D600 with full fat AF system!

When you have so many focus points, how are they actually used? I have but 9 on my D5100 - and I select something near where I want, focus, then compose the shot and take a photo.

Do you select clusters of focus points, or an exact one?

D800 focus points:


vfinfo by Alex Bayes, on Flickr
 
I have 11 focus points active. They are strategically place on the rule of 1/3's or other important areas of composition. No 're-composing' required.

For me to give up the below way of composing the frame is a deal breaker.
 
The D5100's points are very widely spaced. It's a bit annoying, imo, because there is a lot of gap between them.

Does anyone really need to focus at the very edge of the frame?!
 
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I have no experience of anything else but they are evenly spaced and seem sensibly placed to me. The only annoying bit is that there's nothing in the corners, I end up keep changing my mind which one to focus on to the recompose, but I am guessing no camera has focal points there? :confused:

It has 11 points counting properly. :p

Someone get me a D600 will you? And lend me £500 to get the D800? ;) This thread is driving me crazy.

Also, comparatively (not wanting to start a war), it seems to be a margin better than the 6D.

- £500 cheaper (6D is D800 price :confused:)
- 39 vs 11 focal points
- 24 vs 20 megapixels
- 5.5 vs 4.5 continuous shooting
- built-in flash
- 2 x SD slots
- larger, 100% accurate viewfinder

The only thing inferior on the D600 appears to be the weight. Seems impressive.
 
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Difference in price is £220 for UK, we haven't seen what the import prices will be. It'll be interesting to see how/if Canon respond to the big price drop on the D600. I can't see there being a great deal of difference in AF, the -3ev centre of the 6D could be interesting if low light is your thing. MP count isn't a big enough difference to really effect output. To be honest the only things I would go for is the shadow/DR performance and 100% viewfinder. The other stuff wouldn't impact my photography in any way. Of course you've omitted the wireless and GPS features of the 6D, GPS I don't care about but the wireless tethering is nice.
 
Except that it isn't true... There's a £225 price difference in the UK and we haven't seen what the import price will be yet.
 
At current pricing it's not competitive with Nikon's own products. Hence rumours of lowish demand.
If Nikon didn't cripple the AF, people would likely be much more willing to pay the current prices. It would likely also compete toe to toe with a 5diii.

D800/E is in it's own market segment.
 
I've had mine for just over a month now and am very impressed. The picture quality is superb and I like the size of the camera a lot.
 
King Damager said:
Is it a massive deal breaker though realistically... It certainly isn't ideal, but how does it compare to competition at that price range?

kd
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Nah not really, as long as you know what you're getting into. The 5D2 was massively successful with lesser AF than its competition. The 6D we still haven't seen yet, supposed to be released in time for Christmas... I can't see the AF being amazing on that either, although the -3 EV centre point looks interesting.

A lot of the disgruntled D600 owners were expecting a cut down D800, which it ain't. One bloke on FM (also D800 owner) though reckons its the worst Nikon he's had for AF.

If I had the money I wouldn't mind a 5D3 with a 6D backup, hell I'd just like a 5D3! :D
 
Rojin said:
Nah not really, as long as you know what you're getting into. The 5D2 was massively successful with lesser AF than its competition.
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It's not really the same. 5Dii was successful due to lack of strong competition.
Canon provided a much better system as a whole back then.
The 5Diii's sales are apparently underwhelming according to Canon. I think demand for the 5Diii would have been allot lower if they kept the same AF system and just increased the MP count.

For allot of people, at least for people who can utilise it. Decent AF is a pretty fundamental tool in their photography, for the others there is focus recompose. D600 is for focus re-composers...
 
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An Exception said:
It's not really the same. 5Dii was successful due to lack of strong competition.
Canon provided a much better system as a whole back then.
The 5Diii's sales are apparently underwhelming according to Canon. I think demand for the 5Diii would have been allot lower if they kept the same AF system and just increased the MP count.
Click to expand...

If the AF was unusable it wouldn't have sold in the numbers that it did. I'm just pointing out that not having top level AF is necessarily a barrier to success. The D600 and 6D will most likely still sell ok, although in the current climate the market for entry level FF bodies isn't going to be as big as it was...

5D3 is outselling the D800 in the Amazon.com sales charts. Both body only and kit are above the D800, so it's not doing too bad. The Amazon.co.uk charts are odd as you can't find the 5D3 properly on their site (or couldn't last time I looked).
 
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