According to MAL <mikaellaursen @ bpanet.dk>:

    [ ... ]

    I agree with this statement.

    [ ... ]

    Hmm ... do you have the special battery adaptor which allows you
to use CR-2 cells instead?  It uses three of them in the form factor of
the normal battery.  I keep a second charged battery with my camera bag
for long shooting sessions, and one of the adaptors with a set of CR-2s
installed (they have an excellent shelf life, so don't worry about them
going bad before you use them) for real emergency situations.

    The adaptor was a part of the equipment with the camera for the
D70, though I understand that it has been made purely optional with the
D70s.  Go to your camera store and ask.  I believe that the CR-2s give
more battery life than a set of NiMH AA cells, though not as much as the
fully charged LiION battery made for the camera.  And you have the newer
version of the battery which has even more charge than mine does.  I
keep planning to get one or two of the newer ones, as they are supposed
to work just as well in the D70.

    The designation for the adaptor is MS-D70 according to the
manual for my D70. (It is shown on page 14 on the downloadable PDF
version).

    Of course, this doesn't do anything about the weight
distribution, but that might be better dealt with by changing the way
you grip the camera.

    My practice is to have the left hand turned palm up, with the
index, middle and ring fingers and thumb gripping the lens, with one
finger allocated to the zoom ring, and another allocated to the focus
ring (if I am not using autofocus at the moment), and the ring finger
back when used to be allocated to the aperture ring.

    The little finger (and now ring finger as well) is (are) folded
over the palm and support the body of the camera, except with
particularly long lenses, in which the hand is shifted farther out to
support the lens near the balance point.

    The left elbow is tucked into my stomach, and provides quite a
bit of support, making longer exposures possible, even with slower
shutter speeds and without a VR lens.

    You *could* take a plate of steel, perhaps 3/8" thick or so,
drill a hole in the center and tap it for 1/4-20, and put in a
thumbscrew to engage the tripod socket.  If you have access to a milling
machine, you could even contour it to match the camera body, and file
off any sharp corners.  This would give you the weight shift without the
battery option.

    The shifted weight might cause an awkward balance with a long
lens, as they tend to put the control rings near the balance point with
the normal body weight, and this would force you to shift your hand
back towards the body for the balance, and then slide it forward to
reach the zoom ring.

    Enjoy,
        DoN.