Nikon D600: Sample Photos and Initial Thoughts

Nikon D600 with the AF-S NIKKOR 24-85MM F/3.5-4.5G ED VR Kit Lens

Walk This Way

The Nikon D600 can be found on Amazon for around $2,600 with the kit lens and right around $2,000 for just the body.  It’s being touted at the single best DSLR out right now.  The D600 is a full frame (meaning 35mm) DSLR with just over 24 megapixel.  I’m not going to talk much about the camera specs in this post, there will be a D600 review down the road with more details.  I just wanted to show you some sample shots (jpeg) that I took the first day.  The weather was overcast and the location wasn’t exactly mind-blowing so these were the best I could do with where I was.  Enjoy!

Notice the photo above with the barbed wire, if you want to see how sharp it is go ahead and click on the image and look at the spider web in the top/middle/left of the image.  Pretty cool.

My absolute first impression with this camera was the felling of concern, concern that I would not be able to eek out the absolute best this camera had to offer.  The camera feels like a work horse in your hands and is ready to tackle anything you through at it.  The question is, are you going to be the camera’s weakest link?  They say a camera is only as good as the lens its shooting through and this seems to be the case with the Nikon D600 . It’s a great lens for all around use and traveling because of its compact size and ruggedness but the image quality is probably an 8 on a scale of 10. Now with that being said, if you compare this to anything below a full frame camera (D5100, D7000, Cannon T whatevers) you will think it’s a 10… it’s that big of a step up.

The focus on the camera seemed to be very quick, not as quick as my Olympus OM-D but that camera is a completely different beast.  I was able to get very crisp sharp pictures from the camera without a ton of messing around.  The camera has separate controls for both aperture and shutter speed (I wouldn’t buy a camera that didn’t) so there was very little messing about with settings.

The Nikon D600 gave a great first impression to a person who has never owned a Nikon in his life.  I can confidently say that this camera will be my new go to for anything serious.

Day one complaints:

  • Live view doesn’t update as you change the aperture and shutter speed (None of the full frames do from my understanding)
  • Impossible to see the readout inside the optical viewfinder in direct sunlight without shading your face (limitation of optical viewfinders)

Day one Kudos:

  • From never shooting with a Nikon the learning curve was not tremendous
  • The image quality is excellent
  • Very solid build
  • Big enough to be comfortable to hold and small enough to travel with
  • Plenty of customization (U1 and U2 modes… more on that in the review)
  • Price (second cheapest full frame DSLR)

If your in the market for the D800 I would give this camera a serious look and consider saving yourself a thousand dollars, all the reviews I have read so far agree that the image quality is the same if not better than the D800.  As I review the camera with more lenses I will update and post it for you to gander.

**IF YOU HAVE SPECIFIC QUESTION ABOUT THE CAMERA OR WOULD LIKE ME TO CHECK SOMETHING FOR YOU PLEASE ASK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.  THANKS!

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