Product ReviewsDigital cameras
Nikon's new D70s digital SLR, an update to last year's D70, boasts a number of improvements over its predecessor, such as greater autofocus accuracy, a new 2in monitor, redesigned menus, a built-in remote socket, wider flash coverage and a higher-capacity battery. Inevitably, though, comparisons will be made with Canon's recently released 8 megapixel EOS 350D. So it's unfortunate that Nikon has decided to keep the resolution at 6 megapixels. Although the Canon EOS 350D can out-resolve the new D70s, there's more to image quality than just counting pixels. Besides, unless users adopt some of Canon's higher-grade optics, those buying the EOS 350D in kit form are unlikely to benefit from the extra two million pixels. While the EOS 350D uses proprietary CMOS technology capable of astonishingly low noise, Nikon has chosen to stick with the CCD imager for the D70s - at 23.7 x 15.6mm, it's slightly larger than the one used in the EOS 350D. As such, with the resultant lower pixel pitch, images are less likely to suffer from interference from overheating. Furthermore, one often-overlooked advantage of using a CCD sensor is the realisation of a wider range of shutter speeds and faster flash synchronisation from an electronic shutter. In this instance, the D70s has a class-leading sync speed of 1/500 of a second, which is invaluable for daylight balanced fill-flash, as well as a range of shutter speeds from 1/8000 of a second to 30 seconds. Anyone expecting the new camera to pack a CMOS sensor will have to wait until Nikon is confident that the advantages to the end user outweigh the reduced versatility. In use, the camera feels every bit as fast as the quoted 0.2-second startup. With the Silent Wave Motor (SWM) technology,
One of the most noticeable differences from its predecessor is the D70s' slightly larger TFT display - 2in rather than 1.8in - although there's the same number of pixels. OK, it's not exactly a radical move, but as the text is much larger, the menu is easily one of the most enjoyable to use. It's customisable, too: you can opt for the simple default interface or you can choose to reveal further features. Buffer memory throughput and media card access are also impressive. We managed to squeeze off four images saved as compressed NEF (Raw) files before the buffer choked, although it cleared an additional shot at roughly one-second intervals thereafter. Continuous shooting at an average of 2.8 frames per second is easily achieved shooting full-resolution, normal-quality Jpegs. If you use specific high-speed CompactFlash cards, burst depth is only limited by capacity. Eager to prove Nikon's claims with the benefit of an optional 256MB SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash card, we managed to shoot 162 consecutive frames in 56 seconds. A remarkable achievement, although no improvement over the original D70. The results from the D70s are terrific, with a film-like look, superior white-balance and surprisingly low noise, although you'll have to buy Nikon's Capture software to get the full advantages of shooting in NEF mode. A conversion plug-in is supplied, but this only opens files at 8-bit colour depth, and there's no official support for Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Even if there was, users would have to upgrade to Photoshop CS2, as the latest release of ACR isn't backwards compatible. However, converting NEFs to Adobe's DNG format at 16-bit is possible. Nikon is clearly confident of the original D70's abilities, and fine tuning it to produce the D70s has turned out to be a smart move. We can't help but feel it would have been appropriate to have upped the resolution ante to 8 megapixels, though, like Olympus has done with the E-300 and Canon with the EOS 350D. Nevertheless, anyone knowing Nikon's provenance will recognise the D70s for what it is: one of the best-made and fastest-handling digital SLRs you can buy for less than £1000. By Kevin Carter
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
