The D70 also allows you to capture JPEG images in three sizes (Large 3008x2000/6.1 megapixels, Medium 2240x1488/3.3 megapixels, or Small 1504x1000/1.5 megapixels), at three compression levels (Fine, Normal or Basic). You can also set the camera to capture NEF and JPEG Basic images simultaneously. Pros will likely want to work in NEF mode, but we quite liked the Fine Large (highest-quality JPEG) images. Images can be stored on Type I or II CompactFlash cards, or Microdrives. As mentioned earlier, the Digital Vari-Programs automatically optimize contrast, saturation and the like to suit the chosen subject types. In P, S, A and M mode, though, you can choose image-enhancement settings yourself, from menu presets, or customize each setting yourself: sharpening, contrast, hue and saturation. You can also select the color space: portrait sRGB, landscape sRGB, or the popular wider-gamut Adobe RGB. The D70 provides auto white balance, six white-balance settings (incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy and shade), and Preset, in which you either measure a gray or white object in the lighting at hand, or copy white balance from an existing D70 image. In any of these except Preset, you can fine-tune the white balance from +3 to –3, each step warming or cooling the imaging by a small step (generally 100–400 K). You can set ISOs from 200–1600 by pressing the ISO button and rotating the main command dial until the desired setting is displayed on the control panel. If you select ISO Auto On in Custom Setting 5, the camera will automatically adjust the ISO if proper exposure cannot be achieved at the set ISO. If you activate Long Exposure NR, noise reduction will automatically be applied when exposure times of one second or longer are used. Noise reduction is effective, but slows shooting rate and results in larger file sizes (and thus fewer shots per memory card). The 130,000-pixel 1.8-inch color LCD monitor on the camera back displays just-shot images (but not about-to-be-shot images—the SLR viewfinder does a fine job of of that) and previously shot images, with or without info and histogram. The monitor also displays the various menus (Playback, Shooting, Custom Settings, and Setup) used to set camera functions and preferences. A Help button next to the monitor provides guidance when using the Custom Settings menu. The D70 comes with Nikon's PictureProject software, which lets you transfer both JPEG and NEF (RAW) images to your PC or Mac, then browse, organize, retouch and share them. For about $100, you can buy Nikon's Capture 4 (version 4.1 required for D70 NEF images) software, which lets you adjust virtually all aspects of NEF images, control the D70 remotely from your computer, and use such features as Digital DEE (which dodges and burns specific areas of images), Fisheye-to-Rectilinear Image transformation (which turns 180° fisheye images shot with the AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED lens into nondistorted 100° or 130° ultrawide-angle images), Image Dust Off (which uses a reference image to map dust on the image sensor, then removes it from NEF images), and more. The camera also offers direct printing with PictBridge-compatible printers via a supplied USB cable. In Use The D70's autofocusing system performs admirably, even better than the more-costly D100's on birds in flight. The one annoyance is having to scroll through the LCD monitor menus to switch between single-shot and continuous AF—the D100 has S and C positions on the focus-mode switch that let you do it instantly. (A quicker way for the D70 is to rotate the mode dial to the Sports Digital Vari-Program if you want continuous autofocusing, Portrait Digital Vari-Program if you want single-shot AF with a wide aperture/fast shutter speed, or Landscape Digital Vari-Program if you want single-shot AF with a small aperture/slow shutter speed.) Exposures were accurate in most shooting situations we encountered using the 3D Color Matrix system, so we used the center-weighted and spot systems only to assure that they worked. The camera has a good dynamic range, and moderately contrasty scenes recorded with enough detail throughout that a little tweaking in Photoshop produced good detail from sunlight through open shade. All in all, the D70 is an excellent camera, certainly a tremendous buy at its price. If you're considering getting into serious digital photography, you should check it out. Camera: Nikon D70 Category: AF digital SLR AF Performance ***** Metering Performance ***** Feature Set **** Ease of Use **** Ergonomics ***** Value *****