Competent.

Let me get the grumbling out of the way first. I dislike SUVs. And the D700, with my newly arrived 16-35mm f/4 zoom is an SUV among cameras. It’s large, noisy, crass, threatening, bulky, heavy and few need it. Like an SUV, its owner is likely a poseur. One extols off-road capabilities when he will never leave asphalt. The other boasts of professional gear quality when he would get better results with a point-and-shoot. For most, the D700 fulfills ‘wants’ not ‘needs’. And while the SUV is a pain in the neck when you cannot see past one in traffic, the D700 with a ‘pro’ zoom is quite literally a pain in the neck after you have schlepped it around for a few hours, as I did yesterday.

The newly arrived 16-35mm VR lens is expensive and bulky, though far lighter than you would expect for its volume. Once you remind yourself that it replaces the 16-18mm, 21mm, 24mm, 28mm and 35mm lenses in your kitbag, the 1.5 lb. weight becomes bearable, especially when you throw in the (arguably unnecessary) Vibration Reduction and prime lens quality at all focal lengths and apertures. Construction quality, fit and finish match the optics. Tight, well made, no toy. The lens does not change length when zoomed or focused, which is just as well as it sticks out 6.5″ with the hood attached. Strangely, this confers a certain stealthiness, as observers think you are using a telephoto, not an ultrawide zoom. I detailed my reasoning behind the 16-35mm + 85mm outfit decision earlier, and the 85mm, bought used, has already shown itself to be a sterling performer. For general purpose use, other than sports or wildlife, this is a powerful outfit which keeps bulk and weight down, in as much as that is possible with FF DSLRs.

As a street snapshotter where you want to get really close to people, the D700 is a joke compared to the stealth and agility of my Panasonic G3. The latter focuses faster (yes, faster), is far quieter and its diminutive size makes it extremely stealthy. Keep it dangling from your neck and it’s rarely noticed. Keep the D700 with the zoom around your neck and you will look like the archetypal American tourist so aptly portrayed by Michael Palin in that sketch where the camera protrudes inches from his chest while he debates obscure philosophers in a restaurant.

What you get with full frame, as I am reminded from my days with the Canon 5D, is a tool where technology largely obsoletes technical knowhow, yet still permits huge prints to be made. Anyone can take a good picture with an FF DSLR, pretty much regardless of whether you use Program mode or Manual. There are so many aids, from a monster sensor, great low light capability, infinite choice of ISOs and lenses, VR, auto everything, that even the most inept can take properly exposed snaps capable of high enlargement ratios for prints. And unless you make big prints, you are wasting your money. LCDs and TVs do not need the FF camera’s capabilities to display your pictures. The FF DSLR will not help you make good pictures any more than a Brownie will, but yours will be sharper and finer grained and better-everything in most other respects.

I do miss the EVF of the Panny in the D700. Fit an f/4 lens after an f/1.8 and the finder dims. Go into the dark and the finder image is hard to see. By contrast, when you use an EVF, the finder is always the same brightness regardless of the ambient light level. But I do like the ease with which a button and dial on the D700 can change ISO and the simplicity of locking exposure on your area of choice. All those exposure options – area, matrix, spot, and focus choices ad infinitum, are mostly set-and-forget once you find the ones you like. A waste of knobs and dials. The Panny, by contrast, cannot afford too many knobs and dials as there’s only so much space on the small body. Another much appreciated feature of the D700, at the cost of weight and bulk, is the high battery life. That on the G3 is really not good and I find I always carry a spare. The D700 can bang away all day, and there’s still a lot of juice left. And the truly masochistic can increase framing rates and capacity with an add-on hand grip which will even accommodate AA cells.

The claim of the D700’s sensor is outstanding low noise in low light and with high ISO settings. Comparing my snaps with those from the 5D I would say there is little in it. Maybe one stop better in the worst conditions – not enough to sway you to the Nikon brand. Nikon’s Auto White Balance is noticeably better than Canon’s, but this is such a simple fix in LR2/3 or Photoshop that it’s hard to see it as a decisive issue. The D700 delivers accurate auto exposure, though I often use AE Lock on selected areas of the image to get things just so. I mostly use 21-area matrix metering.

I purchased the D700 for a special project where large prints will be required, even though I was aware that the D800 would obsolete the D700 with a larger sensor. Prints many feet in dimension can be made from a 5D or D700 file. What is intriguing is whether the D700 will now crash in value the way the 5D did after the 5D/II was announced. My 5D, $3,000 when new, sold for $975 five years later and was still in great shape. Today you can buy that 5D, arguably the only classic DSLR yet made, for $800, mint. The argument in favor of the D700 maintaining value – largely made by its owners one imagines – is that the gargantuan file sizes of the D800 will help the D700 retain its appeal. You know, it’s faster, better in low light, quicker to load files for software manipulation and so on. Maybe this is true in the short term, but the person who buys a D800 is, I suspect, just as likely to have the latest Mac or PC with a Core-i7 CPU, fast RAM and lots of storage. It’s not that big a deal if the file is 12, 22 or 36mp. A year or two hence I expect the D700 to be selling for what the 5D commands today. Indeed, were I determined to own a top quality FF DSLR at lowest cost, the 5D would be my first choice every time. I chose Nikon this time just for a change. I have no brand loyalty – a senseless concept.

Why it pays to buy USA imports. Warranty is against manufacturing defects, not user inflicted damage.

In the snaps which follow, I have concentrated on static subjects and experimented with a variety of focal lengths on the 16-35 Nikkor and ISOs from 400 to 1600. Except for noticeable barrel distortion at 16mm, easily corrected with the profile Adobe provides with Lightroom 3, I found that focal length and aperture have no effect on image quality. There is no fuzziness or chromatic aberration to be seen. It’s a top notch optic with extremely low flare even directly into the sun. You pay a premium price for this lens – I bought the last one Amazon had in stock! – and you get premium performance. For something so costly, avoid grey market imports, even from B&H, with their one year warranty. Buy USA imports and get the 5 year Nikon USA factory warranty. The modest premium makes that worthwhile.

Finally here.

Taking no more than 20 minutes to walk that man about town, Bertram the Border Terrier, it figured that UPS called as the pup was out raising the leg, and the depressing little note stuck to the door said they would try delivering the D700 next Monday, signature required. The same for a delayed gift for our boy’s birthday. A call to UPS established that a visit to their warehouse between 9:00 and 9:15pm in South SF would get the packages in my hot little hands and though I turned up a few minutes early, I was quite unprepared for what followed.

First, the UPS facility is simply enormous, rows of warehouses full of trucks and boxes. Second, there was a long line of idling cars on a rainy night, all apparently waiting for the gate to open for late night pick-ups. Straight out of film noir. I got in pretty much at the back of the line and, boy, what is wrong with people? Here I am on Cloud Nine, delighted to be getting our boy’s gift and my toy, and I’m at the back of a line of the most miserable cross section of humanity on earth. I try to make conversation but it’s useless. Except for me no one wants to be here. Well, at least the charming ladies at the counter are pleasant and I leave assuring them that America is indeed a great nation.

UPS line at 9:15pm, South SF.

I get home, tuck the boy in bed, place the pup on the bed, and pop the box. Seconds later I have the 85mm f/1.8D on the body, one of the two batteries has a solid charge and I’m in there changing the defaults and Copyright data. The first impression is one of solidity, it’s not light, the fit in the hand is good, the rear LCD bright and the finder a pleasure to use. The 0.72x magnification (same as on a Leica M2) is just right. The previous owner has left the shutter on high speed sequential and I startle myself when first releasing the shutter with the machine gun result. My misionary work with the manual the last two days pays off and it’s not too hard to figure most things out. Best of all, the two batteries provided both show ‘new’ status, attesting to the light use the body enjoyed with it’s first owner. And yes, it’s a USA import, as the box testifies.

I contemplate installing the Upstrap but it’s late, the strap will fit a dozen ways with only one of those right, so I call it a day. This Nikon D700 computer can wait another day.

More anon.

Modeling fee? Outrageous.

How best to set these?

Reading of the wretched Nikon D700 manual surfaced some interesting questions. I read it using Good Reader on the iPad where I keep all my camera manuals. It’s a simple matter to annotate pages for subsequent follow up.

I short listed a few issues which I shared with a friend who is a D700 expert, as follows (parentheses refer to page numbers in the English manual):

In camera © Copyright information (page 343):

You can add this in the camera so it’s recorded with every picture. Those using Lightroom can also add it on import, but this seems a more robust approach as there is nothing to forget. Use the wrong import setting in LR and the information will missing if not recorded in the camera.

Non-CPU lenses (210):

Most older Nikon lenses (pre G and D series) have no CPU yet will fit the D700, some with reduced functionality. If you are prepared to cope with the rigors of manual focusing there is a cornucopia of ridiculously cheap Nikkors out there which will work, and which can be programed into the D700 to present correct EXIF data. Doing so also enables automatic power zoom with select Nikon Speedlight flashguns. A quick check discloses that some of the all time classic Nikkors of the film era, like the 20mm f/3.5, 24mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 55mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.8, 105mm f/2.5, 180mm f/2.8, 200mm f/4, 300 f/4.5 and 500mm Mirror, are not only abundantly available lightly used, but prices are generally below $400, sometimes below $100! For the rarely used optic for a special occasion snap there’s much to like here. Indeed, I have a hankering for the 500mm Mirror optic. The D700’s viewfinder has a focus confirmation light to tell the user when the lens is in focus. It’s not AF but it beats nothing.

The 300mm f/4.5 Nikkor from the KEH catalog – $89!

Custom Menus (364):

You can create your own custom menu for frequently accessed options on the rear LCD screen.

Sensor cleaning (393):

You can have this automated at On, Off, On and Off or manual! My colleague uses manual, used as needed. This approach saves wear and tear and speeds start-up time.

Active D-lighting (179):

An enhanced dynamic range setting which my friend believes is largely obsoleted by the enhanced controls in Lightroom 3. I’ll have to experiment with this one. Anything which reduces post processing time is a good thing in my book.

Color Space (181):

You can set sRGB or Adobe RGB. I use the latter for the broadest color gamut.

12-bit or 14-bit RAW files (68):

The 14-bit setting is reputed to store more shadow detail, at the penalty of file size.

Bob Johnson has an interesting article, referred to me by my colleague, on the merits of 14-bit, and suggests that one good use for the Custom menu is to include a 12/14 bit toggle. Presumably the 14-bit setting would be reserved for very high dynamic range subjects where exposure is for the highlights, with consequent underexposure of the shadows, the latter being recovered in post processing.

Be sure to check Arun Gupta’s Comment below on why 14-bit and Adobe RGB go together.

GPS geotagging (213):

The D700 accepts Nikon’s shoe-mounted GPS unit ($190) with a wire and plug for the socket on the front, and stores geotagging information with the picture file. Aftermarket units sell for $67 and the trick.com site has an article explaining why you should save $123. I’m no geotagging maven but it can be fun and a small unit at low cost is tempting.

So there’s lots of value added from reading the poor manual, and the D700’s design is clearly one aimed at conferring a high level of flexibility in use.