Hands on with the Nikon D700

I just got back from Ace Photo in Ashburn, Virginia where they had arranged a hands-on with the brand-new full-frame Nikon D700 (read preview at Ken Rockwell) and what an awesome camera it is! I played with it quite a bit; they had a bunch of lenses and a D3 and D300 for comparison. It is essentially a D3 in a D300's smaller body. The only negative I could see with the D700 was that the D3 and even the D300 have 100% viewfinder while the D700 is 95% (though the D700's viewfinder is physically bigger and brighter almost like the D3's which is beautiful). Like the D3, the D700 is a low-noise wonder at high ISOs and it ideal for low-light photography. As Derek from Nikon USA aptly put it -- "ISO3200 is the new ISO800".

A lot of prosumers showed up to check out the D700 and some had even ordered it already. it should be shipping by end of July for a street price of $2995.95 -- about 2K less than the D3.

Check out some of the shots I took of the D700 with a variety of lenses.