Nikon D700 Preview – Baby D3?

Nikon Announces D700, SB-900, and 2 New Lenses

Official Nikon D700 Press Release

Late in August of 2007, Nikon’s last big set of announcements sent shockwaves through the industry, bringing out their FX-format (full frame) flagship model, the D3, and their high end DX body, the D300, plus five new professional lenses. These announcements single handedly stemmed and even reversed the flow of photographers who had been moving from Nikon to Canon. The new bodies have been a huge hit, driving up demand for Nikon lenses and accessories.

Between the time Nikon started shipping these new high end cameras in late November-early December and the present, the Japanese photography giant has been hard at work on the next high end releases: The D700 Digital SLR, SB-900 Speedlight, and the 45mm and 85mm PC-E Nikkors.

Nikon D700 Digital SLR

The biggest news here is the D700. Answering the wishes of photographers who liked the idea of Canon’s EOS 5D, a less expensive full frame camera, and those who could not afford the $5,000 Nikon D3, the D700 is in the purest sense of the term a “Baby D3.” By Baby, of course, we mean smaller form factor. Unlike Canon’s 5D, the D700 does not achieve low cost by sacrificing in build quality or features. Nikon seems to have literally shoehorned the D3 into a smaller body with very few changes.

Nikon leaves no doubts as to the D700′s heritage and positioning. The D700 is derived from the best of both the Nikon D300 and D3, and is flat-out stated to be a fully-fledged Professional SLR- not merely Semi-professional or advanced amateur. It is built for speed, responsiveness, and image quality… and lower cost: the D700 is to be priced at an estimated selling price of $2,999.95 in the U.S., with availability later this month. This is really a camera to get excited about.

Enough is similar between the D3 and D700 that it is probably best to focus on what is different between the two FX bodies. The D3 has an all-in-one body with vertical controls, a second control panel screen on the rear, additional dedicated buttons, and a 100% viewfinder. It uses the EN-EL4a 11.1v battery pack, and features twin UDMA-capable CF card slots.

The D700 has a more compact body, lacking the additional control panel and condensing some of the buttons into a layout similar to the D300. The body only has one CF card slot, though still UDMA high speed read/write compatible, and it comes without vertical shooting controls integrated. These come in an add-on MB-D10 battery grip, which brings a vertical shutter release, command dials, AF-ON button, and joystick.

The smaller body means it shares the EN-EL3E 7.4v battery with the D300, D200, and other models, while the MB-D10 allows the EN-EL4a to be used as well for less logistical headaches and improved performance. The viewfinder also sacrifices the 100% coverage for 95%, while the D700 gains a built in speedlight for on camera fill and commander mode.

One of the biggest gains for the D700, however, is the addition of a vibrating filter-type self-cleaning sensor, much like the D300. The D3′s large sensor lacks this system and as a result, some users may find dust on their sensors to be an issue, as I have experienced recently with my D3 (but not my D300). There are a few tweaks to the customizable buttons in the D700 that the D3 doesn’t have. The D3 still has a few additional cards up its sleeve, such as the ability to record voice notations and append them to the images shot.

Now that the differences are out of the way, it is time to see what is the same… and believe me, if you’re familiar with the D3′s specs, you’ll wonder why they bothered to change the name.

While most of the D3′s functionality remains intact, there are a handful of operational differences. While the D3 shoots at 9 frames per second in FX mode and can shoot at up to 11 frames per second in DX crop, the D700 normally shoots at 5 frames per second in FX with no DX crop speed advantage.

When you add the EN-EL4a or AA batteries to the MB-D10 battery grip, however, as with the D300, the D700 speeds up to a full 8 frames per second at full resolution. In the vein of crop modes, The D3 offers an in-camera 5:4 10-megapixel crop mode, while the D700 drops this feature.

The sensor in the D700 is the same 12.1-Megapixel 36mm x 23.9mm FX format CMOS sensor found in the D3, complete with 12 channel readout for high shooting speeds. It features the D3′s world-leading ISO range of 200-6400 standard, 100-25,600 with Hi and Lo speeds, retaining its excellent image quality. It also has a 14-bit Analog to Digital Converter, and can shoot 12 and 14-bit NEF format raw files either uncompressed, lossless compressed, or lossily compressed, or JPEG or TIFF files.

It retains the automatic 5.1MP DX crop mode for using DX lenses. Also essentially unchanged from the D3 is the Multi-CAM 3500FX Autofocus system, with 51 autofocus points, 15 of them being cross-type sensors. The system offers single point, 9, 21, and 51 point conventional dynamic AF, auto area AF, and the unique 51 Point Dynamic 3D Color Tracking mode, which uses the camera’s metering sensor to track subjects by their colors across the frame. AF fine tuning also makes a repeat appearance.

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