Sell D700 and buy a D600?

Well, I'm very glad I went into my local camera shop today to test the D600. The continuous AF using the single focus points (I used the centre one) can't hold a candle to my D700. The guy in the store simply walked back and forth (mostly towards me) while I took shots of his face with my 24-70 2.8. About 90% of the shots were out of focus. Then I put the lens on my D700.......and it nailed every single shot, without fail. I chose a high enough ISO to ensure the shutter speeds would freeze the motion, and used f/2.8.

We even tried the 3D tracking and it was hopeless. I suppose it could have been a defective camera - but it's unlikely, as it nailed the static subjects fine and I was actually very impressed with how quickly it locked on to static subjects.

Unless I have missed something here, my D700 is going nowhere. I have my answer!
 
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straycat said:
if you could get good photographs with a D700 4 years ago it dose not matter where the technology is you can still get good photographs today.
that has not changed its the photographer not the camera.
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If you really believed that you would be using a d3100!;)
 
daveb99 said:
Well, I'm very glad I went into my local camera shop today to test the D600. The continuous AF using the single focus points (I used the centre one) can't hold a candle to my D700. The guy in the store simply walked back and forth (mostly towards me) while I took shots of his face with my 24-70 2.8. About 90% of the shots were out of focus. Then I put the lens on my D700.......and it nailed every single shot, without fail. I chose a high enough ISO to ensure the shutter speeds would freeze the motion, and used f/2.8.

We even tried the 3D tracking and it was hopeless. I suppose it could have been a defective camera - but it's unlikely, as it nailed the static subjects fine and I was actually very impressed with how quickly it locked on to static subjects.

Unless I have missed something here, my D700 is going nowhere. I have my answer!
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This was the case with the D7000 too.
 
rjbell said:
You say its the photographer not the camera. If the camera has nothing to do with just buy a d3100.
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A lot of truth in this.....some of my best shots were with a D3000 with the kit lens!
 
Further to my post earlier this evening on the AF performance of the D600, I've done some further reading about the different modes and it seems that despite having the camera set to AF-C mode, I had it in the wrong 'AF Area Mode'. I had it set to single point AF Area mode, and should have had it set to one of the Dynamic area AF modes (9, 21 or 39 point) as they are intended for moving subjects (and my D700 was set to 9 point dynamic for the test). The single point AF area mode does track movement, but won't use the surrounding points to help track the subject - it just relies on the single point selected.

I still think it won't perform quite like my D700 AF if I repeat the test, but I intend to go back to the shop when I get a chance and try it again using one of the above dynamic modes. Only then will I know for sure just how good that AF is (for moving subjects).

For static subjects the D600 seems to focus very quickly, even on fairly poor light - though I did have my 24-70 attached, which is one of the fastest lenses in terms of focussing and the f/2.8 clearly helps.

I'll report back when I've been back and repeated the test!
 
rjbell said:
You say its the photographer not the camera. If the camera has nothing to do with just buy a d3100.
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that does not make sense,since when was that a FX camera and didnt it come out after the D700?

saying that when my D700 packed in at one festival, i borrowed a reporters D60 and 35mm F1.8 which i had never used before and did better than the D3 waving wannabees.
i can also do better with a F3 or FA or F301 and 50mm 1.8 ais and hp5 than most people with any DSLR. :D
 
simonblue said:
A lot of D700 coming up for sale,maybe people are thinking the same thing :)
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Yeah, but some need to get more realistic with their pricing. One up for sale for MORE than a d600 from panamoz! Yes, I admit to not being keen on many aspects of the d600 but would easily go for one above a d700 if same price.
 
Phil Young said:
Bold statement....
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it is,perhaps cocky even,but if i see another facebook photographer with delusions of ability i might shoot myself.
if i had a darkroom or room to kit one out in my house i would be very happy.:)
 
straycat said:
it is,perhaps cocky even,but if i see another facebook photographer with delusions of ability i might shoot myself.
if i had a darkroom or room to kit one out in my house i would be very happy.:)
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Interesting...I'm intrigued to see what mastery you believe to produce. Any links?
 
the difference between 12 and 24mp is only 50% increase in resolution, not 100% as you might think
stepping up to the 36mp d800 will yield more like 75% resolution of the d700

the maths says that the mp count has to quadruple for a 2x increase in resolution- so 48mp is the magic number- not that a 50% increase is no good, but you might be underwhelmed and as others have said, throwing away af performance for such a minimal increase in resolution might be silly
 
simonblue said:
A lot of D700 coming up for sale,maybe people are thinking the same thing :)
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This is my hope. Picking one up cheap as chips. ;)
 
straycat said:
that does not make sense,since when was that a FX camera and didnt it come out after the D700?

saying that when my D700 packed in at one festival, i borrowed a reporters D60 and 35mm F1.8 which i had never used before and did better than the D3 waving wannabees.
i can also do better with a F3 or FA or F301 and 50mm 1.8 ais and hp5 than most people with any DSLR. :D
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Why does it not make sense? Why go to the expense of a fx setup if it's the photographer not the camera. Saying it wasn't out until after the d700 is just being pedantic, you know what point i was trying to make.
 
simonblue said:
My hope is the price of D3s s/h will come down as well :)
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Next year I'll have one of those beauties.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Not a chance of the D3S shifting in price while the D4 is at a ridiculous £4600. £2500 for a low mileage D3S is a bargain compared to a new D4
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Agree, IIRC the D3s and D600 have similar ISO performance, so with the 600 you gain MP but lose the 'pro body'. Seeing as the majority of D3s users have one for work, I dont see why they would swap. I can see (and have seen) D700 prices hit, as that camera is used a lot by enthusiasts who may prefer the higher MP and smaller body. I think the D3s has a lot of life left in it.
 
cambsno said:
I think the D3s has a lot of life left in it.
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Yup, so much so i bought a second one last week, i was hoping either the D600 or D800 would have been something like the D700 and i could have used one or the other as a second body for my sports photography but neither offer me fast enough FPS so i bought a second D3S, i might look into shifting my D700 and getting a D800/600 for more general use like stadium shots etc, etc, as the higher pixel count would be good for that.
 
That is the only reason to stick with a D700 over the 800 at least, besides cost. If you shoot mostly fast moving subjects.
 
I'm still stuck in the conundrum of whether to buy a D700 or D600, so tomorrow morning I'm off to try a D600 in a local shop. My main concern with the 600 is how many people have said about the AF being iffy and as I shoot football and motorsport it slightly worries me. Not sure what I'm going to test it on though. I wonder if the shop owners fancies a run in the morning!?
 
Any updates on this thread guys, bearing in mind that the D600 has been out a few weeks now and there are more reviews floating about the net.

I'll be upgrading from a D300 in the near future and am pretty sure that it's going to be a D600 but want to be absolutely sure that it's the correct choice over the D700. I'll have to hold a D600 first though as I discounted a D7000 earlier in the year due to it being too small... Before anybody suggests it, a D800 stretches the budget a little too far.

I'll be complementing the new camera with a 24-70 f2.8

Cheers
Aled
 
Well I've now had my D600 for a couple of days and have been out for one shoot with it so far. It is something special, that's for sure. I can confidently say it matches the pixel level sharpness of my D700, without a doubt. So you effectively get twice the resolution (in terms of area) and it really does show considerably more detail.

I bought it with the kit lens, the 24-85 f/3.5-4.5 VR and it is rather good to be honest, the colours, sharpness and contrast are more than good enough as a match for the D600 sensor. Of course there's a little softness in the corners but it's a £350-£400 lens. It's very sharp wide open at all focal lengths - and definitely a keeper due to the size / weight and sheer convenience of it, and it has VR.

Today I'll be shooting with my Nikon 24-70 2.8 on it when we go out for a walk later - I'm expecting it to be very good indeed!

I'm impressed with the solidity of the body - it isn't as solid in the hand as the D700 but that is to be expected. I like the fact it is smaller and lighter (very noticeably so) and I'm fairly sure I won't miss the extra switches etc on the D700 body. I'm already getting used to the new button layout, AF mode switch etc.

If anyone wants to ask anything specific, fire away, I'll report back later on the performance with the 24-70 :-)

For anyone that is hesitating - just do it.
 
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Aledafis said:
Any updates on this thread guys, bearing in mind that the D600 has been out a few weeks now and there are more reviews floating about the net.

I'll be upgrading from a D300 in the near future and am pretty sure that it's going to be a D600 but want to be absolutely sure that it's the correct choice over the D700. I'll have to hold a D600 first though as I discounted a D7000 earlier in the year due to it being too small... Before anybody suggests it, a D800 stretches the budget a little too far.

I'll be complementing the new camera with a 24-70 f2.8

Cheers
Aled
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Me too... I had the D300 and loved the size / how it felt in my hand. The d600 feels small, toyish (I'm not discrediting the D600, it seems like THE choice to upgrade from any dx path...). It's difficult to weigh the cost of a second hand D700 vs new D600 and yes the D800, despite coming down in price quite rapidly, is still out of my reach :'(
 
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