Looking for advice on D70

Hi All,

I'd love your feedback / advice. I have a D70 which I bought when it first came out, what 10 years ago?! I never purchased a new lens for this, which means it still has the kit lens which is less than stellar. I'd love to get your feedback on whether I should invest in a new lens, and keep the D70, or invest in a new camera all together? I'd guess if I invest in a new lens now, I'd be able to use it on another (newer) body down the road, right? Either way it's worth noting that I rarely pull this thing out, but would like to begin to use it again. It just won't be on a regular basis (maybe once a month, maybe.)

Thank you!

I still use my D70 from 10 years ago,if your happy with the results stick with it and get a lens with the motor built in,then it will go with any upgrades you may make.

If that is the 18-70mm lens, its a pretty good lens. No VR though. Maybe post some shots (with settings) that you are not happy with and someone might have tips. I used the 18-70 on my d7000 until I got the 18-105. I got a d3100 after I retired my d70. I was losing interest and didn't want to spend big money. It re-kindled my interest, but soon after, I very much missed the more advanced controls and features of the d70. So if you go new, consider how you use the d70 and if you will miss the top display, front and rear command wheels and many of the other features. If you want those features look towards d7x00. If not, d3x00 and d5x00. If you really don't use it that often, I would steer you to the d3x00 line. I find the more menu driven cameras easier to use if my fingers don't instinctively know the buttons from frequent use.
A new lens will likely have VR, and give you a little help in lower light. As Mike said, be sure it has a focus motor, just in case. Buying a new lens might cause you to bypass the 3200/d3300 when you do upgrade since they only come with a lens if bought new. You can get a body only if you go D5x00 or d7x00.

I still have the D70 and the D300. My son bought both but we use it as and when required. What I found is that for most of my "day light" shots I take for profession reasons are good enough with my Nokia Lumia camera. In fact most of the time its 5MP camera is an over kill. Where D70 scores is in interchangeable lenses and low light especially with flash. So I tended to use the D70 less and less preferring the Phone camera for 99% of the time.

Now I have bought a D3300. The reason was two fold
. Have a good low light camera
. Have a camera with a wide DR so that shadows can be recovered
. Get a 24MP sensor so that I can crop at least 10MP portion out of it. That gives me tremendous latitude in framing (and distance from the subject), so that a single lense does the job for most of the time.

Most of my lenses are the older type with screw drive AF, so they do not auto focus on the D3300. But in a week I have learnt how to get the focus spot on using the inbuilt range finder. The reason I have to use the range finder is that I have high power glasses and the diopter adjustment is just out side the limit for me to judge the focus on the screen.

With the price of the D3300 with the kit 18-55 VR-II ranging between 500 and 550 US dollars in India, it is quite an affordable option.

So I suggest that instead of getting more lenses for your D70, get a new camera (I suggest D3300). Later you can acquire lenses as and when you require them. Else a kit lense is good enough for casual photography. There was a time when most of the SLR owners started with a 50mm kit lense and never acquired more lenses.