Here I quot what Tom Hogan said in his D70 review:
"Note that when I compare the D70 and Digital Rebel in this review, I'm considering the D70 as a US$995 body and the Digital Rebel as a US$895 body. If you purchase the body+lens kits from either manufacturer, you get very dissimilar offerings: the Canon 17-55mm lens is what I'd call an average lens at best (it produces a great deal more chromatic aberration, to mention just one thing), while the 18-70mm Nikkor seems to be a very excellent performer. So don't fall into the trap of comparing the US$995 Canon kit with the US$1295 Nikon kit--there is only a US$100 difference in the body prices (though I note that at least one outlet has started discounting the Digital Rebel since the D70 started shipping)."
His words about the D70 kit:
"Kit or Body Only?
You can get the body-only version for US$995 or the body plus 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX Nikkor for an additional US$300. This lens is quite good, and a bargain at US$300. The equivalent focal length range is 27-105mm, which is a nice "walking around" range. Nikon delivers the kit with the lens separated from the body, a full set of caps, and even a soft pouch to store the lens in. Indeed, I was somewhat surprised to see that Nikon hadn't "de-contented" the D70 offering to reduce costs. You still get a Nikon camera strap, you get a CR2 battery holder, and other things that could probably have been dropped to save a few bucks.
And that idea carries over to the lens. Instead of a cheap consumer lens (non AF-S, no ED glass), Nikon has provided a somewhat upscale design with the D70 kit. Unlike the Canon kit lens, this Nikkor has a full focus ring and comes with the required lens hood. I'll eventually get round to writing a separate review of the performance of this lens, but my initial impressions are quite favorable in every respect.
In short, if you don't have an AF-S lens that gets you to something less than 24mm, strongly consider getting the kit instead of the body only (assuming you can find a kit--they seemed to have sold out faster than the body-only units that each dealer received). You'd spend more adding an 18-35mm or even a third party 17-35mm lens to your collection, and I don't think you'd get better performance."
See his detail review at:
http://www.bythom.com/D70REVIEW.HTM
and his review of 300D at:
http://www.bythom.com/300D.htm