[sb in ak]

Why? It does the job, its clear enough. If I replace it with anything it will be 3M like what I got on my other cams.

I think the school of thought is that It can let in some dust which can lead to a scratched screen over time. When I briefly had my D600 I felt like it was fine. If it works for you, it works for you

[Aegon]

My first charge went to 1150 before the low battery indicator turned "red" on the LCD.

[Wired]

My first charge went to 1150 before the low battery indicator turned "red" on the LCD.

I have never run it down that low. But I average 950 between charges. I usually run it to 25% or so.

[Wired]

I listed my D600 with kit lens and battery grip on Kijiji today.

But my Nikon experiment is not over.

I plan on taking the money from this sale and going and finding myself a D800E. Then, once I get my new pedal bike, I plan on getting the 70-200 f2.8

So why the choice to ditch the 600 and upgrade to the 800E?

Too many limitations were built into the D600. Especially when coming from the K5. These limitations are things that I actually found myself getting a little annoyed at while shooting with the camera over the past few months.

Here are the things I love:
The interval shooting function
dedciated drive mode dial
the whole menu system
customization buttons
large view finder
weight
battery life
resolutions
flash sync speed (even though I rarely use it that high)

the things that have driven me crazy:
iso button location
lack of customization with the customizable buttons
redundancy of some customization options
feel of the grip (even with battery grip attachted)
plasticy feeling (both body and G series lenses)
1/4000" max shutter speed
cannot set apreture when in movie mode
no flash sync jack on the body
poly carbonite front

So I was in the store dropping off some rolls of film, and my wife was on the other side of the mall doing god knows what, and the shop keep was asking me what I thought of the D600, especially vs my K5 as well... this store has sold me ALL my photo gear over the past 10 years... so they know me quite well. I voiced my pros and cons and told them that I don't think I'll keep the D600 once Pentax releases a true successor to the K5. Especially since I think the image quality is not as huge a jump as others are making out to be, and of course that is largley in part to the 3 lenses that make up my Nikon kit I'm sure.

So he grabbed a D800 off the shelf, messed around with the settings for a minute or two, handed it to me and pointed out how the 800 would suit my shooting needs better. It has the flash sync jack, the faster shutter speed (which I didn't think I would miss, but do quite a bit), the ability to set ISO to one of the custom buttons (for viewfinder to the face adjustment), can set apreture when in movie mode, and most importantly the camera feels 10 times better in the hands than the D600 does. We mounted up my next choice in lens (70=200 f2.8) and it felt perfect. So I've decided, thats my game plan.70-200 f2.8 and a D800E

And why the E? Why not? I don't shoot repeating patterns a lot, so I'll be fine with the moire (or however you spell it)

Maybe then I'll see the benifits of switching. It's really not that much more when you account into how much I've spent on the D600, kit lens, and grip (in fact its about the same), especially when the kit lens sucks massively, and the grip was purchased to assist in making the D600 more comfortable. I just hope I won't take a bath on it on the Kijiji.... $2600, I think its a fair deal for a camera with less than 2000 actuations.

[sb in ak]

Got my refurb D800/24-70 today in the mail from Cameta. Took it out for a test run while skiing. Man it was cold; probably around 10F, so that kind of put a damper on things. No camera issues in the cold, and I wasn't expecting any.

But so far so good. I love it. The 24-70G weighs about as much as a ton of bricks but I've actually found that I have an easier time keeping the camera steady in low light with all of that mass. Anyways, the camera is definitely more of an upgrade than a lateral or downgrade from the K5 and Canon 5DII that I've been using. The AF on the D800 easily beats both of them and I have a lot more confidence with the mostly metal build vs. half-plastic D600.

Though for a much more expensive camera, the build quality on the D800 really isn't better than the K5. Certain things like the battery door are surprisingly flimsy on the D800. The K5's is much more robust and actually locks...still love that feature on Pentaxes. Like a million people have said before, there is no perfect camera.

Will post some shots in the FF Shots thread later after I have time to do a little PP.

Oh yeah, I didn't go for the "E" either. In the raw samples I checked out the "E" files were definitely a little sharper on pixel peeping. Thom Hogan wrote on his blog that he thought the "E" was best for wider apertures while by f/8 diffraction pretty much killed its effectiveness. Anways, for my landscape photography, I figured it probably wasn't worth it. That extra $ can go toward another lens or an insurance poiicy for it all...or my student loans from college

[Wired]

Got my refurb D800/24-70 today in the mail from Cameta. Took it out for a test run while skiing. Man it was cold; probably around 10F, so that kind of put a damper on things. No camera issues in the cold, and I wasn't expecting any.

But so far so good. I love it. The 24-70G weighs about as much as a ton of bricks but I've actually found that I have an easier time keeping the camera steady in low light with all of that mass. Anyways, the camera is definitely more of an upgrade than a lateral or downgrade from the K5 and Canon 5DII that I've been using. The AF on the D800 easily beats both of them and I have a lot more confidence with the mostly metal build vs. half-plastic D600.

Though for a much more expensive camera, the build quality on the D800 really isn't better than the K5. Certain things like the battery door are surprisingly flimsy on the D800. The K5's is much more robust and actually locks...still love that feature on Pentaxes. Like a million people have said before, there is no perfect camera.

Will post some shots in the FF Shots thread later after I have time to do a little PP.

Oh yeah, I didn't go for the "E" either. In the raw samples I checked out the "E" files were definitely a little sharper on pixel peeping. Thom Hogan wrote on his blog that he thought the "E" was best for wider apertures while by f/8 diffraction pretty much killed its effectiveness. Anways, for my landscape photography, I figured it probably wasn't worth it. That extra $ can go toward another lens or an insurance poiicy for it all...or my student loans from college

Thanks for the updates. For me my pentax's will remain my urban cameras, but I plan to make my nikon kit my pro portrait kit. So if my D600 shoots I've had so far are any indication ill be around f4 most of the time so I think the E will be a bit better for me.

[Wired]

[the swede]

D600 stays... for me, perfect

[wjax]

Just bought the D600 and am disappointed at the lack of ease of setting up exposure bracketing. Is there a way to do a single burst of 2 or 3 bracket exposures on a tripod with a single push of the shutter button? Any way to have it take the shots after a delay? Thanks for any help you can give me on this.

[pxpaulx]

hate to say rtm, but page 153-155 in the manual should help you out. sounds like you need to set the drive mode to either continuous high, low or delay to have the camera take all of the bracketed shots with one click (in delay it sounds like it will follow whatever delay you've set, 2sec or 10sec). it does read like if you set the camera to delayed, each shot will have a delay of the same specification (i.e. 2sec - shot 1 - 2sec - shot 2 - 2sec - shot 3) so if you have it set to 10sec it would be 30 seconds for the 3 shots - perhaps you're using that setting and the delay is throwing you off?

[Wired]

without a doubt I fell in love with this camera over the past couple of weeks. Overnight it seems. Even the kit lens, which I originally thought was garbage has become a good friend. I can't stop shooting. I added a few more items to the kit too, and have plans for further expansion.

added:
wireless remote trigger
Nikon AF 80-200mm f2.8 ED
Carl Zeiss Planar T*2 50mm f1.4

expansion list:
Tamaron 28-70 f2.8 XR Di VC
Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f1.4

here are some images:

[the swede]

Winder: Would be really cool if you'd explain more on what exactly happened that seem to change your mind about the D600
As i recall from this thread and others you have had some serious doubts about the D600.

Me... im crazy in love... since i got the 28 1.8G even more. I have the complete 1.8G prime trio now and it rocks my world, but the 28 is a craaaazy freaky lens! Really blows my mind... Kinda in a "The DA 15 controlls my mind" way, seriously... But the 28 is even more creative in its dof and MFD.

[Wired]

Winder: Would be really cool if you'd explain more on what exactly happened that seem to change your mind about the D600
As i recall from this thread and others you have had some serious doubts about the D600.

Me... im crazy in love... since i got the 28 1.8G even more. I have the complete 1.8G prime trio now and it rocks my world, but the 28 is a craaaazy freaky lens! Really blows my mind... Kinda in a "The DA 15 controlls my mind" way, seriously... But the 28 is even more creative in its dof and MFD.

A few things. First I learned how to use this camera and adapted to the format.

The big thing I had to deal with is that with APSC I usually stop down to 2.8 max. I don't own very many lenses slower than that for for my K5, and the ones I do never get used. I live between 1.4 and 2.8. That thought process had to change. The quicker I accepted that the better.

Next, using full frame, especially without image stabalization, in low light just does not work for me. Use the right tool for thr right job. I can still shoot wide open with a DA*55 in low light and be happy with the focal plane. Not so with 35mm.

Color profiles in lightroom need to be set for the in camera profiles. The D600 raw files such for color rendition and that was my biggest hurdle. I love vivid color and high contrast I get with my FA limited lenses. Everything I've used on the Nikon (kit lens excluded) had given me that 3d effect, but the colors blow.

Zeiss Planar 50mm rocks my socks

[the swede]

Fine

I use camera profile standard, and add a few things in LR to it. Really makes a difference! That Adobe profile just doesnt do D600 files any good.

Regarding colors, lenses seem to do the most effect. The 28 1.8G has a fantastic color and contrast, the files i get from it is just amazing. The 50 and 85 i need to work more with in LR.

[Ian Stuart Forsyth]

I downloaded DNG Profile Editor for PS this allows you to go in and make your own camera profiles for PS. I know with the D800 I was always struggling to match the output of my K5. 15 minutes with the DNG editor and now I have the colors of my k5 but now in the D800 and the DL is free. It’s also handy for studio work I can match a profile and tint it to some of the classic lenses I loved in the past.