As someone who's been using Nikons professionally since the original F, and
who is a current user of an F4s and an N70, I have to say that I don't find
the N70 interface particularly confusing; just different and perhaps a
little too gimmicky, a la early versions of Windows or the Mac, where you
had to point-and-click your way laboriously through stuff two keystrokes
would have done instantly. But for those willing to spend five minutes
reading the Quick Recall section of the manual and setting up three unique
personalities, there's not a faster-working camera since the Nikkormat FTn:
All I do is dial up which camera I want at a given moment--whether manual
focus/manual exposure with spot meter, my most-often used configuration, or
aperture-priority, continuous autofocus, matrix meter, whatever--and I've
got it in less than a second--far faster than the F4. In my experience,
those who complain about the gimmicky interface haven't bothered to learn
its most useful feature: The Quick Recall.
As for durability, I've had mine three years and it's been everywhere from
high mountain trout streams to tropical bonefish flats, and it's still going
strong. And should I drop it over the side and watch it go glub-glub I can
buy another for a third the price of a used F4 or a quarter the price of an
F5.
The dinky little popup flash is even useful, dialed back -1.3 stops to
brighten shadows in full sun (although I wish the flash compensation would
stay dialed in after you pop down the flash, though I suppose that's an
idiot-proofing feature).
If it just had 1/250 flash synch and DOF preview it would be perfect, but
it's close enough to perfect for four hundred bucks.
James R. Babb
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
