Day: January 28, 2004

Now we’re talking.  DPReview is also covering the 8700, an update to the 5 megapixel 5700.  It looks like the basic design is pretty much the same as the 5700, though the command dial on top makes me hopeful that this camera will actually aproach easy to use.  The 5700 is a great camera but a PITA to operate.

The 8700 looks good, but is bulky.  I have a feeling that the 8400 (or whatever replaces the 5400) will be more my style.

DPReview has some details about Nikon’s D70, which I have already ranted about.  It will indeed be $999 for the body only, and a whopping $1299 for a body/lens combo.  It looks absurd when you compare it to the Canon $899/$999 price points.

Now that Nikon has released some specs, we can at least start estimating when they’ll start showing up on the street.  Canon went from announcement to on the shelf in a matter of a month or two, but Nikon is famous for announcing stuff that is still six months out.  I hope that Nikon has ramped up production and is ready to pull a Canon and start shipping Real Soon.

The specs do look pretty decent: 6.1 effective megapixels, which means that it probably does not use the exact same chip that is in the D100, just a similar one.  I am saddened to see that the camera only supports USB1.1, though a real photographer will take the CF card out and put it in a USB2.0 High Speed/Firewire card reader.  I am quite suprised that the camera industry hasn’t embraced the higher speed interfaces yet.

I also like the ability to simultaneously snap a RAW file and a JPEG.  That can make management/thumbnailing/making a contact sheet quite easy.  It looks like the D70 will also support i-TTL, which should make flash exposures with digital cameras easier.

Hopefully Nikon is announcing the D70 now so that in a few weeks at PMA they can say “we’re shipping next month” and make everyone happy.

At least from the pictures, it does look like the D70 looks/feels a little beefier than the Canon Digital Rebel.  The Digital Rebel is a solid camera, but includes a lot of curved lines and is silver to differentiate it from the higher end digital cameras.  Luckily the D70 is black, and looks more like a beefed up N80 platform than an N75 platform (which is A Good Thing).

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for Nikon.  I really want them to do well with this, they just have a tendancy to shoot themselves in the foot.