From Canon 5D mk2 to Nikon D600 - experience

ZAnton wrote:

Well, first I wanted to buy D600 because of its excellent DR, low noise and better AF. Before I did it, I'd read some reviews of lens I was going to buy. mainly at photozone.de, and surprizingly, most of Nikon's lenses were same or better than Canon's! That was the first BS floating on Canon's forums.

35 f/1.4, 28 f/1.8, 50 AFs - both 1.4 and 1.8 - all are way better than Canon's counterparts. 35mm is not relevant any more, I will probably get Sigma, but 28 and 50 - are what I need. I had both canon's 50s (1.8 and 1.4) - and both were useless, sinse AF didn't work properly at f < 2.8.

Also Canon doesn't have 14-24 - my final dream.

Well now to the camera itself.

1) noise - O mama mia!!!. I use iso3200 on a regular basis! On 5Dmk2 it was absolute maximum, on D600 it is totally usable.

2) DR. double "mama mia!!!". I often shoot in forest or other high contrast scenes. Then I use "fill light" in LR, and 5Dmk2 pulls horrifying noise. On D600 even at "shadows" +100 and "blacks" +100 there is no noise.

3) Af. Cross-points are same or a bit better than those on 5Dmk2. And even though there are only 9 of them, an ability to move the subject from the center is already very helpfull. Other non-cross-points are much better than on 5Dmk2 and I find them usable in a good light (as oppose to totally unusable on 5Dmk2).

4) Button layout. Even though I used Canon for like 7 years, I find button-layout on Nikon better than on canon. All necessary functions are accessible without going into menu. The only thing I still like more on Canon - vertical wheel for the index finger.
On the contrary the software menu is very confusing and highly non-intuitive.

I think "perpendicular" menu construction (as on Canon) is in general much better than "parallel" (Nikon, Olympus). But again, on Nikon, I almost never go inside those menus.

5) Auto WB and "skin tones". Well that is the second BS, floating in Canon society.
I find WB of Nikon same bad (or same good) as Canons. Difference is that Canon tends to shift to magenta, while Nikon shifts towards yellow. Both need adjustment in LR, and both by the same absolute value.

6) Exposure Metering. That was a relief. As I mentioned, I often shoot high contast scenes, therefore I need to expose on the brightest part, and then pull shadows in Lightroom. Canon 5Dmk2 was totally unpredictable, I need to make at least 3, often 4 shots, to get what I want. With Nikon - one test shot, second shot is what I want.
Also Canon underexpose by 1 stop as soon as ISO reaches 800 and higher.

So, except some strange behaviour of the Tamron 24-70, I am happy that I did the system change. It did cost me some money, but Canon will not make new sensor with low read noise on at least next 4 years.(life cycle of 1D,5D,6D lines). There was a lot of hope on 6D, but the miracle didn't happen.