This is my Nikon D700 after it has been returned to me from repair by Nikon. It looks like the forums and user groups are all right. Please keep in mind that this Nikon D600 vs D700. That would be the D3 series, D700, and possibly the D300 (not sure). In my case I have D700. Welcome to Gregs Ramblings Nikon. Nikon skips from the D300 to the D700? Nikon D8. 00: Worth the upgrade? On paper there are two factors to the D8. For some, these are enough already to warrant a purchase of Nikon. Others, however, may be erring on the side of caution at the camera. But it lacks any sort of video whatsoever and has only a 1. Having said that, there are no problems with the resolution of the D7. It's a brilliant low- light camera and more than up to the task of being used as a professional piece of kit. Having lived with one for more than a week, we feel we have an answer. How does it feel? Build. The D7. 00 is put together rather brilliantly. Its magnesium- alloy weather- sealed body is really tough and has withstood several years of press trips, being bashed about in our bag. The odd downpour hasn. Once you pick it up, its 9. D7. 00. There is also a significant difference in the way that every button and dial feels on the camera. Rather than the mushy buttons of the D7. Nikon uses a satisfying click for every keypress. Even things like the on/off switch have been beefed- up, presumably to withstand years of hard use. It is very noticeable and gives the D8. Nikon. Take, for example, the AF- type selector tool on the back of the D7. No longer can you do this without going into a menu on the D8. A dedicated record button on the top of the camera is placed too near the shutter key, making switching accidentally to video commonplace - although you can change its function using the camera. All in all, we like how the controls feel on the D8. D7. 00. Operation. Nikon has been careful to update the menu workings of the D8. This means that when we picked up the camera for the first time, we were instantly able to navigate to all of our usual settings. The D7. 00 suffered from a slightly 1. This has been updated for the D7. Again, it just feels more premium. The screen has also taken a rather significant jump, going from 3 inches to 3. Not a major increase in size, we know, but it appears to be far brighter with better viewing angles and much more saturated colours. It still suffers from viewing problems in bright sunlight but nowhere near as badly as the D7. The included connectivity options with the D8. D7. 00 out of the water. First up, being able to send video to an external display live using micro- HDMI is very cool. Second, we love that you can record to both SD card and Compact Flash, telling the camera to do things such as send video to SD and stills to CF. It just makes the process of managing images after shooting much easier to handle. Once we had built up decent muscle memory of the new control layout, it felt just as easy to use as the D7. Then again, going back to our older Nikon for a day didn't feel unpleasant, leaving us feeling that, on this basis alone, the design rethink for the D8. That is if you already own a full- frame Nikon DSLR. Whatever anyone tells you, 1. D8. 00 like the D7. These are top of the range prosumer or even professional- grade cameras. You should be able to take a picture in virtually any situation and be pleased enough with the results that you could sell it to someone. For us, the D7. 00 has passed this test a long time ago. Its high ISO performance is stunning, full 1. RAW images look beautiful and the frame buffer is, most of the time, more than enough for the most kinds of photography. Not once have we found ourselves thinking: . Most who will be thinking about buying this camera are the most demanding kind of photographers. They want to be able to shoot in virtually complete darkness with no noise, or blow up images big enough to cover the side of a bus, all the while keeping things wrapped up in a compact and lightweight package. A lot of them may also be considering the 5. D MK III, which is a hugely powerful camera. As such in testing the D8. In the light. Using a combination of lenses, an 8. D8. 00 with us everywhere. First up was a trip to the park with the Pocket- lint pooch in order to get some daytime shots and test out the autofocus on the dog running. The full- frame sensors on the D8. D7. 00 are quite beautiful things. They create a much broader dynamic range while also letting you use a lens to its full capabilities. Take our 3. 5mm f. DX crop, giving us more room to play with at a lower f- stop. This is very useful indeed, as wide- angle lenses tend to have higher apertures. For video it also makes a big difference, particularly when using our 8. DX sensor but looks great at f. The first difference we noticed between the D7. D8. 00 when out shooting was when adjusting ISO. It starts at 1. 00 on the D8. Not a major bugbear we know, but it does mean that in bright light you know you are gleaming the maximum amount of detail from the sensor on the D8. With the 1. 4- 2. D8. 00 felt significantly lighter, not causing us the usual backache we get from half an hour of carrying that glass beast around on a D7. We also noticed - particularly when attempting landscape shots - that the viewfinder was a lot brighter and colours appeared more saturated. It's also 1. 00 per cent coverage as opposed to the D7. This makes a big difference to those who like to compose everything in the finder, which is the majority of professional photographers. The more shooting we did, the more we noticed how much of an improvement the viewfinder was. It began to annoy us when holding our eyes up to the D7. The same could be said for the screen, which in this freakishly good weather we are having, just couldn. And that question needs to be attacked in two parts. First, in bright light and second in low light, as the latter situation could pose all sorts of issues for so many pixels. Looking back at snaps shot in the park with both the D7. D8. 00, the resolution jump really didn. This became such an irritation in fact that we ditched shooting RAW altogether and switched to JPEG. Because of this, shooting to the full potential of the D8. That or you could just blow a ton of cash on 3. GB SD and CF cards. So for street shooting, at least in the daytime, it felt like the D7. The cosmetic improvements were definitely nice, but ultimately our D7. In the dark. This is the part of the comparison we were most excited about. If the D7. 00 could hold up again the D8. In order to make things fair as possible, we opted to test the two cameras indoors. It meant we could control the lighting situation a lot better and in theory, push the sensors to their limits. One of the problems the D8. The higher the resolution, the harder it is for a sensor to cope with high ISO. So if the D8. 00 can match the D7. It would also make the camera one of the best- performing high- resolution sensors we have seen. So, D7. 00 and D8. Pocket- lint pooch in various situations. The results were fairly incredible from both cameras. We wanted to make sure things were as sharp as possible, so the 5. Shot at F2, on both cameras maximum ISO settings, detail retained in every image was great. The extra resolution however on the D8. RAW, just gave us that extra space to play with noise cleanup later on in Photoshop. The result was a win for the D8. Win aside, we still don't feel the difference between the 7. Unless you are the sort of photographer who shoots everything about 6. ISO, we just don't see it as a necessary. Then again, if you want the best possible image quality, at any ISO setting, then the D8. This is quite frankly incredible, given the cameras 3. Nothing can even come close to that kind of performance at that resolution. Then again we are yet to properly test the 2. Canon 5. D MK III, which may find the perfect balance between resolution and ISO performance. Video. It wouldn't be fair talking about the D8. The D7. 00 has no means to record moving images whatsoever, so this isn't so much a straight versus, just more something to muse over should you be wanting to make a purchase. In a word, the video on the D8. Check out our full review if you want to find out more about its capabilities. We absolutely love being able to switch to video and just grab a minute or two of footage. Colours look incredible without any tweaking or editing and the ability to select which card video saves to is brilliant. Low- light performance is great and things like shutter wobble are kept to a minimum. If you are looking for a way to shoot video on your DSLR and already own a decent body of Nikon lenses, then the D8. So which to buy? The D7. We had been hanging on for many months until the D8. Most Nikon fans have been put through quite a serious amount of gear jealousy as the Canon 5. D MK II's video became so commonplace. So the D8. 00 had to impress technically in order to keep Nikon fans happy. And it most definitely does. The sensor is brilliant, video looks incredible, the finder and screen are a big improvement. The problem is, that if you already own a D7. Even if you were to flog your D7. Which brings us on to our final part of the verdict. If you have an eye for shooting video and already own a few Nikon lenses, the D8. In fact its so good, we would choose it over the more expensive D3s, simply because its more lightweight. So should you buy one? Its a yes if you want video and a no if you are stills focused and a D7. If you're rich enough to have a spare . Nikon D8. 00 review. Which would you purchase? Let us know in the comments below .. Nikon D3 and D7. 00 vs Canon 5. DNikon D3 vs. All rights reserved. I get my. goodies at Ritz, Amazon and Adorama. Want a camera for weddings and portraits? Want the highest technical quality for landscapes, even if the camera is more difficult to set and use? Consider the Canon 5. D. You could spend hours fretting over meaningless specs, forums and conjecture, but hopefully my personal experience over the past couple of years after buying these for myself can make this clear. I've made about 3. Nikon D3 and about 2. Canon 5. D, so the differences are obvious to me. I spit out this whole article off the top of my head, which is important, because what's really important is what's here. I shoot all day, every day, so cost is trivial to me, while the real differences between these cameras is enormous. I have detailed reviews of each these cameras at D3, D7. D3. 00 and 5. D. Nikon D3. The Nikon D3 is the only pro camera among these three, and therefore the biggest, fastest, heaviest, toughest, most expensive with the fattest and longest lasting battery. What you get for your extra money is speed. The D3 is the only camera among these, that if you spend all day with a camera stuck to your face, just gets out of the way. It does everything fast and without complaint. Its finder has no marks for AF sensors, so most of the time, you have a clear rectangle in which to compose. The lack of distraction from etched AF sensors makes a big difference when trying to concentrate through it all day long. The D3 is the camera to get for action and sports. Its AF system is superb. You no longer have to pick and chose AF sensors, or have to focus, lock and recompose. When you set it up as I do, you just compose and fire, and everything comes out perfectly. The fast, smart and accurate autofocus is the hard part. The frame rate of 9 FPS is the easy part. If the D3 is too heavy for you, pop on a fixed 5. Nikon D7. 00. The Nikon D7. D3 with a smaller battery, cheaper viewfinder screen, and lower price. The D7. 00 offers the exact image quality of the D3, but in a smaller body. For portraits, the D7. I love the skin tones I get on Nikon in the Neutral Picture Control setting set to +1 saturation. If you're shooting action for a living, step up to the D3. If you're only shooting on weekends and money matters, I see little missing in the D7. D3. See my D7. 00 review for the exact comparisons. Canon 5. D The Canon 5. D excels in image quality. It's also the lightest and least expensive of these cameras. It has the sharpest pictures of these three cameras by a slight margin. If you're backpacking or shooting careful landscapes, the 5. D could give superior image quality above anything from Nikon, at a bargain price. If you want the best picture quality for landscapes and huge enlargements, the 5. D is the best camera. I'm not kidding: I have 2. It looks a little oversharpened on- screen compared to Nikon, but on 2. The downsides of the 5. D are that it's a pain to use. Everything takes a few more button pushes than any of the Nikons. Want the LCD to magnify the shot you just took? You have to press the Play button and wait a moment, while on every Nikon you just press the mag button, instantly. The viewfinder of the 5. D has weak, scrawny and dim numbers, while the Nikons are all easy to read in any light. The 5. D has a pathetically dim and off- color LCD. It looks like it's broken when held next to even the cheapest Nikon. The controls of the 5. D feel crappy compared to the Nikons. My hands hurt after shooting the 5. D all day from the cramped and poorly thought- out controls. The 5. D has no Auto ISO, so that's one more thing with which I need to piddle for each shot. The 5. D takes about 1. I can do this on any Nikon with no menus at all. The 5. D feels much dinkier than the D7. D3. The 5. D is mostly plastic, except for the metal top plate which Canon used to justify the original $3,2. The 5. D's top control dial always feels as if it's about to fall off, as these dials did on the Canon EOS A2. The 5. D has the fastest manual focusing, but so what; Canon's manual- focus FD lenses won't work on the 5. D while Nikons old lenses work great on the D7. D3. Once I've forgotten what a pain the 5. D is, the results are worth it. Shooting the 5. D is like shooting a view camera: its a pain, but the results are why you do it. Summary. Action and Sports: D3. Kids running around: D3 or D7. Sad, but true: my kid is so fast, I really need the D3 to keep up with him! Landscapes: 5. D or D7. Portraits: D7. 00. Low Light: D7. 00 or D3. If I was still a weekend amateur shooting landscapes and arty stuff, the 5. D is the one camera I'd buy. Today I spend all day, every day shooting, so I usually shoot the D3 because it just gets out of my way. I've written this without regard to price. If price matters and you're not shooting action, just get the 5. D. Regardless of price, the 5. D is your camera if you're backpacking. If you're shooting landscapes, the 5. D probably is your camera if you don't mind the sucky ergonomics. When I think of each camera, the 5. D reminds me of how it doesn't fit my hand, how I can't always see the finder information, how I need to guess at what I'm seeing on the LCD, how difficult it is to move that crappy little top control dial while tapping the ISO button for each shot, how the 5. D re- shifts my shifted program exposure every time it wakes back up, how I always need to tap and wait for the Play button just to see if the last shot was sharp, and how I need to use a second hand just to tap the depth- of- field preview, and how my hands hurt after a session trying to use it with one hand. When I think of the D3, all I remember is concentrating on what's happening in that big, bright rectangle which is the finder, and shooting. Of course when I'm looking at the results on my 3. The 5. D gets all the saturation even a nut like me needs, and the Nikons can get even more. I love the way people look on the Nikons when set for Neutral Picture Control, I've not seen this in my 5. D. If you're shooting action, just mortgage your house for the D3. If you're shooting in no light, get the D3 or D7. The 5. D is sharper in most light, but the Nikons excel at ISO 6,4. Now that the D7. 00 is out, it replaces the D3 for just about everything except full- time sports, action and news photographers. Yesno. Yesno. 5: 4 pro aspect ratio? Yes. Yes. Yes. Electronic Level nono. Yes. Yes. Top LCD backlight nice orangedim green LEDs dim green LEDs Nice cyan EL panel CF Card Door Crappy. Good. Crappy. Excellent. Voice Recording*nonono. Yes! Card Slots**oneoneone. TWO! Speed***Slow. Faster. Even Faster. Fast!! Viewfinder****Fair- good. Too small VGExcellent Sizelargetinylargelarge Eyepiece. Small. Small. Big. Big Readouts. Small and dim Perfect. Perfect. Perfect AF Zones (Obnoxiousness while composing) Small bright red or black Big, ugly black or invisible Big, ugly black or invisible Small, unobtrusive red or invisible Manual. Focus Excellent: fast and easy. Each AF zone blinks brightly as you pass exact focus. Fair. Clumsy you have to select just one AF zone and have just one . You have to select just one AF zone. Three indicators lead you to perfect focus. Excellent: clumsy, but very precise. You have to select just one AF zone. Three indicators lead you to perfect focus. My Actual Battery Life 8. Excellent, 5- segment and percentage meter. Excellent, 5- segment and percentage meter. Shutter . Since the microphone is right at your mouth on the back of the camera, you can whisper if the comments are sensitive. It sounds silly, but I find this very helpful for taking notes. Tap the REC button with the camera at your side, and you can record whatever you want unobtrusively. For instance, here are the first sounds of my baby Katie. I run in backup mode, which copies everything to the second card as I shoot. I now can format a card as soon as it's downloaded, saving me from having to wait until the hard drive to which it's transferred is also backed up. I never erase a card until its files are in two separate physical locations. Ratings are taking all the other factors into account. Canon improved the 5. D LCD around 2. 00. I'm unsure if mine is the poor or extra- poor version. Postscript. I'm only comparing DSLRs. These are what I use today. Today I shoot hundreds of images every day, 7 days a week, mostly for publication. I average 5,0. 00 shots per month on my D3 alone. I need digital images because I need the results now, and digital is good enough. Camera stores, magazines, review websites and camera makers don't want you to read the rest of this, because they are making all- time record profits with everyone thinking nothing of throwing thousands of dollars away on digital SLRs which will be exchanged for the next big thing in 2. If I was still only shooting a few hundred images a month, instead of every day, and shooting mostly my sort of stuff for my own pleasure and for serious large- print exhibition, I'd be shooting film, not these expensive throw- away DSLRs. I only bought my first DSLR as a joke to help me test lenses more easily instead of having to run to the lab all the time. Having DSLRs lying around, my lazy side started shooting them more and they became what I shoot all the time today. If I only shot hundreds of images in a month, instead of each day, and if the highest quality prints were my goal instead of just churning out . If you find this. If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. Thanks! If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5. The biggest help is to use these links to Adorama, Amazon, B& H, Ritz, and J& R when you get your goodies. It costs you nothing and is a huge help to me. These places have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally. Thanks for reading!
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