Nikon D700 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) by Nikon
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Digital camera reviews of Nikon D700 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Digital camera Review: What a difference
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a chemical film photographer for my entire life. My primary camera was a Konica T-1 (a relatively simple 35mm SLR) and I used it for about 20 years.
About 4 years ago I purchased my first digital camera. It was a Minolta. It produced fine pictures, but was very slow to start up and a real battery pig.
About 2 years ago I purchased a Canon 350-D digital SLR. I have to say that I was never very happy with that camera. Although it started up almost instantly and would shoot 3 FPS, it produced what can only be called poorly focused images. I also did not like how long it would take to switch settings. For point and shoot it did pretty well except for my continued frustrations with the autofocus. Thankfully, that camera and its lenses were stolen from my car in Italy last Summer. I have been on the hunt for a new camera ever since. I read extensively and despite my love for Art Wolfe's work (he is a Canon user) had made the decision to give Nikon a chance.
It has been a great decision. The D-700 (and also a D-90 that a friend has...tho DX format), give me tremendous control over all my shots. Changing white balance, ISO settings or anything for that matter is a snap. I have three lenses...an old school 28mm/f2.8 non-auto focus I picked up used for $135 (did I mention that unlike Canon...Nikons work with all the old lenses too), the excellent 50mm/f1.4 AF Nikon lens I bought here at Amazon and a 70-300 AF/VR Nikon lens I bought else where. All three lenses are Nikon. Funny...my favorite lens is the 28mm.
The autofocus's operation is foolproof from my perspective. If it is focusing wrong, it is almost always because I told it to do what it ended up doing. A dramatic improvement from my experience with the Canon (admittedly...the Canon I had before was a much lower price class). I srongly prefer the Nikon methodology of controlling WB/ISO/Quality and the mods of A/S/P. Switching settings is much faster than with the Canon.
I have especially enjoyed the flexibility of the control with white balance. It is so easy to warm things up or cool them down (worked out very well in my pictures in Glacier Bay...they SHOULD be blue).
I have also been delighted with the AutoISO feature which lets you set minimums for shutter speed and maximums for ISO speed and lets the camera try to give you the lowest noise picture under any lighting condition. It really makes it much easier to nail a shot of the moment when you just don't have time to mess with those things to get exposure optimal.
I love the camera.
Digital camera Review: D700 ROCKS!
Summary: 5 Stars
HAVING A D300, AND LOOKING FOR BETTER AF FOR BIRDING, AND BETTER LOW ISO CAPABILITY FOR SPORTS, I BOUGHT THE D700. I WAS ON THE FENCE, HAVING WANTED NIKON TO RELEASE A BETTER DX MODEL WITH BETTER LOW LIGHTING ISO AND AF, BUT GOT TIRED OF WAITING. BOUGHT D700, AND HAVNE'T LOOK BACK.
PICS OF D700 ARE AMAZING, WITH BETTER RESOLUTION, AND FASTER FOCUSING THAN D300, WHICH IS A GREAT CAMERA AS WELL. FPR BIRDING/SPORTS, WITH ADEQUATE LIGHT.
BUT, FOR SPORTS IN LOW LIGHT (FOOOTBALL AT NITE, ETC OR BIRDS IN FLIGHT,ETC) YOU CANNOT BEAT THE D700!!
AND FOR PORTRAITS, AND LOW LIGHTING EVENTS (CONCERTS, AND WIDE ANGLE PHOTOGRAPHY, LANDCAPES, SUNSETS), FULL FRAME IS FANTASTIC!!
Digital camera Review: Versatile full frame DSLR camera for any light condition
Summary: 5 Stars
Nikon D700 is the first and the only (up to now) compact full frame (FX) camera Nikon has to offers. It inherits many great features from Nikon pro-DSLR camera Nikon D3 and add some other useful features such as dust reduction and wireless flash commander.
What is special about Nikon D700?
Like its big brother Nikon D3, D700 has incredible clean image at high ISO setting, 51 AF points with several tracking modes include 3D tracking. It shoots 5 fps but can be boost to 8 fps with battery grip attached. Unlike D3, it has compact size but it is not light. It is 995 g.
Body and Handling
Nikon D700's body is similar to Nikon D300 (a crop sensor DSLR camera or DX) in many ways. But of course it has a little bit different here and there. For example. D700 is taller and wider to accommodate larger viewfinder.
D700 body feels very solid and made by magnesium alloy body. It has textured rubber in the grip area. As discussed above, the camera is quite heavy, but it helps to balance the camera especially if you mount it with heavy pro grade lenses.
Although regarded as pro camera, D700 body is not as tough and reliable as top of the line pro camera and some advanced crop sensor camera. There are some irritations for example the rubber side door open up occasionally and the built-in flash also opens up because the flash button is quite sensitive to touch.
Nevertheless, the control and handling are great, just like Nikon D300. Nikon has different philosophy than other cameras such as Canon. Instead pressing button, dial and pressing button again, Nikon requires you to press and hold the button and then dial. It is so to avoid accidental change of setting. There is no more mode dial, but there are so many dedicated buttons for all important camera settings such as ISO, WB, Mode, Metering, Auto focus mode, and many more.
D700 also has top LCD screen like some advanced Nikon cameras (D90, D300), but it is a bit smaller to make room for the viewfinder and flash. So there is no AF points position in the top LCD. But most of the crucial information are there.
The other great thing about the camera is you can program function button and depth of field preview button to other function that you like, it could be activating live view, or set the focus point to center, etc. There wide customization available to suit your shooting style and preferences.
Although this camera has only 95% viewfinder coverage (Both D3 and D300 has 100% coverage), the size of the viewfinder are very big and it will amazed most of people that use crop sensor camera without fail.
Image Quality and Auto ISO
Image quality in high ISO is the best in the world (along with Nikon D3). Images are very clean up to ISO 4000. Image at ISO 6400 is very usable and great in print up to 8 X 11. The great image quality in high ISO is due to Nikon full frame sensor which has only 12 megapixel and software that control the chroma/color noise out of the image. The noise in Nikon looks more natural compared to camera of other brand.
For pixel peepers (people who likes to zoom in 100% in digital images), you will be very satisfied. D700 is very sharp (depends on the lens too) up to pixel level.
One of my favorite feature of D700 and also Nikon D90 is the Auto ISO limiter. You can effectively limit the ISO and minimum shutter speed. The Auto ISO works very well and accurate most of the time. My favorite way to use this is to set the camera to Auto ISO, and then use Aperture mode and let the camera adjust the rest for me.
LCD Screen
It is 3 LCD Screen with 920k res which is standard for mid range camera in the late 2008 and 2009 camera. It is very detailed and relatively good in bright light condition.
Menu
Like other Nikon cameras, I feel Nikon menu is pretty confusing because they throw all over items regardless if the item is popular item or not. Therefore, it might take you some time to find some of your favorite menu items. To be fair, Nikon has my menu tab, where you can choose and put the menu item in this tab. Overall, I feel menu could be improved. Canon cameras menu for example, is easier, more logical and simple to navigate.
Auto Focus system & Continuous shooting speed
Nikon D700 has 51 AF points. It is the same as Nikon D3 or D300. It has several dynamic tracking modes include 3D tracking which is very fast and accurate. The AF speed varies depend on what kind of Nikon lens you use. Old Nikon lenses usually slower in AF, same as customer grade AF-S lens like 35mm AF-S f/1.8G lens.
D700 has continuous shooting speed are good (5 fps), but when you attached the battery grip, it becomes 8 fps, which is great for sports or wildlife. It cost several hundred more for the grip, but it worth it, because not only you get more frames per second, but it is easier to shoot in portrait mode. The drawback is the entire package becomes bulky and heavy.
Lens compatibility
Investing in FX / full frame Nikon cameras means that you are ready to spend money, not only for the camera, but you need to spare some money to get the lenses as well. As a FX camera, D700 does not compatible with many consumer grade lenses which has "DX" letters attached in the lens name. You can still use DX lenses, but your image will be cropped and you will get only 5 megapixel image. Nikon has several primes that work very well with D700 such as Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, Nikon 35mm f/2D and Nikon 85mm f/1.4D. For zoom lenses, there are Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.
Most of the lenses above are expensive, but there are some affordable solutions (third party lenses) that cost a lot less, but they are really good for Nikon D700.
Creative Lighting System
Unlike D3 which has no built-in flash, D700 has built in flash. It is due for a reason, to fit in wireless commander features or also called Creative Lighting System (CLS). This system is not perfect because it won't work in certain position and situation, for example in bright daylight, in a great distance, or if the line of sight to the flashes are blocked. However CLS is fun to use and save you money. Nikon D90 also has built-in AF motor so it is compatible with older Nikon AF-D lenses which we often found in fixed focal length lenses / primes.
Competitors
Nikon D700 has three major competitors in compact full frame DSLR class and some competition from crop sensor DSLR class.
In the full frame category, Nikon D700 competes with Canon 5D mark II and Sony A900. 5D mark II has video mode, and 21 MP, but the image is not as clean as D700 in low light, Also, 5D mark II has old auto focus system which is slower and it also have slower 3.9 fps continuous shooting.
Sony A900 has double the resolution of D700, 100% coverage viewfinder and 5 fps continuous shooting. A900 does not have sophisticated AF system and live view.
Photographers that consider to get D700 should also consider Nikon D300/D300s and Canon EOS 7D. They are not only cheaper but have most of the features D700 has. The other benefit of crops sensor camera is the crop factor of 1.5 (Nikon cameras) / 1.6 (Canon cameras) so you get more reach for sports or wildlife. The drawback of crop sensor camera is it won't be have great image quality in high ISO.
Conclusion
Nikon D700 is an very versatile camera for any kind of assignments. It is great for portrait, wedding, sports, photo journalistic assignments. It is great in bright or extremely low light. I will say it is all-around camera. The image quality is fantastic. However, I will not recommend it for travel because it is an heavy camera, and I don't recommend it to use in extreme environment condition because the built quality and seal is not as good as Nikon D3 or Canon 1D series. For outdoor field sports such as football or soccer, you might miss crop sensor DSLR camera because it has extra reach. Overall this is great camera, with a great price of this class.
Subjective Rating - Relative to competitors
* Image Quality: 5/5
* Features: 4/5
* Performance: 5/5
* Body and Handling: 4/5
* Value for money: 4/5
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Digital camera Review: Absolutely blown away
Summary: 5 Stars
I decided some time ago, that I would like a full frame camera to complement my APS-C, crop factor, D200. I would use the full frame as my main camera and for wideangel stuff, and the D200 for telephoto work. I was, however, for quite some time undecided about which full frame camera to get. It would either be the D3 or the D700. I shant bore you with the details of my reasoning, but in the end I thought the D700 more fitting to my needs. And thus I purchased one.
Although I had read just about every single review on the internet of this particular piece of kit, and therefore were quite aware of its abilities, I was still blown away by it, when I got to see it for myself. The ability to shoot handheld in low light at ISO 2000, or indeed 3200, with very little evident noise is a boon of no small measure. It suits my style of shooting very well, and means that you can walk around tripod-less all day in basically any old situation and get away with really nice pictures. In my opinion, this makes it nigh on ideal for travel and street photography, where you more often than not, are better off not burdened with six tons of tripod and extra equipment. At low ISO it produces stunning pictures, of course. The colours, the contrast, well, just about everything, is markedly improved when compared with my D200. Also in the ergonomics and ease-of-use departments, this camera blows me away. I always thought that Nikons cameras where quite user friendly, but although the in-camera menu is the same in the D700 as in previous models, the way in which you use it is not. There is a small info-button that shortcuts to all your necessary functions in the menu, which makes changing your settings a breeze, and more importantly, the things you use a lot, viewing, deleting, magnifying pictures and so on are easy as can be. Build quality is also excellent. Perhaps it doesn't feel like a tank (but then again, tanks are quite a bit bigger, aren't they?), but you know it is a solid piece of machinery you're holding in your hands.
There are only two things, really, that I don't care for with the D700. Firstly the viewfinder, although very bright, covers only 95 percent of the frame. Why they didn't make it 100 percent I cannot fathom. They did it on the D3 and the D300, so why not with this particular model? It makes your very careful compositions look less carefully compositioned at times, which I do not care for at all. Secondly the neck strap is, to be honest, not very good. A new third party strap will not set you back an awful lot of money and will not only be more comfortable, but also get rid of that massive yellow printing saying NIKON D700 on the back of your neck.
The D700 is definitely one of the most impressive cameras I've ever come across, and can only receive the highest possible recommendation from yours truly.
Digital camera Review: VP
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this Nikon D700 from Amazon as a new camera for my brother. Just got message from him, that the camera was not new. Has over 3000 pictures made on it. Very bad news. Don't you think.