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Review Nikon D700

This is just an excerpt from a lengthy and in-depth review at The Blog at Wired.com of the Nikon D700, a total wow of a camera.

There are plenty of reviews and incredibly detailed spec sheets for the D700 already online, so I’ll just cover a few of the quirks and delights I have found so far. In short, though, the D700 kicks ass. It’s easy to use, and takes an incredible picture, even in the dark.

That Sensor
The headline feature of the D700 is its full-frame sensor, which is the same one you’ll find in the flagship D3. You only get 12 megapixels, but they’re big pixels, and their light-gathering ability is extraordinary. The top ISO available on the D700 is a staggering 25,600, a full eight stops faster than ISO 100.

At that setting, though, the pictures are terrible. Convert them to black and white and they look exactly like they have been through a photocopier. A photocopier that is running out of toner. That said, even this is better than the results that the Canon G9 gives at just ISO 1600.

Drop just one stop, to ISO 12,800, and things are a lot better. The pictures are still noisy but Nikon has tweaked its noise reduction algorithms to mimic film grain, or so it seems. The EXPEED processor has no mercy with color noise, but is a little easier on the luminance noise. What does that mean? It means that the nasty stuff is cleared out, leaving a grainy but pleasing result.

Drop the ISO to 6400, the highest setting with an actual number (Nikon uses names like H0.3 for the more sensitive settings) and you’d never know you were shooting at more than 800. This, combined with a fast lens (a 50mm ƒ1.8, for example) means you can shoot in ambient light, handheld, at night. And coupled with the heavy body, which steadies things, you can handhold to some pretty slow shutter speeds, too. If you were to add a shake-reducing lens into the mix, you’d likely have no trouble with shooting 2001’s monolith in a black hole. At midnight.

Read the rest of the review HERE.

November 16, 2008 - Posted by intlxpatr | Arts & Handicrafts, Photos | Cameras, Nikon D700