Wanna share your Nikon D600 review?
I have been in the market for a new camera for a couple of weeks now. I was waiting for the nikon d600 to release, which it did a couple days ago. Has anyone played with this camera and want to share their review?
Ok, I got mine from CameraPros http://camerapros.org/index.php/nikon-d600-24-3-mp-cmos-fx-format-digital-slr-camera-body-only.html because they have it on sale, and its the cheapest price.
I've had the camera for less than a day, so it's difficult to post a thorough review, but here are my first impressions. I'm coming up from a D90 which is a Nikon DX body. I had specifically been waiting for a updated full frame FX from Nikon that was not as old as the D700, then the D800 came out. Wow the D800 is a totally awesome camera, but it's not for me. It's $3k price tag and 36MP just seemed to be too much. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped for something a little less expensive. Now that the D600 is here, I believe it's going to be a great fit.
Build Quality - The D600 is part alloy and part polymer (plastic).It's physically larger then my D90, weather sealed and feels very solid in my hands. How a camera can feel relatively light and solid as the same time is default to explain, but the d600 is just that.
I think it's worth noting that my D90 was all plastic, I shot it in all sorts of conditions and put it through 70, 000 shutter actuations without a single issue. I'm happy to have the upgraded frame of the D600, but it might not have been necessary. I'm not going to Afghanistan any time soon.
Handling - As you can imagine, it's bit different from my D90. I like the position of the new focus selector near the base of the lens mount. The mode dial on the top right will take some getting used to. There a two layers to it. The top is for setting shooting modes M, A, S, P, Auto, No Flash, Scene, U1 and U2. The lower dial is used for selecting single/(low&high)continuous shooting, remote/timed shutter release, quite mode and something labeled 'Mup', which I don't know much about yet. Both dials have physical unlock buttons that prevent accidental mode changes. I think the U1 and U2 (custom) settings will be a great feature once I have them configured. The buttons on the back of the camera to the left of the LCD are similar to the D90, although Nikon switch the order of the '+' and '-' buttons. I'll probably press the wrong one about a 1000 times before a start getting used to it. There are a few other differences aimed at enhancing video control. Due to it's lack of autofocus, I never really used my d90 for video. Since there have been so many enhancements to the D600 video functionality, I'm willing to bet that I'll find those new/updated buttons useful.
There's nothing the d90 had that I'll miss, but I do wish the d600 had dedicated buttons for ISO, WB, and QUAL. Unfortunately, those are only available on the D800 up. Also, I have big hands and would probably have preferred a little larger body. The D600 is definitely larger than my D90. I'll purchase a bottom grip once their available and I think they addition will be just about be prefect for me. Not sure if this belongs in 'Handling', but I can't forget to mention the viewfinder. Since I was going from a DX to and FX, I was really looking forward to the increase in size. The D600's is significantly bigger and brighter then my D90 and real pleasure to look through. I would have like to see Nikon use the same circular rubber eyecup that's found on the rest of their FX cameras. Hopefully there will be a 3rd party equivalent that is compatible with the D600.
Auto Focus - Need to take more pics, will provide and update in a few days.
Image Quality - Based on the few shots that I've taken, I've been impressed. Still need to take more pics, will provide and update in a few days.
Other Features -(Video, HDR, etc.) Again, need more time to evaluate, will post updates once I have spent more time with the camera.