Nikon D600 'Cheaper' Full Frame

[MagicWok]

what lens or lenses are you using/planning on buying?

I had some DX glass which I sold along with my old camera, and kept my 50mm f/1.4 to use with it. Great results. Same as Cheese&Apple, I kept costs down initially with just getting the body. But I'll be getting likely the 70-300/28-300 and one wide prime and that will be my complete 'set'.

Great choice MagicWok. I picked up a D600 last week after selling the car and putting the kids to work (or was it the other way around? ).

Have fun and enjoy your new D600...I am.

Oh I put my wife out to work handing out flyers on the street to pay for it

What I will do is get 2 x 32GB SD cards I think. Currently I just have the a single 16GB class 10 95MB/s SDHC card to get me going - which will become my backup. It was super cheap from Jessops actually, just £25, cheaper than Amazon at the time! This is the capacity on one:

RAW 12 bit Compressed = 518 shots
RAW 12 bit Lossless = 381 shots
RAW 14 bit Compressed = 432 shots
RAW 14 bit Lossless = 294 shots

 

[Cheese&Apple]

Oh I put my wife out to work handing out flyers on the street to pay for it

You're a lucky man MagicWok! From my better half, I got: "YOU SPENT HOW MUCH! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CAMERA YOU BOUGHT FIVE YEARS AGO FOR $300?"

She'll get over it in time and with help from a few glamour shots of her with the dog (now that the kids seemed to have disappeared somewhere).

Btw, sounds like you're making some good lens choices. I really struggled with mine...cost vs weight vs performance. I do plan on a prime lens myself...maybe a Christmas present from my wife if she's recovered (see above ).

 

[MagicWok]

You're a lucky man MagicWok! From my better half, I got: "YOU SPENT HOW MUCH! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE CAMERA YOU BOUGHT FIVE YEARS AGO FOR $300?"

She'll get over it in time and with help from a few glamour shots of her with the dog (now that the kids seemed to have disappeared somewhere).

Btw, sounds like you're making some good lens choices. I really struggled with mine...cost vs weight vs performance. I do plan on a prime lens myself...maybe a Christmas present from my wife if she's recovered (see above ).

Haha - yeah she was quite supportive of the purchase. Some of it was offset by selling the D60 and some DX glass, and with a small one on the way - a better camera to get the shots is actually priceless.

Yes the 50mm f1.4g is a superb lens, especially on the D600 and the "proper" crop factor with FX. The 50mm f1.8g or d is almost/just as good though.

 

[randomnut]

I picked up the D600 a week ago and I have to say I am astonished at the quality of the images.

I went out on a nighttime photo walk last weekend and I was able to shoot freehand at ISO 1600 and get images with very little noise. Less noise in fact than ISO 800 from my D7000.

I just wish Apple would hurry up and provide D600 native RAW support!

 

[initialsBB]

I'm jealous... You guys have me counting up my relatives and estimating their street worth

 

[Cheese&Apple]

I picked up the D600 a week ago and I have to say I am astonished at the quality of the images.

I went out on a nighttime photo walk last weekend and I was able to shoot freehand at ISO 1600 and get images with very little noise. Less noise in fact than ISO 800 from my D7000.

It is truly amazing. I just picked-up the 50 mm f/1.4 prime. If you haven't tried it on the D600, beg, borrow or steal a chance to take it for a spin. You won't believe the low light performance of this pair.

I'm jealous... You guys have me counting up my relatives and estimating their street worth

LOL! Don't give up...it's worth it.

 

[blanka]

I'd just take a picture of that gray card and then lift the white balance as determined from that shot and paste that onto all of the other photos. At least that's how I've done it so far.

Yes, but if you do this in the shooting itself, you won't even need to do it afterwards in software, and the lighting meter is taking the WB into account (less clipping of highlights).

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I went out on a nighttime photo walk last weekend and I was able to shoot freehand at ISO 1600 and get images with very little noise. Less noise in fact than ISO 800 from my D7000.

If you grabbed a D700, it would have given a similar experience. ISO 1600 is pretty much noise free, Iso 3200 is having very little noise, both off course when exposed right, but the D600 is another step better. Check the per-pixel measurements of DXO mark tests: the D3S still has the best individual pixels, and the D700/D3 comes second. But due to subsampling the newer D600/D800 even give more detail and less noise in print. But for the cleanest pixels direct out of camera, the D3S is still king.

 

[OreoCookie]

Yes, but if you do this in the shooting itself, you won't even need to do it afterwards in software, and the lighting meter is taking the WB into account (less clipping of highlights).

In my experience, you always need to tweak white balance, only if to get a certain look (neutral is often not what you're going for). And if you use the histogram to fine-tune your exposure, you should always be green, no? I'm not saying setting the white balance in-camera is always a complete waste, I just don't see the advantages you mention. (For instance, one advantage would be to use one setting for white balance on a given location, e. g. if you're taking pictures at a wedding in a church of different attendees from different perspectives.)

 

[phaedarus]

Wouldn't it make more sense to use a white card to set custom white balance and a grey card to measure exposure?

As for the histogram, I find it utterly absurd that Canon includes a LIVE histogram feature in all their DSL models while Nikon reserves that feature only for their flagship products.

 

[blanka]

You can use the grey card for White Balance as well.

 

[phaedarus]

You can use the grey card for White Balance as well.

My understanding is that the white card and grey card are not interchangeable.

I do have a grey card that includes white on the back. The package seems to infer both colours were designed for different purposes.

I currently use white for custom white balance and grey to measure exposure and this seems to work fairly well as intended.

It would be nice though to have one of the consortiums clear this up once and for all.