Roger Cicala gives Nikon D610 a clean bill of health

I bought the D600 about a year ago, since then the camera presents the evil dust oil issues. The issue was not resolved after sensor cleaning, actually it got worst making the camera completely useless. The first few pictures were amazing but the oil issues ruined the others after. Nikon knows that even cleaning the sensor is not the solution. Many D600 customer has been complaining that after multiple sensor cleaning and even "change in sensor" (done at a Nikon Center) the camera recur in the same dust-oil issues. Right now many D600 owners (including me) have a camera that not only is useless but because of this issue it can be resell. The right solution will be to replace the D600 for the"new" D610 to those that like me have a $2,000 useless camera in a bag. Please Nikon be responsible and be more customer conscious, if you really know what business is and value your customers.

As a potentail camera buyer I look at this whole D600 issue as a huge FAIL for Nikon customer service and their brand's reputation. If you have a problem you admit to it and take care of it as quickly as possible in order to maintain your customer's faith in the company. I could buy any camera brand that I want, but would I want to buy a Nikon of ANY model after seeing how the D600 customers got hosed with Nikon's response to the dust/oil issues ?. If I was in the market for a D800, or a Df, or D7100, D5300, D3200 I'm not sure I could trust Nikon to stand behind their products and not give me the runaround if my camera experienced issues. That, and they also seem to get a lot of complaints about the quality of their warranty repairs, the turnaround time to complete repairs, and the costs of repairs versus other brands. They really dropped the ball on handling this one.

I preordered the D600 in August 2012 and was very excited to get mine a few weeks later. But I ran into the dreaded oil/dust spot problem and had to have it cleaned. Yesterday, I sent my body back to Nikon -- the stop-down lever in the body failed (unfortch 1.5 months after warranty expired). I had fired a lot of frames with that D600, but not anything out of the ordinary for a Nikon body. This is the first time since I began using Nikon in 1977 that I've had a body fail (except when I exposed a D50 to extreme rain/snow during a weeklong trip in 2007). Once in Tahiti, I dropped an F2 while getting on a crowded bus that was going up a hill and watched it bounce all the way to the back -- to stunned gasps of other passengers. "Pas de problem, c'est un Nikon!" was my response. It was just fine. Which is a long way to say I was disappointed by the D600. I think I've learned my lesson on new Nikon products and will hold off and let them shake out a bit before deciding whether to buy.

should also evaluate against newly bought D600 cameras.

The problem for most Japanese are not admit mistake and move on from there. I work in Japanese Companies before. They always try to cover up. Canon may have improved. Hope they really change.

It is beyond sad that best thing one can say about new Nikon camera is that is not broken like the one before it.
And yes I am still a Nikon user but most of my gear is out on sale. Nikons way to "deal" with this problem helped my see the light and take the plunge.

It will take more than a Roger Cicala to convince the customers to even glance at the D610 and gain respect and trust, after the D600 fiasco.

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Stop whining about the d600. Sometimes life deals you lemons, learn from it and move on.

Ive had my D600 in twice for repair, first time new shutter, second time they just cleaned it and they said the dust was from external sources.I asked them about how they fixed the shutter in the first place, as I had seen reports of double sided sticky tape being used for the repair. The girl replied this isn't ordinary tape it comes from Nikon in Japan . Gobsmacked at that I've just sent letter's off to Dixons travel( part of curry's) and to Nikon formally asking for either a refund or a replacement D610 Quoting the Sale of goods act 1979 and quality of service act 1979 to Nikon awaiting there response although I can guess what that will be.A letter came back from Nikon the first time I asked and in that letter they said you can use NX2 software to get rid of the spots in my photographs , and that's the best advice Ive received from them. ah well.

Excellent as usual from Roger. It's a shame Nikon had to do a redesign to solve the problem but great that they fixed it. Note that he does not say "a minor issue encountered by a small minority of users". He says they had a problem and they fixed it.

Sold my D600, never even considered the D610. Got a Canon 6D with 24-105L lens instead and will not look back.

Getting mine next Wednesday! Woooooo!

Sales just went up for the D610 after any potential buyers read this review from lensrentals, especially for anyone on the fence on whether to buy (...or rent from lensrentals).

Did not want a D600 because of issue. Now back on my consideration list for next purchase for D610, to upgrade from my D300s once I sell D300s privately. I need the great low light IQ of D610 more than the AF speed of a D300s, plus HD video nice to have.

DF is not even being considered for me, too pricey, and lacking some D610 features like video.

How much is a used Nikon D600 beta going for these days?

Good to know that Nikon has apparently improved quality control on those shutter mechanisms, despite the fact that the entire D600 "issue" has been completely blown out of proportion. As has been proven by several renowned and respected professional photographers / camera reviewers - such as Thom Hogan.

Having said that, Nikon should have handled the relatively few people that had indeed genuine issues better and more professionally. This has dented their reputation and as a consequence, customer confidence.

Oh and BTW, I have two D600's - and never had any issues with them.

Excellent job by Roger, he has been a stalwart for carefully designed tests of camera performance, like his very good focus tests comparing PDAF and LV focus accuracy on Canon and Nikon cameras. He has the big benefit of being able to test a collection of cameras, thus ruling out sample variation issues. Thanks for the excellent job, this is an issue that will leave a negative mark on Nikon, but at least the new version is free of problems and those waiting for this check are free to go forward with their purchase (of an excellent camera actually).

"Lensrentals' Roger Cicala has beaten us to testing the Nikon D610 for oil and dust accumulation - concluding its 'certainly no worse than other cameras.' "

Funny how "its" and "it's" are so often employed incorrectly.

Here's the simple rule: "it's" is always (always) and only a contraction of "it is". If you would say "it is", they you can say "it's". Otherwise, it's "its".

In the sentence from the intro, it should be "it's".

BTW, glad to see the D610 is "clean". But once again, Nikon uses us as beta testers and then quickly brings out an update which, of course, we have to pay for.

Excellent work, I can buy with confidence!