How about the D600 vs the 6D or whatever its called. I think seeing that the D600 is a much better deal.

High ISO (3200 and 6400) look quite good, all things considered.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-d600/nikon-d600GALLERY.HTM

tcole1983 said:
$900 will buy you a decent lens.

Or some plane tickets to a pretty cool place to use the ones I've got.

I've found a retailer in the UK offering the D800 at £1,999.99, albeit at the airport - duty free, but still, as I know the store manager I'm sure he could arrange it for me.

This makes the D600 price even more insane over here.

proudgeek said:
Based on the links that Adam and Donaldejose provided, this looks to offer pretty good performance at high ISOs. Other than the lack of a shutter speed over 1/4000, only 3-shot bracketing (I only use that for HDR anyway and I do it manually), and 24 v. 36 megapixel resolution, what am I missing?

This looks like the camera an advanced hobbyist like myself (who's made a significant investment in FX glass) should buy. In a pinch if I wanted more reach I could shoot in DX mode I suppose, which would probably provide resolution that compares favorably with my current D90.

At the end of the day, $900 over a few years isn't that big a deal so the 800 wouldn't be a huge stretch, but why wouldn't I buy the 600?

I would ask yourself what do you get for $900. Better autofocus, better build construction, more MP, maybe slightly better ISO performance. I am sure the comparison is coming, but if you can't think of why you need the D800 do you need it? $900 will buy you a decent lens.

Based on the links that Adam and Donaldejose provided, this looks to offer pretty good performance at high ISOs. Other than the lack of a shutter speed over 1/4000, only 3-shot bracketing (I only use that for HDR anyway and I do it manually), and 24 v. 36 megapixel resolution, what am I missing?

This looks like the camera an advanced hobbyist like myself (who's made a significant investment in FX glass) should buy. In a pinch if I wanted more reach I could shoot in DX mode I suppose, which would probably provide resolution that compares favorably with my current D90.

At the end of the day, $900 over a few years isn't that big a deal so the 800 wouldn't be a huge stretch, but why wouldn't I buy the 600?

iPearl said:
My preference was for the d700, but unfortunately my back order from a reputable site was cancelled (thought that they strung me along a bit), so I pre-ordered from Amazon. If I can get my hands on a new d700 without an inflated price tag, I am going to cancel my order for the d600 as still think that the d700 is the better camera for my needs.

Adorama currently is selling refurbished D700's for $1899 with free shipping (just searching "Refurbished D700" on their site). In my mind, refurbished Nikon is just as good as new, and is cheaper.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/09/13/Nikon-D600-preview-real-world-samples-image-gallery

some more independent samples:
http://www.fotopolis.pl/index.php?n=15578&nikon-d600-pierwsze-zdjecia-testowe

looks great, 12800 iso fully usable, I wouldn't be surprised if it will match the d4 in the dxo mark

rensuchan said:
I believe I saw the stats on Nikon's site that it'll do 16 14-bit lossless RAWs. That's better than the D7000 for sure.

Yep, 16 raw frames with 14 bit lossless, 27 with 12 bit compressed, and that's at 8mp more resolution than a D7000. Jpg fine/large is 57 frames, anything under that will crank away to 100.

The DX crop mode is even better.

This is actually surprising to me. The buffer was where I thought they would really hamstring it.

Fine print:
"Maximum number of exposures that can be stored in memory buffer at ISO 100. Drops if optimal quality is selected for JPEG compression, ISO sensitivity is set to Hi 0.3 or higher, or long exposure noise reduction or auto distortion control is on."

Just checked Nikon's website, indeed the buffer is said to hold 16 14bit (22 in 12bit) RAW files (lossless compressed). Not bad at all.

PB PM said:
Unless the D600 has a significantly better buffer than the similarly featured D7000 it wont be much of a sports camera. A 8-9 frame buffer is too small. If it has a 17-20 frame buffer like the D700... maybe. I'd still take the D700 with MB-D10 for 8FPS over the D600.

I believe I saw the stats on Nikon's site that it'll do 16 14-bit lossless RAWs. That's better than the D7000 for sure.

Eric said:

Has anybody ordered one yet?

My preference was for the d700, but unfortunately my back order from a reputable site was cancelled (thought that they strung me along a bit), so I pre-ordered from Amazon. If I can get my hands on a new d700 without an inflated price tag, I am going to cancel my order for the d600 as still think that the d700 is the better camera for my needs.

Unless the D600 has a significantly better buffer than the similarly featured D7000 it wont be much of a sports camera. A 8-9 frame buffer is too small. If it has a 17-20 frame buffer like the D700... maybe. I'd still take the D700 with MB-D10 for 8FPS over the D600.

The hi ISO images posted on engadget look pretty good. Some black areas in the test image would have been nice, but I'd say the images look good. The ISO 6400 image seems very usable. I'll be interested to see how the sensor compares to the 5DmkIII. In some ways this may be the ideal camera for many. Higher res than a D4, higher frame rate than a D800. Given the FX sensor, I assume that the IQ should better that of the D3200, which would place the D600 sensor into DXOMark's top 10. (I'm betting that the sensor is awesome)In DX crop mode you get a D80 type of resolution.

So the FX line now can be broken down as having a Sports/ Photojournalism body, a Studio/Landscape body and a General purpose body.

If I were in the market for a new DSLR body, I think the D600 would be a strong contender.

Has anybody ordered one yet?

Thank you Tao for enlightening me on how it works. Seriously, I am not being snide.

I did not think about them having to wait until one rolled off the assembly line to post images from. While I did think about round 1 where the camera was still being formed, I was thinking about the ones that got it late in the cycle, just before production.

My error and my apologies.

@Geoff_K - Silly questions deserve silly responses :)

After following this stuff for long enough - one realizes that you need to wait at least 48 hours to see anything worth while and a least week or two for any test worth looking at. Judging anything from people who only had it in their hands with a Nikon rep counting the minutes to take it to the next person seems fruitless to me.

It's not such a big deal at f8 - but I have noticed on my 70-300vr racked out to 300mm where f5.6 is low and F11 is sharp, it focuses much quicker and locks leagues better. At night with a 2.8 lens and almost zero light where I couldn't MF at all, the center point still locks every time. It blows my mind.

Let me see if I can do it too Tao

NO !!!!!!!!!! I am not kidding you !!!!!

see how silly it is to add so many punctuation marks to a question or statement ?

Thanks TaoTeJared.....I read that and was like wtf??? I must admit I am intrigued by this camera..I have the d700 (along with the nikon glass, and yes it is expensive, but wow, is it amazing) and have been very impressed with Nikon since I made the switch from the dark side over 2 years ago...

I beginning to laugh -

Start the "I want one - oh crap I don't have FX glass - holy hell glass is that expensive - accessories are how much!?!"

Welcome to FX boys and girls! :)

dispatcher0531 said:
Just a question here....I saw the release this morning and something caught my eye....what do they mean when they say Autofocus at f/8?

It is able to focus at F/8 in low light just like the D800 and D4. In practice is is frickin awesome!

Geoff_K said:
Was this camera not in the hands of reviewers a while ago ? What is taking so long to show us high ISO photos ? That would be the FIRST thing I would want to know as a tester/reviewer.

Are you kidding me????? It was just released!!!! Reviewers don't get systems for review before they are released. Some get a hands-on (maybe 30minutes, an hour, half a day, with it) but are not allowed to post images of any pre-production units, and can't post anything until the full announcement in most cases.

Just a question here....I saw the release this morning and something caught my eye....what do they mean when they say Autofocus at f/8?

You'll never guess who's getting totally psyched over the U1 and U2 buttons on the D600... I guess that makes it the world's greatest camera. Until the new Mickey Mouse digital camera comes out with U1, U2 AND U3 buttons..

I think I saw that coming.

Thank you Postman. I am on an older laptop, so it may be on my end, but the images do not look very sharp on this monitor. I did not get an ohh ahhh moment when I looked at them. Hopefully we will get some side by side against the D700 and D800.

Engadget have a few early shots showing reasonable, clean images up to 6400, then a sharp decline beyond.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/nikon-d600-full-frame-dslr/