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Rick Rizner
Professional photographers have been buying Nikon's digital single-lens reflex cameras for several years, but at $1000 (body only), the 6.1-megapixel D70 is the company's first SLR that's affordable for the advanced consumer. If you own a recent nondigital Nikon, your existing lenses should work with the D70. Beginners might prefer the $1300 D70 Outfit, which comes with a 27mm-to-105mm lens.
The D70's rugged black body looks professional, but our thumb often rubbed against the latch on the CompactFlash card door--that could get uncomfortable over time. The camera powers up so fast, you're ready to shoot almost instantly. We found the eye-level viewfinder cramped and awkward to use, but the 1.8-inch color LCD is bright and easy to see. The camera locks onto its five autofocus points quickly. Many common adjustments, such as setting white balance, exposure, and image quality, have dedicated controls. You set aperture size and shutter speed via two separate dials in the appropriate manual modes.
For more complex operations you must press the Menu button and navigate using a four-way thumbpad. When you press the Help button, you get a short explanation of each item's purpose. The other Nikon digitals we looked at this month (the Coolpix 8400 and Coolpix 8800) have the ability to store collections of your favorite settings for retrieving later--it's surprising that the D70 doesn't have...