Nikon D700 a good idea today?

[rfaspen]

Hi all.

OK, I have an opportunity to get a Nikon D700 for about $450-500. Its not a spring chicken -- meaning it has well over 10,000 shutter clicks on it, and the usual wear from being held, but it doesn't appear to be abused. Just used.

The D700 is full frame, but only 12MP! I'm just not sure if this camera is a reasonable purchase these days or not (today being 21 March, 2017). Am I nuts for even thinking of buying this body? Or, is it a reasonable purchase?

I have no other digital SLR's. I do have several film Nikon SLRs (F2, FE, FE2, FM, FM2, EM, F80) and a smattering of lenses for these, including a couple AF-Nikkors, quite a few AI/AIS, and a couple non-AI. I have an M9 and Oly EP-2 for my digital capability but neither is a great choice for night-time photography: I would like to try photographing local timber mills at night with pretty long exposures. A decent DSLR is a good and recommended tool for this.

So....get this D700 or pass? And if so, the price? The asking $450-500 is about my budget at the moment.

 

[Fraser]

D700 great camera, the only reason I got rid of mine was I picked up a df. D3 sensor in a smaller body with anti dust thingy!

 

[jammcat]

If you're looking for a Nikon full frame DSLR and don't need it to be the latest and greatest, then this will probably fit the bill.

 

[dreilly]

Oh heck yeah, especially for that price! I can't remember if the shutter is rated to 100,000 or 150,000 but either way it's a good deal. You can even get those non-AI lenses converted at aiconversions.com for $35 and they'll meter on the D700. It's a great camera. Excellent autofocus. Beautiful images. 12 megapixels is just fine unless you're printing HUGE. I've made great 13x19 prints off of 8, 10 and 12 megapixel files. I can't really think of a downside.

One of the first things that wowed me about the D700 was it's night/long exposure capability. I was hosting a star party in my neighborhood and the local paper's photographer had a new D700...her photos of the crowd's motion around the telescopes with the stars and milky way overhead were stunning.

One of my favorite digital cameras!

PS: I cut my teeth on a NIkon FM2 and a cheap sigma zoom. After a long road through rangefinders and digital cameras, I just got a Nikon FE for my girlfriend and an F2 for myself, and a clutch of old non-AI lenses, a few of them converted. The others will be soon!

 

[dreilly]

I spent a few days in Istanbul with a D700 and a nifty fifty (I think I had a 105/2.5 too but I probably shot mostly with the nifty-fifty). This was one of my favorites. Images are just smooth. These were out-of-the-camera jpegs. I don't do RAW (and I also didn't print my own film images) and so any digital camera needed a good jpeg engine. Olympus and Nikon are both great at this.

 

[Rob-F]

D700 great camera, the only reason I got rid of mine was I picked up a df. D3 sensor in a smaller body with anti dust thingy!

If you mean the vibrator that cleans the dust off the sensor, my D700 has that.

 

[Keith]

I still have mine and will never part with it ... seriously at that price you can't go wrong especially with that shutter count. From memory the D700 shutter is rated to 150.000 clicks and the bodies themselves have to be the best built DSLR I've ever held and that includes my D4. Fantastic camera! 🙂

 

[Rob-F]

I'm so satisfied with mine, I have never felt the need for any other DSLR.

 

[SaveKodak]

The only downside is it's relatively large as compared to the D750.

 

[Contarama]

Call me crazy if you will but I think Nikon's 12mp sensors make some of the most beautiful digital images that can be made. All of them from the D5000 up. I almost hate to say it but they're probably even better than the ones my Df makes. The only digital Nikon I would buy now is another Df, a D700, a D90, or a Coolpix A. I would jump on that deal before they change their mind.

 

[Keith]

And I will add that I saw an immaculate D700 at Matsuiyastore recently for around seven hundred dollars so obviously they aren't worth much more than that. 🙂

 

[Range-rover]

I have a D3 and 12 pixels is more than enough, the D700 might have the same sensor as the
D3 I'm not sure. The price is good and if it's in good shape go for it, and shutter count
mine is about 175,000 and still going strong.

 

[leica M2 fan]

I'm still very content with my D700 that is now 6 years old. It still functions like new.
I recently sent it back to Nikon and it was refurbished and feels brand new! I'll probably
keep it even if I happen to buy another Nikon. At your price i'd go for it, you'll be well served.
BTW my shutter count is 7402 at this time.

 

[Dogman]

Used digital equipment can be outstanding bargains. Once you get to 10-12 MP APS-C sensors, you should be able to make sharp prints up to 16x20...even more, depending on subject matter. With the Nikon having a FF sensor, your capability is even greater. I'm not a Nikon guy but the price seems like a bargain.

 

[Solinar]

rfaspen - I just acquired a D700 last month, which was $61 over your budget and has 20,000 more clicks of usage.

It was a no brainer since I rarely print larger than a 6 x 9 inch and already owned 4 AF-D primes for my D300 - which uses the same control layout and batteries.

The D700 is definitely worth current price range of under $600, if you already have FF lenses. ISO 800 produces very clean images to my eye. Color rendition is just beautiful. The build quality is awesome when compared to D610. The D700 even has a built-in shutter for the viewfinder - which is a great addition for tripod use.

 

[willie_901]

Yes, The D700 Is A Good Idea

Yes, The D700 Is A Good Idea

If you are in the market for a FX DSLR, the D700 with 10,000 clicks is an excellent choice at $500. I recommend one without hesitation.

For about four years I used two D700s for 3-8 gigs per week.

The D700 is a very good DSLR. The AF is excellent and flexible. It is a very tough camera. I never had a single problem. I dropped mine once and it was banged around occasionally banged around with no ill effects. It can tolerate a reasonble amount of moisture. Battery life is great. I had the sensor cover glass cleaned professionally twice a year. A good friend took a D700 with him wherever he went. It lived in car and truck glove compartments, flew in small aircraft, went hunting and spent time on boats. He even took it in golf carts. It never skipped a beat.

While its technical IQ is behind the newest technologies, the differences are only significant in extreme cases: high dynamic range scenes, very low light or when you want to crop heavily and, or make an unusually large print.

I only used raw. When exposure is optimized, I had no reservations relying upon ISO 800 for any task. ISO 1600 was my limit. My cameras' green-dot focus light was practical for most manual focus lenses, so using AI/AIS lenses was practical. I did not find any Nikkor glass (even the newest, expensive stuff) that was as good as the D700.

I did not enjoy using the D700 for non-commercial projects. It is too big and too loud. In 2012 I picked up one of the first X100s and was much happier working on personal projects.

In 2014 I switched to two FUJIFILM X-T1 bodies because I was tired of lugging large, heavy cameras all over the St. Louis metropolitan area week in and week out. Inconvenience was the only reason I abandoned the D700. The X-T1 has slightly, but noticeably better technical IQ. I also discovered the Fujinon lenses lens I needed for work (especially the Fujinon ultra-wide zoom lens) out-performed the F-mount equivalents. Honestly, I didn't miss the D700 at all.

 

[De_Corday]

I still use mine professionally. Check my work out (link below) -- almost all the color work is my D700. Nikon has yet to make a true replacement for it. It still shoots wonderfully up to 1600 ISO, and for my purposes (PJ work and documentary mostly) I shoot it at 3200 with no post processing for noise, and 6400 with just moderate Lightroom noise reduction. It is totally usable at 6400.

Its my no-nonsense work camera.

It's a damn steal for $500.

Honestly, I wish it had a true 100 ISO base, and I wish it had slightly more megapixels. But the IQ is solid even by todays standards, its still the king of low light, versus anything short of a D4, IMHO, and its also a true pro camera. By which I mean its rugged as hell, lasts all day on a battery charge, and has a truly sensible control layout. Don't underestimate that.

 

[Travis L.]

I love my D700 and have no plans to replace it anytime soon

 

[Phil_F_NM]

A D700 with 10k shutter actuations is essentially new. Go for it.
Heck, if I found another D2Hs (4.1Mp sensor) for about $400, I would buy it at the drop of a hat.
This whole megapixel thing is a lot of marketing hype until you get past 14Mp. For news work that I do, the 4Mp camera would be perfect. Even 8x10 enlargements are fine. I had full color, full page images published in a few magazines back in 2005, taken with a D2H. They looked great then and still look great today.

Phil Forrest

 

[rfaspen]

OK, Thank you everyone for your responses.

So it sounds like its a plenty good idea to get this body. I did mistype the number of shutter clicks, it is not 10,000 but 80,000. However, I'm getting the feeling its still not that bad. I had to free up some $$ today with the sale of a lens to apply to this endeavor. Hopefully the camera will still be waiting for me.

I did hear somewhere that the 12 MP full frame sensor is pretty good with night photography because of the large size of the pixels. I hope that's true.