peterm1
Veteran
Yesterday I was kibbitzing at my local camera store when they hauled out a second hand D700 in very nice condition (almost new) that they had just traded on a D800. They know me well there and know exactly how to push my buttones - in a good way. Low milage (under 7000 actuations) it looked nearly unused apart from some slight marks on the soft rubber hand grips. Great price too for a camera that only a couple of years ago would have gone for a asking price that really would been more than I would be prepared to pay for any camera that does not have Leica in the name. So I grabbed it.
For several years now my DSLR "ride" has been a D200. I have used this beside an M8 for those times when a RF camera just won't cut it.
The D200 is also a fine camera of its type but now its technology is a bit dated, particularly if you like low light, high iso work. Other than that its still a wonderful camera. But I have been hankering for a while now to try a FF camera as I like natural light photography and its still relatively new CMOS technology has a great reputation on that front.
So far I have only had the chance to experiment a little around home at 1600 iso. I had read reviews that this camera has virtually no noise at that setting. From what I have seen this is about right. On screen at least the images look very clean - even when zoomed to the max. So this suggests you can shoot 1600 and expect to get not just usable shots but very good ones. 3200 iso still shows good results - some loss of detail but still not all that much noise, comparatively. I imagine this camera has some reasonably good in-camera processing software that can be thanked. Thats probably the greatest plus for me. One of the nice tricks it has up its sleeve is that it automatically recognises when you install a DX lens (at least Nikon ones) and crops the sensor. It also throws up frame lines in the finder to match the cropped - these look just like a rangefinder. Downside I suppose is that the cropped FX sensor will have few pixels than its native 12 megapixels - which is not all that many these days anyway.
On the downside its a "whopper". A big rubustly built camera that is noticeably larger than the DX ones and much larger than a digital RF. In one way I like this - I ahve always liked heavy cameras and lenses as they lend a sense of security in their build. But there is no denying they can be taxing to lug around all day.
Still I look forward to using it and will post some shots here when I get a few more taken this weekend.
I full well realise this is not a camera fro everyone and many here may find it not to be to thier taste but is there anyone else who has tried this camera? If so, what do you think?
For several years now my DSLR "ride" has been a D200. I have used this beside an M8 for those times when a RF camera just won't cut it.
The D200 is also a fine camera of its type but now its technology is a bit dated, particularly if you like low light, high iso work. Other than that its still a wonderful camera. But I have been hankering for a while now to try a FF camera as I like natural light photography and its still relatively new CMOS technology has a great reputation on that front.
So far I have only had the chance to experiment a little around home at 1600 iso. I had read reviews that this camera has virtually no noise at that setting. From what I have seen this is about right. On screen at least the images look very clean - even when zoomed to the max. So this suggests you can shoot 1600 and expect to get not just usable shots but very good ones. 3200 iso still shows good results - some loss of detail but still not all that much noise, comparatively. I imagine this camera has some reasonably good in-camera processing software that can be thanked. Thats probably the greatest plus for me. One of the nice tricks it has up its sleeve is that it automatically recognises when you install a DX lens (at least Nikon ones) and crops the sensor. It also throws up frame lines in the finder to match the cropped - these look just like a rangefinder. Downside I suppose is that the cropped FX sensor will have few pixels than its native 12 megapixels - which is not all that many these days anyway.
On the downside its a "whopper". A big rubustly built camera that is noticeably larger than the DX ones and much larger than a digital RF. In one way I like this - I ahve always liked heavy cameras and lenses as they lend a sense of security in their build. But there is no denying they can be taxing to lug around all day.
Still I look forward to using it and will post some shots here when I get a few more taken this weekend.
I full well realise this is not a camera fro everyone and many here may find it not to be to thier taste but is there anyone else who has tried this camera? If so, what do you think?
