Nikon D610 discussion

PaRealtor

A deal kept flashing up on this site: D610 for only $1459.....
Made me curious. But after tonight's class, I'm convinced, my D7100 is the camera for me (for now).

spraynpray

You REALLY need to stop looking at hardware and start concentrating solely on learning about photography. Your excellent D7100 will take technically excellent wonderful bad photographs if you don't. At my club I know people who have NO IDEA how to get results from their camera if it is not on auto, it is so sad. D800, D7100, 5DmkII, - whatever - all great cameras, but still make bad photo's because they have NO IDEA how to use them or what a good photo is. Others with little money are taking really nice images that win competitions with D40 - D70 era cameras.

heartyfisher

yup there are 2 chaps I know.. one had the best FF and F1.2 lenses and the other an APSC both do portraits .. but the guy with the 6 year old aps-c does the most wonderful pics .. the other guy "ticks the boxes"... I am so envious of both of them for different reasons :-)

PaRealtor

You REALLY need to stop looking at hardware and start concentrating solely on learning about photography. Your excellent D7100 will take technically excellent wonderful bad photographs if you don't. At my club I know people who have NO IDEA how to get results from their camera if it is not on auto, it is so sad. D800, D7100, 5DmkII, - whatever - all great cameras, but still make bad photo's because they have NO IDEA how to use them......

So True, Spraynpray...good thing I have you for advice......
That's the problem with being new at this. You get so much great advice. AND you always see a newer, Bigger toy you like!
Dan asked me to use the D7100 for 60 days and THEN decide if I preferred it over the D610....
So, I have time to change my mind. 8->

Msmoto

Love this thread… my suggestion, take a prime lens, shoot several hundred images with the prime, review what you have learned, think about what you might need to do something different. And for me, i do this all the time. I find the limitations and less decision making when using a prime lens seem to allow me into a place where I can concentrate on the image and not on all the zooming. I zoom well with my feet, even at my age.

Shooting on manual, adjusting aperture to the way you want,i.e., shallow DOF or a lot of DOF, speed to get a blur or sharp image, ISO to have less noise, all these things we need to work on to get to be more proficient with the use of the camera. Focus…manual or auto…?

Now, I like new toys, but I also like to grab old ones to make certain I am not getting too caught up in thinking new is better.

WestEndBoy

Agree on the prime. I have no zoomes in my kit as you can see from my signature. Well two lies. The 28-200 has only been used once in the last year, and I had to contrive a use as the lens felt lonely. I bought the 14-24 because it at 14mm the IQ is better than Nikon's prime. This is the only instance in Nikon's line up where a zoom beats (or even comes close) a prime on IQ. I ONLY shoot this lens at 14 or 24. Nothing in between.

The lens in my signature I purchased last summer. Till then I used the 28-200 on my F80, so I know all about the advantages of zooming. Now with my primes, I will never go back to zooming unless I quit my day job and start shooting events. The next half dozen lenses that I can get excited about are primes. Zooms make me fell "meh".

I often argue that primes have far superior image quality to zooms, but the real reason I use primes is that it forces me to think about my photography more as Msmoto said. And the lens I enjoy shooting the most is my 50mm manual focus in M Mode.

PaRealtor

Perfect advice, since I only have the 14-24 lens. ;;)
Looking forward to using your advice!!! Thanks so much!
Just joined a photo club. Between my photo class and the photo club, should be able to get some good shots...SOON!

Golf007sd

@PaRealtor: The image quality of the D7100 is fantastic; moreover, it has it own unique rewards. Given a setting, I can assure you I'm fully capable of getting two amazing shot with either my D7000 or D4. You really should master the D7100 before you take the leap to an FX body.

PaRealtor

You're so right Golf007sd. I've "finally" learned to appreciate my camera. Now that I'm surrounded by so many D7100 users who know that I'm newer then they thought, they've truly have helped me to learn how to use it. This photo class is much more helpful then it was at first.....now that I said, "I NEED help",,,,,.I told them, I know all I know because of Nikon Rumors. LOL.
They're proud of all of you for teaching me so much! =D>

tubino

Have y'all seen this deal from Rakuten, which used to be buy.com? $1700 for body only, and Rakuten is a reasonable discounter. I've bought lots of little things from them with good service.
http://www.rakuten.com/prod/nikon-d610-dslr-camera-body-only/257093786.html

smadman

@tubino: That's a great deal, no doubt. Note that the actual vendor is Sunset Electronics; as far as I can tell, they are not an authorized Nikon dealer. That means no warranty protection from Nikon, and I *believe* that Nikon will refuse to do service on it ever (someone correct me if I am wrong on this). You can of course get service from independent repair shops, but not from Nikon.

You can find the current list of authorized dealers on Nikon's web site; here's the link:

http://www.nikonusa.com/en_US/IMG/Images/Corporate/Where-to-Buy/Nikon_Authorized_Dealers.pdf

Photobug

Run a search for gray market Nikons on here. About 6 weeks ago there was a great discussion on the Pros and Cons of buying gray market. Must reading if your considering buying one.

tubino

It's looking more dicey the more informed I get.

tubino

I called their customer service number. They said that the $1,699 deal through Rakuten is for the standard retail package: body, battery, charger, straps, etc. They also said it comes with 1-year manufacturer warranty.

That's what they said. How would I know if that's true without committing to a purchase? Their Amazon rating is great, but could be artificially inflated. Their rating in other sites is abysmal.

PB_PM

If something looks to good to be true, it normally is.

Photobug

If something looks to good to be true, it normally is.

Amen! People never learn.

I have a friend who has tried to buy two Pentax lens and one place required you buy a filter, polarizer, and lens hood for $200. Not in the ad, just a requirement to buy.

heartyfisher

Whats with the prices of the D610 ? Price drops makes the wallet itchy .. may just have to settle for a D610 instead of waiting for the D400 .. sigh .. is it really any better than the D7000 that I have :-(

PB_PM

Price wise, $1999, as far as I can tell. Depends on what you mean by better? The D610 has more resolution, and better low light performance, if that is what you are looking for.

Honestly, what's wrong with your D7000, other than that it is not the new kid on the block anymore?

heartyfisher

Price wise, $1999, as far as I can tell. Depends on what you mean by better? The D610 has more resolution, and better low light performance, if that is what you are looking for.

Honestly, what's wrong with your D7000, other than that it is not the new kid on the block anymore?

where I am the price for grey is now about 1520 USD !

Re whats wrong with the D7000 ? its not a D400 .. .. but lets not go there .. .. Due to the NAS for a D610, I have looked up the differences between the D610 and D7000. ISO is great !.. (yeah I am trying to convince myself)

spraynpray

.

Whats with the prices of the D610 ? Price drops makes the wallet itchy .. may just have to settle for a D610 instead of waiting for the D400 .. sigh .. is it really any better than the D7000 that I have :-(

Short answer: IF you need low light performance, there is no contest. If you don't need that, don't change.

I wouldn't have gone to the D7100 if it wasn't so much better in low light, I am starting to use low light a lot now that I can.

WestEndBoy

Whats with the prices of the D610 ? Price drops makes the wallet itchy .. may just have to settle for a D610 instead of waiting for the D400 .. sigh .. is it really any better than the D7000 that I have :-(

I think that besides low light performance, there is another decision factor, perhaps the most important one.

If you can afford good FX glass for the subjects you are shooting, buy FX. If not, buy DX.

Golf007sd

I hared allot about people complaining from the D600 oil issue, this stopped me from buying it, however when i hared that Nikon is replacing it with D610 i went and bought D610 immediately expecting no oil issues in it... However i was mistaken...

I will provide a clear evidence for everything i'm saying over here, this is not an angry customer or emotional review, this is a clear status of what happen with me.

I bought the camera from Ebay on December 2013, and it reached me on 18/12/2013, brand new, unopened.
It was grey market product, but i have been told by the seller it is 100% identical to the US copy, i verified that with local copy later on and it is 100% identical, at least from what i managed to see.

Performance:
Let me just say that I own Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark iii, and to be honest i really love the Nikon D610 over them.
I even highly believe after experience that the D610 produce better image quality than Canon 5D3 and i can prove that from images i took recently.
The camera performance is outstanding, you will love it, because it is light, Fast, having all features you want, the 24MP is outstanding, the body is solid, it is a real great work by Nikon.

The Bad :

After 2 months from using the camera and at exactly 1400 shots, i started noticing dots on the left corner of the images, i thought it would be simple dust, so i kept shooting however at 1600 they became so many, so i send it to Nikon Authorized repair center, they confirmed that there is dust and after 48 hours i came to collect the camera and it had the same dust in exact locations.
The technical manager went directly to check what is wrong with my camera and he came to me claiming that the Camera Censor is Damaged.

He said that the coating on the low pass filter is pealing off!!! i requested from him an official technical report stating that (Please check below link for his official technical report)
http://i61.tinypic.com/1z5qiqs.jpg

I tried to convince him that its an oil spot issue, however he insisted and showed me with special glass that its damaged censor, so i said what do i know, if Nikon saying censor problem then who am i to say otherwise...!!!

Tried to contact the seller on ebay, who accepted to fix the camera however it will take 10 - 15 weeks for repair!!!

Yet I didn't believe the local Nikon technical guy, i went and bought cleaning kit, and watched few videos on youtube and tried to clean the censor myself...

There was over 50+ oil spots (please check attached images for spots locations) i can also send NEF file for verification.
http://i59.tinypic.com/7k7m.jpg

It took me over 6 hours to remove all dusts however unfortunately i scratched the censor (minor scratch) "i will never advise anyone to clean the censor at home as its really time consuming process"...

I went back to Nikon and asked them to run another test on the camera and almost 99% of dust were removed. so i presented the report they gave me to their management and complained on the technical team, the management supported me and held the technical manager responsible and he had to pay personally for new censor for my camera.

I didn't accept to hurt the poor technical guy and donated the camera for charity and lost 2000USD in less than 2 months for a camera.

I cannot tell you how bad was this experience. especially for someone who adore photography.

I have all the supporting documents that prove everything i claimed up there. i hided the name of the technical guy and center name to keep this story about the Nikon D610 and oil spots...

Maximusphotography

I'm reading in this post many asking about the image quality of the Nikon D610, and comparing it with D7000, I have to say I also own d7000 and d7100 and I can say from experience that the D610 censor is way better, images is outstanding and definitely the FX size play major role in adding much more details to your photos.

I can assure you that D610 is a work of art camera, if you have dust free camera then it will replace any other camera you have.

Please also check dxo censor benchmark you will notice that it's after D800 directly and it really is more powerful than any other dslr camera out there.

heartyfisher

I have hooked up with a bunch of photographers ( almost 10 of us and growing! ) that organise shoots with models and MUA (so far all TFP and a lot of fun!) So my D7000 does good with this .. but as you all know if you work with portraits the optimal tools are FX cameras (again . not that DX is bad. ) since we mostly shoot at the "golden hour" the shoots sometimes goes into twilight. here the FX lowlight gives you another 20 to 30 mins of shooting time. so thats where FX would be most useful. now looking at the FX options. it looks like the best option would be a D610 or a D600. but the price difference is now negligible so for me I may as well have the peace of mind and get a D610. the other option is the Df with another half stop of High ISO capability ( and bragging rights among the other photogs! )



Be careful, when it gets dark you may trip over someone :-)


I am already using "FX" glass on my D7000. the above taken with an old 50mm AIS and the 150mm F2.8 sigma. I also have an 35-70 F2.8 AF-D that I really like. They would go well with a Df wont they ;-) ...
will probably get a 50 1.8G and the 70-200 F4.0 soon ..

heartyfisher

I have cleaned my sensors dozens of times.. never took more than 10 mins :-) i am down to about 3 mins now.. :-) ... 6 hours is just beyond my understanding .....