Nikon Upgrade

I currently use a Nikon D300s. I absolutely love it.
I know it is now a bit out of date, but it just feels so right in my hands.

I'm now on the lookout for a second body. Given its age it makes no sense to get another D300s so I am looking at the D600 and the D7100.

I didn't like the D7000. I appreciate its great spec and know that a lot of people love it but to me it just didn't feel right.

I guess that means I'm more likely to favour the D600, but I'd appreciate some feedback as not all the reviews I've read have been positive.

I have no interest in video at all. If I did I would own a video camera and I can't understand why DSLR manufacturers are falling over themselves to add a video feature to every damn model. So I guess I'll get it regardless, unless Nikon have the courage to put out a model without it.

I also have a D300s. My father recently purchased the D600 so I've had some experience with it as well. The D600 has some buttons in different spots than the D300s (what comes to mind is where the ISO button is). It's not a big deal rather it is something that you would just need to get used to. The D600 is a very good camera with great low noise on high ISO and it also appears to be a fast operating camera. Given that the D600 retails for about $500 more than what I paid for the D300s it is a significantly better camera than the D300s.

Biggest difference I believe is the D600 is a 24megapixel full frame (FX) Sensor camera where the D7000 is still a Cropped (DX) sensor body (16megapixel).

I presume if I went for a D600, and continued using the same lenses I have for the D300s, I would lose the crop factor. So my 300mm f4 would appear to have less reach.

I presume if I went for a D600, and continued using the same lenses I have for the D300s, I would lose the crop factor. So my 300mm f4 would appear to have less reach.

You can use DX lenses on full frame bodies but I believe there are some limitations.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/dx-lenses.htm

I presume if I went for a D600, and continued using the same lenses I have for the D300s, I would lose the crop factor. So my 300mm f4 would appear to have less reach.

Your 300/4 is designed for full frame bodies, meaning the image circle it delvers to the "film" plane is big enough to cover the 24x36mm full frame sensor. ON a DX body like the D300S the sensor is much smaller and effectively makes the 300/4 perform like a 450/4. With the D600 you'd be able to shoot with the 300/4 and crop the resulting image to what the D300S body produces.

A DX lens doesn't deliver as wide of a circle at the film/sensor plane - just enough to cover the smaller DX sensor. But the lens mount os the same for full frame and dx lenses in the Nikon system, so a dx lens will physically mount on the full frame body. The high end Nikon full frame bodies can tell a dx lens is mounted and they automatically crop the image to the dx sensor size.

Thanks Richard

I use 2-D300 bodies and wouldn't part with them. I have "rolled over" the counter on number of photos on the one I happened to actually keep track of 12 times so far (roughly 120,000 shots) and probably almost that many on the other!!
That said, I too am looking for a possible back up. I also use the D700 full frame but mainly for the wide angle lens and some close up where the crop factor does not affect me.
I have read several "previews" of the D7100 and IF Nikon doesn't come out with a real replacement for our D300/300s bodies-more solid frame and more "pro" feature set; as in a D400, I might just have to go for it.
There are some issues with both the D600/800 that Nikon needs to address before I decide to go all full-frame.
Happy Shooting to you-all.

Martin,

I'm in the same position as you... same camera, same lens looking to upgrade. I initially was going to go with the D600 - but was wary about giving up my cropped frame (D600 can be used in DX mode but takes it down to just 10 MP - 2.3 less than the D300s) since my passion is photographing birds and wildlife. Then I saw the D7100 announced and decided I'm going to go with that and if I have the money in a year from now I'll pickup a used D600 as a second body (I'll be selling my D300s). The D7100 looks like a very worthy upgrades to the D300s... the only concern I have with it is I've read that the buffer for RAW shooting is only 6 frames which doesn't make sense... hoping that's not true.

Another D300/D300S user here, and I echo Luke's post almost exactly. I recently rented a D600 for a job where I needed high ISO and lower noise than the D300S, and the combination of more MP plus significantly lower noise was impressive. If the D7100 noise is about the same as the D600, that would make it an excellent choice for wildlife photography, giving the advantage of the crop factor on telephoto lenses and being able to shoot at higher ISOs.

I'm a long time D300 user (though now moved on) and also shot a D7000 for a bit. As I understand it the D7100 is ergonomically the same as the D7k. For me the ergonomics/feel from D300 to D7k wasn't that big of a deal. And the primary controls that you use with the camera in shooting position were the same. Two things killed the D7k for wildlife photography for me, no focus tracking and the buffer only held 10 frames (12 bit RAW). Accoring to the specs, the D7100 has the same focus module as the D4/800 which is absolutely awesome. So that's one problem fixed and is even superior to the excellent focus of the D300. If ISO performance is at least as good as the D7k, then that is a step up from the D300. To me if you are considering the D7100 for wildlife it all boils down to whether you can live with the small buffer capacity. Six frames for 14 bit RAW lossless compressed and 8 frames for compressed. For what I shoot that's a killer but for anyone who can live with those limits it looks like an unbelievable camera for the price. Plus it will shoot in 1.3 crop mode which produces something like a 14MP image with an effective crop factor of 1.95. That could be darn useful.

Another item to consider is that you may have to upgrade software and hardware depending on your current setup which will add to the overall upgrade cost.

Another item to consider is that you may have to upgrade software and hardware depending on your current setup which will add to the overall upgrade cost.

- Jim

An excellent point. I bought two lightly used D300 bodies instead of D300S bodies primarily for that very reason - that was the last Nikon that I could process via ACR in PS CS3 and I couldn't upgrade PS without replacing my old PowerMac.

Lightroom 4 solves the ACR problem but 24mp might put a burden on older processors/ram.