Which is better the Nikon D70 or D40?—Scott S

Best Answer —anthony h

The D70 is the better camera, but the D40 has the better image quality. A complex answer, but let me explain.

The D70 was Nikon’s second 6mp digital SLR (the first was the D100). The D70 camera itself is very good, with 3 fps, two control wheels, and a lot of high-end features like using compact flash memory. The D70 also autofocuses with almost all Nikon AF lenses, while the D40 will only autofocus with AF-S, AF-I and Sigma HSM lenses, a much smaller number of lenses.

The D40 is a lower-end camera, which uses SD memory. However, the D40 benefits by being several generations newer than the older D70. The sensor on the D40 has lower noise and improved performance at high ISOs, so that images from the D40 will have less “grain” noise compared to an image from the D70. Also, the supporting processing chips that convert data from the sensor to a jpeg image file have been improved since the D70.

So, if image quality is your goal and you don’t mind using AF-S or HSM lenses (or regular AF lenses and manually focusing), then the D40 will make better images than the D70, all other things being equal. If you need the extra control wheel, the additional AF points, the LCD on top and want better lens selections in AF, then the D70 is better.

You might also consider a used D50, which has an improved image over the D70 and is compatible with all Nikon AF lenses. If it were me, I’d get the D50 over the D40 or D70.

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