Specs of the D70

[wen_lin]

the specs of the D70 is out and it looks delicious !!!

[david_h._hartman]

<em>"Viewfinder: Fixed eyelevel penta-Dach-mirror type;

built-in diopter adjustment (-1.6 to +0.5m-1)" --http://nikonimaging.com/<br>

</em><br>

A penta-dach-mirror is delicious?? Please! It's only shows 95% of

an already small format with a finder magnification of 0.75x with

a 50mm (not the normal 28mm) at infinity. So it's dim, small and

hard to focus. Yuck Tweeeee!

[berg_na]

Yes, it has excellent specs -- much better than its competitor. The main function of the viewfinder in this camera is for framing, not for manual focusing, and the AF works just fine. I agree that it's small, but if you want a larger view and 100% coverage, spend a little more money, and get one of the top-of-the line models.

[hugh_t]

I'm having trouble with the link, does it indicate what the shutter lag is?? and how it compares to the pro models and the d100.

[Carl Stone]

A LITTLE more money? How about more than 3X the money. When I'm king, all of the

models will have the same viewfinder, and it will be the best available. I'm even

considering mandating removable prisms, I'll decide after my coronation.

 

I know that the D70 isn't going to have the same build and specs as the more

expensive models, but, I'd be happier if, in the process off withholding features, they

didn't make it more difficult for the photographer, and the D70 viewfinder isn't

making things any easier.

 

Now, with an LCD screen, I suppose that it could be argued that the viewfinder is less

of an issue, but it's not an argument that I buy for myself.

[Carl Stone]

"

 

I'm having trouble with the link, does it indicate what the shutter lag is??"

 

No, it doesn't say. It only describes the shutter lag in ambiguous terms, nothing

difinitive.

[steve_ql]

Yeah, the viewfinder's critical on any camera body.

If Nikon wants to win this game, they shouldn't skimp on

something as important as the viewfinder.

 

Now if they could also put in a little flip open

hood with pop up magnifier for the LCD like on the

Hasselblad's and old Rollei TLR viewfinders, that would

help keep out unwanted light when composing with the LCD.

[david_h._hartman]

<em>"The main function of the viewfinder in this camera

is for framing, not for manual focusing, and the AF works just

fine." -- Berg Na <br>

</em><br>

Not for portraiture or macro where AF is of little use or worse.

Have you looked at these finders. Ive use the Fuji S2 for a

short while and I still say Yuck! I believe the S2 uses a real

pentaprism but Im not taking time to check. If this is true

the D70s finder will be even worse. Try to teach AF to

focus on eyes with a fast prime lens like an 85/1.8, 85/1.4, 105/2.5 (MF) or 105/2.0. No dice.<br>

<br>

The penta-Dach-mirror sucks. The N80 has a real pentaprism why

not the D70? I think that's easy to figure out, price v. profit,

one or the other or both.<br>

<br>

I can live (or rather wish I could live) with the Nikon D2Hs

finder.<br>

<br>

Regards,

[berg_na]

I have trouble with the small viewfinder of the D100 too, but I've learned to live with it. And when the new King's edict comes into effect, I'm afraid that we'll all have to pay a king's ransom to get our hands on our toys. I say we stick with the status quo...

[Guest]

I'm impressed with the specs, and I'm pleased for Nikon, despite the fact I don't care for digital - not other people's pictures, I don't want Jeff Spirer jumping in saying it's the image, stupid, just it's not for me, right now. What's going through my mind right now is whether to get the three-reel or the two-reel Paterson tank.

 

Sure, the viewfinder jumped out as a bit poor. But it's better than a lot of entry-level SLRs.

 

What impressed me was the features it has in common with the F5 (not sure about the D2h): 3D colour matrix, variable centre for centre-weighted.... And - apart from the leap of a stop in flash synch - it has the 1/8000 shutter speed that, since the introduction of the F801 in, I think, 1988, used to be the preserve of the top-of-the-line cameras and the next ones down: F4 and F5; F801, F90, F100 - with 1/4000 for the mid-market F70, F80. (Arnab, the FM3a doesn't count: it's sui generis....)

 

And a good spot-metering range.

 

So that's something to crow about. And don't spoil it by saying no D70 user will have fast-enough lenses to take advantage of 1/8000 or the nous to focus manually on a small area like an eye with half-an-inch depth of field to spare.... ;-)

[Carl Stone]

Don't misunderstand, I'm not upset with the D70 on the whole. The improvements

over the D100 and 33% less price are impressive. I just think that viewfinders ought

to be as good as possible, because the ability to see properly is basic to photograhy.

 

Now Berg, king's ransom eh? I'll have my scribe send a little note to my tax collector,

to insure that you get proper attention.

 

Would I pay the difference for the best viewfinder? Ayuh, I would, but YMMV.

[ShunCheung]

Not sure about the D70, but I have no problems with the viewfinder on the D100, which has the same viewfinder as the N80, Fuji S2 and Kodak DCS 14n. It is certainly not as good as those on the F4 and F5, but the D100's viewfinder is very much acceptable IMO.

 

For a sub-$1000 DSLR in early 2004, you have to cut some corners. It'll probably drop to $700-800 or so by the end of the year. It may make sense for Nikon to come up with another pro-sumer model with better features and priced around $1500 to $2000.

[berg_na]

Here's what I saw in the tea leaves:

 

Under the reign of Carl XVI, many photographers were dissatisfied with his insistence that all cameras had to come with premium viewfinders. The pros would rather have higher speed and lower noise, and the beginners lower cost. Then, when he issued the edict that only cameras from the N-brand were legal in his kingdom, the enlightened photographers (those who have taken at least 1 course of photography) decided that a rebellion was necessary to end these endless attacks on their freedom. Carl XVI was executed by guillotine on Jan 21, and the speed of the guillotine blade, when it hit his neck, was equivalent to a metal shutter screen operating at 1/2000th second...

[ilkka_nissila]

I find the D100 viewfinder manageable but annoying after shooting a while with it. Nikon has had excellent SLR viewfinders in their film cameras since the F3HP, but in digital, their viewfinders are not that good (Let's not talk about Canon; the only decent viewfinders they have are in the EOS-1 series). The low quality of the D70/D100 viewfinders is just to keep pros away from these cameras, as is the case with the whiny and hunting autofocus.

 

It's unbelievable how much trouble I had taking pictures of my friend's child indoors with the D100 (AF hunts, manual focus is difficult due to the small magnification), I ended up taking 3 rolls of iso 400 film with an F100 instead of going on shooting digitally, even though the D100 offers two stops extra useful speed and no film costs. Outdoors in good light, the D100 viewfinder is manageable once you get used to it, but I don't like it. Really, it's like we had to go decades back in viewfinder quality just because it's digital.

 

I really think this issue needs to be addressed quickly. The 14n has too little eye relief, the D100 has a too small image and the D70 also has both problems combined based on reading the specs. D2H seems much better, and this issue is more important to me than a full-frame image. Just because there is an LCD screen doesn't mean that the viewfinder isn't important.

[david_h._hartman]

The D100 has real optical glass pentaprism with a 24mm eyepoint, shows about 95% of the image "vertical and horizontal" and it�s magnification is approximately 0.8x with a 50mm lens focused to infinity. This is about the same as 0.56x with a 35mm lens which is very close to the same angle of view of a 50mm Nikkor on 24x36mm format. My error: 28mm is wider than an effective 50mm lens on APS-C digital format.

 

What I�m carping about is a finder quality similar to the N55 in the D70. This finder should be dimmer than the D100 and the image size is smaller and it should have lower contrast. It�s a penta-Dach-mirror type finder.

 

The R&D is high on these cameras so this is one place where they cut corners to get a lower price and still make a profit. A reasonable profit is not evil. If Nikon doesn�t make a profit they won�t stay in business or they will have to merge with another company like Minolta did with Konica.

 

I would like a finder at least as good as a Nikon F5 or F3HP but since full frame DSLR(s) at prices mortals can afford do not appear close or in the next few years. I find the D2H with an optical pentaprism, approximately 100% finder and 0.86x image magnification is close enough. I�m hoping the D2X will have a format closer to APS-H format but I�m not holding my breath. The useful image circle of DX lenses would help clear this up but I don�t have that information. I won�t be able to afford those lenses for sometime anyway and I have my eye on other full frame 35mm lenses anyway. I�m not sure DX lenses are a good long term expenditure.

 

Anyway, I can�t find a DSLR similar to an N80 with a finder much like an N55 exciting. Finder wise I would surely pick the D100 over the D70.

[brandonhamilton]

I have no problems whatsoever with the viewfinder on my D100. I think its just fine. I have never had anything out of focus, or framed improperly, or whatever other symptoms you guys are seing from its viewfinder. Maybe its because I have perfect vision?

[Carl Stone]

Thank your lucky stars that the guillotine blade was cloth, so your sire is fine, if a tad

choked up over this recent turn of events.

 

I can understand restricting the abilities of the D70 when there are more expensive

DSLR's to be sold. Of all of those ways, a sub standard viewfinder is the least

palatable. Just look at the capabilities of that D70, and it's impressive, but some of us

need to be able to use the viewfinder, which is not on par with the rest of the beast. I

don't do macro, but I want to do some portrait work in the near future, so I'll just

have to stay with film unless my subjects bestow a D2H on me.

[melvin_bramley]

I don't know about a King Carl but finally people are saying that the Emporer has no clothes!I have complained about DSLR finders before & was shot down in flames.I have only tried out the Fuji S2 & the finder reminded me of my 1936 Kodak Retina!What is photography if you cannot see the subject? I suppose the "new age idea"is to blaze away at a gazillion frames per second knowing you can edit the files & perhaps find some good images.After the comments on the D70 finder I must,alas,give it a pass.

[msitaraman]

" Really, it's like we had to go decades back in viewfinder quality just because it's digital".

 

Its a long way from the old Nikon philosophy circa 1977. The only SLRs they called Nikons were the F and F2. Then they introduced the Nikon FM compact SLR, proud to stand alongside the F2, and separated from the various Nikkormats. There was no real compromise in finder quality, it still had that fabulous Nikon viewfinder look: eye relief, brightness, and a lack of clutter.

 

One of Nikon's historical strengths vis. a vis. Canon has been their finders; of late, they have been extremely careless in cutting corners in this department, IMHO.

[melvin_bramley]

To MANI & everyone else....& The best NIKON viewfinder is????

[umd]

A good finder is not a "wow" item on a specs sheet, at least for the naive beginner. Canon never paid attention to viewfinders on their low budget EOS cameras for that, and that's Canonization of Nikon, thats where they dediced to cut the cost. Competition may not always bring a better thing.

[ivan_verschoote1]

On the other hand: when Nikon brought the D100 out a few years ago for around 2500-3000US$ it was kind of a revolution, everyone raved - now they bring a DSLR for less than 1000Us$ and the critics are already severe before anyone has even touched the new D70 (go figure). IMHO image quality will be the most deciding factor for the D70 and so far no one knows how this new camera will perform in the field...

[berg_na]

You're right. Some people just seem to look for reasons to complain. They're really not ready to buy, so they'll pick on just about anything to justify their position. The D70 does have great specs in its price class. As a rule, if you're only willing to pay coach fare, don't expect first class amenities. Canon just announced their new 1D II, which also has great specs, so what do some folks do? They complain about its price, pixel count, SD support, whatever...

[vgoklani]

Hi David,

 

I was playing with a D100 at B&H, and I think the finder is still too small! I will probably wait till a D2H is available used, and cheap(!), on eBay before I get a DSLR. Out of curosity, what is the finder like on the F4 - I think it is called the DP-20 ? The image is much larger, which makes it easier to focus manually (I still don't like autofocus). As I said before, I would prefer a high quality finder to an LCD screen, just to keep the price low.

[ShunCheung]

Vishal, have you ever used a DSLR? An important tool to determine good exposure is the histrogram. Without an LCD screen, you cannot review your images and histrograms on camera, among many other problems.

 

As I said earlier, I find the viewfinder on the D100 sufficient for me, and I wear glasses too. The one on the D70 may indeed turn out to be poor, but it is premature to complain about it even before the camera is available.