Home >> Photography >> Film Equipment

Nikon F70
Written in 1999

The F70 is the camera that I cut my photographic teeth on. It is the one that I consider to be my first real camera (as in SLR) and is one that I still have and enjoy using (that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t part with it again). Call it sentiment but I like the F70 and couldn’t understand how anyone could disparage it. If I could learn how to use it, anyone could, so I thought but not apparently so considering the masses of abuse leveled at it on the rec. photo.equipment.35mm newsgroup and even on the Nikon mailing list. That’s too bad given the amount of features packed into a lightweight body that’s easy on the hands and on the pocket book, for a mid-level body. I don’t argue that it is a bit slow to change functions or select features but given my particular style of shooting, I don’t often change settings.

Tech Specs or Lack of

Technical specifications are available elsewhere on the net (or better yet, a brochure) but suffice to say that the F70 is capable of providing most amateur photographers with what they need. Shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/4000 second in 1/3 stop increments as well as Bulb mode. PSAM modes as well as eight pre-programmed modes that are basically useless (but I relied upon them in the early going). The Program mode is also "flexible" in that one can change settings from what the camera has determined for proper exposure by turning the control dial. Thus one can change depth of field or motion control within the limits of the ambient lighting conditions and still use the camera's auto exposure mode. Flash sync speed up to 1/125 of a second with Matrix, centre-weighted and spot metering available.

The F70 packs in a few more features then the F90x for a little bit more then half the price of the F90x. Current Canadian price is about $650 for body only while the F90x is still around $1200. Besides the obvious built-in flash of the F70, the mid-level body also has exposure bracketing for ambient and flash exposures. It has the same matrix meter as the F90x as well as the same 3-D (distance data detection) flash metering system. The body is a hybrid plastic outer shell over metal. It is somewhat heftier then the Canon Elan II in weight and feel but not overly so. The F90x feels much more substantial though (and given what you have to pay over an F70, it had better be). The F70 does lack depth of field preview, which can be very useful for macro and landscape photography. There is a way to obtain depth of field preview with the F70 but it isn’t exactly recommended unless you know exactly what you’re doing since it requires the user to partially disengage the lens from the body. After disengaging the lens, the aperture will stop down to the shooting aperture. Obviously great care must be used to ensure that the lens does not completely disengage and fall out of your hands. I personally wouldn’t bother and would rather bracket my shots with various apertures to cover my bases.

After having used the F70 for about six months, I decided to give into my consumer oriented desires to own a better body. Most of the sales people I came across seemed to hold the F90x in very high esteem. I figured that any camera worth over a $1000 had to be a real pro body which would make a yuppie wanna-be such as myself go out and take much better pictures simply on the basis of having superior equipment then the masses. How wrong I was.

Adios to my good friend

After my wife discovered my dirty little secret of a purchase (the F90x), I was forced to part with my original F70 as a way to atone for my sinfully decadent spending. I first pawned the camera off to my friend Kenny, who only bought it after I nagged him for many days to buy it from me. My reasoning for wanting to sell the F70 to Kenny was that I wanted the camera to go to someone who would at least appreciate it and have an understanding of how to put the camera to good photographic use. I was wrong about Kenny’s ability to pursue the photographic hobby as keenly as I had done so to that time and continue to do so now. Kenny may have been Mr. College Photography course but he no longer had the desire to pursue photography in any serious way.

Kenny did, however, like the idea of owning a Nikon and his Korean roommate John, was all for it as he himself was getting more serious about it (John eventually bought a used Pentax PZ-1p for a major trip to Eastern Canada and then Europe). The Nikon marquee though, was not enough to hide Kenny’s frustrations over learning how to use the F70. After a few days going over the manual, Kenny remarked that the F70 was far more difficult to operate then he had anticipated, a point that his roommate concurred with as well. I didn’t take it too lightly and I used that complaint as way to berate Kenny’s intelligence and manhood for failing to come to terms with a piece of electronic equipment (remember, we are good friends that we can say such things to each other). I wondered aloud how some arrogant Montrealer who went to a snobbish highschool and college (he loved to brag about it so I take every opportunity to put him in his place) couldn’t understand the workings of a consumer oriented, mid level camera body that a neophyte such as myself was able to learn and operate effectively.

After all that, I did actually take the F70 kit I sold to Kenny back and returned his money. For all that was said about the F70’s ergonomic controls, the reasons for the return was not about the difficulty of learning to use the F70 but about Kenny needing the bucks to enjoy Christmas (I told you he wasn’t a REAL photographer-Christmas? Humbug!). I eventually sold the F70 kit (50mm f1.8, 80-200mm f4.5-5.6 and basic camera bag) to my wife’s brother-in-law. He was looking for an upgrade to his single focal length point and shoot and I happen to have the products for a good price. I was somewhat chagrinned to lose the F70 again, especially since I had recently bought one of the last Japanese made 50mm 1.8 lenses. I threw this lens in the deal because I had no other normal range lens to offer. When I did eventually buy a new 50mm 1.4 to replace it, I was very ticked off to find that it was made in China. This was compounded when I eventually purchased a 50mm 1.8 to replace the stolen 50mm 1.4 and discovered that this lens was also made in China.

Anyway, my brother-in-law has even less interest in photography then Kenny and to this day, I don’t think he knows how to really use the F70 to any significant degree. All of this leads into the major downfall of the F70, its ergonomics.

The Real Deal

For a person willing to invest much time and effort into the pursuit of photography, the F70 is a capable tool that can accomplish much of what the photographer wants. I know how to use this camera because I had the desire and the perseverance to learn not only about the F70 but also about photography as a whole. I’ve mentioned before that when I first bought the F70, I had a steep learning curve to go over because I knew so little about the technical basics of photography. Now that I have a good grounding in the basics, I don’t see how an experienced person could not understand how the F70 works and operates.

The F70 is meant for a person who already knows about photography and as such, it is not the best choice for a beginning photographer. The multi-segmented, multi functioned LCD can show so much info that it can be difficult for a person to take it all in. A beginner needs a basic, manual camera like an FM2 to understand the relationship between ambient light, film speed, shutter speed and aperture value to come up with a proper exposure. An advanced, hi-tech body with more functions then can be used can also teach the beginner the basics but it will take longer, especially if the beginner relies upon the programmed auto modes like I did in the beginning.

There are also other drawbacks that one learns about the F70 when compared to a higher priced body such as the F90x. The autofocus is capable when using consumer oriented zoom lenses or when using small prime lenses such as wide angles or normal lenses. When I bought the 35-70mm 2.8, I didn’t notice any loss of speed in the AF over my old consumer quality 35-80mm but the 35-70mm 2.8 isn’t really all that big of a lens. Where the F70 really falls flat is when coupling it to a big, heavy beast such as the 80-200mm 2.8 lens.

My 80-200 2.8 is the second-generation AF lens put out by Nikon. It is a D lens without the tripod collar, which is more or less identical to the original non-D AF lens. The old design was not exactly known for blistering AF and my lens can still be a bear for AF on an older Nikon body or an F70. The F70’s AF motor is not suitable for quick AF with such a lens. I recall reading about how annoyed Philip Greenspun was with the AF of his 801 body when using the 80-200mm 2.8. I have the same frustrations whenever I use the tele-zoom lens with the F70, to the point that I just don’t do it anymore. I couldn’t imagine the F70 trying to AF an older 300mm 2.8 non AF-I version with any effectiveness. I recall Moose Peterson stating that he never used the AF on his F4's because they simply weren’t up to the task for his type of shooting. I don’t see the F70 having anything better in the way of AF then the older bodies such as the F4’s or the 601’s or 801’s when using longer lenses.

That is not to say that the F70 can’t be used with effectiveness with such lenses for landscapes. This style of photography has very little to no need for AF so obviously manual focusing presents no problems with big lenses on the F70.

I suppose I have been describing continuous faults with the F70 at length and yet I still own one, why? Well, as alluded too earlier, I have a sentimental attachment to this body because it was what I learned to shoot with when I started this hobby. But I’m at the point where functionality and usefulness override my photographic decisions now. When I sold my first F70, I regretted it because I thought it was nice to have two bodies available for different uses. I could have print film in one and slide or B&W in the other. When I had the opportunity to purchase (or rather, permission from my wife) another body, I unhesitatingly went for another F70 for exactly the reasons stated above.

I like shooting slide film when I get a chance to go hiking or doing other types of outdoors shots but since the birth of my son, I have gone through a tremendous amount of print film to document the growth of my son. From innocent newborn babe to a precocious one-year old (as of May 1999) my little boy is the one subject that my wife has no problem in me shooting lots of film. In fast she insists that I shoot some film of him every month during his first year of life so that we have a permanent record of that tumultuous first year of crying, feeding, bathing and diapering. The F70 was there at the hospital when I took the first photos of my newborn and it has been in regular rotation as St. John (pronounced "sin-jinn") has grown into a toddler.

But sentimentality is not the only reason why the F70 has stayed with me. As I became more serious about photography, the inevitable wedding photography eventually caught up to me as friends and relatives ask me to document their ceremonies and receptions. I, of course, used my best equipment, which meant that the F90x was the workhorse camera while the F70 was relegated to back up status. In the course of my use of the F90x for quiet moments during a ceremony, I became overly aware of the noise level from it. It is rather jarring to hear the mirror slap/shutter noise emanate in such a crude fashion from the F90x. It is in this regard that the F70 comes into its own as a quiet, dampened body for mirror slap/shutter noise. However, one last drawback of the F70 must be mentioned here, the slow flash sync speed of 1/125 of a second.

The first wedding I was asked to shoot was outdoors at Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver for some good friends. It was a bright, late spring day in June with little cloud cover. I knew enough back then that in order to work within the 1/250 flash sync speed of the F90x, I would have to use very small apertures or use a neutral density filter. I had to do both. I used a 4X ND filter, which cut down the ambient light by two stops but even so, I still had to use aperture values around f/8 or f/11, which was not what I wanted for cutting down the depth of field. The civil ceremony was in the open sun with no shade whatsoever. In this particular example, if I had used the F70, I would’ve had to use apertures in the f/16 to f/22 range. This might be acceptable for the large group shots but for blurring out the background for the posed shots of the couple, not acceptable at all. I should also note that I was using Fuji NPS 160 (shot at the rated speed) for the outdoor shots and it still called for the small apertures noted above.

In a church or reception hall though, the quiet F70 would be in its element as a solid and efficient body that can take full advantage of Nikon’s 3D flash system. When I shot my friend Tony’s brother’s wedding, another photographer friend of the family was present using a Canon Elan II. On the odd occasion that I wasn’t shooting a scene, I would watch him shoot and listen to see how well dampened his Elan’s shutter/mirror action was. I had heard and read about the vaunted belt drive motor action of the Canon bodies and was especially curious as to how quiet they actually are. Well, the reputation is perhaps a bit overblown. Yes, the Canon Elan II and A2 bodies are well damped, better then the F70 but not by much. This point about shutter action reminds me of another time when I checked out a used Contax G1 AF rangefinder. I wanted to hear how quiet a mirror-less camera would be. The Contax G1 was very quiet but in a point and shoot kind of way. A small electronic type of noise could still be heard, no doubt the motor winding the film forward. The only truly quiet camera I’ve handled was a Leica M series rangefinder at Tony’s wedding. I was asked to take a couple of shots for a friend of the family with his Leica and I was struck by how deadly silent it was. I released the shutter and expected to hear something to indicate that the picture had been taken but nothing, absolutely nothing (within the throng of the outdoors in Stanley Park).

To flash or not to flash

The built-in flash of the F70, like pretty much every other built-in flash on an SLR, is lame. It does fine for outdoor fill flash where its small size and power rating is quite capable of putting enough pop into the subject but it fails miserably for indoor or night time shots. For such shots, it does little better then most point and shoots, being so weak that it can barely light up your subjects let alone anything around them. Plus it is a battery hog. Never use the built-in flash and the F70 will do okay for battery consumption. Use it on a regular basis and you’ll be spending enough on CR123 batteries to justify an accessory flash like the SB 23 or better yet, the SB 27. I rarely use the built-in flash anymore. When I do, it is only for outdoor fill flash when I’m too lazy to bring my SB 27 or SB 28 flashes. I should mention here that the F70 has no PC connection. This is not really much of a deletion since an accessory hotshoe adaptor can be purchased for very cheap ($15 or less). In fact, I dare day that had Nikon added such a feature to the F70, they would be charging much more then what the F70 is worth presently. I bought one of the adaptors and it works very well. I can attach a PC cord directly to it or use my Multiblitz trigger mounted to the hotshoe (no live connection) of the adaptor. Simple and so cheap that it’s not worth bitching about.

I did it my way

I have my F70 set up in a pretty basic way. The F70 has the ability to store three custom functions so that one can quickly set the camera for different types of shoots but I don’t bother. For a landscapes and general photography, the F70 would do fine as most outdoor photographers generally take their time in composing the various elements of the scene and do not require blistering AF or simple as pie ergonomics.

I, like many other serious amateurs, shoot mostly in Aperture priority mode. The motor drive is set for its fastest rate of 3.7 frames per second and film rewinding is set for its normal fast rewind (not very fast at all at 12 seconds for a roll of 36). The metering is usually in matrix mode, as I tend to use the F70 in non-extreme lighting conditions. I let the camera set the DX for the film type and the focus mode is in spot focus instead of wide focus for more precise focusing (when using flash, the camera will automatically default to this setting anyway). The AF is also set for single servo mode instead of continuous since I don’t do much in the way of moving or action photography (that is until my son starts to run around the house). The camera has been programmed by Nikon Canada to leave the film leader out. The above is basically how I shoot the F70 ninety percent of the time. Settings do not need to be changed much at all so the ergonomics of fast function changes are not really an issue for me.

My primary lens is the 35-70mm 2.8 and the AF of it with the F70 is more then adequate enough for my needs. The occasional time that I might use the F70 with my older 80-200mm 2.8 lens, I don’t have a need for fast AF and most times, I use it in manual focus mode set up on a tripod to isolate my scene with the tele-zoom lens.

In essence, I know that there are limitations to what the F70 can do for me. Some of it is common to most other mid-level bodies and some of it is due to the seemingly wide latitude afforded of the Nikon engineers of the time that the F70 was developed. The F90x was obviously derived from the 801 in function and style and Nikon had a real winner with its layout and user-friendliness. Had Nikon gone with the same style for the F70, I think it would have been a real killer and just might have convinced many would be buyers to go with it over the comparable Canon Elan II. I’ve known a couple of new buyers who went with Canon due to the better handling of the Elan over the F70. These people went with their decision with no awareness of any Canon vs. Nikon dichotomy that is so prevalent among many photographers. They simply chose what they felt was best for them. Of course, there are just as many stories of buyers who went for the F70 over the Elan (or Minolta or Pentax) because they felt it to be superior to the other bodies.

I think it's telling in a way that Nikon kept the F601 in production for so long. By all rights, the F70 should have killed the F601 off as its successor but it has only been recently that Nikon has finally discontinued production of the F601 (roughly around the time that the F60 was introduced). Now we are in a deathwatch over the F70 as Nikon continues its revamping of its SLR bodies. Rumours of the F80 are being bounced around the Internet with a few people inquiring about when the new mid-level consumer body will become available. Speculation has it being introduced at the fall PMA show in Las Vegas. If and when the F70’s successor is finally introduced, the ergonomics will undoubtedly follow the style introduced with the F5 and copied for the F60 and most especially the F100.

I feel that once a photographer has become very comfortable with a given body and understands it weaknesses and strength, then it will become an effective tool in that person’s hands. This is what I feel about the F70. Despite its slow handling and the many features that I hardly use, I can still use it effectively and fairly quickly. Despite my growing pains with the F70, I personally would much rather have the F70 over the all manual, featureless FM2n (if push came to shove and I could only have one). I like autofocus and matrix metering and the many other automated features of the modern day SLR. The older photographers who learned on and still use manual cameras can call me a lazy bum for going with convenience over supposed quality but I don’t feel I should give up anything with so much available to today’s photographer. And besides, if I was that lazy about automation, I don’t think I would have picked up a mostly manual Bronica 6x6 SLR.

Happy Birthday Honey

Having said all that, if and when I decide to upgrade and revamp the 35mm kit, I wouldn’t hesitate to sell of the F70 AND the F90x in order to free up some funds to move up to the F5 and/or F100. The F100 especially holds my interest for its very quiet operation and faster sync speed over the F70. As I get more seriously involved in wedding photography, the two noted features are very important for me. Any successor to the F70 will probably be as quiet and better handling but its not likely to have a faster flash sync speed, so it holds little interest for me. I’m not sure what might eventually become of my F70 as I look over my finances for an upgrade. If funds allow, I may just keep it for my wife to use from time to time as she detests using the F90x due to its heavier weight. Ironic that the camera that my wife didn’t want me to have may just end up being hers.

Taken with the F70

• Liked - Lightweight and well featured with 95% of the performance of the twice as expensive F90x
• Dis-liked - Ergonomics could be simpler, lack of accessory vertical grip for better handling, autofocus operation primitive with big lenses
• Summary - the potential for giant killer was all over this body until Nikon came up with the user interface. F90x type controls would have made this body the class leader but be that as it may, it is still enough camera for most of us.

*July 1, 2000 - I no longer have the F70 body in my kit, having sold it to finance my purchase of the F100 body.

Correspondence & About this website

Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong