Second hand d70 opinions

King Eric

Hey ive seen a second hand d70 in a shop in town for €599, AFAIK it has everything that was in the original box except the lovely 18 - 70 mm lens

There is a 6 month warranty on the camera and i can get the 18 - 70 mm lens for €300(new) with the camera.

with the firmware upgrade i can get most of the improvements that are on the d70s, i think so anyways, apart from the bigger screen and the wired remote socket

im a bit worried about how old it might be, ive no idea how many shutter actuations etc its had. looks to be in mint condition on the outside, its just the insides im worried about, is it worth shelling out the extra €400 for the d70s

any advice greatly appreciated

cheers

Mayshine

Hi,

I own a D70. Firmware upgrade is easy, have it done on mine. However there is one thing to be aware of. The first manufacturing run of D70s (approx March-October 2004) have a fault that causes what is known as Blinking green light of death (BGLOD). Search it on google. Camera made after this should be fine. I would check the date of manufacter if possible.

I say this as my D70 is in Nikon in the UK being serviced for the exact same reason. Its good for me and any future owner of my camera though because I have got it repared and the camera gets a solid once over and clean from Nikon at the same time.

Let the buyer beware. Also I am thinking of a D200 upgrade if you are interested.....

King Eric

Just wondering, is your camera being fixed for free by nikon, and if not any idea how much will it cost you.

also how much do you think you would sell your d70 for?

Is 599 a good price for the body alone, or would i have grounds to try haggle a bit given that is second hand and has since been replaced

Alun

King Eric wrote:

im a bit worried about how old it might be, ive no idea how many shutter actuations etc its had. looks to be in mint condition on the outside, its just the insides im worried about, is it worth shelling out the extra €400 for the d70s

There's no real way to tell the date of manufacture, but if you can somehow get hold of a photo from the camera (take along a CF card of your own, possibly a borrowed one) you can use certain Exif viewers to see the number of shutter actuations.

Mayshine

It is treated by Nikon as a free out of warrentee repair luckily enough, but the camera is out of action for up to a month. I hope I get it back before 6th March, because I am off to see Arsenam play real and want to bring it. This is about the only bad thing that I have experienced with my D70. Other than that it is brilliant.

I don't think the D70s is a great improvement and you can upgrade the firmware. Have a look around ebay, but if you are buying from a store you are going to pay more.

Also since you plan on purchasing the 18-70 lens, you would be better looking for someone with the whole shebang and get a UV filter, extra battery and remote and CF card. I'm sure you;ll get a better price this way

If I was to sell the D70, I would also sell the remote, UV filter, lens, extra battery and a lowpro backpack together. If you are interested PM me and we can discuss.

Also with the D70, the shutter count is in the filename, DSC_xxxx where xxxx is the number of shutter actuations. Its not worth shelling out an extra 400, there is not that much of a difference, use it to by a casio compact to use when you cannot bring the SLR about

Alun

Mayshine wrote:

Also with the D70, the shutter count is in the filename, DSC_xxxx where xxxx is the number of shutter actuations.

Not necessarily, since you can set the camera to start numbering each card and folder from 1, or alternatively it might (if used really heavily) have "gone around the clock" any number of times. The entry in the EXIF data remains the only 100% reliable source for the number of shutter actuations.