D610 Price Drop $1696.95

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Rick M

Senior Member
Mister Bumbles said:
Thanks for the welcome Hark! Can't wait to get settled in with a new Nikon! I started my photo life when I was 16 on a Pentax Asahi K1000 with an SMC Pentax-M 50 f/1.4.
I absolutely loved that camera. 6 years later, one of my room-mates had a friend come visit, and his friend ran off with my camera gear. Not good. Camera + 7 lenses, gone.

My next camera was a gift from someone who wanted to foster my artistic talents. A Nikon F2A Photomic with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 and an Nikkor 80-200 f/4.
That camera got (and some self taught skills) won me an art scholarship that paid for part of my college. I ended up working in the college dark room (loved the work there) teaching students how to develop negatives and prints. After that I was offered a job working for the graphics department of the local newspaper. At which point my apartment got robbed, and I lost over $6,000 worth of items, including my entire camera set.

I went without a camera for a little while, then returned to college, and got a student discount on a Canon 40D which I used until last week. Now I'm itchin' to get my paws back on a Nikon, not to mention a full frame Nikon at that. *grrr* I can't wait! Anyway.. I do tend to run on a bit! *chuckle*
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With your history, I recommend you get insurance :) The D610 is a great body, especially at that price. The problem is we never know what the future holds with sale prices. You may get a better deal, or miss out completely! Welcome to the site!
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Rick M said:
With your history, I recommend you get insurance :) The D610 is a great body, especially at that price. The problem is we never know what the future holds with sale prices. You may get a better deal, or miss out completely! Welcome to the site!
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I've *never* dropped or broken an electronic device! (knocks on the nearest wooden object)
But I do have $22,000 in renters insurance that ought to cover it.. :)

Anyway, Once way or another, I *should* have a D610 and a 50mm 1.8 D by the end of the month. It took a lot of reviews and research, but I find that the general opinion is that the 1.8 D has sharper images and LESS distortion than the 1.8 G. So, hoping that is true.
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D Review

Ken Rockwell sums up most of what I had found in other research.
Of course he could be wrong, but I have bought lenses in the past based on his reviews and they were great lenses.

The G definitely has some improvements over the D, but apparently the D has less distortion. Course I will happily try both and see how it works out.
 
R

Rick M

Senior Member
Mister Bumbles said:
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D Review

Ken Rockwell sums up most of what I had found in other research.
Of course he could be wrong, but I have bought lenses in the past based on his reviews and they were great lenses.

The G definitely has some improvements over the D, but apparently the D has less distortion. Course I will happily try both and see how it works out.
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Oh boy, here we go :).

Check out photozone.de, The G is better wide open, which is usually why we buy a fast lens. Read KR for entertainment purposes only!
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Rick M said:
Oh boy, here we go :).

Check out photozone.de, The G is better wide open, which is usually why we buy a fast lens. Read KR for entertainment purposes only!
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And see that's why I joined here just so I could get the expertise and opinions from real people! :)
It's already paying off!

So I will add the 50 mm 1.8 G to my list, do you have any other recommendations? Keeping in mind that I will be spending most of my budget on the camera body and the 50 mm but I might be able to swing a second inexpensive full frame lens, and later go for more expensive glass to add toy collection. :)
 
R

Rick M

Senior Member
Actually when I was shooting Fx Nikon I started out with the D600 (later a D610) and 50mm 1.8g also. Save up for good glass after that. Better to save for good lenses than buy cheap sooner. I'd rather have 2-3 great lenses than 10 average ones, you'll see the difference.
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Well.. I went and did it! I was able to sell some extra junk from storage and came up with enough to get a decent bundle. Then, because I'm a super-duper nerd, I created a graphic to that shows what I ordered!

15194866904_efe8103994_o.jpg

Full sized version... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7462/15194866904_efe8103994_o.jpg

Thanks for all your help and info everyone. I can't wait to get started!
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Three days. I ordered 3 days ago and the camera already showed up! The problem now is... I have to wait two and a half hours for the battery to charge before I get to play with my new camera.

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Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Do you guys have *any* idea what it is like going from a 7-year-old Canon 40D with an aps-c sensor and older tech, to a Nikon camera that came out 1 year ago with a full frame sensor and modern tech?

It's like... phenomenal cosmic power in my hands.

Here is an older image of myself that I Photoshopped some time ago, but it illustrates juuuuuust how I feel right now.
So much power!

8454270973_2c6aa7a14c_h.jpg

This Nikon 24-85mm ED VR lens is *stunning*. I have just been tinkering around with it here in the office, but tomorrow I'll go out and *actually* take some decent photos. I am stunned by the world of difference in quality and sharpness.

Also, I realize now that the 16GB card that shipped with it won't be neaaaarly big enough. Going to have to buy a second one, or a couple larger cards to pop in this thing.
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Minor update for anyone still interested in a D610 body... the price just dropped again to $1496.. B&H Photo is already giving me $100 back on my purchase. Woohoo. Now I can only hope that it drops again in the next week or so before Christmas. Last minute sales are always nice. ;)

And for that price, you also get a few items thrown in of course.

SanDisk 16GB Ultra UHS-I SDHC Memory Card (Class 10)
Ruggard Commando 36 DSLR Shoulder Bag
Watson EN-EL15 Lithium-Ion Battery Pack (7.0V, 1800mAh)
Vello FreeWave Plus Wireless Remote Shutter Release - 2.4GHz (for Nikon)
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
Rick M said:
Actually when I was shooting Fx Nikon I started out with the D600 (later a D610) and 50mm 1.8g also. Save up for good glass after that. Better to save for good lenses than buy cheap sooner. I'd rather have 2-3 great lenses than 10 average ones, you'll see the difference.
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P.S. Rick, you were so right. The 50mm 1.8G is an incredible lens. So much so that I keep forgetting that I also bought the 24-85mm (another beautiful lens!). The 50 is turning into one of my favorite lenses very fast. The only thing I miss is a good Macro lens or macro tube, like I had for my Canon.

Considering that I'm getting almost $50 as a gift card from my original purchase (2 percent back on a number of the items), and a $100 refund, I thiiiink I may get the Kenko auto extension tubes now for macro work.

Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG for Nikon Lens A-EXTUBEDG-N B&H

The other option being, trying to track down a vintage Nikon-compatible macro / micro lens for 1:1 work. Hmm... choices. I wish I still had my [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm f/3.5 Macro Focusing Auto Zoom that I had on my Nikon F2A Photomic, but all of that gear was stolen. Even my Nikon 50mm 1.4 *sad*. [/FONT]
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
ShootRaw said:
Its crazy how much they have dropped it..I doubt it will go any lower...I smell the 600 line being discontinued..
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RocketCowboy said:
Someone send me some money to buy a D610. If I buy one, it's guaranteed to drop lower the very next day! :D
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The funny thing is, before I decided on the Nikon D610, I was considering just going with the Pentax K-3. It was about $1300 at the time, so not a huge price difference, but also offers in-body shake reduction so that even old manual lenses benefit from it. I grew up using vintage Nikon and Pentax cameras and at the time, they were all high quality really. My Pentax Asahi K-1000 took the exact same quality of photos as my Nikon F2A Photomic. In the end, I opted for the full frame option because I want the ability to print high-resolution images at large scale at some point. :)

Anyway, the point being, everyone said "The price can't go lower on the K-3, it's so cheap now!" when it was at $1100 on sale just six months ago. Then every 3 weeks, the price lowered.. and lowered.. and now the price is $796 and includes the grip! The Pentax K-5 series was around $1000 last January and is now only $496 and has been announced that the entire K series (except for the K-3) is being discontinued and being replaced by something else.

So, It's *possible* that the D610 could see another drop in price before Christmas during holiday sales. *crosses fingers*. Companies have been so competitive on prices lately that all I can do is hope ;)
 
Mister Bumbles

Mister Bumbles

Senior Member
I love the holidays! Nikon lowered it's prices again for cameras and bundles. Which means on top of the $100 I got back from the body price, I'll get another $120-ish back on my lenses now too! ;) More money to spend on Nikon gear *yaaaay*.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Store/Camera-Deals.page?cid=EML-121214-FX#lensesSpeedlights

Bundle prices and some camera prices have lowered, check em out. Maker sure to scroll up *and* down, the Nikon link provided to me in my email from Nikon puts me in the middle of the page for some reason.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Mister Bumbles said:
Considering that I'm getting almost $50 as a gift card from my original purchase (2 percent back on a number of the items), and a $100 refund, I thiiiink I may get the Kenko auto extension tubes now for macro work.

Kenko Auto Extension Tube Set DG for Nikon Lens A-EXTUBEDG-N B&H
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Be sure to check out the Vello Extension Tube set for Nikon. A few people here have it and said it works well. Of course, the Kenko set is awesome, but the Vello is much less.

Vello Auto Extension Tube Set for Nikon EXT-ND B&H Photo Video
 
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