After using it for almost six years my D700 has 130,000+ clicks on it and shows no signs of quitting yet. This is my first post in a Miranda forum, and I’m using it to praise the D700 which is by far the best camera I have ever owned. I’m glad I stuck with Nikon after buying my first one—a Nikon F— in 1960.
Grabbed these on New Year's day in West Marin with a 55 f/1.2 S.C. AI mounted...
I'd wanted to shoot the horse on the left who was standing in a pool of late afternoon light but when he saw me get our of the car he made a bee-line for the fence... expecting goodies, no doubt. Then his pasture mate came to check things out. I still love my D700 and it still loves manual focus Nikkor lenses.
Wow!...
I love the artistry in these images. Christian your fox shot is superb and Ripolini, I really like your perspective on the mantis. Akul, your image of the river is wonderfully composed.
I just acquired a D700 to pair w/ my D800E. I've decided to use the D700 as my wildlife body instead of a D300 who's AF would never meet my expectations. I shot these last Saturday w/ the D700 and 200-400 f4... both at f5.6. Needless to say, the AF now meets expectation
regards,
bruce
OwlsEyes wrote:
Ripolini, I really like your perspective on the mantis.
Thank you Bruce
OwlsEyes wrote:
I've decided to use the D700 as my wildlife body instead of a D300 who's AF would never meet my expectations.
Strange
D700 and D300 share the same AF. Probably the AF of your D300 is mis-calibrated. A proper calibration of the mirror is fundamental (see here, in Italian though).
Ripolini wrote:
Strange
D700 and D300 share the same AF. Probably the AF of your D300 is mis-calibrated. A proper calibration of the mirror is fundamental (see here, in Italian though).
Best,
Riccardo
D700 and D300 share the same AF unit, but the D300 has a notably less powerful processor. This causes a couple differences in performance, notably the D300 is a little slower to lock on when AF'ing and also is only 2.5fps in 14 bit mode (D700 is capable of 8fps with 14 bit RAW's).
Maybe I should clarify my issues with the D300. As of two weeks ago, we had 2 D300's, one was an "S" the other was not. We paired this w/ a D610 and D800E for landscapes and macros. As of today, we still have one D300 (non-S) and my wife uses this as her wildlife body. This camera has always been the reliable one when paired with her 300mm f4.0 AFS (version 1... do I need to say v1 now (?) ). I've had two prior D300's and they did not play well with my 200-400 f4.0. The AF-tracking was inconsistent as was the single-spot or AF-single mode. During a recent wildlife shoot of w elephant seals (not the fastest animal on the planet), I was getting a 50% AF success rate at f5.6-f8. Some images were wildly out of focus. The same was not true with the D800E and the same lens.
Following secondhand advice that began eons ago with trenchmonkey, I blew out the AF sensor at the base of the mirror box. This did not improve the hit rate when I went to photograph sea otters a few days later. When I returned home from trip (pretty frustrated), I began to hunt for a replacement. I sampled the D7000 and D7100, but settled on the D700 for its familiarity and forgiving pixels at iso 800. The AF on this body is snappier than on the D300, D7100, and D7000. I did have to AF micro-adjust the lens at 400" (33') at 400mm and f4.0. The MA setting is about +14, which makes sense as the lens seemed to always front focus a bit. I'm hoping to chase hawk owls this weekend, so this will be the real test of the AF system. Even the best of the best photographers and cameras are challenged by these speed demons.
Anyway, that was way too long of a response.
Thanks and regards,
bruce
