Putting D600 initial release issues in perspective

I completely agree with this. Avoid buying anything (especially Nikon cameras) right when they come out.

I preordered a D600, and then was happy for a few weeks while I enjoyed some impressive autofocus and ISO performance compared to my Sony a580. Then, I was a little less happy when I went to enjoy that nice 24 MP of resolution with wide angle landscape shots (not usually my thing, but I had to try it out), and wasn't quite as happy anymore when I stopped down and saw dust. Then, the aperture lever got jammed up, so I couldn't stop down any lens. So, I pushed it, and it got jammed down. Fortunately, all of my lenses have aperture rings...but I didn't buy a $2000 camera to deal with dust and apply exposure compensation whenever I'm not shooting wide open.

The camera's in for repairs now, and I'm borrowing a D3. Speaking of that, I feel like that D3 has a left focus point issue :(. What is with Nikon these days...have they always been like this?

Cheap lens? Yes. But what's more bothersome is the dust...

I still feel like I made the best decision I could two months ago when I bought the D600. It was a great camera that did everything I expected it to, and I couldn't have forseen the dust/aperture lever problems.

And actually, two lessons learned:

1. Don't preorder. Let others preorder and find all the issues first.

2. Don't buy lenses without aperture rings, so I'm still in the game if that aperture lever acts up. Besides, aperture rings let you adjust the aperture while recording video, and it just feels more natural to use the aperture ring. It's a lens function anyways.