A Quick One Hour With the Nikon D700

I got to shot the  Nikon D700 this weekend as a test. The camera worked great and I really like the full 35mm frame factor because I’ve got a lot of older Nikkor glass. The viewfinder was sharp and good contrast to it. The only shortfalls I could find were the slower burst rate and the viewfinder only showed about 92-95 % of the frame. I got to try it a track while the practice laps were going and the burst rate is a real factor in this situation. If subject isn’t doing 200mph you will not miss the higher frame rate. Adding the MB-D10 battery grip stated to increase the burst rate up to eight frames a second. I didn’t get to try one of those.

The D700 has solid frame, much like the D3 and D300. The AF isn’t as fast as the D3, but it seems a hair faster than the D300.  The camera has one of those little pop-up flashes that people either love or hate. I think they can be handy in certain situations, but I’d rather trust at SB-800 for better quality light.  The pop-up can be used to control other Nikon Speedlights used off camera. One thing that should be noted is that if you use a DX format lens the images will be 5.1 mega pixel and cropped like the DX format cameras.

After only an use I can say it appears a great camera. The street price is about $3,000, $1,500 less than the D3, so it may be limiting to people to step up to buy one. It would make a great back-up camera for pros with a D3. Advance amateurs are probably the target market Nikon was shooting for with the D700.

There was another surprise a found with Nikon is the Capture NX2 software. It is a great improvement over all the work flow front end programs that Nikon has put before. I found I could add labels on the fly while importing the images into the computer. The edit list now is displayed to the right of the screen so you can go back and remove a step of the edit and if you want save the editing steps and apply to the rest of the images in the session. Local control points reminds me burning and dodging in the darkroom, only with more control in less time. Capture NX2 controls make the Nikon work flow faster, accurate and almost pain free. I had been using Adobe Lightroom for acquiring the images and was content with it until I gave the Capture NX2 spin. There probably has been a lot feedback Nikon received on their older programs finally got it right.