I currently have a D40 and I think it's great, but I would like to have a body with an autofocus motor. A local camera shop has the D70 with 18-135 lens for 299 euro (~$385). Being a few years older than the D40, how does it compare? I'm mainly interested for the autofocus motor part, but I also don't want to sacrifice image quality. Thanks!
You could get a D200 for that price I would think. But maybe that last price I saw was not typical...
I have a D40 and love it. Small compact, great image quality. I am still a newbie so using anything but the auto settings produces hit and miss results(cause I'm stupid)..
I don't see the autofocus lens thing as an issue. I'm more than happy to use cheaper manual focus lenses.
I have a 50mm 1.8 AF lens, and the DOF is awesome, but taking a large quantity of pictures with manual focus and the narrow DOF is exhausting. I can see the benefit of having an autofocus body.
I don't think you can get a D200 with 18-135 lens for less than $400. If so, please send the link my way.
I was saying (I think anyway) that you could get a D200 body for around $400, and could then use all the lenses you currently have regardless of whether they were manual, camera driven or built in motor driven.
The D70 is back a couple generations in image sensor... and you did say you were not willing to sacrifice image quality.
Look here: Digital Photography Review
Alright time for photography stuff again lol.
I actually have both the D40 and the D70, and 3 film Nikon SLRs and soon to pick up a D200. Now then the D40 is an awesome little camera, great sensor, in camera processing offers very nice photos directly out of the body. As you mentioned it does lack the drive motor and several other features of the D70 however nothing that can't be overcome with a bit of skill.
Anyway the D70 is an awesome camera, lightening fast max shutter speed of 1/8000 versus the 1/4000 on most consumer grade cameras. Slightly faster frames per second of a solid 3 fps. The body is a bit more robust and does have the the built in motor drive. It also has the auto bracketing if you want to get into HDR shots. It is a much older body however and does have a much older sensor. The direct from body shots will not have quite the vibrancy of color that you get from the D40 direct from camera.
Also the D70 uses compact flash memory cards versus the SD cards used in your D40. This would require investing in a whole lot of new memory cards and a card reader if you do not have one. You also have to expect quite a few shutter actuations on a D70 at this point. So you do have to worry about life expectancy before the mechanical bits start to give out.
Since the D90 was release the prices on the D80 has dropped through the floor. If you can I would look around for a D80 instead, much newer system, retains the advantages of the D70 however is SD for the memory and is a much new system and higher megapixel count. The other option is as mentioned a D200, awesome camera weather sealed much more advanced then any of the other bodies mentioned so far. It is also a CF memory camera so again you will need to invest in new memory cards. Oh also the D200 has the ability to meter with older AI lenses as well.
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