D600 Review sure looks good hope 6D is that good

MayaTlab0 wrote:

Am I the only one not to have been surprised by Nikon and Canon's DSLR announcements this year ?

When you think about it, apart from its sensor, the D800 is just a slightly improved D700. Its sensor just addresses what was one of the most most obvious difference between the D700 and its peers (5DII, A900) : megapixels. That's it. A certain number of issues haven't been addressed by the D800 (lack of a decent user mode system for example).

As far as the D600 goes, again, it's not really surprising : Nikon picked a few bits from the D7000 and D800, added a few specific things to it, and voilà, you have a camera right down the middle. Again, there is nothing earth-shattering about it. If its AF seems to be better specified than the 6D's AF, it's more a testament about how well-specified the D7000's AF was. If its sensor ultimately performs better at low ISO than the 6D's, it's more a testament about how good the Exmor technology is in this regard.

The 5DIII is basically Canon addressing most of the criticisms raised after the 5DII, apart from dynamic range and banding at low ISO, and taking a page from Nikon's book by putting the flagship AF in it. Basically mirroring what Nikon did with the D800 : addressing its competitive disadvantage.

The 6D was a little more surprising to me, at least the extent to which Canon went cheap. No, I'm not talking about the AF system (I've got the feeling it isn't going to be nearly as bad as what people think it is reading specifications only, if the body I handled at the Parisian Salon de la photo was any indication), but things like the lack of auto-backlighting control, or the disappearance of the M-fn button.

From the big two, the real surprise, to me, this year, was Canon's 40mm lens. And, in general, what I feel might be a change in lens line-up philosophy from Canon, moving away from cheap, well-specified lenses that perform just OK wide-open, to more expensive lenses compromising attention-grabbing specifications for very good wide-open and closed down specifications, good build quality and IS in wide prime lenses. Just as an illustration, Nikon released the 28mm f1.8, a lens people were expecting, giving the release of the 50 f1.8 and 85 f1.8 lenses. People also expected Canon to release a 28mm f1.8, but they didn't. They released instead the 28mm f2.8 IS USM. There is something a little M-mountish in recent Canon releases : expensive, modest specifications, but good if not very good performances, straight from the widest aperture, that I don't see in recent Nikon, or Sony lens releases (more in line with traditional specifications, price-points and performances). I think it's quite interesting, we'll see if Canon continues this recent trend or not.

Going back to the comparison between the 6D and the D600, I think DPreview was right to comment about the 6D's lack of Wow factor. But, when you start to handle them, you realise it isn't as bad as what people think it is, and most importantly, that the 6D isn't feeling as cheap in the hand as its specifications suggest. Personally, I find them both too expensive anyway for what they offer.