D70s improves on fantastic predecessor

Jul 22, 2005- Permalink

I’m anxious to check out the new D70s from Nikon. Nikon generously provided us with its predecessor, the D70, for use during last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and this year’s Academy Awards.

We’ve used quite a few cameras over the years and events like festivals really put a camera through its paces. Last year at the Toronto festival, the two of us probably took over 9000 photos in ten days. We loved the D70. It was fast, dependable and produced stunning shots. When you’re crowded into a press pen at the end of the carpet and some celebrity decides they’re only giving you five seconds, you want a camera that you don’t have to think or worry about. The D70 was that camera.

The new D70s improves upon the wonderful D70. It powers up in 0.2 seconds and can shoot 3 frames a second for a burst of 144 shots. In the old days of digital, that five seconds provided by a speeding celeb might produce two shots max. The D70s will be able to give you 15 frames to choose from.

According to Nikon Canada other specs include:

• Shutter speeds from 30 to 1/8,000 second and sensitivity that can range from ISO 200 – 1600.
• Auto pop-up flash that can synchronize at shutter speeds of up to 1/500 second for great fill flash effects.
• 5-area autofocus system continues to feature a cross-type sensor in the centre, broad frame coverage, and class-leading low light detection, but is improved to deliver greater precision with fast, more consistent subject acquisition and improved focus tracking.
• The 6.1 effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor features wide dynamic range and a high signal to noise ratio that produces 3,008 × 2,000-pixel images with high resolution and superbly sharp details suited for making large prints, or for cropping for creative detail.
• Nikon’s 3D Color Matrix Metering with 1,005-pixel sensor that measures brightness, colour, contrast, selected focus area, and subject-to-camera distance values for each shot, and then references the results against an onboard database of 30,000 scenes from actual photography.
• A new high-energy rechargeable lithium-ion battery EN-EL3a delivers the power to shoot up to 2,500 images on a single charge.
• Controls are located for easier access and smoother operation. Newly designed menus are presented clearly and in plain language on the large 2.0-inch LCD monitor, while intuitive help dialogues are available for on-the-spot reference to the respective menu selections.

Excuse me while I drool.