I’ve had my D700 for a few days now and thought I’d write up some thoughts, though I haven’t used it as much as I would have liked due to the cold, rainy weather.

Grand Central Clock Nikkor-S·C 50mm Non-AI f/1.4 @f/1.4

As everyone knows by now, high ISO performance is spectacular. I probably don’t need to write that, but I will anyway because I like it so much. It can get usable images throughout its range of 200–6400, and that’s just not something I’ve ever been able to do before. ISO6400 on the D700 looks better than ISO1600 on my D200.

Automated Tellers — Nikkor-S·C 50mm Non-AI f/1.4 @f/1.4

Beyond that, there are a lot of UI and performance tweaks from older and lower model Nikons. You can save settings for 9 manual lenses, though as I use more than 9 I’ve had to set 8 for the ones I use most and then change the 9th for when I use anything else.

Shooting is impeccable with manual lenses, but I am starting to see some vignetting and corner definition weaknesses that were masked by the DX crop, or not necessarily obvious on film (extreme corners of slides do tend to get obscured by the mount). I tend not to care so much about these things, but I’ll be updating all my reviews to reflect this as well as adding full frame digital sample images to each one.

Milkweed — D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 AI

The 51 autofocus points are also a big step up from other systems I’ve used. Autofocus has been fast and accurate when I’ve used it, though I do wish the 51 points covered a larger area of the frame like it does on the D300.

Cat — D700, Nikon 35mm f/2 AI

If I have one complaint, it’s something true on every DSLR I’ve used — the viewfinder is not great. Why can’t we get a massive bright viewfinder like were everywhere in the film days? My FE’s finder is infinitely better.

D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 AI


Tiny link: http://taii.cc/3g

have you had a chance to try the new D800 yet?
Tiny link: http://taii.cc/5S