About eight months ago, I finally joined the space age and bought a digital camera. Astute readers will note that coincidentally, this is roughly the same time that the Nikon D70 hit store shelves in the United States. Approximately one month and a couple of thousand shots later, the D70 broke. I pulled out my old N65 that I was using for backup and shot film for about a month while waiting for the D70 to be repaired. Shooting film for a month reminded me why I went digital.

One of the key factors that made my decision to go digital much easier was E-6 Lab in Atlanta. Digital capture means freedom from dealing with dumbass lab employees incapable of following directions. It also means freedom from ever changing arbitrary and capricious turnaround times. However, I do miss the friendly and competent lab employees at Showcase.

Aside from the minor breaking for no reason episode, the Nikon D70 is an excellent piece of equipment. After the initial breakdown, I had no more trouble with it. After being forced to regress to the film age, I bought a second D70 body as a backup and had no trouble with it either.

What makes the D70 great is it works just like a film SLR and is reasonably affordable. Simply flip the power switch to “on” and take a photo. No waiting around for the camera to boot Windows®. Pushing the shutter release immediately takes a picture, with no shutter lag. What novel ideas. As a bonus, Nikon threw in the incredible 1,005 pixel meter used in their professional grade cameras. After 10,000 shots, I am convinced that this camera is incapable of incorrectly exposing a photograph. Of course, operator error in adjusting the camera settings can force it into poor exposures. Additionally, the i-TTL flash system is pretty damn good. It is not perfect, but I have rarely lost a shot because of i-TTL errors.

What makes the D70 better than film is the image is instantly available for review on the LCD. Even while the camera is still writing to the card. Another improvement is that white balance and ISO sensitivity can be adjusted on the fly. Shooting under tungsten light? No need to load a different kind of film, just push a button and twirl the command dial. Running out of light and need to get the shot? Push a different button, twirl the command dial, and increase the ISO sensitivity.

The only weakness of this camera is the worthless “scene” modes. These modes are unnecessary and are a waste of dial space. Photographers that need them should just buy a point and shoot and get over it.

This camera simply works like an SLR should. The program, aperture priority, and shutter priority modes work flawlessly. Manual mode provides full control of the camera, just like it should. The D70 is essentially the guts of a professional camera stuffed into a consumer body, with consumer auto focus. By the way, Nikon’s consumer auto focus is pretty good and pairing an AF-S lens with this camera bumps the performance up to excellent. I highly recommend the Nikon D70.