A lot of stuff on here to ponder, particularly given my current thinking on possibly upgrading from my D7000 to a D800, or even a second D600.
Absolute pros in its favor (for me at least):
- 5 frame brakceting
- 51 point autofocus
- battery compatibility with the D7000, D600 & D800
- 6 fps (hope they gave it a bigger buffer)
- 24MPS
- D600 form factor (button) match (except why couldn't they also keep the secondary WB, QUAL, ISO functions on the same buttons as the D600?!)
- And while not a real factor for me, I'm happy to see the stereo mics for video at the top of the prism and not where I can put my fingers over them on the front.
What I'm a little curious about is the 1.3 Crop DX vs. the old 1.5. While this still gives me a bit of boost in what my telephotos will capture (500mm = 650mm instead of the old 750mm) with added image size (50% more MP's over the D7000 likely makes it a wash in the "pixels per bird category"), what effect does it have with existing DX lenses? Were all Nikon DX lenses capable of fully covering a 1.3 crop, or will some now yield runout on edges and/or corners (the 18-105 is obviously OK if it's the kit lens)? What about other manufacturer's lenses? Canon's APS-C sensor is even smaller than the old 1.5 crop (it's 1.62), so I would imagine that the Sigmas and Tokinas of the world were working with 1.5 in mind knowing that anything beyond that didn't really matter. I could surely take the couple DX lenses I have left and shoot them in FX mode on my D600 and do some geometry. My long lenses are full frame, so I'm more curious than concerned. The only one that would concern me slightly is my Sigma 8-16mm which may show runout at 8mm (I wanted to check that one in FX mode anyway).
A 1/2 the price of a D600 it's going to be a tempting get, given all my prior ponderings. Would love to be able to play with one for a while first. I'll probably wait to see what issues there are to shake out on this one (each release seems to have some). Then again, maybe not. LOL Looking forward to reading some reviews.