Planning to purchase a FF body

Robert_C

Hey there everybody.

Just needed your opinions of what FF to get. Other than investing on some lenses, I'm thinking of purchasing a FF camera later after this summer. Probably getting another body as my main camera. I have a Nikon D7000 at the moment so I'll use it for backup. I'm using the FF for mostly events and parties at the moment. I'm aiming for shooting portraits and weddings next.

The ones I see so far are the D800, D700, and possibly the D600.

The D800: I don't think I need to use all that resolution and the price is pretty steep.

The D700: Probably the body I would get since I've seen great reviews on it.

The D600: The rumored upcoming FF has pretty much the features I like, but reading people's opinions, I'm having second thoughts because some say it's just a entry level FF and it doesn't compare to the other two.


Any thoughts or opinions? Thanks.

Matthew Saville

Robert_C wrote: »

Hey there everybody.

Just needed your opinions of what FF to get. Other than investing on some lenses, I'm thinking of purchasing a FF camera later after this summer. Probably getting another body as my main camera. I have a Nikon D7000 at the moment so I'll use it for backup. I'm using the FF for mostly events and parties at the moment. I'm aiming for shooting portraits and weddings next.

The ones I see so far are the D800, D700, and possibly the D600.

The D800: I don't think I need to use all that resolution and the price is pretty steep.

The D700: Probably the body I would get since I've seen great reviews on it.

The D600: The rumored upcoming FF has pretty much the features I like, but reading people's opinions, I'm having second thoughts because some say it's just a entry level FF and it doesn't compare to the other two.


Any thoughts or opinions? Thanks.

It really depends on your shooting techniques / needs, and under what sort of capacity / responsibility... Honestly if you're photographing anything involving action or pressure, you'll want something relatively versatile and professional. The D600 will most certainly deliver in the image quality department, if the rumored specs are true, but it may fall short here and there in the department of versatility and reliability, depending on the level of customizability, functionality, and overall build quality.

To keep it simple: The D700 is my favorite workhorse with all sorts of customizations and features that the D7000 (and most likely the D600) simply do not offer. Of course the D800 may offer the same (if not more) reliability and professional control / customizability, however at 36 megapixels without an sRAW option other than DX crop mode, the D700 will maintain an edge in shooting speed and high-volume efficiency. So while the D800 may be the perfect camera for budding landscape / fine art photographers, or cinematographers, the D700 may still be the perfect camera for the all-around hard-working still photographer.

Either way though, it sounds like all three "affordable FX" cameras are going to be winners for the next few years, it just depends on what you shoot and in what capacity you shoot it.

=Matt=

lifeinfocus

Looking for a D700? I have noted quite a few good used ones on Craigslist lately, especially in bigger cities. Often they are selling for around $1,800 with less than 10,000 clicks.

I posted a how to test used cameras a few days ago - find "how to test used camera" in this forum.

Phil

Robert_C

Matthew Saville wrote: »

It really depends on your shooting techniques / needs, and under what sort of capacity / responsibility... Honestly if you're photographing anything involving action or pressure, you'll want something relatively versatile and professional. The D600 will most certainly deliver in the image quality department, if the rumored specs are true, but it may fall short here and there in the department of versatility and reliability, depending on the level of customizability, functionality, and overall build quality.

To keep it simple: The D700 is my favorite workhorse with all sorts of customizations and features that the D7000 (and most likely the D600) simply do not offer. Of course the D800 may offer the same (if not more) reliability and professional control / customizability, however at 36 megapixels without an sRAW option other than DX crop mode, the D700 will maintain an edge in shooting speed and high-volume efficiency. So while the D800 may be the perfect camera for budding landscape / fine art photographers, or cinematographers, the D700 may still be the perfect camera for the all-around hard-working still photographer.

Either way though, it sounds like all three "affordable FX" cameras are going to be winners for the next few years, it just depends on what you shoot and in what capacity you shoot it.

=Matt=

Thanks Matt for your quick response.

I think I might get the D700 instead since it's does well overall. Probably I can borrow my friend's D700 for a day and test it out. The D600 might not give the satisfaction that the others have to offer. It might not be as versatile and reliable. I don't think I need to use all 36MP for the D800 and it will be a pain to store most of them on externals hard drives in raw format for like 40mb-50mb per shot.

I see you work for Lin and Jirsa. That's cool. My friends Marc and Lillian are have a wedding on August 18 with Lin and Jirsa as their photographers. Chris shot their engagement photos. Are you going to be there?

Robert_C

lifeinfocus wrote: »

Looking for a D700? I have noted quite a few good used ones on Craigslist lately, especially in bigger cities. Often they are selling for around $1,800 with less than 10,000 clicks.

I posted a how to test used cameras a few days ago - find "how to test used camera" in this forum.

Phil

Thanks for your input. I searched around Craigslist and I can't find the D700 around my area. Maybe I should check everyday to see if they have new postings. I'll look for that post on "how to test used camera"

lifeinfocus

I rented a D800 and 24-70mm lens for a week. First day observations: started with video - very nice. Took a little while to get used to new controls even after scanning relevant parts of user manual off and on for a few days. Auto white balance in a parish hall with fluorescent lights not work well as my other DX camera, but flourescent did. Outside sports type photos works well even though only 4 fps. JPG works well for me, although I did try compressed RAW. Large files for compressed raw and for LR requires latest version of LR or the Abobe DNG converter, which is a another step and piece of software I don't want on my photo computer. I pushed a few shots to 3200 and 6400 ISO - looks could enough for the church event I was shooting.

Size of files are a concern for the type of photos I take, although this weekend I am taking a photo of a very number amount of people so the extra resolution I hope will be helpful.

Also took photos of some of wife's 200 plus daylilies - very nice results.

I tried HDR on a few shots - not all that impressive, although I did do not much research and testing yet.

Phil