Hello frank, One thing you have to be aware of...If they just look through the viewfinders, the Nikon will look pretty good.
Basically, the viewfinder on the D70 is too fine so that you can't really see the out of focus areas very well. Sort of like there is no matte. So if they use AF instead of trying to focus, it will look a little small, but just fine for aiming the camera. It is when they actually try to manually focus that the difference really shows up. On top of that, most people look at it with the kit lens. The Nikon kit lens is a 3.5-4.5 18-70 while the Pentax is a 3.5-5.6 18-55. So the Nikon will appear brighter than the Pentax when zoomed. Not really comparing apples to apples. My friend told me that the D70 is selling like hotcakes to scrapbookers who are really just using it as a glorified P&S. For that use, the viewfinder is adequate. For someone who wants to be a photographer, the viewfinder is poor. -- Best regards, Bruce Wednesday, March 23, 2005, 4:49:11 PM, you wrote: ft> On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 14:26:03 -0800, Bruce Dayton ft> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> A friend of mine asked for help in picking a DSLR. She has been using >> a Nikon N75 with 28-80 zoom to date. Prior to that she was using an >> old Canon FD mount body. >> >> When she talked to me, she was just about ready to buy the D70 based >> on internet hype and the local store being a strong Nikon seller. >> >> We discussed what she wanted to do with the camera now and in the not >> too distant future. Her indication was that, besides family/kid >> memories, she had started into portraiture and wanted to continue that >> direction. >> >> So with that in mind, I discussed and worked with her on the angle of >> manually focusing and composing. She is a convert away from AF for >> this type of work now. So suddenly the quality of the viewfinder >> became very important. The ability to clearly compose and focus on >> the matte screen became among her most important features of the >> camera. >> >> I sent her around to look at the D70, RebelXT, Evolt and DS bodies >> with this in mind. She came back and reported the order of usability >> of the viewfinder for the stated purpose as >> Pentax *istDS >> Canon RebelXT >> Olympus Evolt >> Nikon D70 >> >> Yesterday I stopped at the local store and tried the D70 and *istDS >> side by side with 50mm lenses on each. The D70 was barely usable (I >> would hate it) and the *istDS was clearly better for this. >> >> So today she picked up her brand new *istDS. I was very pleased that >> someone would get past the hype and really pick something that would >> work best for what they wanted to do. >> >> -- ft> Great story, Bruce. ft> I've recently had the opportunity to talk DSLR's to a few people who ft> want to make the jump from digital p&s, and they inevitabley mention ft> the Canon DigiRebel or the Nikon N70. I've told them to at least ft> consider the *istDs. I've told each of them that the viewfinder is ft> one of the things that separates them, and suggested going to a store ft> to look through each of those cameras before buying. ft> I've mentioned the availability of relatively cheap high-quality ft> manual-focus Pentax glass. As yet, I don't know if anyone took my ft> advice. ft> I've been trying. You've been succeeding! <vbg> ft> What's good for Pentax is good for this list, I say. Great work. ft> cheers, ft> frank
