Nikon D700
12.1 megapixels | 3" screen | Full frame sensor
Essentially a D3 shrunk down and squeezed into a body roughly the same size as a D300, the D700 shares the acclaimed 12.1MP full frame ('FX') sensor as the D3 and has the same processing engine, so we would presume output to be almost identical. The main differences (aside from being considerably smaller) are physical; there's a different shutter (good for 150,000 exposures rather than 300,000 on the D3), different viewfinder prism (with 95% coverage) and a slower burst rate.
You also lose the rear LCD info panel (there's no room for it) and one of the D3's two CF card slots, but you do get a couple of extra features to soften the blow slightly; most notably a self-cleaning sensor and a built-in flash. Unsurprisingly the D700 produces excellent output that is very similar to the D3’s. The D700 offers an enormous, almost five stop RAW headroom that allows you to even pull back highlight detail that has been blown out beyond recognition. The D700's most obvious strength though is its high ISO performance. It's the combination of the huge photosites on the full frame sensor and Nikon’s very sensible approach to noise reduction (heavy-handed on chroma noise and much more lenient on luminance noise) that lets you (within limits) take usable pictures up to a sensitivity of ISO 12800.
Reviews from other photography sites
It's hard not to like the Nikon D700. It offers a full frame sensor, stunning photo quality, and blazing fast performance -- just like the much more expensive D3 -- all in a body not much larger than the D300. There's very little to complain about here -- the camera has a slight tendency to...
It's hard not to like the Nikon D700. It offers a full frame sensor, stunning photo quality, and blazing fast performance -- just like the much more expensive D3 -- all in a body not much larger than the D300. There's very little to complain about here -- the camera has a slight tendency to overexpose, it's not terribly easy to use, and the software bundle isn't the greatest. And that's about it. If you'll allow just this one baseball metaphor: Nikon has hit one out of the park with the D700.
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As if having two of the hottest and best performing digital SLRs weren't enough, Nikon is shipping a camera that combines the best of both cameras into one: the Nikon D700. Though I called the Nikon D300 the "build-it-yourself D3," the Nikon D700 brings you a lot closer to that goal, with the...
As if having two of the hottest and best performing digital SLRs weren't enough, Nikon is shipping a camera that combines the best of both cameras into one: the Nikon D700. Though I called the Nikon D300 the "build-it-yourself D3," the Nikon D700 brings you a lot closer to that goal, with the ability to add not only the D3's faster frame rate to your camera, but you start out with the D3's exact 12.1, full-frame, high-sensitivity CMOS sensor. According to Nikon, that includes the 12-channel readout for faster image acquisition.
The bulk of the story is that the D700 is a lot like a D300 with a full-frame sensor, and that's pretty much how it shot in the field. The only major difference I experienced when shooting the D700 was that the lens's 24mm setting produced an image that looked like it was shot at 24mm: more like the one I used to get back in the days of 35mm film SLRs. That's a welcome change.
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Nikon impressed us all with its D300 and D3 bodies, but many believed a combination of the two could yield something even more special. Now there's no need to wonder. By essentially squeezing the D3’s full frame and high ISO quality into the D300’s more portable and affordable form factor,...
Nikon impressed us all with its D300 and D3 bodies, but many believed a combination of the two could yield something even more special. Now there's no need to wonder. By essentially squeezing the D3’s full frame and high ISO quality into the D300’s more portable and affordable form factor, Nikon’s done just that with the new D700.
As such it’s hard not to be impressed by the D700’s handling, performance and feature-set. After all, it inherits a powerful 51-point AF system, high...
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