Finally going FX

Anteaus

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2010
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I'm just sharing my excitement. I went to Best Buy today to check after Xmas sales and discovered they had a great package deal for the D600. Picked up the D600 body plus 24-85mm ED VR lens for $2000 total. Not bad considering the body retails for $2100 and the lens $600.

I guess I need to start thinking about selling my D7000. Hope everyone had a good holiday.

:)
 

JohnnyRebel

Senior member
Feb 7, 2011
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I looked at a similar deal online and was very tempted. I passed, because the price will only go down and I wanted to give Nikon some time to work out a couple of issues (dust and oil on sensor and such). If it were me, I'd plan on sending the D600 in for a cleaning and checkup in a few months, after letting it all shake out. Nothing new about this, the D7000s had the exact same issues right off and all was well.
 

Anteaus

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2010
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I looked at a similar deal online and was very tempted. I passed, because the price will only go down and I wanted to give Nikon some time to work out a couple of issues (dust and oil on sensor and such). If it were me, I'd plan on sending the D600 in for a cleaning and checkup in a few months, after letting it all shake out. Nothing new about this, the D7000s had the exact same issues right off and all was well.

It's funny because I bought my D7000 when everyone was all up and arms about focus issues and oil on the sensor, but I manged over 6000 shots with zero dust/oil issues with photos. I almost didn't buy it because of all the posts but I'm glad I took a chance. From what I understand Nikon did nothing to the camera post release other than firmware updates, so either the hysteria was for nothing or the actual percentage of shipped cameras with issues was so low it sorted itself out.

There are always a small percentage of cameras that have issues but after my experience with the D7K I'm confortable with taking a chance because while I'm not saying I won't have problems, I'm also not going to chase white screens at f/22 just to sleep well. Also, the vast majority of reviewers hammered out hundreds of shots and had no problems with oil/dust. There were a few that had issues, and only a couple that I saw where serious enough to consider the camera defective. I'll consider your advice about the checkup though.

The problem with forums these days (esp dpreview.com), is that if one person creates a post about a problem, 10-20 people repeat it in other posts. Eventually you have a rabid community who believe that there is some huge issue which very well could be isolated to a small group of cameras or specific scenerios. It's almost funny because many of the people who repeat it often don't even own the hardware they are criticizing. Anyways, I'm not trying to downplay any issues the D600 might have. I'm just not really worried about it for now. Besides, for $700 in savings it was worth the gamble! :)
 

JohnnyRebel

Senior member
Feb 7, 2011
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Anyways, I'm not trying to downplay any issues the D600 might have. I'm just not really worried about it for now.

Well said. Any real issue will be fixed by Nikon under warranty, and if there is an issue that can only be seen if you really look for it (remember banding on the D200) then it isn't really an issue.

You'll love the D600. They are available refurbished for around $1600 right now. I have yet to have a situation where I was limited by my D7000, so I'm gonna wait a bit and see how the prices fall out.
 

Anteaus

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2010
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You'll love the D600. They are available refurbished for around $1600 right now. I have yet to have a situation where I was limited by my D7000, so I'm gonna wait a bit and see how the prices fall out.

I hope so. I love my D7K to death, but the main reason I wanted a D600 is because I'm big into ambient light photography and the larger sensor really helps. Probably 98% of all my photos are without any kind of flash. It can make some shots challenging but that's part of the fun.

I can't understand some of the control choices made by Nikon though on the D600. I'm not loving the top lock button on the mode dial and the direction pad. Both are much better on the D7K. Other than that I'm loving it.
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
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I had to talk myself out of getting the D600. In the end, I could not justify it, but for those who can, it's a smashing deal right now. Basically I don't really need super-super-high ISO (the times when I do it's for more casual stuff and I can just downsample). And the other stuff like AF fine tune, more AF points, etc. I could get from a D7k or something. Plus I already have four Nikon DX lenses. I also shot with a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 (FX lens on DX camera) for a while, and I'll never forget how heavy that sucker was.
 

randomrogue

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2011
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I bought the D600 (before the lens deal) and it's amazing. These dust issues are way overblown by people who spend way too much time on forums and not enough time actually taking pictures. I checked for spots and yes there are a couple if you do something ridiculous like shoot F22 at a white wall out of focus. It's not relevant to real photography. I'm too lazy to look for spots on my old camera since a) I'll bet they're there too and b) it makes zero difference.

Once you shoot an ISO 6400 pic with the camera you're hooked. ISO 6400 is perfectly useable. You would have a hard time convincing someone that it was ISO 6400. Go take as sunset picture, handheld, at ISO 6400. It's impressive. Noise that you see is clean and workable. Old camera was useable at ISO 800 but had some ugly noise. I preferred to be at 400 or below. So now I've gained 4 stops of light.

The downside is the weight of the better lenses. There's no question about it that I basically tripled the weight of my system and it's taking some getting used to. If you're buying this camera you should be buying nice high end glass. If you already had high end glass this will of course be a non-issue.

I'm also not a big fan of the ISO button placement. I'm getting used to it but it really makes no sense. I programmed the wheel to change ISO as a stop gap but I think I'd rather have that wheel for exposure comp.

AF is great. I can't get the diopter adjustment right though and this is causing issues with manual focus. I need to get back on that and figure out what I'm doing wrong.
 

randomrogue

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2011
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Probably worth noting that after buying and using the camera I have stopped visiting the dpreview forums. It is plainly obvious to me that many of the people posting there don't even own the camera. There are way too many people posting there who are not photographers and I've been browsing other sites for more reliable discussions and opinions.
 

cbunn

Member
Sep 1, 2011
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As for "dust and oil"-
Purchase a scope and sensor cleaning swabs/solution.
If you are into this level of photograghy these are tool you should own and use regularly.

Unless one is planning to clean his sensor on a frequent basis due to encountering abnormal amounts of dust, this seems a bit excessive. Take it to a proper camera shop and let a pro do it for around $40-60.
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
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I hear Nikon will give free cleanings for the D600 within your first year. So just take 1000 photos within 12 months, send it in, and voila you are good.
 

bigi

Platinum Member
Aug 8, 2001
2,482
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I'm just sharing my excitement. I went to Best Buy today to check after Xmas sales and discovered they had a great package deal for the D600. Picked up the D600 body plus 24-85mm ED VR lens for $2000 total. Not bad considering the body retails for $2100 and the lens $600.

I guess I need to start thinking about selling my D7000. Hope everyone had a good holiday.

:)

Good stuff. Plenty of 24-85VR on sale now due to many similar deals. You will not get past $350 if you want to sell it.

Watch out for 'dirty sensor problem' with your D600.

more here
 

Anteaus

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2010
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Good stuff. Plenty of 24-85VR on sale now due to many similar deals. You will not get past $350 if you want to sell it.

Watch out for 'dirty sensor problem' with your D600.

more here

Thanks for the advice. I've taken numerous shots so far and haven't had any problems yet. I'm very happy with the 24-85 for everyday stuff. It's a bit slow for indoors but I just ordered a 50mm f/1.4G to handle that. Can't wait to use it.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
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Once you get your 50/1.4G, we should do some comparison shots.

I also have a 24MP Nikon with the same lens ;)