Well, I would like to buy a digital SLR. The Nikon D70 sounds nice but I don't know if there are any good 'Objektive' (German for lense-systems, or so). The Canon 10D has lots of good 'Objektive' but is not as cheap. Which camera would You prefer if you had today's choice? Thanks in advance, Volker Harun

If I had to make this decision today, this would be a no brainer for me, the D 70 without a doubt! She is a very fast cam. Having just bought my first Nikon (digital) and having shot Canon (SLR) for sometime now, I am totally in love with this Nikon, so in love with it that I am thinking about purchasing a Nikon SLR. I honestly don't think there is a shortage of lenses for this Nikon either, ask the agent from whom you are buying, seems to me that the list of lenses this cam will accept is pretty broad, including some of the Nikkor MF lenses. Both manufacturer's are excellent, but the plastic body on the Digital Rebel was a total turn off for me. Just my two cents. Brenda :)

The D70 takes all modern Nikon lenses as far as I know. So any good AF lens should work. I even put on one of my antique manual lenses (50mm fixed). I had to set it to manual, but it worked like a charm :) So to answer your question, there are alot of very good Nikon lenses available, but they're not cheap.

@Nilla: The D70 is very fast - at least when powering on - when making a shot the Canon D10 is a touch faster. @3DGuy: I read in german magazines that most lenses for the Nikon D100 (the other SLR) are loosing sharpness on the edges of the pictures. On the other hand - I dislike AutoFocus, so manual setiing should be allright (except for the edges). You see I tend to the canon - the child in my heart is loving the Nikon but :) Thanks for your help so far!

There are some lenzes specifically made for the DSLR. But the entire normal range of Nikon will work on the D70. But you got to remember to multiply the focallength by 1.5 (the Canon is 1.6) So a 50mm lens becomes 75mm. Essentially it crops a the picture in the middle, so it's a mystery to me why the image would blur to the sides. This would mean that analog bodies would get very blurry sides, since they see more of the lens. As I understood it, the shutterlag is actually less on the D70 compared to the 10D. As a D70 owner I can tell you that pressing the button=taking the picture, it's instant. If there is any difference with the Canon it's probably only measurable, but for the life of me I can't detect any lag :)

Let me preface this with the fact that I'm a 10D owner and love my camera. I've also shot with the Nikon D100, but not 300D (Digital Rebel) or D70. The D70 is not a fair comparison with the 10D. The D70 is more on par with 300D (Digital Rebel) - though a lot closer to the 10D than the 300D is to the Nikon D100 ... did that make sense? Anyway, that's why the 10D is more expensive than the D70. That said, there is very little difference between the mid-to-high level prosumer Nikon and Canon DSLRs. When people have asked me this question in the past, I almost always say "If you already have either Nikon or Canon autofocus lenses that you like, then go with whichever you have lenses for." They're just that close. If not, look at the differences and choose the one that has the feature(s) that you think you need. The Nikons have faster max shutter speed (1/8000 vs. 1/4000), wider exposure compensation (+/-5EV vs +/-2EV), a little bigger buffer for continuous shooting (like 2-3 frames more than Canon), finer self timer control, and USB 2.0 (think only D70 has 2.0 though). D70 also has a much improved buffer which gives it a speed boost over the 10D, 300D and D100. The Canons have slightly higher resolution, resolve a little better, have wider ISO range with less noise across the range (accounts for the "butter smooth tones" that reviewers talk about) and slightly more powerful built-in flash. One other thing, if you insist on comparing the 10D to the D70, one of the biggies for me would be that the D70 uses a pentamirror for the viewfinder (as does the 300D) while the 10D (and D100) use a brighter pentaprism viewfinder. Finally, don't get bogged down on the numbers. The differences between these cameras are so small that they really mean little in real world shooting for 99% of us out here. Yeah, the D70 (if you are prefocused) has less shutterlag than the 10D ... 20 milliseconds less. Take a shot with full-on autofocus and the D70's lag becomes 200-300ms longer than the 10D. Can't think of a time yet were 20 or even 300 more milleseconds has meant anything to me. If I shot F1 races or something, maybe I'd notice at the 300ms end, but doubt it. As photographers, we adjust to our equipment. Take a look at what you shoot and think to yourself, is there something I need that one does better than the other? You really can't go wrong with any of them for image quality. In the end, go to a store with a compact flash card and ask them to let you hold the cameras you are thinking about. See how they feel in your hands. Take some shots, go home and check them out. Look at what lenses are available and see how they fit into your shooting style. That is a big factor for me. Canon's Image Stabilising lenses alone were enough to overcome any doubts in me. Nikon hasn't convinced me yet they can compete with the 28-135mm IS or 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lenses in price or performance, but their VR technology is getting there. Good luck and happy hunting. :) -=>Donald

@Donald: I thank you very much for your huge advice concerning the choice of cameras. I went this morning to the store (it is 7 hours past ReRo-time hear) and decided to take the Nikon. Battery charge took less than 2 hours and the first experiments were really great. Thanks a lot to all of you! Yours Volker Harun

Congrats on your purchase! Sorry I confused the two Cannon's. 10D D100 300D 1D D70... (sorry all these numbers confuse me at times!) But I don't think you will regret your choice either. Happy shooting, and hey... post some pix with your new purchase! :)

Cool beans! :) Can't wait to see what you can do with it. The Canons and Nikons at this level are really something else. You are going to love it.