27.7.2015

To a lot of us, the most important factor when choosing a DSLR, as a replacement, must surely be IQ. As a Canon fan (my last camera was a 550D) the obvious choice would've been yet another Canon but I resisted the temptation and opted for Nikon, having been very impressed by results I'd seen with a D3200.Ever heard the expression `Bayer green', as a derogatory term used by film users and wondered what it meant? You wouldn't, as a 550D owner, if my example was anything to go by! Rendition of greens on the D3200 is better and the sensor also captures significantly more detail but not at the expense of noise (the 550D sensor is actually noisier).Of course there are many other factors which some would argue makes the position less clear over which is better overall, but all I'm interested in, is which takes better pictures and it sure aint the Canon!I do photography of trains in landscape and for this, you need a fast shutter speed (typically 500th of a second ) and standard to long-focus, prime or zoom lenses. A reasonably quick motor-drive (e.g. 5 fps ) often helps. Logically, it made more sense going for the D7100 and saving several hundred pounds over the D610. The modal score rating, by far, on Amazon is five out of five stars, out of 139 reviews, providing almost overwhelming evidence that this was the one to go for. My heart, however, wasn't in it; I wanted to try FX before committing myself to yet another DX-sensor camera, though I was fully prepared that it might turn out to be utter profligacy and that effectively I could be throwing away hundreds of pounds, which would be far better spent on more up-to-date glass. Fortunately this proved not to be the case and far from wasting money, I've actually saved it.Noise becomes apparent on the D3200 (and presumably the D7100) at ISO800 in my experience; whereas on the D610 it is quite minimal even at ISO3200. In fact ISO3200 gives no more noise than my 550D at ISO400. Even ISO 6400 is fully usable; the level of noise being acceptable and less than what we used to accept on ISO 400, 35mm, colour film. This is an enormous advantage.The D610 (as with the D7100) gives full-aperture metering and focus confirmation with non-CPU lenses in Nikon AI fitting. `Set-up' allows you to enter the details for each lens, in terms of maximum aperture and focal length. This means you even get the correct aperture displayed in the viewfinder and the exposure metering works correctly in aperture priority or manual and the viewfinder doesn't go dim when you select a small aperture. If what you really want is shutter priority, however, then you can achieve this by using the variable ISO facility. This lets you select the minimum shutter speed you need and the ISO then varies to achieve correct exposure. It's like having both shutter and aperture priority at the same time and it works brilliantly.As an example, my e-series, 100mm, f2.8 lens suffers horribly from CA at f2.8 but performs brilliantly by f5.6, so I just set 5.6 on the lens and the minimum shutter speed to 500th and let the ISO take care of itself. ISO is also displayed in the viewfinder, so if it starts going over 3200, I'll probably select f4 or f4.5. For my type of photography, however, this seldom happens.Overall, the low noise means that I can almost always use a lens at its optimum aperture (typically f8) and choose a fast shutter speed. I don't need AF, so can make do with a multitude of cheap lenses, many of which perform brilliantly when used in this way. Had I got the D7100 instead, there would have been much greater need to restrict the upper-ISO to 800 and that extra two stops makes all the difference. Decent results at f4 rather than f8, for example, may demand much more expensive lenses. My Tamron, SP 70-210, F3.5, gives fantastic results at f8 but not at f4!There is of course, a lot more I could say about the camera: the accuracy of the viewfinder, the way it handles, the build quality, the `Active D Lighting' ( all brilliant). If there is a downside, for me it's the collar surrounding the exposure mode selector wheel on the top-plate. This can be very fiddly to operate at times. Also, the shutter vibrations are far greater than with a DX-sensor, due to the larger mirror-box assembly and size of the shutter. You're aware of it every time you trip the shutter and I'm not entirely convinced that it doesn't have a detrimental effect of the level of fine detail recorded.Overall, for me, this is a brilliant camera and excellent value-for-money, because of the way in which I use it. In the days of film, the maxim used to be: "A good big one will always beat a good little one!." These days, the maxim would probably be: `detail = mega-pixels; quality = sensor-size.' Let me say this, however, that quite recently I took photographs with the D610, tripod mounted, of a scene identical to that taken by someone else, using a D3200, also tripod mounted, under excellent lighting conditions (strong sunshine with excellent visibility). Both were taken at fairly low ISO (400) and at roughly optimum aperture (f8). The level of detail in both is almost identical and you really would find it difficult to tell them apart, even on an A2-sized poster.So you really do need to think carefully about how you use your camera, before committing your hard-earned money to the D610 rather than something much cheaper! Failure to do this, means you could end up very disappointed. Pixels may equal detail but area of sensor may not have so obvious a bearing on quality as you might think ! Do look at the histogram pattern for star-rating, not just on Amazon.co.uk, but also on Amazon.com.Finally, do be careful over where you buy. Some of the internet prices are unbelievably cheap but you could end up with a carton delivered to your door containing something looking second-hand rather than new, with a damaged box, incomplete packaging and no instruction manual. You might then face a restocking fee of £50 or 10% when you return it and have to endure a long battle before your money is finally refunded.Of course you could take the attitude that as you're paying so little, who cares if it's not new and in a sealed box; its obviously had very little use and has a two-year warranty. Beware, that warranty will be by the people who sold you the goods and Nikon UK just won't want to know. Are you willing to take such a risk? Wiser not to, I think, as you might otherwise face a massive repair bill, thereby wiping out any cost advantage.Always remember that if the company's business is registered in China rather than the UK, even Trading Standards won't be able to help you very much. Trust Pilot may help you assess other people's experiences but do read the small print and find out in advance, exactly what the conditions of sale are and in particular the restocking fee charged if you decide to send it back.Update - 4th April, 2015The camera's shutter/sensor packed unexpectedly, when out photographing trains in February and had to be returned. Though dealing with the UK division, the firm I purchased it from had it's head office in Hong Kong and insisted that it was returned to this address. Just getting an RMA proved an uphill task and the cost of sending it Hong Kong was £30 with it insured to only half its value.The fact that it packed up, despite only light, amateur use, comes as no surprise, when you consider how it arrived after purchasing. It came in almost nothing other than the original box supplied by Nikon. Having been roughly handled on planes and vans, during its transit to the UK, what else can you expect? Ending on a positive note, they did repair and return it under warranty but yet again, took no care over packaging it appropriately.16th December 2015Still very satisfied for with the value-for-money I got, but even more impressed with results taken with the much-cheaper D3200, with kit zoom lenses. This camera really is a godsend to anyone wanting I.Q. on a budget. Keep the ISO down and it'll hold its own with the D610, in terms of detail. Other aspects can easily be dealt with at the post-processing stage.Ending on a cheerful note: this has to be the best value-for-money fx-sensor, dslr, currently available. For those already into Nikon, it's a no-brainer!

29.8.2014

To a lot of us, the most important factor when choosing a DSLR, as a replacement, must surely be IQ. As a Canon fan (my last camera was a 550D) the obvious choice would've been yet another Canon but I resisted the temptation and opted for Nikon, having been very impressed by results I'd seen with a D3200.Ever heard the expression `Bayer green', as a derogatory term used by film users and wondered what it meant? You wouldn't, as a 550D owner, if my example was anything to go by! Rendition of greens on the D3200 is far better and the sensor also captures significantly more detail but not at the expense of noise (the 550D sensor is actually noisier).Of course there are many other factors which some would argue makes the position less clear over which is better overall, but all I'm interested in, is which takes better pictures and it sure aint the Canon!I do photography of trains in landscape and for this, you need a fast shutter speed (typically 500th of a second ) and standard to long-focus, prime or zoom lenses. A reasonably quick motor-drive (e.g. 5 fps ) often helps. Logically, it made more sense going for the D7100 and saving several hundred pounds over the D610. The modal score rating, by far, on Amazon is five out of five stars, out of 139 reviews, providing almost overwhelming evidence that this was the one to go for. My heart, however, wasn't in it; I wanted to try FX before committing myself to yet another DX-sensor camera though I was fully prepared that it might turn out to be utter profligacy and that effectively I could be throwing away hundreds of pounds, which would be far better spent on more up-to-date glass. Fortunately this proved not to be the case and far from wasting money, I've actually saved it.Noise becomes apparent on the D3200 (and presumably the D7100) at ISO800 in my experience; whereas on the D610 it is quite minimal even at ISO3200. In fact ISO3200 gives no more noise than my 550D at ISO400. Even ISO 6400 is fully usable; the level of noise being acceptable and far less than what we used to have on ISO 400, 35mm, colour film. This is an enormous advantage.The D610 (as with the D7100) gives full-aperture metering and focus confirmation with non-CPU lenses in Nikon AI fitting. `Set-up' allows you to enter the details for each lens, in terms of maximum aperture and focal length. This means you even get the correct aperture displayed in the viewfinder and the exposure metering works correctly in aperture priority or manual and the viewfinder doesn't go dim when you select a small aperture. If what you really want is shutter priority, however, then you can achieve this by using the variable ISO facility. This lets you select the minimum shutter speed you need and the ISO then varies to achieve correct exposure. It's like having both shutter and aperture priority at the same time and it works brilliantly.As an example, my e-series, 100mm, f2.8 lens suffers horribly from CA at f2.8 but is a stellar performer by f5.6, so I just set 5.6 on the lens and the minimum shutter speed to 500th and let the ISO take care of itself. ISO is also displayed in the viewfinder, so if it starts going over 3200, I'll probably select f4 or f4.5. For my type of photography, however, this seldom need happens.Overall, the low noise means that I can almost always use a lens at its optimum aperture (typically f5.6-f8) and choose a fast shutter speed. I don't need AF, so can make do with a multitude of cheap lenses, many of which perform brilliantly when used in this way. Had I got the D7100 instead, there would have been much greater need to restrict the upper-ISO to 800 and that extra two stops makes all the difference. Decent results at f4 rather than f8 at, for example, may demand much more expensive lenses. My Tamron, SP 70-210, F3.5, gives fantastic results at f8 but not at f4!There is of course, a lot more I could say about the camera: the accuracy of the viewfinder, the way it handles, the build quality, the `Active D Lighting' ( all brilliant). If there is a downside, for me it's the collar surrounding the exposure mode selector wheel on the top-plate. This can be very fiddly to operate at times. Also, the shutter vibrations are far greater than with a DX-sensor, due to the larger mirror-box assembly and size of the shutter. You're aware of it every time you trip the shutter and I'm not entirely convinced that it doesn't have a detrimental effect of the level of fine detail recorded.Overall, for me, this is a brilliant camera and excellent value-for-money, because of the way in which I use it. In the days of film, some used to say: "A good big 'un, always beats a good little `un." These days, the maxim would probably be: `detail = mega-pixels; quality = sensor-size.' Let me say this, however, that quite recently I took photographs with the D610, tripod mounted, of a scene identical to that taken by someone else, using a D3200, also tripod mounted, under excellent lighting conditions (strong sunshine with excellent visibility). Both were taken at fairly low ISO (400) and at roughly optimum aperture (f8). The level of detail in both is almost identical and you really would find it difficult to tell them apart, even on an A2-sized poster.So you really do need to think carefully about how you use your camera, before committing your hard-earned money to the D610 rather than something much cheaper! Failure to do this, means you could end up very disappointed. Pixels may equal detail but area of sensor may not have so obvious a bearing on quality as you might think, if you seldom go above ISO 400 !Finally, do be careful over where you buy. Some of the internet prices are unbelievably cheap but you could end up with a carton delivered to your door containing something second-hand rather than new, with a damaged box, incomplete packaging and no instruction manual. You might then face a restocking fee of £50 or 10% when you return it and have to endure a long battle before your money is finally refunded.Of course you could take the attitude that you're paying so little, who cares if it's not new and in a sealed box; its obviously had very little use and has a two-year warranty. Beware, that warranty will be by the people who sold you the goods and Nikon UK just won't want to know. Are you willing to take such a risk? Wiser not to, I think, as you might otherwise face a massive repair bill, thereby wiping out any cost advantage.Always remember that if the company's business is registered in China rather than the UK, even Trading Standards won't be able to help you very much. Trust Pilot may help you assess other people's experiences but do read the small print and find out in advance, exactly what the conditions of sale are and in particular the restocking fee charged if you decide to send it back.Update - 4th April, 2015The camera's shutter/sensor packed unexpectedly, when out photographing trains in February and had to be returned. Though dealing with the UK division, the firm I purchased it from had it's head office in Hong Kong and insisted that it was returned to their service centre out there. Just getting an RMA proved an uphill task and the ccost of sending it Hong Kong was £30 with it insured to only half its value.The fact that it packed up, despite only light, amateur use, comes as no surprise, when you consider how it arrived after purchasing. It came in almost nothing other than the original box supplied by Nikon. Having been roughly handled on planes and vans, during its journey to the UK, what else can you expect? Ending on a positive note, they did repair and return it under warranty but yet again, took no care over packaging it appropriately.

18.3.2014

So, why is this model called professional, but the 3200 and 5200 with same megapixel resolution, classed as amateur or for first time users? This one costs 5 times as much as the 3100, four times as much as the 5200, and twice as much as the 7100, which is another one with the professional monica but at the half-format sensor handicap. Does paying all this extra give you anything more?Yes, quite a few more processes, modes and exposure settings, though with a bit of fiddling you could get almost the same from any of the others. The aim surely is to get the best possible image on your memory card, for later adjustment in an art program such as photoshop or gimp (others are available).

3.4.2014

I moved to the D610 from a D7000 after a lot of consideration. The D800 is still quite a bit more expensive, and the thought of those massive RAW files making my computer crash worried me, so the D610 seemed like a more sensible option. My only concern was whether it represented a big enough up-grade from the D7000, particularly when the D7100 is out there with a better spec- well I believe it does!The layout of the two cameras is almost identical, although the D610 now has the ISO adjustment button in the lowest position, which is more sensible. The similarity was really convenient, as the D610 felt familiar straight out of the box and I felt comfortable using it immediately without having a prolonged learning curve,

14.5.2018

I have been an avid amateur photographer for a long time, mostly shooting micro 4/3 cameras from Fujifilm's X-line, and although I know most photographers are jumping the other way, I jumped to full frame DSLR's with this D610. After spending some money on decent lenses and a full year or more of shooting pretty much every day, I can comprehensively say I will never be without a full-frame Nikon as long as they keep making them. The quality of the images and the flexibility to shoot the way I want, when I want, is just astonishing. I still love my Fujis, but if the Fuji is charming and emotional to use, like a vintage Alfa Romeo, the D610 is fast and potent,

19.1.2014

If you, like me love your D700, and are wondering if the D610 is what you've been waiting for hopefully my experience will be of use. I got to shooting 145000 images on my D700, and it was time to look for a new camera. It was a choice between the D800, and DF and the D610.So I bought the D610 + a new lens, and still spent less than if I'd gone with one of the other 2 options.In a nutshell - I've had it about a month and shot about 1600 images with it, and have been very happy.If like me you like the low light capability of the D700, the D610 is even better by almost a stop imho. I get usable shots at 6400, with a similar grain level to the D700 at 3200 (not grain free, but not problematic).

8.8.2017

This is my first FX camera after many many years of DX. This is a one way trip - I will not be going back. I cannot begin to describe how different the full frame and cropped world's are - honestly chalk and cheese. I'm not slagging off my dx gear or cropped sensor cameras, absolutely not - but seriously folks if you can afford a full frame then buy one and don't look back. The D610 was the best route for me financially and I was not disappointed. This camera is amazing and I totally love it. Ignore all the reports of the those saying they wouldn't touch one over a D750 as the focussing etc is just no good. I haven't used a D750 but I have used many a camera and the D610 is massively powerful and focuses fast and beautifully.

12.7.2017

I recently purchased this camera moving up from a D7000. Very happy to migrate to FX but also happy to share my thoughts and honest feedback.Build quality: Does not seem as robust as the D7000, just seems a little lighter and less defined. Not a negative thing by any means but it is a noticeable difference.Ease of use: The jog wheel and controls are very small. All key features and buttons are smaller than on other cameras in this range so can be a little fiddly to operate/get used to.Picture quality: Excellent. There is a distinct increase in overall quality and tone on this camera, the FX sensor delivers superior images and detail.Mechanical observations: The processor on my particular model seems to be a little slow.

9.1.2014

I've used Nikon cameras for years. This is the one I've fallen for for so many reasons - The sheer quality of the imagery both still and video. The controls are nicely laid out and easy to use. The u1 and u2 controls are brilliant and renders this a better camera than the D800. After sending my D600 back because of the oil spots on the sensor (yes, I was one of the unlucky ones) I decided to go for the D800 but I missed my D600. I'd even argue that the white balance and noise control is far superior on the D600 and now the D610 boasts even better WB and better auto-focussing than the D600. I also love the addition of the 3D level meter which comes in really handy for filming.

18.2.2015

I bought this camera as an upgrade. I had already owned two Nikon cameras, a D50 and more recently a D5100.The D610 is my first full frame camera so I can not compare it to any others but my first impressions are that it has a good solid to feel to it.At first I was daunted by all the extra buttons and dials on the camera but once I got used to the configuration and knew where everything was and what they did I was flying.Many of the buttons are put there so that you can make changes quickly and not have to go into the menu to make changes to the exposure etc.It has a more professional feel to it which makes my previous cameras now look and feel like toys in comparison.On a recent trip to Edinburgh Zoo,

10.6.2015

I bought my D610 five months ago as an upgrade after previously owning a D5100 and a D50 before that.I was a bit lost with it at first due to the extra switches, knobs, buttons and dials etc which meant that I had to spend quite some time using it before it all came as second nature.This camera seems to be nearer to a pro model than an entry level model which will make it easier when making the progression towards a D810 or similar pro model.It feels great in the hand and since owning it I have taken some cracking photo's (according to other people too).There is very little digital noise. When I took a photograph of a fox the other day with the auto ISO rocketing to 5000 there was still no noticeable digital noise (see image)

8.6.2016

It's huge and fairly horrible to look at compared to a film SLR and too complicated for its own good but it does make a full-frame digital SLR affordable so you can keep using all your Nikon manual focus lenses. Spend half an hour with the manual and you can get it working nicely for you - most things are customisable to some extent (I have AF and AE lock set to activate with a half shutter press, as the AE-L/AF-L button is in a slightly inconvenient place, and spend some time getting Auto ISO right). The shutter and mirror are very well damped. The focus confirmation indicator agrees with my eyes when manually focusing with older AIS lenses.

6.11.2014

I decided it was about time I went full frame, having used cropped sensor Nikons for the past 10 years. This camera is a similar size to my D7000 but feels more robust. I've had to upgrade one of my lenses as the equivalent one I already had wasn't suitable for FX. I used the camera extensively, on a recent week in Budapest and took about 1,000 images. I'm delighted with the results. I think I made the right choice to get this FX camera at a very reasonable price and would do it again.

29.10.2013

I bought this entry level full camera camera bring me to a new level of photography. It simply stunning the picture I took with 50mm 1.8D. The camera is handheld and very handy. It is an amazing and outstanding performance FX camera and very love it! The Nikon D610 is simply an identical replacement from D600 with the oil/dust problem solved without any doubt! But this camera should be owned for whom want to jump into full frame camera! Good job Nikon!

28.11.2018

I say it’s easy to use and it is as I am already knowledgeable on the use of a Nikon camera.It has lots more features and is quite different from the D3200. I keep a note book on items that I use for reference. The Bracket feature is brilliant and great in White balance. I have FX lenses so all is compatible. I haven’t taken many photos with it yet as still mastering the controls but I am confident I will get some great results.

Nikon D610 - Reviews

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