Nikon D700

Review Date
December 10, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.82 of 5, 11 votes

Reviewed by
Old Timer , Intermediate

Price Paid
$2400.00 at Cameta Camera

Photography Experience
21+ years , Sports

Summary
The D700 is my forth Nikon digital camera in the last 4 years and is by far the best of the lot. I started with the D70 add a D2h for sports and replaced the D70 with a D200 in 2006. When the D700 full frame Nikon was announced I knew I would have to give it a try. I had no idea I would do it so soon. I had planned to purchase it in mid 2009 but moved up the date when the price came down faster with the rebate than I had anticipated. i think it was the best decision in camera purchases that I have ever made.

The D700 has everything I could ask for in a digital camera. Fast reliable focus, accurate exposure metering and easy to manipulate controls. Menus are simple to understand and easy to navigate. The addition of the grip gave me the advantage of vertical shutter release and 8fps which is more than adequate under most shooting situations. The incredible low noise at higher ISO settings enables me to shoot available in venues that I have never been able to in the past. I had gotten use to the crop factor of the DX sensors but must say that I quickly readjusted to the full frame formate. It's great having the wides act like wide angles again. Now if I could just afford a 300 f2.8 all would be right with the world.

Strengths
Full Frame sensor
Large LCD
Excellent low noise at high ISOs
8fps with grip
Easy on off of grip with separate batteries

Weaknesses
Rather heavy with grip and batteries
No soft wear included (Shame on you Nikon)
Still pretty pricey for an amateur

Similar Products Used
D70, D2h, D200

Customer Service
No need for customer service with this camera yet but have with the D70 and the D2h. Nikon service was fast and dependable both times. Quick turn around and problems completely resolved at no cost both times.

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Review Date
December 8, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 9 votes

Reviewed by
picture04 , Intermediate

Price Paid
$2835.00 at Bermingham Cameras

Photography Experience
11-20 years , Outdoor

Summary
Having used a beautiful Canon T90 for many years, with great results, I switched to a Nikon D200 three years ago. I found it to be a very good camera. I got bitten by the digital bug and earlier this year I went for a Nikon D700 and I absolutly love it's 5 star quality.
It is a good, heavy camera that feels great and comfortable in my hands. It is not cheap, but, then for quality you must pay a little extra.
I have used it for landscapes, engineering and portrait work. I use a Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED Lens and a Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm 1:2.8G ED VR Lens. The quality of print - 30cm X 40cm for my landscape work is outstanding.

Strengths
I use the Nikon D700 for low light engineering type situations and I find the quality of image is very good using a higher ISO number to compenstate for low or close to no available light.
I have used it in situations where flash photography is not allowed. The large sensor is very versatile and captures the image detail perfectly.
My portraits have drawn very favourable comment and copies are keenly requested by the model or their friends.
A very good example of the Nikon D700's quality is in the sports photography area, I'm not an expert in this field, but, I have used it at a car rally event and got some very dramatic freeze-frame shots using panning effectively.
All-in-all an excellent performer for my needs. I love it.

Weaknesses
None to date.

Similar Products Used
Nikon D80 on-loan.
Nikon D200 for three years.

Customer Service
At purchase the dealer's representative was fantastic. Very helpful and was fully immersed in wanting me to really appreciate the D700 strenghts. He explained all controls and operational details fully.
No service requirements to date.

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Review Date
September 21, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.10 of 5, 10 votes

Reviewed by
sfpeter , Intermediate

Price Paid
$3000.00 at BH Photo

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Outdoor

Summary
While expensive, this is probably the best purchase I've made in cameras, and which I'll hope to keep for several years to come.

Strengths
Mainly it's the big sensor and incredible ISO performance. I've been able to shoot at ISO 1600 and get completely clean results, and at ISO 4000 in fair-good light only requiring a little cleanup to use. The burst speed is good as is, and great with the battery grip.

Standard 35mm lenses now have correct zoom ratios, where on older cameras like the D200 they had a 1.5X crop ratio due to the smaller sensor. What this means is a 50MM lens is really 50MM again rather than acting like an 85MM.

Lenses intended for DX cameras (D200, D50, etc.) will work on the D700 but are essentially wasting half the sensor space. Ultra wide angles (like the 12-24mm) will end up vignetting to the point of making a circle at 12mm. On the other hand, a cheap Tokina 19-35mm is now an ultrawide with almost the same coverage and it looks better to boot.

The D700 will work with older AI and AI-s lenses, non-AI lenses have to be modified to use and WILL damage the camera if mounted otherwise. So all those old manual focus gems can also be used. I've tried everything from a 55mm f1.2 to a Russian "Arsat" 80-200mm and they work fine, just remember the warning about non-AI mounts and program the lenses in the menus.

The camera has a hefty body with metal frame, and is built to last. The LCD is 3 inches diagonal and visible from a wide angle. The battery grip is a little different, it only has one extra battery in it and works in conjunction with the one already in the camera. This is actually an improvement as you no longer have to take the battery door off and stow it in the grip, just a rubber plug for the contacts.

Weaknesses
It's expensive, but worth it if you need it.

The camera is heavy and best for people with big hands.

It's easy to get spoiled when using it, noise becomes an issue at ISO 5000, but by comparison my D200 had a practical limit of ISO 1000 before images just simply couldn't be cleaned up.

It needs the old style full frame lenses, so if you've bought all DX in the past few years you're not out of luck but not really using to to potential.

The RAW format is new and not all image editors support it...yet. Picasa just started with Beta 3.

It's not very good for infrared (IR) work. With a Hoya R72 filter It will take pictures by brute force (highest ISO settings) but you will finally being seeing lots of noise. This will not affect 99% of the photographers out there.

Similar Products Used
D50, D200.

Customer Service
Haven't had to use it yet.

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Review Date
September 2, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5, 8 votes

Reviewed by
Thyrymn , Expert

Price Paid
$2999.00 at National Camera Exch

Photography Experience
2-5 years , Outdoor

Summary
This is a great product. I mainly got it to shoot at high iso's in low light situations.

Full review in my photolog with actual pictures taken with the d700 at:

http://portfoliage.com/?page_id=48

I have spent about 1 month with the d700 and got it to replace a d200. They are worlds apart if you need to shoot with small aperture's and higher shutterspeeds when the light is low - for example,. macro or a cloudy day.

Strengths
High ISO's
Fast

Weaknesses
Heavy
No vertical grip without extra purchase
Expensive

Similar Products Used
d70,d200,d3

Customer Service
Always good.

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Review Date
August 22, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.21 of 5, 19 votes

Reviewed by
spectech , Expert

Price Paid
$2999.00 at B&H

Photography Experience
2-5 years , Sports

Summary
The big question is, is it worth twice the price of a D300? Yes, and no.

I had to try it due to the rave reviews of the D3, but with the smaller size and cheaper price. For direct comparison, I have a D300 as well, and wanted to know the full-frame high-ISO benefits since most of my shooting is mountain biking in the dark pacific northwest woods. I usually don't have time to setup lighting and have to travel light, so this D700 is the hot ticket for speed in available light.

My D200 had terrible battery life and really bad grain at ISO 400 and higher. Definitely was improved with D300, although I never took it over 800, and usually kept it at 400. D700 is set at auto ISO up to 1600, images are completely grain free. 3200 is hardly noticeable, but I'm keeping it at 1600 max. I can't see where you'd ever use Hi1 and Hi2 (12,000 & 24,000 ISO), as they are ridiculously grainy. I have seen several shots from the olympics at ISO 2000 on a D3 and if ISO 2000 can be published, I got the right camera for sports for sure.

Crop factor of DX is proving to be more of an issue than I imagined. I now find myself needing a longer telephoto, which means bigger and heavier. So far it looks like the FX format is going to lead to a huge collection of glass for me to be able to cover all ranges. But, atleast I have faith that they won't be switching from FX format with lenses for the next decade or hopefully longer.

My camera bag is much heavier now with such high-end lenses. If you are completely obsessed by ultra high-end image quality, FX is for you. If you're trying to be compact and light, DX is going to be the better option, at near the quality (but not quite). D300 is an advanced-amateur/ semi-pro camera, and suits the needs of just about every advanced amateur. D700 is a pro camera and takes your already great images to the next level.

Due to the absolutely stunning image quality I am forced to sell my D300 and deal with the added bulk of additional lenses. The price is very expensive until you start shooting. Then it becomes very clear that it is amazing how much technology is crammed into the D700, especially for the price. Now that I have a pro camera in a semi-pro body, I'm thinking that I will not need to upgrade again for a long time...hopefully.

Strengths
High ISO is as you have heard. 2-3 stops faster, alot when it comes to freezing the action with a fast shutter speed.
Autofocus is even faster than D300, especially continuous with 3D tracking. Lightning fast with my 70-200 f/2.8.
Dynamic range is excellent, white balance is even better than D300.
High-speed continuous shooting at 14-bit NEF is pretty amazing - I get 13 shots at 5 fps before filling the buffer, but the buffer seems to clear faster than D300. D300 can only hit 3 fps in 14-bit mode. I'm not sure how much 14-bit helps, but I'm amateur so I'll take whatever help I can get.
Viewfinder is bigger with greater clarity and field of view.
Image quality is absolutely stunning. You get what you pay for.
Metal body, rubber seals.
Nikon's amazing CLS wireless flash system has me hooked on Nikon for life.

Weaknesses
Big & Heavy. Not the camera, but the lenses. You're not going to be putting cheap lenses on this baby! I've got a 14-24 f/2.8 and it is a big anchor. Shooting with it is no problem, it's carrying it around in a pack all day that has me reconsidering the FX thing.
Built-in flash is useless with high-end glass (shadows), except for when used with Nikon's amazing CLS wireless triggering system.
CF card door has a different design than previous Nikons and doesn't look as water-tight, but we shall see since I shoot alot in the rain.
No crop factor means regular 35mm format. Wide angle lenses are expensive, telephoto lenses have decreased range, although FX is the same as it was in the pre-digital days.
SOFTWARE UPGRADE: if you use LIghtroom 1.3-1.4, you'll have to pay $100 to upgrade to Lightroom 2.0, and it is not any different than the previous version (though files seem to upload more quickly).
With any of these high-end cameras, file storage will become an issue. I purchased a Drobo for external storage.

Similar Products Used
D70s, D200, D300

Customer Service
have not used

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