We've been expecting Nikon to announce a more affordable alternative to the groundbreaking Nikon D800 for quite a while now, but we weren't really expecting it to make it smaller than the Nikon D300s.
However, as the Nikon D600 measures 141x113x82mm, that is exactly what Nikon's engineers and designers have managed to do - even though it has a full-frame sensor and the D300s an APS-C format device. This should make it much easier to transport - which is good news for photographers who want a camera for everyday use.
The good news for image quality is that the newly designed sensor inside the D600 has 24.3 million effective pixels, roughly 12 million less than the D800 and this, coupled with the same Expeed 3 processing engine as inside the top-end Nikon D4, should mean that images are clean and detailed.
Also, Nikon hasn't pushed the boundaries of low light performance with the D600, sticking to the safe ISO 100-6400 native range and allowing expansion settings from the equivalent of IS 50 to ISO 25,600.
With 24.3 million effective pixels on its FX format sensor it's not really a surprise that the D600's maximum continuous shooting speed is 'just' 5.5fps. That's 1.5fps more than the 36MP D800 can manage at full resolution and with its standard battery in place.
According to Nikon UK's Hiromasa Sebata, the D600's maximum shooting rate doesn't increase if the battery pack is used.
For most people and most occasions 5.5 fps is more than enough and it should be sufficient for the average enthusiast sports photographer who is unlikely to see regular benefit from shooting at 8 or 10 fps.
Build and handling
At 760g, the Nikon D600 isn't a lightweight model, but this compares very favourably with the 1kg weight of the Nikon D800. Nevertheless, its small size means that the Nikon D600 feels very dense, since the weight is packed into a small volume.
The top and rear shell sections of the camera are made from magnesium alloy, so its still pretty tough-feeling.
However, the reduction in the size of the camera in comparison with the Nikon D800 means that the grip is considerably smaller and those with big hands may find it a little confining. Some may also find the button controls are a little cramped and that the Multi selector control on the back of the camera a bit small for their thumb. But this is only in comparison with other full-frame cameras such as the D800, when comparing with similarly sized SLRs, it's pretty much business as usual.
Control-wise there are a few differences from the Nikon D800, and in several ways The D600 is more like the Nikon D7000. The bottom three buttons on the back of the D600 to the left of the LCD screen, for example, now access the white balance, image quality and sensitivity options as on the D7000.
These options can either be viewed on the secondary LCD on the top-plate or on the main LCD if the Info button has been pressed before the control button is pressed. These buttons also enable you to magnify or shrink and protect the image on the screen in review mode.
The top-plate of the D600 also has a mode dial on the left side (as you hold the camera) jut like the D7000, with a drive mode dial beneath.
However, the Live View and Movie switch on the back of the camera is lower down on the D600 than it is on the D7000, which arguably makes it easier to operate when looking at the main LCD screen.
Nikon has also moved the focus selector lock switch to around the Multi-selector that it governs, which seems a sensible space saving move.
Viewfinder and screen
We were only able to use the Nikon D600 indoors and under fairly dim artificial light, but the viewfinder provided a nice bright view, with no obvious darkening of the scene, corner shading or issues with the housing obstructing the view.
Like the Nikon D800, the NikonD600 has a 3.2-inch 921,000-dot LCD screen which automatically adjusts its brightness to take the ambient lighting conditions into account.
This provided a clear, detail view and we'll be looking out to see if it consistently represents image colour well when we get a full production sample in the next few days. We found that the Nikon D800's screen can be prone to giving images a green tinge.
Early verdict
At £1,955.99 (around $3,150) the Nikon D600 may not be as affordable as some enthusiasts might have hoped for, especially as its launch price is only a little less (relatively speaking) than the D800's current street price of around £2,280/$2,000.
However, the D800 has a list price of £2,599.99/$2,999.95, so we can expect the D600's street price to fall after a few months on sale.
For most photographers 24 million pixels is more than enough and while we can't expect the D600 to resolve quite the same amount of detail as the 36MP D800, it should be very capable, especially as it has the respected Expeed 3 processing engine.
The fact that the control arrangement of the D600 is closer to that of the D7000 than the D800 is suggests that Nikon is anticipating more enthusiast photographers upgrading to a D600 than it does professional photographers with a D800 buying a smaller back-up camera. The company may well be right as on the face of it the D600 looks a very good option for enthusiast photographers wanting the depth of field and image quality benefits of a full frame SLR.
The Nikon D600 goes on sale on September 18 and we will hopefully have a full-production test sample in the next few days. Watch this space for our full review.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar