DPreview (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond70/) talked enough about it, the good and the bad, but how does it affect a poor guy that spent over $1500 and wanted to justify the worth? 


D70 beats EOS 300D in almost every category, EXCEPT ONE. EOS has ISO 100, D70 doesn t. 


Amateurs don t carry their most expensive cameras everyday. When they did, they mostly took still pictures   landscapes, portraits, and close-ups. Unlike Ansel Adams who spent the whole life in mountains pursuing a unique angle, amateurs don t have time for angles. All they got was the image quality. Then what s making the different? The ISO sensitivity. 


The first time I use ISO 100, the depth of color and the levels of light stunned me. It was at Natural Bridge of Blue Ridge Mountain in September 2001. I shot from inside the shadow of Natural Bridge directly at the sun. The print gave me clear-contoured sunray outlined by the dark dome of Natural Bridge. If I used an ISO 200 or higher film, the direct sunlight would have blown out the highlights. Confining the highlights is the most important virtue of still pictures, especially landscape pictures. Professional landscape photographers like Peter Watson (see book  Light In The Landscape: A Photographer's Year  by Peter Watson) frequently use low sensitivity films like ISO 50 and Graduated ND filter to keep highlights in bay. Another example was the winning picture of San Diego Union-Tribune, May 12th 2002, by professional photographer Ken Rockwell (http://www.kenrockwell.com/hawaii.htm). The article claimed  The camera has nothing to do with it . Yeah right. If he used an ISO 400, the golden walls with tremendous detail would have been all blown out. 


Low ISO is capable of high exposure, thus gives more room to maneuver the shutter speed. Because D70 can only go as low as ISO 200, I only managed a 1/3 second maximum shutter speed in shooting the waterfall in the  Hiking in Shenandoah  post(http://familyjournalofharryliuhao.blogspot.com/). If I have ISO 100 or 50, I could get a 1 second or even 2 seconds, and the water fall would be even smoother. Peter Watson even used a 20-second shutter in a waterfall shot. 


So why I still bought D70 while cursing so bad of it? If EOS 300D had ISO 50 too, my choice would have been Canon, but it doesn t. The closest product that offers ISO 50 was over $4000, way over my budget. There s always trade-off too. CMOS sensor gives 300D an edge in lower ISO, but is less consistent in higher ISO. At higher ISO, 300D s CMOS generated more and conspicuous blotch than D70 s CCD sensor. 


I do have reasons to stuck with the D70. Shooting aerobatics with a D70 is ecstasy. The instant power-on, twice the speed in continuous shooting mode than 300D, and consistent image quality in high ISO put D70 second to none. With the finger on the snap, the shutter went off like a .50 caliber machine gun. What a joy! The one more level of ISO sensitivity gives 300D some edge, but not that much in general after all. 


Kodak just pushed the ISO limit to ISO 6 with KODAK PROFESSIONAL DCS Pro at $3000 range, but I am not in hurry, nor am I rich. If I get rich enough this life, I will go for a low ISO camera with carbon tripod   just for still pictures. 
