It has been almost a year passed since I purchase my Nikon D70s body just after 1 month of official release on 16th May 2005. This is a subjective review regarding this digital slr.

1st Impression

The very first image that came out from default setting was not at all pleasing. However after some refinement and understanding of the basics it started to produce good images like these..

20050617_013 (Nikon D70s : AF Nikkor 70-300mm/4-5.6D ED : Flash) [1/40. f/7.1. ISO 800]

D70s has 3D color matrix metering which is one of the best metering system available on any slr camera. However my feeling is if I'm shooting with flash for a dark person like us it tends to underexpose the subject, may be it works for fair people better. Besides as it tries to preserve highlights in expense of losing some shadow area.

One month later

We went for a shooting as usual. I suddenly noticed that the right digit of frame count of top LCD panel is not visible as well as some of the white balance icons & quality control characters of top lcd are no longer visible. Few moments later the view finder display stopped showing the metering bar. I was in panic. After some time the viewfinder metering bar returned after some flickering movement but other problem persisted till today.

With curiosity in mind I informed nikon usa about the matter. They asked to send the camera to service center. We do not have any Nikon service center in Bangladesh and all nikon goods are purchase without warranty. So I stopped bothering about the issue and continued shooting.

Crossing 10.000 shutter clicks

By 11 month I shoot over 10,000 images with this fellow. It is a money saver in terms of film cost - if it survives long !!!

Image quality

• It is very good for shooting people in a descant lighting condition.

• The ISO range 200-1600 is quite useful in tricky lighting condition. I do not need to bother about getting 800 iso film which aren't quite available.

• Advantage of focal length is good for me since my AF Nikkor 60/2.8 D micro lens now works as a 90/2,8 portrait lens. A blessing.

20050701_037 (Nikon D70s : Micro AF Nikkor 60mm/2.8D ED : Flash) [1/10. f/3.3. ISO 200]

 
Bad side

• It's quite difficult to handle contrasty lighting conditions.

• High light is burnt out deliberately even one tries hard resulting in unpleasant image.

• Although higher iso is helpful but the noise level at 1600 makes the image very hard to accept.

Now using the camera for a year I having some problem with the metering bar again and also forgetting lens contact and at times flash contact even if I attach my SB-800 with it.

Known Issue - BGLOD

As I dig through the problem I came to know that there is something called BGLOD (Blinking Green Light Of Death/Doom ) issue for Nikon D70.It occurred in lots of these cameras due to a faulty printed circuit related to metering on D70. Nikon issued a notice related to it - http://www.nikon.com.sg/service/D70.htm

The symptoms are often a flashing green light at the back of the camera and problems related to metering. Which is a sign of a dying camera. Send it to nikon they will service it free of charge.

As of Nikon..

1. It has come to our attention that electronic components related to exposure control in some D70 cameras may, on rare occasions, fail.

2. Should you experience this problem with your D70 camera, Nikon will replace the associated components free of charge even if the camera’s warranty has already expired. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have suffered because of this problem.