D70s vs Rebel xsi

maverickphoto

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Went to the camera store today. They have a Nikon D70s with a something to 200mm lens. Cant remember the lens right now but i do remember the guy saying it would be all I would need "didnt ask what kinda pics i wanted to take" so im thinking it was 55mm not sure. Its used but comes with everything that was in the box. Oh and the box is included all for 400.00. How does this camera compare to the Rebel xsi? Would it be a good camera for the money? or the xsi? hmmmm any thoughts?

Jason
 
I don't know the Rebel Xsi, so I can't comment on it specifically. I do know however that from the Rebels I've seen in general, the D70/D70s has a more solid build-quality and appears to be a better made product. Feature-wise, and image-quality-wise, I think the Rebel will have a slight edge being a 12mp sensor, with newer technology.

I don't think a 55-200 is "all you'll ever need". It does cover the telephoto end nicely, but you'll want something for the wide end as well. That aside, $400 seems a fairly attractive price to me. Well worth considering.
 
The price is what i was thinking about also. With the D70s i can pay cash where the xsi I would have to put it on the credit card. Not that it matters one way or the other. The Nikon is a heavier camera then the xsi. Im looking for a camera thats great for wild life and landscapes. Mybe someone has a better option?
 
Well, if that's $400 dollars and in US Dollars that's a good price for it. I agree that the salesman shouldn't have said that about the lens unless it was 28-200 or something.

In todays current market-place here's what I think the pros and cons are:

Upside:
  • The price is $150 or 200 less than everyone else's I've seen recently.

Downside:
  • It's a slightly refined 2003 body and 2003 technology.
    [The refinements are just little things like faster power-up, slightly less shutter lag, a wider built in flash, The focus tracking now actually (kinda) works, it went from a 1.8 inch LCD to a 2 inch LCD but with the same pixel count (thus less density) making it actually worse display to look at, I think it had a different battery too]
  • It's an older CCD :(
  • It has a plastic (polycarbonate) body frame that feels (to me) pretty cheap but better than the d40 of course. It's shaped pretty much like the D100 if you know that model. It doesn't "feel" anything like the D100 tho - which felt kinda good.
  • The LCD is useless in the daylight. For my eyes anyway.
  • The Viewfinder kinda sucks. It feels like I'm looking through a cheap toy camera most of the time.
  • It's flash isn't high enough and shadows with some lenses - but of course it has a shoe so... I think it syncs to 1/500 too so that's not too bad.


As far as a comparison with canon it was intended and marketed to be a EOS 300D killer. You can use the camera comparison tool to look at both side by side at www.dpreview.com. There's a review written about it (back in the day so keep that context in mind as you read) here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/nikon_d70s.html and I'm sure elsewhere as well.
 
I'd rather use a D70 becuase you can get a proper grip on it, and use Nikon speedlights off camera without radio triggers.
 
Hey man, I'm working for a while on D70s. The pictures are just amazing. But the new cameras I think do better jobs. I recomand you 450D. It's something unusually for someone working with a brand like Nikon to recommand Canon but between D70s and 450D (Xsi) there are not many words...
 
I absolutely love my D70s and it is so easy to use and changing settings is so quick that it helps hugely. The only thing I don't like about the D70s is that being only 6mp I have very little room for cropping if I choose to print very large. I'd suggest the D70s, but the XSI looks like a great camera too. I would only get what you can afford though and if you have to charge it.....you can't really (not truley) afford it right now. So based on that, get the D70s kit.
 

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