Nikon D600: An Affordable Full Frame Camera is Coming!

I heard about a new full frame camera from Nikon called the D600. It sounds like this could be the perfect camera for me. I have wanted to move up to a full-frame digital camera since 2008. At that time, Nikon had announced the D700 which was a more affordable version of their breakthrough D3. The D700 used the same outstanding sensor of the D3 in a smaller package at half the price. Unfortunately, at the time I could not afford its $3000 price tag in addition to new full frame lenses. So I bought a D90. The $800 Nikon D90 is a DX or crop sensor DSLR and capable of great image quality. My passion for photography increased and I learned a lot and go into astrophotography, landscape photography and how to control the camera in full manual mode with manual focus lenses. I started to acquire quality lenses and many of them were full frame.

Four years later, the D700 still sells for over $2000, and the longer I waited the more I wanted to see what its successor would be. Then came the D800. Such an outstanding camera with more megapixels than I know what to do with. The price tag was the same as the D700 at introduction ($3000), and while it is very tempting, that is a lot to spend in addition to needing some new lenses to take advantage of its capabilities. It is also not the D700's successor.

Then I heard about the Nikon D600. I did some research and the more I hear about it, the more it sounds like this is the camera that meets all my needs. While these are only rumors now, it seems everyone is talking like this will be an amazing camera. It has 24MP resolution which is just about as much as I could need for making large prints. The Sony sensor is outstanding for high dynamic range and color depth which is what any landspace photographer needs. And I am sure its ISO sensitivity will be up there as well, which is be awesome for low light and night photography. And the best part is this camera will be affordable -- right around $1500-1600 if you believe the rumors.