nikon d600 dust issues?

H

Hanad

Member
Has anyone had any issues with dust going into the sensor? I heard a few people complaining about that and some people say its shipped like that.... Also the focus points are all in the middle, but I thought you could manually move each one to the edge if you wanted to? or am I wrong?
 
Not sure about the focus points, but with almost all the Nikon's we own. D700/D7000/D40/D90... you can move the focal points close to the edges.
The Sensor dust has been well documented and is a KNOWN problem, they say its some contamination that entered the camera at the production plant.
 
the auto focus points are clustered more in the middle than other higher priced cameras, you can select from these available points, you cannot change their position. you can manually adjust the focus or half-press and move the camera for framing/composition.
 
Right so the auto focus points cannot be moved then? How about reliability and build quietly? I am really close to purchasing this camera..
 
There are dust spots but I can only see them [I have 4] when I shoot a solid lightly colored background at f/16 or higher.
Then I have to really look for them.
I've not seen the spots in video. Only on a few stills that had blue sky as the main background.

You can select your focus points like you can on any other camera.

As far a build goes, it's not cheap or plasticky feeling but keep in mind that it not all metal.
I did drop my camera on a wood floor about 2 weeks ago and I've not had one issue. No scuff marks either.

Image-wise the stills are outstanding.
Video-wise there are issues of moire in some shots but I like everything else [color, resolution and sharpness].

If you could, I'd say go play with one before you buy it.
I like this camera and I would buy another one if need be, but that's just me...
 
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I've never seen spots in video mode, but I frequently see them in photos since I often shoot at 17mm and f/11. Depending on your lens and f-stop you may never see the dust.
 
hendosan said:
I've never seen spots in video mode, but I frequently see them in photos since I often shoot at 17mm and f/11. Depending on your lens and f-stop you may never see the dust.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you've seen Chasing the Light, which shows quite a few dust spots.

It seems to have lessened a bit for me after a few cleans, at around 5k shutter cilcks. It does cause me a great deal of anxiety however as it still seems to happen - this rate is still unacceptable.

Is there any reason you're shooting at so high of an fstop? Image quality starts to fall apart pretty quickly beyond f/8, and at 17mm, it is in my opinion unnecessary. I rarely go beyond f/5.6 on my 17-35, and for landscapes, max f/8.

As for the autofocus on the D600, if you're coming from a D700 or above, you'll hate it. Not only is it quite a bit slower, especially with screwdriver lenses, it doesn't focus well in low light. It's a fine camera for the price and i'd pick it any day over the 6D, but a pro camera it is not.
 
I had dust issues when I first got my D7000. Was a dust magnet, no matter how carefully I changed lenses. Cleaned the sensor, and it never attracted dust to that extent ever again.
 
I bought one a few weeks ago and have color graded against our af100, and ex3. All things above taken into consideration; I prefer the look of the files coming off the D600 into a Hyperdeck with no issues working around aperture utilizing over exposure dial and declicked aperture rings on manual primes. 3 spots visible from factory at f11 or better. The images both stills and video are simply stunning. I'll wet clean and carry on. PS my favorite go to lens; 105 2.5
 
I here it goes away, so if you clean you sensor once or twice after a few hundred or thousand shots, it shouldn't keep happening. (just make sure you do your research on how to clean a sensor.)
 
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I tried three different D600s from three separate serial numbered lots. They all had massive dust/debris/oil issues. I finally gave up and picked up a D800. The D600 is a real tease. It can take a great picture, however, after the first 350 pictures or so, plan on sticking with very wide open apertures or you will see spots all over the sky, and those are not UFOs. The other issue of teasing is the video out is not coming out in true 1920 x 1080 through the HDMI port. There is a black band and what you see is about 95% of the video. My suspicion is that it counts on the televisions over-scanning the image. Anyway, a bunch of folks swear that Nikon will fix this "bug" with a revision to the firmware, however, they are not likely to do this as it would erode sales of the D800 which has the proper HDMI out video feed for recording.

Another issue that some folks also claim is a "bug" is that you cannot adjust the aperture while recording video in the live view mode. Again, I doubt it is a bug. I believe that Nikon intended the aperture to be fixed while in live view mode.

Oh, and as for the dust/debris issue, Nikon will not own up to the problem. They have their heads in the sand on this issue. They will clean your camera if you send it in, but some folks are claiming that Nikon makes you pay for the shipping, while others say that Nikon did pay for the shipping.

The D600 is a world of hurt until Nikon fixes the issues. Nice camera for the first 350 pictures. Frankly, the D800 is much better.
 
After 1200 shots I was still getting debris on the sensor, not as much as at the beginning but nevertheless, a big hassle. I have used the Arctic Butterfly and it was cleaning up nicely every time, it was just dust. But I had to do that all the time and I got tired of it. Waiting for the replacement now, wish me luck.

I agree that they will never enable the aperture change in LV, this is a D7000 chassis and that one did not have it either, it might be a hardware limitation.
But exposure in Manual mode LV? It exist in photo mode. Histogram like in D800? No excuse...
 
I did a wet clean using pre moistened swabs. What a mistake. Streaks and spots still there. I bought a lensklear ii system with loupe and rocket blower. 5 minutes first use and pristine sensor.
Don't even bother with the wet swabs; if you have oil or sticky spots, or just don't put enough pressure on the handle you will leave streaks.
Rant.
 
I have my replacement body now and at about 450 shots in I can still see particles on the sensor, but only because I am looking at it with a sensor loupe, I have not see the spots at f11. So a clear improvement over the first body I had, that was showing all sorts of particles, some huge ones. A simple rocket blower job and the sensor is pristine, I can live with it (but in 2 years of using a D3 in a studio I never had to clean the sensor, shooting at f16-f22 - go figure).

happy shooting everyone!
 
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