally, when in Menu mode/Custom Settings, pressing and holding this button brings up help to explain each custom setting.

Quality/Enter/Magnify Button: Just below the Protect button, this button confirms menu selections. In conjunction with the Main command dial, it sets image resolution, and with the Sub-command dial it sets compression. Finally, it also activates the playback magnification, when a captured image is displayed in the LCD monitor.

Control Enumeration, Front Controls:

There are only two controls on the front of the camera body. They are:

Depth of Field Preview Button: On the right side of the body (as viewed from the back), tucked underneath the right of the lens mount, this button lets you check the depth of field with the current aperture setting. Pressing the button stops down the lens, so you can get an idea of the depth of field through the viewfinder.

Lens Release Button: Just above the Focus Mode Selector Dial, this button releases the lens from its mount when pressed and held as you turn the lens. It's best to hold the lens with your right hand while pressing the button and turning the lens to the left.

Camera Menus

The D70S has a very extensive menu system, but it's cleanly organized as a set of tabbed screens, as on the D70 and D100 before it. There are four menus on the D70S: Playback, Shooting, CSM (Custom Settings Menu) and Set Up. All menu entries are selected via the 4-way Arrow Pad. The menus themselves are chosen via a "tabbed" interface, with icons on the left of the screen corresponding to the four menus. All screens can be reached whether the camera is in playback or record mode. There's also a very nice "help" function that provides plain-English descriptions of the various Custom Settings Menu (CSM) options. The D70S' menu system is essentially identical to that on the original D70, except that it uses a clearer, higher-contrast color scheme for enhanced readability.

In the section below, rather than reproduce every menu screen in the main body of the review, I've shown screenshots for only the top level of each menu, with clickable links in the descriptive text leading to the individual screens.

Playback Menu

Shooting Menu

Custom Settings Menu (CSM)

When you first turn it on, the D70S displays only the "Simple" Custom Settings Menu (CSM) options, which are the first nine options listed below. You can enable the "Detailed" CSM via an option on the setup menu. The configurability offered by the CSM is another advantage the D70S offers over its primary competitor, the Canon Digital Rebel XT. A nice addition to the D70 and D70S relative to previous Nikon d-SLRs is the "help" function, which provides a more detailed/plain English description of each CSM option. For those interested, I've provided links below to view each of the help screens. Also, for menu items, I've highlighted the default option with boldface type.

Setup Menu

Image Storage and Interface

The D70S uses CompactFlash memory cards for image storage, accommodating Type I and II sizes, as well as Microdrives. Interestingly, the memory card slot on the D70S is canted at about a 15 degree angle relative to the back of the camera, apparently to provide clearance for the battery compartment, making for a more compact hand grip, while allowing for a large battery. The D70S does not come with a memory card, so you'll need to purchase one separately. The D70S utilizes a folder arrangement that lets you organize images in the camera and a sequential frame counter option to avoid problems with overwriting files when copying them to a computer.

Captured images can be individually write-protected via the Protect button on the back panel. Files can also be "hidden," preventing their display during normal playback operation. (Sounds like a handy thing for those photos from last weekend's party. ;-) Hidden files are protected from accidental deletion in the same way that write-protected ones are. Note though, that both write-protected and "hidden" files are only immune to accidental deletion, not card reformatting.

Three image sizes are available: Large (3,008 x 2,000 pixels), Medium (2,240 x 1,488 pixels), and Small (1,504 x 1,000 pixels). File formats include several levels of JPEG compression, as well NEF (RAW) data mode. The latter file format stores the data exactly as it comes from the CCD array, in a losslessly compressed format. Since the NEF format is completely proprietary though, you need Nikon's "Picture Project" or "Nikon Capture" software to read it, or any of several third-party RAW-format converters. As noted, the compressed RAW format is a "lossless" compression, making it difficult to determine the actual amount of compression that will be used for any given file. Nikon estimates that compression saves roughly 50 or 60 percent of card space relative to the uncompressed RAW format seen on Nikon's higher-end d-SLRs and the original D100. 

Below are the approximate number of images and their compression ratios for a 256 MB CompactFlash card. Third-party cards are available as large as 8 GB for both solid-state memory and MicroDrives. I highly recommend that you consider a 256 MB card as the bare minimum for this camera: If you own one of these, you're going to want to take a lot of pictures without having to stop and download them to your computer. (Really, a 1GB card makes a nice size in my experience, especially if you want to work with NEF files much, but do remember my earlier admonition, and resist the temptation to save a few dollars by purchasing a slow card.)

The D70S connects to the host computer via a USB port, as either a Mass Storage or PTP device. The PTP protocol allows Mac OS X and Windows XP to recognize the D70S as a camera, so they can launch camera-specific operating system software. The Mass Storage option lets the camera appear as a standard removable disk device. I personally find the Mass Storage option to be more convenient, as it doesn't force me through the clunky OS software, and is faster to boot.

Connected to my 2.4 GHz Pentium IV-equipped Sony VAIO desktop computer running Windows XP, I measured the D70S' download speed at 995 KB/second in Mass Storage Mode, a very respectable, if not blazing speed by current standards. (This times was measured with a Lexar 80x 2GB memory card, adjust your expectations up or down depending on the speed of your memory cards.)

Lost Images? - Download this image-recovery program so you'll have it when you need it...
Since we're talking about memory and image storage, this would be a good time to mention the following: I get a ton of email from readers who've lost photos due to a corrupted memory card. It's tragic when it happens, there are few things more precious than photo memories. Corrupted memory cards can happen with any card type and any camera manufacturer, nobody's immune. "Stuff happens," as they say. A surprising number of "lost" images can be recovered with an inexpensive, easy to use piece of software though. Given the amount of email I've gotten on the topic, I now include this paragraph in all my digicam reviews. The program you need is called PhotoRescue, by DataRescue SA. Read our review of it if you'd like, but download the program now, so you'll have it. It doesn't cost a penny until you need it, and even then it's only $29, with a money back guarantee. So download PhotoRescue for Windows or PhotoRescue for Mac while you're thinking of it. (While you're at it, download the PDF manual and quickstart guide as well.) Stash the file in a safe place and it'll be there when you need it. Trust me, needing this is not a matter of if, but when... PhotoRescue is about the best and easiest tool for recovering digital photos I've seen. (Disclosure: IR gets a small commission from sales of the product, but I'd highly recommend the program even if we didn't.) OK, now back to our regularly scheduled review...

Video Out

US and Japanese models of the D70S come with video cable with an RCA-style jack for connection to a television set or VCR. The camera's video timing can be switched back and forth between NTSC or PAL via a menu option. Any and all screens visible on the rear panel LCD are also visible through the video port.

Power

The D70S uses Nikon's EN-EL3a lithium-ion battery pack providing 7.4V at 1500mAh - just slightly up from the 1400mAh provided by the EN-EL3 pack bundled with the original D70. (Both cameras are actually compatible with either battery model, however, since the form factor is identical). An optional AC adapter is available for power when batteries aren't convenient, and an optional battery holder lets you power the camera (expensively) from three CR2 non-rechargeable Lithium cells. An indicator on the status display panel lets you know approximately how much battery power is left.

I didn't have access to the external AC adapter when testing the D70S, so wasn't able to conduct my usual direct measurements of power consumption. - And battery life on a d-SLR will also vary greatly depending on the lens used and how much the focus motor has to operate.

In the manual, Nikon themselves offer the following characterizations of the D70S' battery life:

Example 1
Zoom Nikkor AF-S DX 18–70 mm f/3.5–4.5G IF ED lens; continuous shooting mode; continuous-servo autofocus; image quality set to JPEG Basic; image size set to M; shutter speed 1/250s; shutter-release pressed half way for three seconds and focus cycled from infinity to minimum range three times with each shot; after six shots, monitor turned on for five seconds and then turned off; cycle repeated once exposure meters have turned off.

Number of shots (EN-EL3a): 2500

Example 2
AF-S DX 18–70 mm f/3.5–5.6G IF ED lens; single-frame shooting mode; single-servo autofocus; image quality set to JPEG Normal; image size set to L; shutter speed 1/250s; shutter-release pressed half way for five seconds and focus cycled from infinity to minimum range once with each shot; built-in Speedlight fired at full power with every other shot; AF-assist illuminator lights when Speedlight is used; cycle repeated once exposure meters have turned off; camera turned off for one minute with every ten shots.

Number of shots (EN-EL3a): 500

My own experience seemed to thoroughly support Nikon's battery life claims. The D70S / EN-EL3a combination seemed to offer even better battery life than the original D70 / EN-EL3 combination, which was already excellent as I could shoot literally hundreds of photos without draining the battery. Despite the long battery life though, I still heartily recommend purchasing a spare battery pack and keeping it charged for long shooting days or for shooting in cold weather (which can greatly reduce battery capacity). Along with the new battery is a new charger bundled with the D70S, the MH-18a. This charger (as with the slightly larger MH-18 that it replaces) is compatible with both the EN-EL3 and EN-EL3a batteries. Nikon did not offer an external battery pack / vertical grip for the original D70, and it hence seems likely that they will not be offering one for the D70S either. (As noted earlier, if you're interested in a vertical grip, the Harbortronics VG-D70 looks like it could be a good option. That grip included a fiber optic light pipe to couple to the original D70's IR remote port: I suspect they'll come out with a version for the D70S to take advantage of the new model's wired remote jack, but you'll have to check with them for more information.)

Included Software

The D70S ships with Nikon's PictureProject software, as well as a 30-day free trial of Nikon Capture, their higher-end program for much more extensive manipulation of NEF-format images. Both packages are compatible with both PC and Mac computers, big kudos to Nikon for that.

PictureProject is a fairly recent piece of software for Nikon, replacing the previous Nikon View. Nikon had talked up PictureProject quite a bit prior to my receiving a copy of it with the original D70, so I approached it with a pretty positive mindset. My initial reaction was disappointment over how clunky it was to use with NEF files, and its rather lightweight features, but as I spent more time playing with it, I found myself liking it quite a bit more. (Unlike some other reviewers, I do think it's a bit of a step up from Nikon View.)

Some of my negative reaction to PictureProject may be that I'm just not the sort of user it's intended for: It's clearly aimed at novices and first-time digicam owners, so it's long on automation of file import and simple organizational tools, but rather short on any sort of workflow to support effective use of NEF files, or for efficiently processing large numbers of images. Granted, Nikon wants to protect sales of their high-end Capture 4 software program, but I do think PictureProject could have been made a good bit more capable without treading on Capture 4's toes. As it is, I'm afraid that PictureProject puts the D70S at something of a disadvantage relative to the software package that ships with Canon's Digital Rebel, which includes Adobe's excellent Photoshop Elements right in the box with the camera.

That said, PictureProject does have some nice features for organizing your images, and I liked its email integration quite a bit. Also, Nikon has significantly enhanced its feature set in version 1.5 (the version shipped with the D70S), so it now presents a much more complete set of capabilities for novice users who don't want to delve into a separate imaging application.

I don't normally review bundled software in my camera reviews, but given that many of the target customers for the Nikon D70S may never reach beyond PictureProject, will devote some time to it here. Here's a brief look at PictureProject's interface and a few of its features. (The screenshots below are all from the Windows version of the program.):

Main Screen

PictureProject is a reasonably competent organizing tool, you can assign keywords to images, tag interesting ones for easier recall, and group them into multiple "collections." (For instance, one collection could be "Family Birthdays," and another could be "Photos of Katie." Pictures from Katie's birthday could logically belong to both collections.) Images can belong to more than one collection, making it easy to create multiple groupings. The main screen shows an array of thumbnails, and you can mark individual pictures as being tagged for quick reference, protected, or hidden. Clicking the "Keyword" tab in the left panel lets you create keywords and assign them to images. Finally, you can search by file name, keyword, or date, and can restrict your searches to only those files that have been tagged, protected, or both.

By double-clicking on an image, you can edit it in several ways, including rotating, cropping, redeye removal, and adjusting its brightness, color saturation, and sharpening. You can also convert it to Sepia or Black/White, using the Photo Effects option.

The screen shots above show the controls available for each of the options in the Photo Enhance panel of the Edit screen. Nikon has added a fair bit to PictureProject's capabilities, but one huge omission is that there doesn't appear to be any way to adjust a photo's color balance. (!) This is a critical failure in my mind, because shots captured under incandescent lighting so often need adjustment to reduce the yellow cast that the camera frequently leaves in the image. Also, while you can now use any of the Photo Enhance tools on NEF (RAW) image files, the ability to adjust white balance on NEF images that was present in version 1.0 of the program now appears to have been removed.

Speaking of NEF files, that was (and still is) one of my primary beefs with the program. You can convert NEFs to JPEG format en masse, but if you want to save to TIFF, the only way to do so is by exporting the file to another program like Photoshop(tm). In addition to this one-at-a-time limitation on NEF file export to another application, if you want to make any adjustments to a NEF file inside PictureProject, it forces you to save the whole NEF file back to disk before you can go back to Organize mode, export the file as a JPEG, or transfer it to another application. There's no way to export a modified (or unmodified) NEF file directly from Edit mode without having to wait for the file to be saved to disk first.

File Menu	Edit Menu	Photo Menu
View Menu	Tools Menu	Window Menu

Since I just mentioned the export capability (or lack thereof) in Edit mode, the shots above show the program's various menus. Version 1.5 added quite a few capabilities here, and a number of options that previously appeared under the Tools menu have now been moved elsewhere.

As you'd expect, PictureProject can display essentially all the information embedded in the file headers, including exposure information and even provides access to the IPTC fields, and version 1.5 has significantly enhanced this access. (Rather strange IMHO, in a very consumer-oriented program, as the IPTC fields are really only of interest to photojournalists or others working inside large organizations.) Apart from the IPTC data, the information available in version 1.5 is about the same is in version 1.0, but has been spread across more screens.

One of PictureProject's weakest points is its online help system. There's just not much there. (The screen shot above shows all there is to see.) While there's a pretty good electronic (PDF file) manual shipped on a second CD, I don't think it begins to make up for the paucity of help within the program itself. - And frankly, the electronic manual could stand to have better detail in several areas as well.

PictureProject's printing capabilities are actually quite nice. There are plenty of options for printing one or more images per page, and to include EXIF exposure information as well. Besides the screen shown above, there's also a screen oriented toward outputting index prints, which also includes the ability to show full EXIF data. (I could see myself using this to create hardcopy catalogs of my shots.)

Another clever, but optional, added-cost capability of PictureProject is its "muvee" option, which sets animated "slide shows" (for lack of a better term) to music, combining zooms, pans and fades of a selected group of images with a music track of your choice. The result is actually fairly appealing, and can be output to either MPEG1 or Windows Media Video formats, either for playback on the computer, or for inclusion in an email message. Sadly though, the muvee feature is only available in the Windows version of the application. Note too, that the muvee feature is only available as an added-cost upgrade from the free version bundled with the camera.

PictureProject includes a very nice email option, that takes care of resizing the images for you, and packaging them in an outgoing email message. You can select the size you want the emailed images to be, and whether you want to present them as a single index print photo, or as individual files. Where the original version of PictureProject apparently sent the emails itself, version 1.5 instead launches your email client for you, creates a blank message and attaches the image(s) you've selected to it. All in all, a very nice feature that I suspect even a lot of advanced users would use.

Finally, a new addition to PictureProject is the ability to burn CDs with your photo collections on them. You can either save the original photos, or you can "optimize" them for the CD, setting them all to the same size and image quality. In the "optimized" mode, you can also choose to include a QuickTime slideshow movie, and/or a MPV Slideshow document. Pretty slick!

Overall, as I said at the beginning, I started out expecting great things from PictureProject, became more than a little disappointed, but finally ended up liking the package fairly well. If you're an advanced user, you'll probably find yourself frustrated with its lack of an effective workflow for plowing through large numbers of images, tweaking as you go. It's wholly inadequate for working with NEF files, and I think Nikon has committed a serious error there, crippling PictureProject in that regard, to try to protect sales of Capture 4. This is one area where Canon's d-SLRs win hands down over Nikon's. The most inexplicable lack in PictureProject though, is the inability to make any adjustment to images' color balance (or contrast, for that matter), a very common need of even novice photographers.

Still, if you're primarily a "point and shoot" sort of user, PictureProject is a very nice little package. Given that the D50 is really aimed at first-time SLR users and young families in particular, PictureProject could be a good fit for the camera's primary market. Even for sophisticated users, it'd make a nice tool for the Significant Other to use to manage the family photo archives. All in all, a pretty nice little software package, likely to be enough for many novice users.

In the Box

Included in the box with the D70S' (body-only version) are the following items: 

• Nikon D70S body with body cap and LCD monitor cover.
• Neck strap.
• Eyepiece cap.
• Rubber eyecap
• Quick Charger MH-18a with AC power cord.
• Video cable.
• USB cable.
• EN-EL3a Li-ion battery.
• Nikon Picture Project software. (Two discs, program and manual.)
• Instruction Manual.
• Quickstart guide.
• Registration kit. 

Test Results

In keeping with my standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only my key findings. For full details on each of the test images, see the D70S' "pictures" page.

For a look at some more pictorial photos from this camera, check out our Nikon D70S Photo Gallery.

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon D70S with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

• Color: Generally good color. Camera oversaturates reds, but other colors are quite accurate. Auto white balance works well, but has trouble with incandescent lighting. Manual white balance covers a very broad range, very accurately. The D70S generally delivered quite pleasing color, its one quirk being that it really likes red hues, rendering bright reds, pinks, and magentas with quite a bit more saturation than in the original subject. It slightly undersaturates greens, yellow-greens, and yellows, but by a relatively small amount. Other colors, and less-saturated shades of the problem colors are rendered quite accurately. Caucasian skin tones are rendered well. Indoors, the camera's auto white balance setting had trouble with household incandescent light, leaving too much color cast in the images, but the D70S' manual white balance option was very accurate, and produced good results across a very wide range of lighting conditions. All in all, the D70S' images looked good, and I suspect that most consumers will find them very appealing.
  
  
• Exposure: Generally good exposure, a slight tendency to underexpose. High default contrast, low contrast option helps only somewhat. The D70S handled my test lighting quite well, and was for the most quite accurate in its exposure determination. Shots that typically require exposure compensation adjustment generally required the average amount, although the indoor portrait shot needed a good bit more manual exposure boost than is the norm. I did feel that the camera tended to underexpose very slightly, perhaps about a third of an f-stop relative to my personal preferences. (This behavior is similar to that of the D70: I very commonly find myself shooting at +0.3 EV with my D70, when taking routine snapshots.) The camera's default contrast is a little high, and its contrast adjustment control didn't help with harshly-lit subjects as much as I would have liked. The contrast adjustment seemed to affect shadows much more than highlights, but even making the corresponding downward adjustment of the exposure on the "Sunlit Portrait" test (which has deliberately horrible, contrasty lighting), I found relatively little benefit from the low-contrast setting. Not a huge strike against the camera, but nonetheless an area where I'd like to see some improvement. Despite the high native contrast, dynamic range was good, with depth of detail in the shadows somewhat compensating for lost detail in the highlights. All in all, good results.
  
  
• Resolution/Sharpness: High resolution, ~1,400 lines of "strong detail." The D70S performed well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart with its 6.1-megapixel CCD. It didn't start showing artifacts in the test patterns until resolutions as high as 1,200 lines per picture height vertically and horizontally. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,400 lines horizontally, and about 1,350 lines vertically. (Some reviewers may argue for higher numbers, but I tend to be a bit more conservative than in these ratings than some others.) "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until about 1,800 lines.
  
  
• Image Noise: Generally low image noise. The D70S generally showed low image noise, but as always, the key is how high-ISO images appear when printed at various sizes. As is the case with most digital SLRs, high-ISO images from the D70S can be printed at much larger sizes than those from consumer-level digital cameras at the same ISO. Judging from 8x10 inch prints made on the Canon i9900 printer in our studio, noise really didn't become an issue until ISO 1600, and even there I suspect that a majority of users would find the resulting prints entirely acceptable for framed display on a table or wall. If your images are likely to be scrutinized up close, ISO 800 will probably be about the limit for an 8x10 print. Bottom line, the D70 is a camera that you can blithely use up to ISO 800, and in many cases to ISO 1600, without worrying too much about noise. (Depending of course, on your own personal tastes.)
  
  
• Night Shots: Excellent low-light performance, with low noise overall. Excellent autofocus performance under dim lighting. The Nikon D70S' low-light performance was quite good, as it produced good exposures with good noise levels (relatively speaking) at all ISO settings all the way down to the 1/16 foot-candle limit of our test. (That's about 4 stops darker than typical city night scenes.) Most impressively, its autofocus system managed to focus all the way down to the 1/16 foot-candle limit, even with the AF-assist illuminator turned off. (!) Bottom line, the D70S is a very competent low-light shooter.
  
  
• Viewfinder Accuracy: Better than average viewfinder accuracy for a digital SLR. The D70S digital SLR viewfinder was about 97.5 percent accurate. This is better than average for SLRs, most of which come in right around 95% frame accuracy.
  
  
• Shutter Lag and Cycle Times: Excellent shutter response, excellent shot to shot speed. Relative to the already-excellent performance of the D70, the D70S slightly improved shutter response times and continuous-mode shooting speeds, but seemed to have slightly less buffer depth, able to capture 15 large/fine JPEGs before slowing (slightly) for the card to catch up, vs the 21 shots we managed with the original D70. This is probably largely academic for most users, it's unlikely that the most non-pro shooters will ever find a need for more than 15 sequential shots in continuous mode. (That's five seconds of flat-out motor-drive shooting.)
  
  
• Battery Life: I couldn't measure actual power drain, but battery life is excellent. Not having access to the external power adapter, I couldn't perform my usual direct measurements of the D70S's power consumption, but Nikon claims battery life of between 500 and 2500 shots, depending on the lens used and flash usage. My own experience seemed to thoroughly support Nikon's battery life claims: The D70S/EN-EL3a combination provided excellent battery life, letting me shoot literally hundreds of photos without draining the battery. Despite the long battery life though, I still do recommend purchasing a spare battery pack and keeping it charged for long shooting days or for shooting in cold weather (which can greatly reduce battery capacity). As noted earlier, Nikon says they will not be offering an external battery pack/vertical grip for the D70S.
  
  
• Print Quality: Good prints to 13x19 inches. High-ISO shots look great at 8x10, usable at 11x14 and even larger. Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5000 here in the office. (See our Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)
  
  Prints from the D70S hold together very well at large sizes, and its ISO 1600 shots can be printed surprisingly large before the image noise becomes objectionable. At low ISOs, 13x19 inch prints look just fine for wall viewing, and can actually be scrutinized at fairly close range without looking overly soft. I was very surprised when I printed an ISO 1600 shot at 13x19: It looked a bit softer than ISO 200 ones, and the image noise was in fact visible, but the bottom line was that I wouldn't have any qualms about sticking it in a frame and hanging it on the wall. This really is a camera that most users will find perfectly usable at ISO 1600.
  
  While I didn't make much of it in the review itself, a lot of readers may be wondering whether the D70S's 6-megapixel resolution represents a limitation relative to that of the 8-megapixel cameras on the market. I have to say that I really don't think so. If you look at the difference in pixel dimensions between the D70S and Canon's 8-megapixel Digital Rebel XT, the differential really doesn't amount to a whole lot: The D70S's images are 3008 x 2000 pixels vs the XT's 3456 x 2304 pixels. That's a difference in each direction of just a bit over 15%. I won't argue that there's no difference, but to my mind it's not enough that pixel count should be much of a consideration in deciding between 6- and 8-megapixel d-SLRs.

Conclusion

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In the bit over a year since the introduction of the original Nikon D70, rival Canon has answered that camera's challenge strongly with their Digital Rebel XT model, catching up quite a bit in the areas of startup time and responsiveness, as well as in resolution and detail rendition. That said though, the Nikon D70S retains the advantage of a superior lens with a wider zoom range and slightly wider maximum aperture. It also retains the superb in-hand feel and ergonomics of the original D70, while the Rebel XT has gone quite a bit in the other direction with a tiny handgrip that's simply too small to be comfortable for many users. (Although for that very reason, the Rebel XT is likely to be very appealing to many women.) For shooters interested in flash photography, the D70S easily leads the field, with its combination of matrix metering for fill flash operation, and its direct support (no accessories needed) for true wireless TTL-metered flash operation with Nikon's SB-600 and SB-800 flash units. With its dead-simple "green zone" operation and host of helpful scene modes, the D70S is also a very approachable camera for novice users. This is an important consideration, given how well a d-SLR matches the needs of typical family shooting, an application where less-sophisticated users really need the things that d-SLRs do so well. (Fast shutter response, good high-ISO performance.) In fact, if you're at all wrestling with the issue of whether to go with a high-end "all in one" digicam or a digital SLR, you should really check out our article "SLR vs All-in-one: Which way to go?".) Whatever your interests, the bottom line is that the D70S is an exceptionally capable, well-performing digital SLR, every bit worthy of the storied Nikon name. (In case it wasn't already obvious, it's highly recommended, and an easy Dave's Pick.)

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