At Nikon USA - D600 is Lowest rated DSLR. Ouch!

spraynpray

@All: First hand from a conversation I had with Nikon UK:

"Cleaning your own sensor does not void your warranty. However, if you damage any parts while cleaning the sensor, replacement of those parts will be chargeable."

roombarobot

I wrote a review of my D600 for the Nikon page. It was rejected.

I finally got it returned and am happy to be done with it. It had the potential of taking wonderful photos, but after about 200 photos I got spots that would show up at about f/8-f/11 and would not blow off at all. I sent it in for cleaning, then the same thing happened after another ~200 photos, spots that showed up at medium apertures and would not blow off. So I sent it in for a second cleaning. Then it came back dirtier than when I sent it in. I no longer trusted Nikon service or the camera after that.

I agree that eventually sensors will get dust on them and they will need to be cleaned. However, cleaning every 200 photos is completely unacceptable.

David

Ok so I decided I was going to rent the D600 this weekend to "try before I buy" - and so far: the glaring issue I am having with this thing is the AF in low light situations. I tossed by 50 1.8G and my 85 1.8G on there, shooting wide open in my living room (low light levels, tungsten in nature) and JEEZE this thing cannot find focus points for it's life.

Searching, searching....searching. I mean - it is pretty dark in there, but cmon. My D3200 I currently use and own does much better than this thing... Is the D800 better in this aspect??

sevencrossing

Is the D800 better in this aspect??

I have not tried a D600
but the focus on the D800 is fast enough for me ; rtainly faster then my D700 or my old D90
if you can afford the extra $$$ the D800 is a brilliant camera in every respect

I use it on AUTO focus 90% of the time

NSXTypeR

Ok so I decided I was going to rent the D600 this weekend to "try before I buy" - and so far: the glaring issue I am having with this thing is the AF in low light situations. I tossed by 50 1.8G and my 85 1.8G on there, shooting wide open in my living room (low light levels, tungsten in nature) and JEEZE this thing cannot find focus points for it's life.

Searching, searching....searching. I mean - it is pretty dark in there, but cmon. My D3200 I currently use and own does much better than this thing... Is the D800 better in this aspect??

What Nikon body or DSLR were you using before the D600?

And which AF points were you using?

David

I currently use a D3200. 11 AF points on that guy.

On the D600 I was using the full 39 AF focus points.

I also noticed - in matrix metering: my D3200 will tend to over expose a bit, while the D600 is for the most part - underexposing slightly. I have only been shooting in M or A modes.

MikeGunter

Hi all,

After re-reading the postings here and the ratings at NikonUSA:

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25488/D600.html

I'll point out this: there are 11 DSLRs at Nikon, 10 are rated on the '5 star' ratings, and the D600 gets 3.5 stars, the next camera gets 4.4.

After reading 117 user ratings - and some of them were windy and I had to skip a few - many and I mean many, referred to oil and dust, and returns to Nikon for cleaning or exchange. Furthermore, even 5 Star ratings were waiting on their exchange - that really didn't make much sense, kind of a faith "I know my child has warts, but I belief he'll grow out of it."

It is my belief that if any company isn't pressured to do the right thing, it probably won't. These comments are at Nikonusa.com's website to read.

Similar comments are here (nikonrumors.com) to read. Also at Lenses rental or Dcpreview. I think one could just Google D600 spots. Nikon engineers are likely smart enough to do that.

If they were inclined to do so.

But they need motivation to do so.

I, personally, want to be on that side to provide that motivation. I would invite you to do so, too. Any voice is better than no voice.

My best,

Mike

spraynpray

I am beginning to think that the silence from Nikon means that they have found that the only repair is replacement of the sensor which is a huge expense so they are trying to keep the problem low profile. Maybe they tried something different with the AA filter. That is only a theory, but I can't think of any other possible good reasons apart from that and cultural differences.

PB_PM

I doubt the sensor itself has anything to with it. All reports point to dust/oil coming from the shutter mechanism.

spraynpray

If we knew anything for sure, there wouldn't have to be wild speculation and there is plenty of that here.

The sensor on the D600 could attract dust worse than others due to a different coating on the AA filter or something.

PB_PM

That wouldn't account for the oil spots.

Msmoto

I suspect Nikon will feel the brunt of this total screw up for sometime. On each new body they introduce, I am suspecting that the initial rush to purchase will be tempered by those who are thinking as I am...wait at least one month. If the new bodies have problems, this will surface. if not, then go for it...or wait for the price reduction. Even if the new bodies are trouble free, at least some folks are going to wait and this will kill the initial sales on the new product and also kick profits down again. And this hurts! So, the reaction from Nikon may be to lower the price.

I have been in the Nikon family for over 45 years and this is the first time I have been hesitant to purchase something from them. I doubt seriously I am the only one who has been extremely brand loyal, yet has a very strong feeling of being totally let down by Nikon. And, I did not even purchase a D600. The feeling among those who have had to suffer through all this as demonstrated by the frustration in the posts...well, I am very sorry for your suffering.

PB_PM

@Msmoto That is the issue. The issues in the last few years are, in part, the reason why I have kept using a D700 and D300, rather than upgrading to the modern bodies (it also helps to keep my wallet a little thicker). At this point I feel more confident putting my hard earned money on glass than a body.

roombarobot

Well stated, @Msmoto, thank you. This is a great community. Over at dpreview it seems that the standard behavior is to attack anyone who is having a problem.

I was so excited when I got my D600, but then extremely disappointed with the oil/dust spots issue. After three rounds of Nikon Service I was finally able to return my D600. I am very thankful to start over and have that D600 behind me. I have to say though, that based on this experience I am worried about the lack of help if I have to send any Nikon equipment in to Nikon Service.

MikeGunter

@Msmoto That is the issue. The issues in the last few years are, in part, the reason why I have kept using a D700 and D300, rather than upgrading to the modern bodies (it also helps to keep my wallet a little thicker). At this point I feel more confident putting my hard earned money on glass than a body.

Hi all,

Or whether it makes any difference to get anything - just make pictures.

That is, just what until a meaningful breakthrough in technology - such as a leap in flash sync, rear sync, TTL, multiple exposure - that made us buy years ago, make us buy again.

The D7000 was that camera. The D800 sort of was.

The D600 didn't try so hard and failed to deliver on minimal promises.

My best,

Mike

PB_PM

I love the D7000 fanboys. It is a nice camera, but nothing revolutionary, please get over it. Thanks.

MikeGunter

I love the D7000 fanboys. It is a nice camera, but nothing revolutionary, please get over it. Thanks.

Hi PB_PM,

You clearly don't do video. ;-)

That's a dimension of graphic media that the D7000 brings to the table with the Nikkors that wasn't there before, except in Micro 4/3ds with adapters - the Panasonic GH2 still does a slightly better job of video on the whole, but having a single camera to do terrific stills and good video in one package makes up for the slight.

Not enough folks mention the multimedia aspects of D7000 as often as they should. Daveyj is a multimedia producer who makes his living doing as much or more video as he does stills gets the use of a multi-purpose camera.

Just this year, my D7000 put video up on CNN, PBS, the Outdoor Channel, and Yahoo, among others. Not too shabby for little camera that could.

At the risk of being a fanboy, I would say it's nearly revolutionary, and certainly evolutionary. It does all this and it is just a consumer camera.

Having a (as in one) tool to do many tasks very, very well, rather than many tools to do many tasks (sometimes not so well) is truly, well almost revolutionary, not to mention cost effective. The D7000 costs a fraction of video camera with similarly sized sensor, and it's a thrifty DSLR, too.

And, while we fanboys, AFAIK, didn't hold an election, there's too little time to waste with negativity, so I'm sure they would agree with me when I say will complete sincerity, we love you, too.

My best,

Mike

TaoTeJared

I love the D7000 fanboys. It is a nice camera, but nothing revolutionary, please get over it. Thanks.

Although Mike G has some great points that should not be overlooked, there are so many D7000 owners who have never use an advanced amateur or pro body before that think the D7000 was ground breaking for photography purposes - which is was not by a long shot. Great camera, but far from groundbreaking compared to Nikon's higher offerings.

Ok so I decided I was going to rent the D600 this weekend to "try before I buy" - and so far: the glaring issue I am having with this thing is the AF in low light situations. I tossed by 50 1.8G and my 85 1.8G on there, shooting wide open in my living room (low light levels, tungsten in nature) and JEEZE this thing cannot find focus points for it's life.

Searching, searching....searching. I mean - it is pretty dark in there, but cmon. My D3200 I currently use and own does much better than this thing... Is the D800 better in this aspect??

The D800 is many times better. I would suggest reading the manual and learning about the AF and Metering options. Your D600 has much better metering and auto focusing components and you have to learn how to use them. A D3200 is designed for people who are use to point and shoots, the D600 is not and thus you do need to exert a bit more effort into using the system.

PB_PM

I love the D7000 fanboys. It is a nice camera, but nothing revolutionary, please get over it. Thanks.

Hi PB_PM,

You clearly don't do video. ;-) ...

At the risk of being a fanboy, I would say it's nearly revolutionary, and certainly evolutionary. It does all this and it is just a consumer camera.

Your right, I don't. Video is a almost useless feature in DSLR, for me.

Each generation of Nikon bodies since the D1 has been evolutionary. The only truly revolutionary bodies in Nikon's lineup have been the D1 and D3, everything else has been side steps and evolutions.

For those who consider video important, the D7000 might be a great camera (unless you want to use modern lenses) but the D4 and D800 have more advanced features by far. The D3100 was the first Nikon body with 1080p, so even that wasn't new with the D7000.