Is The Nikon D700 Camera Still Viable In 2021?

[Zang]

Congrats Bruce on the new purchase. I heard difference in IQ between D300/D300s and D700 is negligible. Has anyone ever compared?

[BruceSD]

Congrats Bruce on the new purchase. I heard difference in IQ between D300/D300s and D700 is negligible. Has anyone ever compared?

While I do not currently own a D300, I did own one for many years in the past.  I never much cared for the images my old D300 produced for me.  So, I am hoping that my new-to-me D700 renders more satisfying images then I got from my old D300.

[Snoogly]

It’s nice that they state shutter counts. For reasons unknown to me, here in Japan they are usually not stated - which seems downright shady to me.

[BruceSD]

It’s nice that they state shutter counts. For reasons unknown to me, here in Japan they are usually not stated - which seems downright shady to me.

Indeed.

Without a shutter count, I often rely on the appearance of the rubber grips on the body, and the degree of wear/scratches/brassing on the camera's lens mount.  I have purchased cameras with missing or loose/worn rubber grips and replaced the grip.  I've found that the replacement grips never look as good (or stick as well) as the original grips that the camera came with when new.  I suppose that there's nothing to prevent a shady seller (who does not disclose the shutter count) from replacing all the rubber grips and replacing the camera's lens mount to make a heavily used camera "appear" to be less used than it really is.

[Zang]

While I do not currently own a D300, I did own one for many years in the past.  I never much cared for the images my old D300 produced for me.  So, I am hoping that my new-to-me D700 renders more satisfying images then I got from my old D300.

I still have the old good D300. It produced some really nice pictures for me, but it is practically sitting unused today. I love the way D700 look and I am sure it is a nicer camera to work with.

[Dogman]

I sometimes use a D300.  D2X and D2Xs as well.  I like the way they handle and I like the look of the images.  The D700 is still my favorite Nikon of all time.  As I said in an earlier post, I'm mainly a B&W photographer and I like a little bite, grit and grain in my photos.  For me, the D700 is Goldilocks--just right for what I like in some of my pictures.  But not all of them.  That's why I have higher resolution bodies as well.  The D700 look is just my personal taste and opinion, nothing objective about it.  We love what we love. 

[BruceSD]

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Did some shooting in the yard today trying to get to know my new to me D700.

First, I've discovered that I really don't care for the colors it produces.

Second, I really like how it renders black and white images.  I don't care for it's RAW files for black and white, they just don't have the contrast of the out of camera jpgs produced by this camera.  To my eye, it underexposes the jpgs about .3 stops, so I'm compensating for that.

Poor dynamic range, so I'll be primarily using it on cloudy/overcast days to make my black and white images.

I'm glad I bought it and thanks to all for your great advice.

[David H. Hartman]

The RAW and straight out of camera B&W images all come from the same data. If you use Nikon Capture NX-D or NX Studio to develop your NEF files and use the "Camera compatible" Picture Control v. "Latest picture control" you'll get the same image as "Straight out of camera."

The phrase "Straight out of camera" has no meaning unless perhaps the camera is set to the factory defaults but then one should say "factory default settings." Picture controls can be customized in camera. Picture controls can be customized in Picture control utility 2. Picture controls can be customized in Capture NX-D and NX Studio. Picture controls can be mostly ignored if one develops the NEF in Lightroom or another companies software.

The NEF file is more versatile than a JPG shot in any Nikon camera using the factory default Monochrome picture control. One can surely improve on the "straight out of camera" monochrome JPG if starting instead with an NEF in post. One can also make a worse image but we learn from our mistakes.

The best advice I can give is learn to use LCH (Master Lightness, Chroma and Hue) in whatever software you develop your NEF(s) in or use a purpose designed software designed to convert RGB images in to B&W.

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In the days of film photographers often use a light or medium yellow filter to curb the excessive blue sensitivity of B&W films and give a natural rendition to clouds and sky. Ansel Adams use deep red filters to get dramatic black skies, Monolith the face of Half Dome and others.

I once use a deep green filter to differentiate between green text on the cover of a blue book that would print in B&W. I knew the second I looked at the book that the green text on the blue cover would print as the same tone of gray and recede into the cover. The deep green filter darkened the blue book and the green text was easily printed as a light gray that contrast nicely with a cover of the book. I knew to do this because of reading one or two sentences in a Kodak technical manual for filters. I had on hand a very large and expensive collection of Kodak gel filters including tri-color separation filters. All of this can be done with the RGB data in an NEF. Once the relationship of colors are translated to B&W and baked into the JPG you've lost all of this.

I would never shoot B&W in JPG with any digital camera. It is quite useful to photograph an image that will be B&W with the in camera Monochrome Picture Control set. Using the monochrome picture control will aid in previsuaizing a B&W final image while looking at the world as we see it in color. With experience setting the monochrome PC will change a persons mind set and previsualization will be easier. If one shoots NEF they can even change their mind and make a color image in post.

I learned much by reading books by Ansel Adams, Minor White and others and from a High school photography teacher who was a friend of Bret Weston. I hope the books of the masters are available today. Even if one never gets their hands wet they are worth reading.

Dave

[fentriss]

Fully agree with you in general but the sensor technology used in the D3/D700 was still on the steep slope of the development S curve back then which started to plateau with the sensor in the D800 range. After that the improvements in ISO and DR performance were minimal and cameras mainly improved their feature set like fps, memory, liveview, mirrorless, ergonomics, etc.

Until cameras like the D800, a7S and a7RII came to market the sensor was always the main technical limitation of what I could capture. I remember my D200 files being completely rubbish above ISO400 limiting what I could do with the camera but the high ISO sensor of the D3s/D700 suddenly allowed me to get clean files at ISO1600 though with a limited DR of 9 stops, so these cameras enabled me to shoot wildlife during dusk and dawn but I still needed to shoot multiple exposures for landscapes. With the D800E the DR jumped up a whopping 2.5 stops, so the dynamic range was larger than the -1, 0 and +1EV HDR files which now allowed for single exposure HDR landscape shots which looked a lot more natural and without all the hassle of removing artifacts of moving objects, etc.

Have startet with the Fuji S2 back in 2003/2004. Jumped over to the d2x, d3, d3x, D800e and finaly d850. The sensor of the d2x brought a very "natural" looking image to the ground. Whilest the results of the d3 and d3x looked often very  plastic like, and yes, the jump to the 800e was superb. But i will also mention, the 850 images are superior over the already ver good looking images from the 800e. And the given speed. If i would buy a 2nd handed camera, and want a lot of fun, and really perfect images, i would buy the d850. costs something more. But the "fun" and "results" are lightyears ahead over of the d700. Even if the camera will cost 100 euro, it is not worth to spend money into it. Okey if the camera would cost nothing. greetings, richard

[Zang]

Even if the camera will cost 100 euro, it is not worth to spend money into it. Okey if the camera would cost nothing. greetings, richard

If it is not worth 100 Euro then why should one get it, even for free? LOL

[BruceSD]

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Everyone looks for characteristics in cameras that best suit their personal taste and type of photography.  When it comes to digital cameras "newer" isn't always better.   Examples:

1. I greatly prefer the color produced by CCD sensor cameras over CMOS sensor cameras.
2. Some here prefer the D700 noise/grain look (especially for B&Ws) to that of newer Nikkors.

[Dogman]

Yep.  For 100 euros, I'll take a half dozen D700s.   

[Zang]

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Everyone looks for characteristics in cameras that best suit their personal taste and type of photography.  When it comes to digital cameras "newer" isn't always better.

Strangely, I paid attention to IQ when looking for a camera, but stopped being concerned when taking picture with it.

[BruceSD]

The RAW and straight out of camera B&W images all come from the same data. If you use Nikon Capture NX-D or NX Studio to develop your NEF files and use the "Camera compatible" Picture Control v. "Latest picture control" you'll get the same image as "Straight out of camera." 

Dave

Dave, thanks so much for introducing me to Nikon Capture NX-D.  I just downloaded it and played with some NEF files from my D700.   You are right, I'm able to make TIFFs from the NEF files with the same look as the in camera JPGs!

[David H. Hartman]

The reason some explain for Capture NX-D's ability to duplicate what a camera's firmware can do is that the software and firmware use the same Nikon algorithms. This makes a great deal of sense to me. I use the "Latest picture controls" in Capture NX-D as they offer a few options not available with older cameras. Use latest picture control can be set as the default in Capture NX-D's preferences.

Nikon's NX Studio will supersede Capture NX-D but I don't recommend NX Studio yet as too many features don't work at this time. Even basic undo/redo were grayed out last time I checked. Eventually NX Studio will be required for new cameras. I think most will prefer the design and organization of NX Studio once it's up to speed. I will switch after NX Studio gets and upgrade or two. In the meantime what one learns in Capture NX-D will transfer fairly easily to NX Studio so using Capture NX-D now will not be lost time. I hope an upgrade to NX Studio will come soon.

Dave