I am looking for advise as far as which camera is better the D70s or D100. Or are there any alternatives that would work as well within the same price range. Thank you in advance
drdad1111 wrote:
I am looking for advise as far as which camera is better the D70s or D100. Or are there any alternatives that would work as well within the same price range. Thank you in advance
The D70s hands down. We still have a D70, and I sold the D100 for that reason. Personally, I still like the D70 better than the other inexpensive options (D40, used D50).
i loved my D70, in many ways superior to D100, like 1/500 flash sync for example. larger buffer, better WB .... the list goes on. However D100 was marketed as a pro backup so it has an available grip with functions and things like MLU, and a few others i cant remember
As a former D100 owner, I must agree, quite a jump up in IQ for the D70s as compared to the D100. In fact I know quite a few pros who snatched up D70/D70s to use as backup cameras. A few selling their D100s to do so. If Nikon had provided a vertical grip for the D70, it would have almost been perfect.
I remember making that same decisions a while ago. I went with the D70, if I remember the only thing the D100 has going for it was the grip. The D70's unlimited sync speed is fabulous for studio strobe work.
As far as alternatives the Canon 20D is very similar in the bang for your buck category, it's LCD is a world better than the D70 too.
The original D40 is well regarded if you have AF-S lenses too.
Justin Huffman wrote:
i loved my D70, in many ways superior to D100, like 1/500 flash sync for example. larger buffer, better WB .... the list goes on. However D100 was marketed as a pro backup so it has an available grip with functions and things like MLU, and a few others i cant remember
Right. I never got the grip, but it actually had sound recording capability when equipped with that.
D70 definitely has better image quality, and less processing required to get what you want out of it. The D70 is much faster and more responsive, too. Viewfinder on the D100 was a LITTLE better, though.
There are few things that D100 is better than D70...
no blooming
no strape noise pattern (i've seen that in MANY D70 images...mainly in shadow, including mine. I did quite a lot of cityscape shots at night and there are ALWAYS some shadow area.. i won't call them "under exposed")
i dislike the AutoWB on D70. It's a bit greenish in direct sunlight..it's it's perfectly fine if i set it manually.
I think D100 have mirror delay mode which D70 lacks.
on the other hand, D70 images are MUCH MUCH sharper.
you can forget about using compressed RAW on D100... which is as slow as changing film
D100 attract a lot more dust and they can easily stick on the sensor.
D70 has lower noise but D100 noise is more grain like to my eyes.
i actually prefer D40 (IQ wise, features not considered) among all 6MP nikon.
D40 sensor are less likely to 've sticky dust problem than the D100/70 too. too bad its metering is bad and lack AF motor.
I liked my D100 better, but for sentimental reasons, being my first serious DSLR. Having said that, I owned 2 D70s's and 1 D70 and I'll agree with others that there were improvements made to the D70/D70s that actually made the camera a better image-maker.
Still, today I own a D40 and I'd take it over the D70s for a travel camera (please note that I don't mean as a primary camera, in which case there's arguments to be made for some of the D70s' more advanced features). I have a D40 today and I'm always surprised at (1) how much fun it is to shoot with and (2) the often truly excellent images it can produce. It's smaller, lighter, newer, and despite being pretty minimalistic it's a great fun camera that produces outstanding images.
However, between D70s and D100... go for the D70s.
I've owned and shot both camera's -- and I would say there are pro's and con's for both camera's. In the end -- the D70s wins in my books, but its a close race. The RAW files are much faster to write to memory on the D70s which was always a pain in the rear on the D100. It would take forever for RAW files to write.
I still have my D70s... its a great camera. No reason to sell it, and I got it for a steal of a price. Whenever I don't feel like lugging the big boys out with me, the D70s is in my bag, ready to shoot.
D70 by far. Better image quality, especially at higher ISO's. But most importantly shooting RAW is not a nightmare as it was with the D100 because the D70 writes to the CF card faster and has a bigger buffer.
In the $500 price range there are several options, that may outperform the D100 and D70s, tho I love the latter since I had one that treated me very well. So, I suggest that an answer depends on how much money you are talking about. With camera prices dropping like big rocks many options are available. I have mentioned in teh past that the camera store HAD a D2h selling for $395.
The D70 is selling for as low as $300 now, and there's not enough of a difference between the D70 and D70s to make the extra cost worth it.
The lowest I've seen for a D2H that isn't trashed is in the $550-600 range. If you're shooting at 200-400 ISO and RAW, the D2H can give you some very nice files if you don't crop. There's something to be said for the speed and AF of the D2H and working with smaller files, especially if you want to use Capture NX2 which is a slow bloated pig of a program. Or you can still use Capture 4.
