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Just musing about the the D70 and thought of this for the technical minded. I wondered if it would be possible to retrofit an improved sensor to the D70 if they were ever made available or is the sensor so integral to the camera it could not be replaced? Whether you would want to is another issue.

Dargan wrote:Just musing about the the D70 and thought of this for the technical minded. I wondered if it would be possible to retrofit an improved sensor to the D70 if they were ever made available or is the sensor so integral to the camera it could not be replaced? Whether you would want to is another issue.

With my understanding, the CCD can be replaced but only thru Nikon Authorised Service Center, cos they can get parts from Nikon, Nikon does not selling spare parts to other.

With improved sensor, again this is also from Nikon side, is it available? is it fit into the D70? and more questions we have to ask doing researching, Finally, if it's available, none will be available to the outer rings, unless we have a good contact from one of their Service center.

Dargan, it's impossible to replace a 6.1MP ccd with say a 12mp cmos or even a 12mp ccd (if they ever make one). Why, because the rest of the internals are designed around a 6.1MP ccd sensor. The number of pins on this smd sensor will probably differ. Things such as the buffer size is designed around 6.1mp. It just wouldn't work with out changing the rest. IMHO.

Nice idea however there are probably about 100 plus connections between the mother board and the sensor that need to be connected using microscopic technologies... a lot easier to do at the time of manufacturing. Then there is the issue of collimating the sensor so that its exactly in the right plan. After that you can start worrying about secondary concerns like buffer support etc.

Over twenty years ago I used to be a camera technician and there was a reasonable chance you could fix it with the minimum of parts and effort. Nowadays the components have become so small that there is little you can do when they fail short of replacing modules. If the sensor fails in the they whole board needs replacing....

If you get the chance sometime to get a dead camera that is beyond repair pull it to bits and have a look inside ... it is a learning experience that may just give you an insight or two into the image making process!

I guess I already knew that it was a done deal in this area of the sensor. Let me ask a follow up question for some to think on.

What do the tech guys think are the limits of the sofware upgrades, apart from changing the colours in the menu? Where will they go from upgrade 2.0?

Improved white balance calculations, improved focusing algorithms, improved image compression. They might add zooming down to a 1px ratio, sure this is possible. Maybe focusing hints could be possible if the viewfinder permits it. 1.5x High Speed Crop to 4mp with FPS upto 5fps!!!!

kipper wrote:Improved white balance calculations, improved focusing algorithms, improved image compression. They might add zooming down to a 1px ratio, sure this is possible. Maybe focusing hints could be possible if the viewfinder permits it. 1.5x High Speed Crop to 4mp with FPS upto 5fps!!!!

considering that the D70 can lock the mirror up for sensor-cleaning, would it b possible for the software to have the camera do this for long exposures (a la MLU) ?? The parts are obviously installed....aren't they ???

As for Nikon bringing out a v2 firmware update.....I'd be VERY surprised. Any functions they could/would include in said firmware would no doubt be part of the new D200/D90 that will come out in the future. This would be a potential selling point to existing D70/D70s owners.

After all, we've already purchased the camera, they don't need to give us anything else for free....they'd want us to re-invest in their latest & greatest (which we're likely to do if we've bought heavily into Nikkor lenses).

JMO

IMHO, I don't think Nikon will have more impotant firmware u/g for the D70/70s in the near future.
Look at the history of the D100/ D2H, just one or two u/g, that's.
Next ones as Aussie Dave mentioned, a totally new solutions as new D200/ D90 once released, the new body will attract all of us with more features, more mp, more attractive to the D70/70s owners, upto us stay current or upgrade, if you have a good investment in Nikon lens range then we stay otherwise we jump ship to other side and start all over again.

As I've seen, Nikon lenses can be used in 3 difference systems: Nikon, Fuji and Kodak, while Canon can be used on Canon and Sigma's bodies(Did Sigma do well?), we still have the choice of three if we're with Nikon System.

I was just giving an idea what is possible, never said Nikon would do it
I work for industrial controls/software company, we don't do anything for free.

Nikon would NEVER allow an upgrade that would do them out of the sale of a new camera.
Market forces would never let them cut their own throat.