I dropped into Amazon to check prices after noting a listing on the Buy and Sell board for a D600. As I often do I checked the reviews for those who gave the product one star, the lowest possible. I'd read on this board that dust is a problem with this camera but quite a number of reviewers were complaining about oil on the sensor, apparently coming from slap of the mirror. I'm curious whether folks spending time on this thread have had these problems. The D600 is a sensible upgrade from my D700 so I am curious. Any comments? Thanks.

You may find this interesting:
http://nikonrumors.com/2012/11/29/the-oil-spots-on-the-nikon-d600-sensor-seems-to-disappear-after-3000-shots.aspx/

I have around 3500 shots on my D600 and I do have dust but I haven't cleaned it yet so I can't say if it comes back after 3000. I need to get ahold of some kind of a decent sensor cleaning kit. I shoot mostly people and mostly at wider apertures so I didn't even notice it until I went to take some pics of the moon rising over a downtown building the other day and I shot at f16.

brad

Thanks. It is the combination of dust and oil that has me concerned. My D700 will collect dust bunnies that require my attention, but having oil on my sensor is a different breed of cat. The two together don't inspire me to consider the D600.

For what it's worth, the oil issue seems to be temporal and has been reported by a few to decrease to nil when the shutter has been actuated about 3000 times. Of course, only on those cameras affected by overlube.

This is not a "every single D600 has it" situation. My wife's doesn't show the problem and she has about 2000 shots on hers..

hope that helps

Count me as one who hasn't had any dust or oil issues as well -- I've only had it for about 2 weeks though.

Just got mine, no dust or oil so far! serial number starts with 8

Curtis, I had a dirty sensor that I noticed around 600 shots. I did a wet clean with the pre-moistened sensor swabs and everything is fine for now.

The way I shoot, I rarely notice dirt on the sensor so it doesn't concern me much. Having said that, I think Nikon dropped the ball with their QC on this camera, but it won't make me rid of it, and it wouldn't stop me from purchasing it. It's a fantastic camera and the raw files blow me away when I develop them in LR.

I guess every camera has trade offs, it's up to the individual to decide whats worth it, and what's not.

Good luck!

Guari wrote:
For what it's worth, the oil issue seems to be temporal and has been reported by a few to decrease to nil when the shutter has been actuated about 3000 times. Of course, only on those cameras affected by overlube.

This is not a "every single D600 has it" situation. My wife's doesn't show the problem and she has about 2000 shots on hers..

hope that helps

I think you're going to see a lot of variation in how long and of what source the problems are with this model:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50398445

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.com

I had some dust issues early on, around 500 clicks. 30-40 spots (full, dark circles) that mostly existed in the upper left frame.

I wet-cleaned the sensor and haven't seen the problem since. Near 2000 clicks now.

Nickle S. wrote:
Guari wrote:
For what it's worth, the oil issue seems to be temporal and has been reported by a few to decrease to nil when the shutter has been actuated about 3000 times. Of course, only on those cameras affected by overlube.

This is not a "every single D600 has it" situation. My wife's doesn't show the problem and she has about 2000 shots on hers..

hope that helps

I think you're going to see a lot of variation in how long and of what source the problems are with this model:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50398445

Nicholas
www.copperhillimages.com

of course there will be variation, as I said my wife's show none..

I do agree it may be a problem for some users affected by it

The dust/oil "issue" is so blown out of proportion it's ridiculous. I have the "issue" with mine, but the only way to see the spots is to shoot featureless things (walls/skies) at f/16+ and crank the contrast to a million. I have plenty of sky shots at f/11 from this weekend that have no visible dust unless you go nuts with the sliders. Even then, the spots are blurred and not that defined. Unless I get a giant blob of grease on the sensor, I'll happily wait a couple of months for things to work out before having it cleaned. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the hell out of this camera and not worrying about it.

Maybe it's hard for me to complain since I recently moved from film/scanning which is dust city. So far, I have some great shots with zero touchup needed from my "dirty" sensor.

No problems with mine.

Slabshaft wrote:
The dust/oil "issue" is so blown out of proportion it's ridiculous. I have the "issue" with mine, but the only way to see the spots is to shoot featureless things (walls/skies) at f/16+ and crank the contrast to a million. I have plenty of sky shots at f/11 from this weekend that have no visible dust unless you go nuts with the sliders. Even then, the spots are blurred and not that defined. Unless I get a giant blob of grease on the sensor, I'll happily wait a couple of months for things to work out before having it cleaned. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the hell out of this camera and not worrying about it.


The one time I shot in f/16 the dust spots were clearly and immediately visible in my photos so much so that I considered the photos unusable without a lot of cloning/spot removal. I'm not worried about it and I plan on cleaning it at some point soon but my experience wasn't like yours.

brad

DigMeTX wrote:
Slabshaft wrote:
The dust/oil "issue" is so blown out of proportion it's ridiculous. I have the "issue" with mine, but the only way to see the spots is to shoot featureless things (walls/skies) at f/16+ and crank the contrast to a million. I have plenty of sky shots at f/11 from this weekend that have no visible dust unless you go nuts with the sliders. Even then, the spots are blurred and not that defined. Unless I get a giant blob of grease on the sensor, I'll happily wait a couple of months for things to work out before having it cleaned. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the hell out of this camera and not worrying about it.


The one time I shot in f/16 the dust spots were clearly and immediately visible in my photos so much so that I considered the photos unusable without a lot of cloning/spot removal. I'm not worried about it and I plan on cleaning it at some point soon but my experience wasn't like yours.

brad

If you go back to the thread on dpreview I posted above, the fellow has a picture shot at f/8 clearly showing dust. The myth that dust only shows at small aperatures is only a myth.

Nicholas

It was not noticable to me until I shot at f16. I haven't shot at f8 that much though. Most of my shooting is 5.6 or wider.

brad

CGrindahl wrote:
The D600 is a sensible upgrade from my D700 so I am curious. Any comments?

Separate from the dust/oil thing is the lack of a dedicated AF-ON button on the D600. I never had it until I got my D800, but now I think it would be tough to go back to not having one. It seems like a trivial item, but you're a big AF-ON user, an "upgrade" from the D700 to the D600 could be a little disappointing from that perspective. While the AE-L/AF-L button can get reprogrammed, it's not quite in the right place...

Not blown out of proportion IMHO, I've had many a DSLR and never received a NEW body with 40-50 "spots" (not dust bunnies) in the top right hand corner that needed half a dozen cleanings to remove. Maybe some people like to get filthy sensors when they drop $2100 a new body, I don't....I cleaned my 5D every couple of weeks back in the day but that was dust which came from use.

No oil on mine. I've got a little bit of dust, but with about 5k on the shutter in about a month, it's to be expected. I also shoot a lot of landscapes at f/8-16, and this camera hasn't shown to be any more problematic than any other i've used as far as dust goes. I think it's something that has gotten blown way out of proportion by the internet. Pick one up, it's a great camera.

wellsjt wrote:
CGrindahl wrote:
The D600 is a sensible upgrade from my D700 so I am curious. Any comments?

Separate from the dust/oil thing is the lack of a dedicated AF-ON button on the D600. I never had it until I got my D800, but now I think it would be tough to go back to not having one. It seems like a trivial item, but you're a big AF-ON user, an "upgrade" from the D700 to the D600 could be a little disappointing from that perspective. While the AE-L/AF-L button can get reprogrammed, it's not quite in the right place...

I don't think Curtis care about the AF-ON button as he's using 99,9% of the time MF-lenses.

I wouldn't bother too much about the oil/dust (although Nikon should did it right in the first place). I had it in the beginning with my D800E as well. One thorough cleaning and that was it. No problems so far.

Can anyone recommend a good, low-cost wet-cleaning kit?

brad