With the announcement of the D600, the full-frame wars have well and truly begun. Photographers have long been interested in a relatively affordable — we use that term loosely for the Australian market — entry point into the upper echelons of SLR gear.
Full-frame sensors have the advantage of being larger than their APS-C or crop-sensor cousins. In a nutshell, this means that they are able to gather more light thanks to the larger photosites, and are not susceptible to crop factor. So when you mount a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera, it's a true 50mm focal length.
Design and features
The lightweight body makes it a much more viable alternative to the D800 for street shooting, travel and everyday photography. At 760 grams with a battery (body only), the D600 won't overwhelm you, particularly if you have never experienced shooting with a full-frame SLR before.
In the hand, the D600 feels like a baby version of the D800. Controls will be familiar to anyone who has used a Nikon SLR previously, with the requisite buttons flanking the LCD screen for options such as white balance, ISO, zoom, menu and playback controls all within easy reach.
The locking mode dial.
(Credit: CBSi)
A new exterior feature on the D600 is a locking mode dial. To rotate it in order to adjust shooting features, the centre button on the dial needs to be depressed. It's designed to stop the dial from sliding out of place, though it feels somewhat unnecessary given how sturdy the mechanism is. Still, some photographers may find this a valuable feature.
Underneath the mode dial is the secondary shooting dial with options for single, continuous, quiet, timer and mirror-up shooting.
Across the top panel, you will find an LCD panel that displays shooting parameters, as well as a hotshoe and pop-up flash. Just near the shutter button is a small record button for shooting video, as well as a metering and exposure-compensation button.
The D600 has dual SD card slots, which can be configured in a number of different ways, namely for redundancy purposes and flow-over. Wi-Fi connectivity is also supported, but you need to invest in an optional adapter to get this capability. Also, this camera only has USB 2.0 on-board, as opposed to 3.0, which does limit bandwidth for traditional tethering methods.
Click through for more sample photos and impressions of the D600. (Credit: CBSi)
The 3.2-inch LCD screen at the back of the camera is the same 921,000-dot version found on the D800. The viewing experience is excellent in the majority of situations, but for outdoor use, we suggest removing the included BM-14 plastic cover and shooting without, or buying a third-party alternative. The viewfinder is nice and bright, offering 100 per cent coverage of the field of view. Photographers who like to shoot landscape or architectural scenes will appreciate the virtual horizon that is available on the D600.
Connectivity is very robust. Photographers get access to a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio monitoring during record and playback, as well as a stereo microphone input. Micro HDMI, USB 2.0 and a GPS port complete the side panel. Like the D800, the D600 can output a clean, uncompressed feed through its HDMI port.
A built-in HDR feature when shooting JPEG photos allows the camera to automatically merge exposures at set values (1, 2 or 3EV) and select smoothing options. It won't replace constructing an HDR image in post-production, but it provides a good base for experimentation.
Compared to
| Canon EOS 6D | Nikon D600 |
|---|---|
| 20.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor | 24.3-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor |
| 3-inch LCD screen (1.04-million dot) | 3.2-inch LCD screen (921,000-dot) |
| 11-point AF (1 cross-type) | 39-point AF (9 cross-type) |
| Wi-Fi built in | Optional Wi-Fi transmitter |
| 4.5 frames per second | 5.5 frames per second |
| SDXC support (1 slot) | SDXC support (2 slots) |
| 1/4000 sec max shutter, 1/180 sync speed | 1/4000 sec max shutter, 1/200 sync speed |
| No built-in flash | Built-in (pop-up) flash |
Performance
Sharing the same power pack as the D7000 and D800, the battery is rated at 900 shots.
Note that the shutter-lag measurement listed above for the D600 is with autofocus turned on. The D600 can take a burst of 15 RAW images at 5.5fps with autofocus, and then stops to process them. In JPEG-only mode, it's a near-unlimited burst depending on the speed and size of your memory card, at 3.5fps with autofocus.
Autofocusing is swift and mostly accurate, though as the 39 AF points are located closest to the centre of the screen, sometimes you may need to adjust and recompose your shot if the right object isn't in focus the first time. The 24-85mm lens — incidentally the only lens supplied to us for review with the camera — doesn't feel like it is best equipped to make the most of the AF system.
As usual, autofocus in Live View isn't instantaneous, but it feels a bit snappier than that found on the D800. Also, an important point to note is that when shooting video in Live View (not stills), you can't adjust the aperture.
Image quality
While the D600 may not have the extreme resolution of the D800, it does benefit in many ways from its older sibling, including excellent low-light capabilities. Colour rendition on default settings, and when shooting JPEG, is incredibly impressive. Natural, true-to-life colours are something you can expect time after time from this camera.
It's bokehlicious! The advantage of a full-frame sensor at f/4.5, in photo form.
(Credit: CBSi)
The "kit" 24-85mm lens is decent, but not as sharp from edge to edge as we would like, which is something that becomes noticeable not just on crops and pixel peeping at 100 per cent magnification, but also on smaller versions of the image on a screen. We would suggest using some of Nikon's more impressive FX glass for the best results.
Automatic white balance is very accurate, though looking at the images on the D600's screen makes things appear a little cool.
A comparison of the RAW and JPEG files produced by the D600, 100 per cent crops inset.
(Credit: CBSi)
At the time of writing, the only program that could read the D600's RAW files was the included Nikon software. JPEG processing from the D600 is very similar to RAW, with only slight smoothing of noise as the ISO level increases. What is most interesting about the D600 is how it renders noise as the sensitivity climbs; it looks more like film grain than digital noise.
Video quality is on par with that delivered by the D800. The image is very clean, even when shooting at extremes like ISO 2000 and above during filming. There are a few gripes, though, which include the recording time being limited to 20 minutes when shooting in the highest-quality mode, and the slight softness of the video image straight from the camera. The D600 can record in 1080p (30fps, 25fps, 24fps) or 720p (60fps, 50fps, 30fps, 25fps).
Nikon D600 test with ME-1 microphone from CNET Australia on Vimeo.
Something that really comes in handy for photographers wanting to experiment with more creative video modes is the built-in time-lapse feature. Set the shooting interval, and the D600 will tell you how long the sequence will be, then automatically snap away and create a finished 1080p video with all the frames stitched together once it has finished.
Video recording can also be done in DX crop, which uses the centre portion of the sensor to provide a 1.5x focal-length crop, still able to record at 1080p.
Image samples
Exposure: 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 1250 |
Exposure: 1/1250, f/4.2, ISO 320 |
Exposure: 1/640, f/8, ISO 250 |
Exposure: 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 320 |
Conclusion
Though many will see this camera as a D800 "lite", the D600 offers plenty of advantages for photographers wanting to enter the world of full-frame photography without the hefty price. Offering a range of video controls and still-image quality refined over generations of Nikon cameras, the D600 is an impressive SLR that signals a new era in full-frame photography.
Nikon Australia no longer issues official RRPs for its products, though one Australian retailer is offering it for AU$2599 for body only.
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