Woo-hoo, as the rumor mill has been buzzing about for the last two weeks, Nikon officially announced the “D700” professional SLR today, just 10 months after announcing the D3 and D300 followups to the D200 that I have.
Last year, I got to play with the D3 & D300 before they went on sale, and despite lusting after “shiny & new” and the benefits over my D200, I decided to not upgrade.
This time might be different.
I didn't believe the rumors first started, not least of which because the name – D700 – makes absolutely no sense in light of Nikon's normal camera-naming scheme. But the press releases went out today, and Digital Photography Review already has a D700 hands-on preview, so it's real.
The D3 is still Nikon's top of the line, but the D700 brings in some of the conveniences from the prosumer bodies – features missing from the D3 that the D300 provided. About the only thing that the D700 brings from the D3 that I wish it didn't is the tiny autofocus-selector coverage. All three (D3, D300, D700) have a bazillion auto-focus selector points, but only in the D300 do they cover the whole screen. With the D3/D700, they're clustered all in the center (in the “DX” portion of the sensor), which makes the bulk of them fairly useless.
Still, the D700 is pretty much exactly the “full-frame D200-sized camera” that I wished for early on, and much earlier than I expected, so I'm thrilled...
Very cool Jeffrey, looks impressive. I think the name chosen seems to be a marketing decision more than anything else. Think Sony’s (Minolta) Alpha 700. I seriously doubt that Sony has made any inroads in the Canon-Nikon duopoly, but it’s just probably marketing sense in a way to go with that sort of naming.
So, are you getting one? 🙂
So… should we be looking for a hands on review here once it’s released?
I was seriously considering upgrading to the D300 (after purchasing a used D200 and loving it) but couldn’t justify the need. The D700 looks awesome, but again, I really can’t justify it with my current photographic skills.
I saw this and had to put it on my blog as well. Very exciting. Looks like DX lenses are going to get more and more scarce… However we all have to remember it’s still $3000 and that’s pro level pricing.
The D700 moniker makes perfect sense. The X00 designation is for “compact” bodies, and they are leaving room for up to three more major DX models after the D300.
That’s the camera I was waiting for! My 17-35mm f/2.8 deserves something better than the D200’s DX sensor… However, the price is a bit high (at least here in Europe), so I should probably wait for a couple of years 🙁