Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (OLD MODEL)

Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (OLD MODEL)

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• 24.3MP full-frame CMOS sensor
• 39-point AF system (9 cross-type)
• ISO 100-6400 expandable up to 25,600
• 3.2 inch LCD with 921,000 dots
• Full 1080p HD video
• 5.5 frames per second continuous shooting
• 100% viewfinder coverage

Buy Now : Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (OLD MODEL)

Brand : Nikon
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,DSLR Cameras
Rating : 4.4
Review Count : 569

Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (OLD MODEL)

• This camera replaced my F5/FM2n... yes, I\'ve been a film holdout for all this time. I\'ve had some digital point-and-shoot cameras, but stuck by my film for \"real\" photos for a few reasons:1. Until full frame DSLRs hit 12MP, I was getting more resolution out of my 35mm film (Ektar 100 / Portra 400 / Velvia 50) easily. I was also getting way better dynamic range out of my film until the most recent generation of full frame DSLR sensors, which now finally comes close to the dynamic range of film.2. I am an occasional shooter and not a pro - so the cost per film shot, which works out to around $0.25/frame for me with development and scanning/printing, was totally reasonable compared to what it would have cost until now to take the same number of photos on a digital camera at the same level of quality I was getting. Heretofore, I would have had to buy at least a D3/D3s/D800/D700, and those are expensive to have sitting around not being used professionally or even on a weekly basis.3. I have only \"FX\" lenses, and about 70% of it is AI-S. None of it is AF-S (what\'s autofocus is AF-D), so I had to have a screw-drive AF motor and I had to have a non-CPU lens memory bank. D600 has both, and it\'s full frame, so I don\'t have any of this funky crop factor crap.4. Depth of field. I\'ve got mostly very high-quality lenses, all primes and mostly f<2. I like the control of DoF they offer me. DoF at sensors smaller than APS-C is a poor joke, and I\'ve seen APS-C look ok, but just didn\'t see the point in limiting my lenses.5. Viewfinder. If you haven\'t ever looked through a 100% \"FX\" viewfinder, you might not understand how awful most DSLR viewfinders look to people using film or a proper \"FX\" DSLR like the D4/D3/D3s/D700/D800. I might not take a lot of photos, but I\'d rather not spend my time staring down a short railroad tunnel squinting at the lights on the other end, especially if I\'m going to be focusing manually.Ok, so ultimately, I bought the D600. Now down to the actual product review.Things that took some getting used to:- I don\'t have a full set of AF / AE-lock buttons like I used to on the F5. D800 and D4 still have these, but D600 has one \"catch all\" button. Thankfully, this button can be reprogrammed entirely to perform any of the three old functions, or it can be reprogrammed to an unrelated function, too, so it\'s quite flexible. I am using it as \"AF-on\" right now, and I have the \"Fn\" key bound to \"AE-lock\", which compensates for the loss of the dedicated buttons on the back.- Auto ISO. I\'m not sure how I am going to deal with this, but I find Auto-ISO both useful for time savings, and annoying conceptually. It tends to adjust ISO a little too readily for my taste, but perhaps this feeling will fade when I adapt to the whole \"ISO is more or less unimportant nowadays\" thing.- Autofocus-Continuous/Single button simplified to AF/MF. This is a little annoying because it makes the functionality of autofocus ambiguous. I believe the default functionality is fairly similar to AF-Continuous on my F5, but I more typically use autofocus in AF-Single mode, which doesn\'t track subjects. My subjects don\'t move much. **Update: Thanks for the tip, James, I see that this was just me not exploring enough, or, put another way, I should RTFM. The switch has indeed been revised so it\'s a two position switch, modified by a button in the middle of the selector. All functionality remains, and all is well**- Viewfinder has an odd eyepiece. It\'s a great viewfinder to use, but that eyepiece is a little small and odd (ergonomically) to hold up to the face. This coming from someone used to the veritable porthole-window on the F5 should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt. I\'m also an eyeglass wearer, but my correction is so minimal that I don\'t mind just taking off my glasses to use the D600. Didn\'t have to do that with the F5, but not a big deal.- It\'s not all that small. Yes, it weighs about a pound less than my last camera, and that\'s a welcome change, but it\'s thicker and just as wide. Actually, this is the thickest darn camera I\'ve owned, and I don\'t understand why. The F5 is a tank and probably about as happy pounding nails as any hammer in my house, but the fact remains that it feels, and measures, slim compared to the D600 (or most full frame DSLRs I\'ve seen). The comparison to film cameras gets even more odd looking when you place the FM2n next to the D600... FM2n looks like a rangefinder, practically. So maybe this has to do with the sensor or the screen or whatever, but I know that it\'s not the optics, since flange distance and all that jazz is identical. Nevertheless, I\'m happy it\'s light, which is is... very light.- > 0 < indicator for manual focus is a little squirrely compared to the F5. I suspect this is because the emphasis is so much more on autofocus now, and the distance between AF sensors has gotten so much smaller. Anyway, it\'s good enough, just not as good as it used to be when cameras were made with manual focus in mind as a large percentage of lenses.- No viewfinder screens from Nikon, at least yet. I used a grid screen with microprism collar and rangefinder center before this on the F5, which was nice as a MF aid. Also not a huge deal, just ergonomic.- \"Scene Modes\" ?? Why is this useful? At least I can ignore it.Things I like:- I can shoot with impunity. Almost have to, now that I\'ve got a $2000 debit from my account to justify to myself.- Picture quality is really, really good. Certainly better than my photos deserve.- I get matrix metering with my AI-S lenses. Maybe this is common now and I didn\'t realize it, but of the autoexposure film cameras Nikon made, only three that I know of had matrix for AI-S -- F6, F4 and FA. I\'m fine with center weighted, but matrix is definitely more convenient for normal lighting.- ISO 6400 looks a lot like ISO 1600, which looks mostly like ISO 800, which isn\'t so bad compared to ISO 400, which looks like ISO 200??? ISO is irrelevant on this sensor. Well, maybe not irrelevant, but it sure is impressive to be shooting above 800 and have such minimal noise.- It\'s fast. Don\'t notice shutter lag, and the buffer hasn\'t given out on multi-shot sprees yet, though I do have a lot of the \"auto\" stuff off, which speeds things up (like the auto anti-vignette, auto d-light, etc).- Mirror lockup. No, it doesn\'t have the little lever anymore, but I like the way they implemented mirror lockup. If you buy the IR remote, first click can lock mirror, second click triggers shutter. This is great for astrophotos.- Key rebinding. Nikon allows you to rebind many of the buttons on the body to your preferred function. You could do this on the F5, but only to a very limited degree. D600 allows for comprehensive customization of the button functions, and this more than makes up for any shortcomings in the number of buttons included.- LCD. Seeing what you just shot is great! I\'m used to getting preview only on my crappy cameras, where critical focus is hardly a concern and sharpness is more or less limited by the crap lens attached. Plus, the screen on the D600 is quite nice. Very good resolution and brightness.- Lens compatibility. Everything works, and my lenses are old. Non-CPU lens memory stores focal length and aperture for you, so you can shoot with full metering on AI-S lenses.- Menu layout. Yes, there are a lot of settings. It\'s almost overwhelming compared to what I\'m used to. But they\'re well laid out, and I have no issues with the depth of the menus. Plus, way easier to set \"Turn on viewfinder gridlines\" than try to remember that Option 15 should be \"2\". And if you find yourself using something all the time from the menu, bind it to a physical button and you\'re done.All in all, I am glad I didn\'t get a D800E. I almost did, but just felt it was still too expensive. I\'m also glad I never got bilked into the APS-C \"DX\" game. The D600 is a perfect camera for someone who isn\'t a professional, but who expects their gear to work like good film gear worked, and I figure I\'m especially pleased because I\'ve been living in the photography stone age, so this thing is practically magic.I have not even tried the video features, so cannot comment there.Highly recommended camera.-------------- Update a few days on --------------Still very pleased with the D600. I have now shot using most of my lenses, and I\'m over 550 frames. It takes great photos in all light levels.As an update to the auto-ISO matter, I maintain that auto-ISO is somewhat difficult to understand, at least in Aperture Priority and Manual modes. When I adjust aperture, for example, it often changes the ISO instead of changing the shutter speed to compensate. Shutter speed stays pretty fixed, and it\'s like I\'m effectively balancing exposure with aperture and ISO instead of balancing between aperture and shutter, with ISO moving only once that balance becomes impractical due to light and shake constraints. I have not switched the mode back to manual ISO, but if I don\'t start figuring out its logic, I\'m going to.Another \"Caveman Lawyer\" moment - I found out this evening that I can bind a function to the \"DoF\" key. Here I was thinking DoF preview key would be mechanical, like on all my other cameras, but no- it\'s rebindable too! Good thing, since I almost never have need for DoF preview, especially now that I can simply take a photo and preview it on the beautiful LCD. I bound Spot Meter to this key, and the functionality is great.To summarize, then, I have been able to rebind functions for:- \"DoF Preview\" key (rebound to Spot Meter)- \"Fn\" key (rebound to AE-L)- \"AE-L/AF-L\" key (rebound to AF-On)I tried a long burst earlier today, and filled the buffer for the first time. Was able to take 13 shots at full speed and full resolution / quality before it slowed down. That\'s a lot of pictures at full speed, and there\'s a neat \"rXX\" value that pops up in the viewfinder, indicating how fast the buffer is processing the shots you\'ve taken (and how many shots you have in reserve that can be taken). When you exhaust the buffer, the value will read \"r00\", and when it\'s ready to take another, say, two shots, it\'ll read \"r02\". Time between shots after buffer was exhausted was around 1 second. Maybe people who know better will complain about this, but again: I\'m from the stone age... it\'s true my F5 could go through a roll at about 8fps, but I\'d rather go through 13 shots at 5.5fps and have it cost me nothing at all than be forever afraid that I\'d invoke crazy-motor-drive-mode on the F5 and waste a roll in under 5 seconds. The buffer is definitely sufficient for my needs.Having carried it now for a few hours at a time, I can definitely say I stick to my assessment regarding burden: it is not a small camera, but it is very light.Oh, and battery life is excellent for something that has an LCD screen.Finally, regarding quiet mode, represented by \"Q\" on the drive mode dial: this is the same as the \"Cs\" mode on the F5, and I\'m sure other cameras have it as well. Just like the F5, it isn\'t really quiet at all. In fact, the sound pressure peak of the noise is nearly the same as the peak of the standard shutter noise. Granted the peak is shorter, and the total impulse of sound longer, but that\'s just the thing -- on both the F5 and the D600, \"Quiet Mode\" should really be called \"what-the-hell-was-that-odd-unhealthy-camera-like-noise\" mode. Just use the regular shutter and stop taking pictures if you need to be that quiet. Or get a Leica.-------------- After a week --------------No regrets. I took this out over the weekend to the dark wilderness and did some astrophotography. The battery life is fantastic, the mirror lockup mode using the remote is likewise wonderful, and the camera\'s noise levels in -complete darkness- are unbelievably low. It\'s like shooting a film camera, really, except not paying for film. Heck, about the only thing I can think of that might be disadvantageous for this camera vs., say, an FM2n for astrophotos is the battery consumption for very long shots. But with digital, to hell with long shots anyway. Take fifty 30-second exposures and stack them; then you hardly even need a mount.After the night (mostly awake playing with the camera under the stars), I woke up and did some hiking. Spent that whole day using only MF lenses. Everything up to my 135mm is just fine with the stock viewfinder screen. Unfortunately, I do miss the microprism collar and rangefinder center for the 200mm and 300mm lengths. It\'s just darn hard to focus manually without those aids at such a power, and I can attest to it not being as hard on the F5 (with swapped viewfinder screen). Then again, I can stop down enough that focus isn\'t as critical with this sensor and still have good shutter speeds, so who cares?I will probably get a third party / accessory viewfinder screen if that ever becomes available. If not, I can deal.This weekend also marks the first time I used my \"heavy\" lenses for an extended period. No, I wasn\'t in -10F or anything, but the polymer faceplate didn\'t have any trouble supporting heavy telephoto primes. This camera is sturdy. Perhaps the F5 can stand up to abuse, but I plan on using my cameras, not abusing them, and the D600 is plenty good enough for any real use I might have. I will make sure to report back on how it performs next time I am in low temps.Video! I finally used this mode. It works great and quality is very high. No bad noises in the mic, no \"jelly\" motion or shearing. I only shot with a 28mm AI-S lens, but all was quite well.Ergonomics- I can do everything now without taking my eye off the viewfinder. This camera will be very familiar to anybody who has used a Nikon since the F5. Buttons are where they should be, and the stuff that\'s been invented since that era isn\'t much of an additional burden to learn, since it\'s all quite well thought out. What has been left out of this camera that remains on the professional line can easily be compensated for with the aforementioned key rebinding.A few gripes:- What could it have cost to give me an eyepiece shutter? I got some kind of plastic thing that that I\'m never going to carry with me. Nikon, integrate this feature. Not a big deal, but silly.- The stock strap is gaudy and stiff. Thankfully, the camera is light enough that I just swapped the strap out with paracord (550 cord) and it\'s plenty comfy. I\'ve always swapped my straps on light cameras for paracord, but never could get away with that on the F5, since it was so heavy and the cord would press uncomfortably into my shoulder (even making marks after a long day).- I wish there were a way to lock up the mirror for multiple frames. I feel bad cycling the mirror each time I take a series of astrophotos. No need for the mirror to work 50 times just because the shutter needs to cycle 50 times. Maybe I just don\'t know how to do this yet?- Playback mode could be smarter. When you ask the camera to store JPG+RAW, you have to browse through both JPG+RAW in playback mode. I can see this being useful to someone, but you should be able to optionally limit playback to one or the other. Where this really gets annoying is deletion. When I shoot JPG+RAW, review, and decide I don\'t want to keep a shot, I must delete the JPG and then delete the RAW. They aren\'t always even sequential, which means I have to figure out what I haven\'t deleted yet, or be left with a patchwork of orphaned RAW/JPG files that I don\'t want! Just offer the option to hide one or the other in playback mode, and I\'ll be happy. And make deletion actions applicable to both the RAW and the JPG of the same photo.- The Auto ISO thing never worked out. I turned it off, and I\'m perfectly happy switching between ISOs when necessary myself. Ergonomics are so good on this camera that I\'ve got that movement memorized now.
• This camera just makes you look like a pro...The reason I say the reviews (around the web) said it was for pros is not because they said non-pros can\'t use it but they all read like only pros would want it. Meaning they seemed written in a language that touted things on the camera I didn\'t even understand. I wondered if it would be too much for me, a non-pro, to handle. Or would it just exceed all my expectations and make me understand what all the hype was about as well?I jumped. It exceeded expectations. If it broke next year I\'d buy the same exact camera. I doubt I\'ll want another camera for years no matter what the future ones do. Just take a photo of something that appears, to your eye, to be lost in shadow and watch what this does, for example. It astounds.When it came time to pick a new camera that is more current (you can buy an optional piece for this and it will wirelessly upload photos to an iphone or ipad not only for editing, but to share on social networks, with friends and family, on blogs etc easily) I was a bit overwhelmed but I do endless research before picking any expensive new item and no matter if I was reading photography magazines, consumer reviews, or professional reviewer\'s reviews it seemed everyone was literally blown away by this new Nikon. Best Buy sold out right when they brought it in. I\'ve personally owned many Nikons over the years. When I was majoring in art at college my photography professor raved about Nikon bodies and lenses and I fell in love right then. I\'ve upgraded a few times but none held a candle to this one.This Nikon puts many things that were formerly only in bodies twice the price or twice the size into this compact (well, compared to many pro cameras at least) body. Many pro writers of camera reviews actually rated this far above those 2-3 times the price so I mean that literally. The one mention that interested me the most was its\' ability to perform well in low light. I always had a huge flash on my other Nikons which doesn\'t make for easy travel and while I have no doubt a professional likely still would, for me I wanted to be able to use the flash on the camera...as long as it worked well, without attaching one. I took photos yesterday in a building with no windows and only indirect light and the room looked incredibly well lit. In fact, I\'ve been taking endless photos everywhere. I took photos in a CAVE and it lit up. That was a huge test. (This wasn\'t a place I\'d normally take a nice camera...but it\'s in my backyard! Oddly, we own a cave.)And I see why in my research for this camera that I just couldn\'t find a hater among any professional reviewer at the time. Everyone seemed to say it outperformed cameras they couldn\'t dream it would outperform.It seemes to have a bizarre mind of its own it\'s so good.Yesterday I wanted to take some product photos. I\'ve done this many times over the years but the comparison in color was just amazing. I couldn\'t take a bad photo.What the non-pro will love is the camera thinking for you. The past Nikons I\'ve owned all had a few \"scene\" buttons...Not only can you do some manual things or put the camera on automatic, but you could get more specific and pick, for example, \"portrait\" and get soft lighting and a focus on the person yet soft focus in the background automatically...well this has those buttons too but Nikon has expanded the buttons so literally anything you want to take a picture of you have no need to think about the lighting, the focus, the aperture, or the shutter speed to get the best effects...because the camera will do it for you.SCENE SETTINGS:Let\'s say your dog is doing something really funny...pick the \"pet portrait\" scene button and you can easily capture fast movement yet a soft focus background.If you are a food blogger or simply want to capture your Thanksgiving meal you just made, choose \"food\" and you get very well lit, bright photos just like you see in magazines. Incidentally, if you are taking a picture of something that you want to bring out the colors of and it\'s not a well lit situation or you want the colors to even appear richer than they are, this is a good button to use even if it\'s not food because of what it does. I consider it my \"vivid\" buttonChoose the \"child\" scene if you want the above vivid colors in the clothing and the scene but soft skin. Seriously.Pick \"landscape\" scene for landscapes in the daylight. This is another favorite of mine because I consider my backyard the prettiest spot on earth at times. But mainly it\'s an easy button to keep on when you travel and get all the right shots and I have an upcoming honeymoon which is why I chose the new camera in the first place.Pick \"sports\" for fast shutter speeds and to freeze motion...if your kid is playing football or soccer and you don\'t want them to be a blur in every photo, you can actually capture them all day long in freeze frame. Have your kid jump in the air and get amazing shots...it freezes the action without you having to think about setting the shutter speed or ever even needing to know what shutter speed means. This setting allows you to take continuous shots right after each other. Set the camera on continuous release mode with one click and instead of taking single clicks it does the fast shots just like the pro sports photographers without you ever having to learn a thing about how to do it the pro way.Pick \"close up\" for close up shots like a bee on a flowerCapture NYC as you see it...Pick \"night landscape\" and you automatically reduce noise and unnatural colors normally seen in night photos. Take a picture of a neon sign with this and then with most other cameras and compare...you don\'t get the noise and blur around the lighting. Street lamps and neon and lights in windows against the night sky are suddenly clean and beautiful.Night portrait is just the opposite. It gives the person in the portrait main focus but the night lights and objects are in soft focus behind them.Have the lights out and your kid is blowing out the candles on the cake? Choose \"candlelight\" scene.Want to take a picture of a black item with a black background? Choose low key. White on white kind of purposefully washed out? Choose high key\"Autumn colors\" brings them out best.\"Blossum\" is your setting for that field of bluebonnets.If you want to capture birthday parties, game nights, and family events, you pick \"party indoors\" and suddenly Chuck E Cheese\'s place looks way better. Actually anything indoors does. This is like the \"food\" button allowing indoor things not to be tempered with poor lighting but it can be used for far away objects and the whole room whereas the \"food\" button is better on those close up pictures like the plate in front of you (although it works fine for most far away things too. I use both of these a bunch)Normally light reflects off sand and snow but this camera won\'t allow you to have to sit and think about how to fix it. Just put it on \"sand/snow\" and it fixes it for you. It captures the brightness of outdoor white scenes well but doesn\'t over illuminate anything either. I have a huge wall of white limestone in my backyard that I used this on as well.Typically dusk and dawn are ruined even on auto exposure on cameras. You have to learn how to capture them and even then it\'s hard and most cameras make the flash go off just because it\'s night time and the effect is lost. The \"dusk and dawn\" setting preserve the rich colors in the weak light of dusk and dawn and turn the flash off automatically\"Sunset\" preserves the deep hues so you can finally perfectly capture the scene and the flash stays off\"Portrait\" makes the person in sharp focus but the scenes behind them in soft focus and their skin soft. If you want this look, like I used for a piece of fruit hanging from a tree, in other things you can use it as well...anything where you want the main item to be sharp in focus and the background to be in soft focus works.Now that may sound like lots of buttons but the above are not buttons at all. You just turn the dial to \"scene\" and then when you push the \"info button\" you can pick which scene you are photographing...and it keeps it there until you change it. So, for example, if you are traveling and it\'s going to be outdoor landscapes all day, you just keep it on there and don\'t think about it until you feel like turning the dial to the dusk button and then the sunset button, for example. You can go back and forth from the auto button, for example, to the scene button all day long and it will remain on your last chosen scene.Sure you can play with shutter and aperture or keep it on auto but this does even more thinking for you. For example, keeping it on auto also means the flash will go off anytime it\'s low light. But choosing \"sunset\" means it will adjust its settings to preserve the colors and also not wash them out with a flash.So, this makes the camera amazing for pro OR novice. I felt a bit worried it would be too \"pro\" for me in reading the reviews because it appeared to be the only people who were buying it...I wanted the best but I didn\'t want something I couldn\'t use because I\'m not a pro on any of the latest camera bells and whistles. It turns out it\'s very user friendly but the book brings clarity in one day to all it can do just by reading it. It\'s like pro camera class in a few hours time so nothing is left out. Sure you can just read one chapter but you can honestly learn the whole camera by reading the book. For example, if you read the pages on \"high dynamic range\" (HDR) you discover that if you are taking a photo of something that has high contrast like a building that\'s black marble against a white sky, you can set it on HDR...It will take one photo that focuses on the dark details then a second photo that focuses on highlights and combine the two together so you see every last detail in the building. Something like that is not going to be used in every picture but it\'s thinkgs like this in the book that make it interesting. You can also use it to make creative shots like taking a photo of \"Big Tex\" then the Ferris Wheel at the Texas State Fair. What you wind up with is a super cool shot of them both combined and overlapping in one photo. I choose this example because I actually won a photo contest once when I did just that...but that was a far more complicated process with an older camera. This makes it something you don\'t have to think about.You\'ll also learn other things like time lapse photography that breaks it down into simplicity...so I do suggest reading things like this in the book. The camera does so much that you\'ll wow yourself with what you have when you do and you\'ll surely miss out if you don\'t.There is even a setting that allows you to take pictures QUIETLY if you are sneaking photos in those \"photos prohibeted\" spots. Yep it does. And it has a setting for \"flash prohibited\" spots too you can set it on so no flash goes off no matter what. Like in a theater and Broadway show.Have bad eyesight and can\'t see the focus bracket? This camera does so much that you can actually adjust THAT. You move a dial until they are in full focus on the disply as seen by your individual vision. That\'s what I mean about finding out all it does...I\'d never figure that one out on my own without having done some reading.Incidentally, I highly suggest getting the camera body WITH the 24-85mm lens. Especially if you aren\'t a pro who wants to be swapping out lenses...this way you get close up shots and full-room shots without missing a beat and just turning the lens dial. You are also in charge of cropping your own shots before you upload them because you stand wherever you want and then crop what you want by turning the lens rather than walking forward or backward etc. Plus the VR in this lens means \"vibration reduction\". If you are in car using your Nikon or on an African safari in jeep you set it on vibration reduction and it actually takes that into account to still give you great shots!While I got this primarily for the camera, I have to say the videos are equally as gorgeous. The Nikon lens is so great and the video capability so crisp that they are the best I\'ve personally ever taken and I\'ve had some great video cameras before. Plus having it built in is just amazing for travel or, I\'m sure, kid\'s sporting events or a wedding. The things you want a video of like the toast you get, then the still photos you get as well. With just one camera.One really awesome camera.Is it \"a bit much\" for someone who is a non-pro? It can make you feel like one and certainly take pics like one and as an artist, my camera has always been very important to me...It captures life and art and things like my honeymoon I can live through forever with great photos so it\'s an expense that is one I deem \"worth it\"...it turns a hobby into pure bliss. You can\'t put a price on that.

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