To buy or not to buy (Nikon D700)

justin24

I've been debating if I should buy the D700 or wait for the D600 to be released. The one thing I like about the D700 is the fact that it uses the same battery as the D200 which I own as a backup and wouldn't have to buy new batteries and I also read the D700 is a stellar full frame camera.

Should I buy the D700 or wait?

Matthew Saville

Honestly it just comes down to what you need in a camera. The D600 looks like it will be a hobbyist camera, a cheap way for amateurs and aspiring hobbyists to get the image quality of full-frame, but not much else. Yeah, it'll have many / most of the features of the D7000, which is indeed nothing to sneeze at. But the overall performance and rugged reliability of the camera may be lacking, at least to anyone who has already started using the pro / semi-pro body types, such as the D200, D300, D700, and the flagships. These pro / semi-pro cameras all have nearly identical controls and rugged build quality, which is un-mistakable in both performance and handling. I personally cannot stand how Nikon has left out one of my favorite features from their "advanced amateur" lineup, (D90, D7000) ...which is the one-click image playback zooming, a feature that you can customize the D200 / D300 / D700 etc. to do. (The joypad center button, usually option 1 or 2 in the control customization menu...)

The D600 will however offer great image quality, more resolution, and bells and whistles such as HD video and probably dual card slots. So that'll make it a very well-rounded camera in general.

Either way though, I'd wait until the D600 comes out because it will only cause the D700 price to drop even more! Personally, I'd rather have a $1500 used D700, than a new D600 at any reasonable price. But that's just because I'm a full-time wedding photographer. If I were considering my hobby, which is nature and timelapses and other adventurous things, ...a D600 might be a good balance of raw performance and newer features.

=Matt=

justin24

Thank you for the input Matt. Any idea when the D600 is supposed to be released? I currently own the D7000. I am wanting to switch over to the Full Frame, I wanted to see what other thought about the D700 and your input has helped me decide to wait to see how much lowe the D700 will go and what the price of a D600 will be.

Matthew Saville

justin24 wrote: »

Thank you for the input Matt. Any idea when the D600 is supposed to be released? I currently own the D7000. I am wanting to switch over to the Full Frame, I wanted to see what other thought about the D700 and your input has helped me decide to wait to see how much lowe the D700 will go and what the price of a D600 will be.

No idea when it will come out. It may not even come out as the camera we're all expecting it to, but the bottom line is that Nikon probably has another semi-pro camera (or two?) up it's sleeve within the next 12 months. We could get a D400 first, or we could get a D600 first, who knows.

If you really love how the D7000 handles and don't want anything to change from that control system, then the D600 might turn out to be perfect for you. However if you maybe have professional aspirations, or if you simply feel like the camera altogether is being pushed to the envelope, (not JUST the crop-sensor image quality) ...then you should definitely try mastering the D700. This should come quite naturally since you've already shot with the D200; the D700 is almost identical just with some improvements to the control layout. And again, any time you have a D200+ camera, do yourself a huge favor and set up the f1 (or f/2?) control to be "zoom" and "medium magnification"... This will be a delight for your image playback experience. It is one of the main features I miss on the D7000...

=Matt=