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I'll be getting my D70 from Chatswood. Harvey Norman which sells for a private deal of 1980 bucks. This is D70 + kit lens (18-70mm).

Is that a good price?

For the kit, and especially for Hardly Normal, that's a good price. It's about as good as you'll find in Oz.

This iks for a new unit, and not ex-demo or floor stock?

That's an absolutely fantastic deal, but as Gary said...u sure it's not an ex-demo model or something?

Nup, it's in stock. Brand spanking new. 'Fresh'.

I was bargining the counter. I said that I can get the kit at Pentax for 2070 bucks, the couter got me a better deal.

I do retouching work for a local photo lab here in Lismore, so I got mine through him; at a very much discounted price I mite add

Cheers
Ray

WARNING: Hardly Normal's packaged "kit" lens is for the D70 at that price is the 28-80G, NOT the 18-70. These two are very much light and day in terms of quality of built and optics.

Please, please ensure you get the 18-70 lens with the D70, or you're happy with the 28-80 included in this deal (which is the same lens as packaged with entry level $399 film SLRs).

Caveat emptor - there's no such thing as a "good deal" at Hardley Normal.

I thoroughly asked the retailer about that. It's a 18-70mm lens.

I went down the HN path too, but decided against the dodgy lens. Ended up getting it from Diamonds in Adelaide. Excellent store with very helpfull/friendly staff.

I also got mine from Harvey Norman for $2100 (18-70 DX)

Terry

I got mine back in May for the standard $2299 with kit lens. Couldn't be bothered waiting for a cheaper deal, was too eager to get it!!!

I payed $2100 for mine from Domayne here in the ACT. But I got a 4 year warranty extension, 128MB CF card and camera bag all chucked in with it.
Sounded like a good deal at the time

$2099 got me:

D70 Kit
2 years extended warranty
512 Ultra CF card
Camera bag

Could have gotten it $100 cheaper on the internet but thought it was better to buy from a retail shop were I can take it back to (plus the extra warranty).

W00DY

Woody, Andy, you both got quite good deals.

Okay, I've just placed a deposit for D70 + 2 year extended warrenty + Sandisk 512mb Ultra II + bag.

That's total of 2316 bucks.

Great deal?

Nexxus wrote:Okay, I've just placed a deposit for D70 + 2 year extended warrenty + Sandisk 512mb Ultra II + bag.

That's total of 2316 bucks.

Great deal?

Nexxus, your in chatswood right?

Go see Camera House (impact cameras) see my post above... I got pretty much the same thing but for $2099.00 from there.

You will need to bargain a little (well maybe a lot).

W00DY

Camera House at Westfield?

The goods they sell are way overpriced. I bought the Slik tripod for 50 bucks in Nth Sydney but there it costs 120 bucks.

Nah, I'm happy with what I got.

I'm saving like 500 bucks off the RRP.

Nexxus wrote:Camera House at Westfield?

The goods they sell are way overpriced.

That's why you can bargain with them. Just think the EXTRA $300 you will save could buy you that extra lens, or another CF Card (or you could put it back in the bank!!!)

But as long as your happy with the deal you are getting then that's all that matters.

W00DY

Camera House may be expensive, but you don't have to accept the listed price as mentioned, and they tend to get newly released stuff earlier than most other places. eg the first time I saw the D70 in this country was at CH. 3-4 weeks later it appeared on the shelves of the many city stores.

Onyx wrote:Camera House may be expensive, but you don't have to accept the listed price as mentioned.

NEVER accept the lsted price anywhere.... You can always get at least 10% off everything if you just ask (usually more).

W00DY

Just bought it.

Now where do i start...

Oh yes. Is there a better NEF editing program besides pictureproject. This program is so amature.

Nexxus wrote:Just bought it.

Now where do i start...

Oh yes. Is there a better NEF editing program besides pictureproject. This program is so amature.

Read the manual, while charging the battery.
Nikon Capture 4.1.2 will work very well with NEF

So what's the cost of registering Nikon Capture?

Nexxus, Capture is on the cd which comes with the camera and has a free 1 month trial

I'm buying my D70 and NIkon lens (18 to 70) from CCC Camerahouse in Sydney. There it costs only 1999 dollars if you are a member, and 20 bucks more if you are not. Great Price I reckon.

Alan

Welcome aboard Benno!
Kris, one of our member got the D70+ 18-70mm + 512Mb CF/ 45x =$1995.00, two weeks ago!!!!!!

Welcome aboard Benno!

Yes, birddog114 is right. I picked it up for $1995, and have only just returned from a trip to NZ so I actually scored it for $1800!!!

I also scored some other goodies today at exceptional prices, so my advice is to shop around ! there are bargains to be had..

Just got my kit and love it so much I searched the internet until I found this cool site. from vancouver BC, bought the camera for $1650.00 after some serious bargaining. I'm glad I bought locally and not off the internet as that's such a hassle. I never new the joys of photography until I got my hands on this thing. IT puts the joy back in...joy.

I'm excited to post some of my pictures of this country and have you tell me what you think and how I can do better.

So are you from vancouver (Awesome city!)

Welcome!

I bought mine from Teds... Got
D70 Body
Sandisk Extreem 256MB CF card
Nice backpack
Pretty poor tripod
the 18-70 kit lens
a 70-300G lens
and 10 prints a month for a year... (yeah... no biggie but eh...)
$2500

I bought mine from Teds too in Brisbane but I was not happy with the service in the end. Offhand and not able to give reasonable discussion about the technical side. I think I knew more after 7 months research anyway about the camera but hadn't handled one as they were so scarce. I got the D70, kit lens and 70-300G lens for $2480 and also a Lowepro AW Minitrekker Despite this hefty purchase the guy I dealt with couldn't get up from his lunch to come and deal with me when I came in for the final purchase and I didn't get the extended warranty or the free 120 pics. I will return though.

I bought a Manfrotto 190Pro B tripod with a MF 486 RC2 Ball Head and a SB800 from a Camera House a few shops down, but if they had a D70 in stock I would have transferred my purchase to them. (This is an incredible flash but I still have a steep learning curve on this piece of equipment)

The point I am making is that it seems rare to find someone who is actually a photographer, an enthusiast and will give you the time to discuss your purchase. Maybe I just struck a bad experience. We are not spending peanuts here however. My expenditure is close to $3000 AUD now and yet I have found it difficult to find sales staff who are knowledgeable and will discuss a purchase. Most ignore you if you haven't made a purchase in 5 minutes. For the kind of money members are spending here I am guessing that we want a bit more. Staying away from busy CBD shops may be the answer.

I can feel your pain Dargan. I often get overlooked in stores, I believe it's due to my appearance and the presumption that I'm not a serious buyer (I don't dress 'nice' by other people's standards), I usually need to jump up and down and cause a commotion to get help. It's why I prefer to do research and buy online for many products. If I were you, I wouldn't set foot in that Teds store again. If they act like they don't want your business, grant them that wish.

I guess it's a refreshing change that my shopping experience with the big camera stores in NYC (B&H, Adorama) are so different to Australia. The staff have high product knowledge, well manned, eager to serve and answer questions truthfully and to the best of their abilities. They may be busy helping 2-3 others at the same time, understandably in a store that dize, but they devote attention make sure the item you buy fits your needs.

People walk in to photo store nowaday won't find any real photogs or a handful of people who can provide/ giving you lot of answer about technical and specification of products which they're selling and don't expect that you be treated well if you ask so many questions and walk away.

Espcecially, staffs at Harvies, and some other outlets they are selling stuff like supermarket (commodities) they did not require to achieve the top gun grade to be hired and they didn't get train for what they are doing or they don't have or can't afford one. Just a basis knowledges about the digicams displayed on their shelves.

I understand peolpe getting lot of frustated of being telling something not exactly what you want to hear, they want you to buy whatever they want to sell or they got the instruction from their boss: "try to move stock".

Here's the story: I was with my friend in the Domayne shop in Auburn, the saleman tried to sell him a DSLR, my friend asked: the D2h has 4mp and the Canon 300D has 6mp, so the Canon 300D is better than isn't it? listening the reply from the saleman:most good and top dslr cam now is 6mp, and the dslr cam with 4mp is out of date and can't print a larger size print up to 8x12, the Canon 300D is the best seller around the world! blah blah blah! the next question of my friend is: I want to buy a D70 and tell me the pros and cons, there you go:
- the D70 is lot of moire/ noise/ made in Thailand and goes on and goes on.

I was nut and walked away with no comment.

The cut down throat pricing and the Online shop baring them to hire a veteran in the industry or sending their staffs to training.
Beside, we have lot of resources over the Net today, just a click and there's million of ideas, links.

IMHO, all my DSLR, I kept the manuals in its box, I went into dpreview and look at the review pages of the cams with the cams next to me, so I learned step by step, I think it's easy way instead of turn each page of the manual, other technical also provides in many forum.
We call online learning do we?

Birddog114 wrote:
IMHO, all my DSLR, I kept the manuals in its box, ..........

Birdie,

You would have forgotten more about photographic gear than I will ever know, so it is with some trepidation that I am going to disagree with you on this

I carry the manual in my camera bag - sometimes I browse through it (and it is amazing what can be discovered), sometimes I refer to it to answer a specific need. I know there are other resources which offer more, and probably in a more useful form, but I reckon the manual is an indispensable reference for that - "Now how do I do this" - moment.

(Good story about the visit to the shop, troubling but hilarious)

cheers

GregB,
i agreed your point, lot of people doing that, I used to do it too, but not now, once you cover the event as I often did:
1/you won't have time to find what you want in the manual.
2/ Shooting an event, you have to walk/ run at least 5km to cover all angles.
3/ you don't want to miss your opportunity of shooting
4/ you can review your photo and reshoot with some various setting and learned it once you returned to base with EXIF.
5/ I used the voice memo of my D100/ D2h very often to remind me to check or review what am I doing wrong?
6/ After few months with the dgicam, you'll learn most of pros & cons & knowing your weakness, so the manuals won't need to stay in my bag.
Look at some sport events, sportshooters do not have time to empty their CFs, they just shoot and their assistants will run forth and back with the empty CFs

Dargan wrote:I bought mine from Teds too in Brisbane but I was not happy with the service in the end. Offhand and not able to give reasonable discussion about the technical side. I think I knew more after 7 months research anyway about the camera but hadn't handled one as they were so scarce.

I would call Ted's in Melbourne and complain about this lack of service. Given the amount of money you spent, you deserve to be dealt with in a professional manner and by a knowledgeable salesperson. Something that I too often find lacking in far too many stores. Of any persuasion.

But welcome here, and enjoy.

Yes, there's a steep learning curve on the 800 - I'm there too.

Dargan wrote:I bought mine from Teds too in Brisbane but I was not happy with the service in the end.
I bought a Manfrotto 190Pro B tripod with a MF 486 RC2 Ball Head and a SB800 from a Camera House a few shops down, but if they had a D70 in stock I would have transferred my purchase to them.

Hi Dargan

Welcome to the forum!

You raise an interesting point - (Bear in mind, that I am 1 of the two forum members who don't own a D70 - but I'm hoping to get one soon)

A few years ago, I bought an expensive Rollei Prego point and shoot from Brisbane Camera House. Several days after purchase, I returned with the Rollei manual and wanted to ask them a couple of questions about things that puzzled me. After I asked my first question, thinking that they would be just as helpful AFTER the sale as they were BEFORE the sale, the answer and tone of voice was just so dismissive and disdainful. The unmistakable impression I got was "We made the sale, so now we're not interested in you so p__ss off and leave us alone".

Compare this to our local Coffee Club shop where there are two delightful counter staff who welcome everyone with a bright smile, a brief chat and really friendly service everytime. There girls want to be there, they want to serve and they want the customer (and themselves) to have enjoyable interaction.

Businesses are there because they have customers. No customers = no business. How hard is that?

Cheers

Graham

Thanx for the welcome Bago!

Just read Birddogs reply, am away blown and fearful to step in another store. I want to be able to go places without my manual but that is some way off. At present I have a 5-6cm thick folder on printed camera reviews of the D70 and another one on camera technical issues and as well as my manual on both the D70 and the SB800, I will be carrying the D70 Thom Hogan book when I get hold of it. Will probably start filling the PDA wth relevant files as well. I will prob have to buy another AW minitrekker. I just love this tech stuff! Doubt I will get to stage of photo journo on DP forum pic posted elswhere on forum though. Must draw line somewhere.

I came to the D70 via a Sony V1 I used in India and the States. now there a Q. How did other members come to the D70? (I love this little cam, am thinking of the V3 but it will be a little bigger, for the pocket I mean)

Oh the point of thread! Maybe we could ident stores with enthusiast/D70 sales staff in capital cities that we could anoint as club contacts? BTW. This forum looks to be exponentially growing. Any stats forum administrator?

You guys are all still carrying PAPER manuals?
I've downloaded the PDFs from Nikon for the D70 and SB800 on my lappy. Then again, I don't exactly refer to them on the field, but rather before each shooting session, and on long plane flights, etc. I find reading on LCD better/easier than reading paper/book.

I highly recommend Thom's e-book. If you carry a copy of that, the D70's manual is redundant. It contains so all the basics from the manual, and includes much more - from simple explainations of ill-defined terms to the more complicated aspects that even proficient photographers could learn from. I've yet to cover the 500 pages!!

I have all his eBooks for all my three DSLRs, am just studying what part of his eBooks that I'm still struggling before and after the shoot. His eBooks cover more details and easy understanding than the original manuals + online from many forums.
Remember with Thom's eBooks, you can post your question to him on dpreview and send him an email regarding your problems, he'll have your reply. He monitors the dpreview's forum most of the time, except when he's his workshop.
I keep the manuals in the boxes as new as mentioned earlier. The manuals will be our collectibles items.

Dargan wrote:I came to the D70 via a Sony V1 I used in India and the States. now there a Q. How did other members come to the D70? (I love this little cam, am thinking of the V3 but it will be a little bigger, for the pocket I mean)

India? The States ? Do tell. And yes, please feel free to start a new thread for this if you wish.

Oh the point of thread! Maybe we could ident stores with enthusiast/D70 sales staff in capital cities that we could anoint as club contacts?

We already have one such store on the NSW North Coast: Jon in, IIRC, the New Camera Store, has already proven himself to be professional, knowledgable, and helpful.

Vanbar in Sydney are also quite good, with very good pricing, and ECS in Drummoyne aren't too far behind, from what I hear.

And our very own Birddog has connections within Maxwell that we are finding very useful.

BTW. This forum looks to be exponentially growing. Any stats forum administrator?

What do you want to know? We're just on two months old this weekend, and we have 74 members; I think we're currently growing at around 1 member/daily, although that doesn't mean that we get one member per day, every day; we had two yesterday, and two (I think) on Friday, but none during the first few days of last week.

I got this kit from Georges (on George St) in Sydney. Fadi is the salesman.

You can probably push him for a free filter too.

Just got this price from European Camera Specialists in Drummoyne:

Nikon D70
HURRY... limited stock now available...
$1795*
* body only




$1995* *D70/18-70 AF/S G lens kit
prices include GST. Call 9819-6000 and order now.


Hope this helps someone trying to make a choice

Chris

That deal on body alone is so-so...
The kit deal however is FINE!

Try Birddogs price in another thread here, $2160 including kit lens, 1gb card, card reader, remote, eclipse, etc, etc

Seems like a bargain to me

Glen wrote:Try Birddogs price in another thread here, $2160 including kit lens, 1gb card, card reader, remote, eclipse, etc, etc

Seems like a bargain to me

I will be purchasing a D70 with the 18-70 kit lens within a months time. If somebody could please provide some more information on the above "deal" it would be much appreciated

Thanks,

Nick

Capturedview wrote:I will be purchasing a D70 with the 18-70 kit lens within a months time. If somebody could please provide some more information on the above "deal" it would be much appreciated

Nick,

Welcome.

Birddog is one of our foundation members, and makes available a number of his own private resources to members of this forum.

This was the deal that Glen referred to in his message, but I believe that those two systems have now been accounted for.

http://forum.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=537

As an authorised Maxwell's reseller, Birddog makes special pricing arrangements for members of this forum, but because I've decreed this forum to be non-commercial you'll need to PM him to get details of what he has to offer.

Thankyou Gary.



I've rung a couple of stores around my area, the best offer I got was the D70 with kit lens for $2145 which also came with a lowepro bag and lens cleaning cloth. A 512mb Sandisk Ultra II would be an extra $120. That was at Camera House Castle Hill. I live in the North Parramatta/Carlingford area.

What is the best price I could possibly get out of a retailer? Can I expect better from these guys?

Thanks in advance,

Nick

heya guys,
just thought i would share my shopping experience. Being quite young i walked into lots of different stores in the city and in the chatswood area, in many stores i was not taken seriously, standing infront of the display cabinet waiting for service is not fun, especially when you are ready to spend. So i walk into harvey norman express at chatswood get served immediately and he let me walk away with the d70 kit for $1970. They too had a deal with a lowenpro, bag lens cloth, and a cf card, but you didnt get the kit lens, it was some other cheaper piece of glass. I wouldnt worry to much about the bag and the lens cloth, chances are the bag will be too small for future purchases and the lens cloth only costs a few bones.

Cheers

Nick,

Depending on the lowepro bag on offer, that price might be ok.
You should be able to find the kit pack (body + 18-70 lens) for a shade under 2k. Usually the package deals including card, tripod etc aren't doing you much of a favour and you'll probably end up replacing the addons with better gear fairly soon. Hunt around hard for card prices (I wouldn't look at anything smaller than 1Gb); their tumbling faster than you can blink!!! Someone has already mentioned ECS but I find Vanbar good value as well.

Good luck.

Michael.

I'll agree to that....
I bought my kit (body + 18-70DX + 70-300G + tripod and bag)

While I almost knew it would be the case I was suprised how quick I outgrew the tripod and bag (The bag is good but I needed an all weather bag... the tripod is just crap!)

if its a lowepro there is agood chance it will be a good bag.. I have the nova 2 AW and am quite happy now!