Nikon D600 vs D800

[Aussiebyron 57]

Just noticed the offical release of the D600: http://mynikonlife.com.au/gear/digital-slr-cameras/d600

 

Would like to see a comparison between the D600 and D800 especially the price when its release. Hinting that the D600 be around the $2000/2100USD mark. The question then would be are the features the D800 has over the D600 worth $1000?

 

It will be interesting to see.

 

Regards Mark

[scubamarli 5]

Congrats to you for bringing the specs up.

[scubamarli 5]

Hellloooo.Wetpixel..... This has had so much hype, and there seems to be silence. Hello? Perhaps there is a time zone issue....I dunno, I have been looking at japan sites.....

 

Hopefully the specs will be out soon,

Marli

[Aussiebyron 57]

There are specs on the link I posted above: http://mynikonlife.com.au/gear/digital-slr-cameras/d600#

 

a quick look at the specs of Nikon D600:

 

24.3Mp FX

35.9 x 24.0 mm CMOS sensor (Nikon FX format)

DX mode (24 x 16) image area

High-density 39-point Auto-Focus (AF) system.....which is smaller than the D800 51 points

The image-processing engine in the D600 is the same as used for the flagship Nikon D4 and D800

Similar ISO to the D800: ISO 100 - 6400 in steps of 1/3 or 1/2 EV.

 

 

Regards Mark

[davehicks 124]

I have been waiting to see what Nikon released this year. The D800 surprised many, but we all were expecting the D600. Now the D600 seems like a decent new camera, just a few notches down the spec list from the D800. But for people who plan to spend a few thousand more for new housings, lenses, and such I don't see the point of settling for the D600. Until someone comes along and provides a compelling case for the D600 I see an upgrade from the D300 -> D800 in my future.

[Aussiebyron 57]

Guess we have to have a look at the specs of the D600 and consider it worth settling for over the D800. At this point of time the price will be the big factor and as always bang for buck. Some people would be quiet happy with the lower specs of the D600 and save a $1000. But your are correct as you do have to look at the big picture at the end of the day. Once you buy a $3000 housing (presume the D600 would be roughly the same as a D800 housing) and add a body you have a D800 setup for $6000 and D600 for $5000, its only a 20% price difference between the two camera setups.

 

Then again the housing manufacturers might bring out a budget version housing for the D600 which might be several hundred dollars cheaper than the D800 housing. Which for some is all what they need at this point.

 

It should be interesting to see what happens over the next few months with this camera.

 

Regards Mark

[MikeVeitch 0]

I want a crop sensor one! curses.. I was hoping for D300 upgrade...

[adamhanlon 0]

Hi all,

 

Nikon's D600 announcement is now on the Wetpixel front page.

 

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/nikon-provides-deatisl-of-the-d600-slr/

 

Flash sync at 1/200 max seems to pretty much rule it out unfortunately.

 

i do apologize for being asleep when the announcement was made

 

I was up till 2.30 am adding the Sony announcements and the review of the Aquatica AN-5N housing though.

 

Adam

[Alex_Mustard 0]

I've been aware of the D600 for the last few months and I have been hinting since I saw the first photos of a real one that it might fit in existing D7000 housings. Although I've still to get my hands on one to be sure.

 

Alex

[Aussiebyron 57]

It would be great if it did indeed fit into a D7000 housing. Doesnt look like the control buttons on the right hand side of LCD line up with the D7000 but fingers crossed

 

Regards Mark

[Aussiebyron 57]

Regarding flash sync the spec have this:

 

X=1/200 s; synchronizes with shutter at 1/250 s or slower (flash range drops at speeds between 1/200 and 1/250 s)

 

Does this mean that optical fired strobes have a limit of 1/200th and hard wired strobes have 1/250th sync ability?

 

Regards Mark

[scubamarli 5]

Ok, not jumping into this .....so sad no D400 or D7100.

Cheers,

Marli

[browng 8]

Guess we have to have a look at the specs of the D600 and consider it worth settling for over the D800. At this point of time the price will be the big factor and as always bang for buck. Some people would be quiet happy with the lower specs of the D600 and save a $1000. But your are correct as you do have to look at the big picture at the end of the day. Once you buy a $3000 housing (presume the D600 would be roughly the same as a D800 housing) and add a body you have a D800 setup for $6000 and D600 for $5000, its only a 20% price difference between the two camera setups.

 

 

Regards Mark

 

Looking at the price difference here in the UK there is currently not that much. Wex Photographic are offering the D800 at £2279 and the D600 at £1955, a difference of only £324, US$500 approx.

 

On this basis you have to question whether it is not better value just to move to the D800 especially if you are moving from DX to FX and you are having to fork out for new housing, lenses, ports, ext rings, etc, etc

[spencerjb22 4]

i asked this

Looking at the price difference here in the UK there is currently not that much. Wex Photographic are offering the D800 at £2279 and the D600 at £1955, a difference of only £324, US$500 approx.

 

On this basis you have to question whether it is not better value just to move to the D800 especially if you are moving from DX to FX and you are having to fork out for new housing, lenses, ports, ext rings, etc, etc

 

I asked the same question today about the price difference,I was told that the launch price of £1995 would come down after 1-2 months to reflect a price point between the d7000 and d800.

[Aussiebyron 57]

Its interesting to see the price difference with other locations around the world. Current Australian prices are on par with the USA with the Nikon D800 selling for $3000AUD and the D600 on pre-order for $2100AUD. Making the UK price for the D600 the same as the price of the D800 in Australia/USA. Nikon did a similar thing here in Australia with the release of the D7000. Nikon retailed the D7000 for $1799AUD and the retail price for the same camera in USA was $1199. Guess thats why everyone bought grey imports or ordered from the states.

 

In the case with the price difference in the Uk of only $500 it would not make sense to go for the D600 over the D800 regarding the total package of camera body and housing. Especially since the D800 housings are already available. I think that you might not see much interest in the D600 as an underwater camera unless the price difference increased dramatically.

 

Regards Mark

[Aussiebyron 57]

Ok, not jumping into this .....so sad no D400 or D7100.

Cheers,

Marli

 

I would like to have seen if they made a D400, Which had the same specs as the D600 but the D400 was DX and had a flash sync of 1/500th like they did with the D70. Retail it for $1799.

 

That would be a interesting animal to see. Long live DX.

 

Regards Mark

[Larry C 24]

I want a crop sensor one! curses.. I was hoping for D300 upgrade...

Both the D800 and the D600 support DX lenses in DX mode, using a smaller portion of the sensor. The D800 matches the megapixel count of the D600's FX mode when in DX mode. The D600 has the advantage of being smaller, lighter and cheaper. D600 in a D7000 housing would indeed be nice.

[tomeyer 3]

I hope the d600 will fit into current d 7000 housings, however the measurements of the d600 are 5.6x4.4x3.2 and the d7000 is 5.2x4.1x3. I imagine the placement of the buttons will be changed by this?

 

Tom

[johnspierce 25]

With the Aquatica D7000 housing and probably with the Nauticam too, I would highly doubt a D600 will fit. The tolerances on both of those housings are extremely tight to keep the overall profile small. I would be very surprised if the D600 body has the exact same dimensions and button layout as the D7000.

 

The biggest reason I am not looking into getting a D600 is the 1/200 flash sync speed.

Edited September 16, 2012 by johnspierce

[tdpriest 115]

One of my reasons to reject the D7000 and fork out for the D800 was the design of the controls and the construction of the D800. It may be a bit silly, but it seemed to me a much more rugged and ergonomic design. My second was the AF system and my third the viewfinder. All those megapixels were actually reason number four!

 

I can't see the D600 appealing to many unless it is either part of a substantially cheaper package or fits an older housing (and I reckon the chances of that are pretty small).

 

There are three comparisons: with the D800, obviously, but also with the D700 and the D7000.

[johnspierce 25]

For $900 more, the D800 just seems like so much more camera.

[UWphotoNewbie 1]

I just upgraded to the D600 and have shot with it for about a week now. For me, the D600 is really the D700 replacement that we all were waiting for. Setting aside the $900 difference, I think the D600 is in many respects a better camera than the D800. I have been shooting with a D7000 for the past year and everything that was good about the D7000 is even better in the D600.

 

D600 Advantages

Right resolution. 36 MP is really too much to deal with for storage, postprocessing and sharing. 24MP is still way more resolution than I need.

U1 and U2 modes. These are perfect for setting up UW pofiles.

Speed. 5.5 FPS is almost as good as the D7000 and 1/2 a FPS faster than the D700.

Noise is slightly better on the D600 over the D800

Dumb Green Mode A lot of pros and keen amatures will discount this but the fact is its nice to have this mode even if I only use it 1% of the time. This is my "WTF?" mode. When the camera is doing something funky and the kids are loosing the moment and the wife is impatient, this is a simple "get the shot and get it now" mode that I turn to. Its also the "Stranger take our picture" mode. Maybe pros don't have to worry about these real-life constraints but for the rest of us its nice to have. I'll bet pros could benifit too when the camera is freaking out and they are about to miss the bride and groom's kiss.

Matching memory cards: Using two different card formats as the D4 and D800 do is insane. High speed SD cards are cheap and just as good as CF without the potential pin failure. Good riddence to CF.

Lighter and smaller: The best landscape and wildlife shots are not those close to the road. Smaller cameras also mean smaller housings not a small thing for overburdened dive suitcases. This comes at the expense of build quality, but even the D7000 is way overbuilt. See the Digitalrev D70 torture test video if you think you NEED an all-metal weather sealed body.

Simple Cheap IR shutter release: This is way better for mirror-lockup wildlife telephoto than the expensive shutter release for the D800 and now they have a sensor on the back as they always should have from the start!

Left-Focus: So far there are no major defects with the D600 being reported. Time will tell.

 

There are also many advantages to the D800/D600 disadvantages:

 

1/200 vs 1/250s flash sync. This is only 1/3 of a stop difference usually you can find some workaround. Esp with ISO 50 as an option.

AF sensors don't cover the full frame: D800 sensors are too close together too but not as bad. No problem focus and recompose is faster anyway.

PC and 10 pin port: I use CLS or PW anyway, but the 10 pin GPS connector is more durable when putting this in my bag. Why doesn't Nikon put the GPS in the camera anyway? If you must you can use a PC hotshoe adapter. Get one with high voltage protection while you are at it.

Dedicated ISO button: Nikon moved iso to the bottom on the D600 so its pretty easy to find now. Not as good as a dedicated button though.

AF-ON button: You can program the Fn button to do this on the D600.

 

All in all I think the D600 advantages outweight the D800 advantages for my shooting and there are no disadvantages I can't live with. For $900 I could have an extra lens or backup D7000 body. The UK pricing fiasco will be worked out soon I have no doubt.

[Aussiebyron 57]

UWPhotoNewbie I am just looking at what you think the adavantages the D600 over D800. Most of the advantages you mentioned dont really apply to a camera used underwater.

 

1. D800 has 36MP vs 24MP on the D600. Well if 36MP is too much to deal with you can always reduce the image size on the D800 to Medium and have a 20.3MP image size. If you want to go back to 36Mp its a simple change especially in the future. You cant do this with the D600 as your stuck with 24MP

2. High FPS isnt an issue underwater as you can only shoot as fast as your strobes can reload (unless you shooting without strobes alot........honestly who is)

3.Dumb green mode wont work underwater

4.Matching memory cards.......big deal these days with cards being so cheap

5.Lighter and small isnt going to make any difference when you put it in a housing

6.IR release..........underwater???

 

 

The advantages of the D800 are that there are housing already made for it available now. Higher flash sync which is an important factor when it comes to deciding a camera especially with wide angle. More AF point and better AF. Just the alone are more important advantages over the D600.

 

Regards Mark

[johnspierce 25]

The D600 does look like a very interesting camera and the early reviews are raving about the image quality. I'm pretty disappointed Nikon decided to set flash sync at 1/200. I wonder what compromise they had to make -- Size? Cost? Software complexity? Seems backwards.

[UWphotoNewbie 1]

Of course the D800 is a better camera in terms of technical performance. No doubt its the flagship. I just wanted to point out that there are several areas where the D600 is actually better. Of course most of these do not apply to flash underwater photography but my camera has to serve as an all around camera not just underwater so these features are important to me.