A historic moment for Nikon..

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

They've done something I've never seen them done before; a major product going on sale within a month of the announcement. The D70 and the AF-S 18-70 lens are on sale here, for a current price of about US$1235.

Handled it for a while, and it's basically a smaller and slightly improved D100. The few shots I took are promising, but due to some terrible hand holding on my part, I think I'm not going to post them here. AWB is as crappy as ever, so some lessons on white balance presets and colour correction will be needed.

Well, I'd say, it's certainly a good buy, given its price. It's 1/2 the price of what the D100 cost 2 years back!

[Godsongz]

This is Nikon's direct competitor for Canon's Digital Rebel right? I had thought about waiting for this Nikon, my last two film SLR's having been Nikons. Still very happy with my Canon though.

[Gary Sheynkman]

This is great...this slew of affordable dSLRs will drive the price down :D

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Yes, it is, but it's less crippled. In fact the only thing Nikon left out is the vertical grip. Oh, and there's not DTTL, but I guess that's Nikon doing planned obsolence..

[Gary Sheynkman]

Yes, it is, but it's less crippled. In fact the only thing Nikon left out is the vertical grip. Oh, and there's not DTTL, but I guess that's Nikon doing planned obsolence..

crippled seems to be a common way to describe the rebel when compare to the 10D. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?! The camera retails for 500 bucks cheaper and except for the plastic body shares everything with the 10d. The only way they could make the 10d justifiable was to reduce the feature set of the DRebel

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Now, folks, this is an example of a brand apologist. I know what Canon has done, but I'm not interested in their marketing nonsense. I see the final product for what it is, and the D70 is less crippled than the 300D, no matter what you say. It is a bit more expensive, and several months later, but since it's here, it's a jolly good time for everyone wanting to pick up a cheap digital SLR, regardless of their brand preference.

[Suhit Gupta]

I completely agree. In fact that is one of the reasons why I wasn't completely devastated when the 300D was announced. Most of my friends were looking to buy it while I had the more expensive 10D and I kept wondering if I should have waited and dropped a lot less money. Ahh, but when I actually read the specs and played with the camera, I realized how much stuff Canon had turned off in the software. Good for the 10D users I guess.

Though, it is obvious that Nikon cannot cripple the D70 much otherwise no one (or only a few) would buy it over the 300D.

Suhit

[ppcsurfr]

Okay... being a long time film shooter... I have always liked cameras which are as simple as the old film SLRs...

One wheel for the shutter speed... and one wheel... or ring for the aperture.

Now Nikon has gotten it right with the two wheel config which seems to be where they're headed with the G-type lenses...

Front wheel for aperture... rear wheel for the shutterspeed.

Simple implementation of the D-Pad for focus point selection... what else do you need?

I love the D2H!!! and its wireless config. If only I could afford it.

Mabuhay!!!

Carlo