Nikon D600 gold award

DPREVIEW just posted its review of the Nikon D600 that has the same sensor as the Sony A99:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/11/13/nikon-d600-review-posted

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Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<

Ohhhhh here we go. This gets gold and the A99 will get less because it has 'too many features' and 'is too expensive' and everyone will freak out. I can see it now.

The D600 is in a class of its own, I suspect the A99 will be in the D800 class  as far as DPreview scores are concerned, and thus I'd expect it will not get gold for the EVF and 1/3 stop SLT loss...

But I think for the money, the D600 deserves it's score!

Only the sensor will be full with oil spots ... but who cares, it is a Nikon right?

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www.alex-digitalpics.be by Sony

I agree.

The D600 is a milestone camera and well deserving of being recognized as such.

For the money, the D600 does deserve a gold award in my opinion. And if the A99 doesn't get a gold award it really should not matter.

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Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<

For the money, the D600 does deserve a gold award in my opinion. And if the A99 doesn't get a gold award it really should not matter.

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Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<

How is it a milestone?

I don't disagree at all with the assessment of the D600. But the EVF causing the drop in rating of the A99 is bogus. For all the benefits of both viewfinders, I'll take the EVF anyday.  The thing that DOES tick me off about the A99 though...is how slowly it writes to the card. Seriously, I never once had the 'Unable to display. Writing to memory card' error pop up on the A77.  Happens all the time with the A99 and I need to wait 2 seconds before reviewing a pic.

I don't disagree at all with the assessment of the D600. But the EVF causing the drop in rating of the A99 is bogus. For all the benefits of both viewfinders, I'll take the EVF anyday.  The thing that DOES tick me off about the A99 though...is how slowly it writes to the card. Seriously, I never once had the 'Unable to display. Writing to memory card' error pop up on the A77.  Happens all the time with the A99 and I need to wait 2 seconds before reviewing a pic.

The D600 cons and "oil issue" should not be a problem on Sony A99 so it MUST get 90 pts and a PLATINUM award! Anything less is a conspiracy!

What does an award say. At the end it is always about your own opinion. What is the critera of the test? Nikon is a brand in cameras with a big reputation. But live goes on and development in cameras as well. Critera should change as well. Wenn I see the image of a Nikon and I compare it with the A99 image, for me it is a big difference. When I use my Samsung PS64D8000 with a full silver hdmi cable from Audioquest the difference in dynamic is huge between these two brands. You would be blind if you would not see it. Even for free I would not want to use the Nikon D600. Why? It is for me ( yes it is always personal) very simple why the A99 is better. It is sharper, colours are stronger and the ove rwhole it is a lot more dynamic. You need a screen what can show it to you. When I would do the test I never could give the Nikon ( I used Nikon for over 6 years) an golden award. Because I am aware of the less dynamic colours and less depth compared to the A99. I am a person who is always only interested in the best at the moment. Brand I really don't care. I want the best. I want maximum emotion in my image and in my video. At this moment only a Sony A99 can do this. Sometimes things are very simple in life!

did you guys notice that a99 is one stop worse than nikon d600? and even dpr gave to a99 more light. I can't understand why difference is more than half stop, does this have something to do with on sensor pdaf?

How are you viewing these pictures? Are they out of picture jpegs? How was your tv calibrated? I have the same tv calibrated with both a spectro and tristimulus color analyser. However, for photos, i prefer my wide gamut monitor which is calibrated to adobe rgb standard. Srgb is just too narrow for me to appreciate color saturation and DR. However, if a99 ticks all the right boxes for you, who is another person to say something to the contrary? Enjoy it as much as you can

I think it's half a stop, not one stop difference.

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www.alex-digitalpics.be by Sony

Not sure what you're looking at but say ISO 6400 from the A99 looks less noisy than ISO 12800 fromthe D600 and a bit more noisy than ISO 6400 from the D600.

Based on the shutterspeeds you could assume that the A99 received 1/3 of a stop more light, but Dpreview state that the lightsource can vary too. Which in effect means that we don't know much based on this test alone. 

I have slobered enough over both those cameras and while the D600 is a good camera, it feels clumsy in the hands. There is no articulating screen, MFA, etc. The A99 has come a long way in terms of high iso but it is still a stop or stop'n'half behind the D600. But, there are numerous other pro friendly features in the A99 that should land it the gold award. Not that I care but it should. It is a beautiful handling camera and does not feel clumsy at all.

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Nick P

I have heard the lower cost of the EVF over Pentaprism system as one of the advantages of the EVF a number of times on this forum.  I would think this advantage would enable Sony to meet Nikon's price.  I feel it is foolish for Sony to feel they can compete with the publics impression of Nikon quality (whether true or not) and still offer the same general class camera at a substantually higher price.  Sony has taken the "Sony Quality" stance in pricing with much of it's electronics but this attitude just doesn't apply to high end cameras and I don't think Sony Leadership understands this.

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Dave

Just wondering, what's the 1 to 1.5 stops based on? I don't see it in the comparisons posted (which show closer to half a stop).

I thought DPR only changed shutter speed I didn't think they change lighting level. if thats the case then arguing based on DPR samples makes no sense.