reindeer Loc: London U.K.

I have a Nikon D300 DSLR and am thinking of upgrading to either D600 (about which I have heard there are some sensor cleaning problems) or to a D7100. Any thoughts/ feedback on performance comparison with D7100 or advantages of A FULL FRAME WILL BE APPRECIATED. i HAVE A 18-200 vr DX lens.

Roscomar Loc: Middle Georgia

I'm sure there are as many opinions on this as there are "hogs" on the forum, but for what it's worth I recently upgraded from a NIKON D300s (which I still love today), to a nearly brand new D700, which has the full format sensor. The two bodies have identical layouts so there is no learning curve, and so far, I'm blown away with the images. The D700 doesn't have video capability but that doesn't matter to me. IMHO it offers more than the D600, especially if you can still find one that's been gently used at a good price. I suspect a lot of NIKON fans wish it was still in production. Good luck, and hang on that D300....it will make a great backup DSLR.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Here's a side by side comparison along with some commentary, see if it helps you.

http://photographylife.com/nikon-d7100-vs-d600

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I had a d7000 and upgraded to the D600 and was really surprised with some of the differences. Super happy with the 600 and only wish I hadn't waited so long. ;)

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

The problem with oil on the sensor of the D600 has just about been eliminated. If you get one with the problem, Nikon will fix it quickly.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

I would get the 7100 because your lens is a dx. If you upgrade to full frame you won't be able to take the full advantage of it with your dx lens. However, if you only have the one lens, I recommend you stick with the d300 and spend your money on more lenses.

elandel Loc: Milan, Italy

Also went with D700. One of the best cameras ever IMHO.

David Dennis Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

I was in a similar position about a year ago when I replaced my Nikon D300 with a D4. I've shot over 140,000 pictures with the D4 and consider the change a major success.

The main problem with full frame is that you are going to have to get a new lens or lenses, all of which are significantly more expensive than what you have now.

You cannot use the 18-200 lens on the D600 - well, you can, but it's not a full-frame lens and will only give you crop sensor sized pictures.

The 28-300, which roughly replicates the zoom range of your 18-200, is a bit under $1,000. It is a highly controversial lens. You can get great shots with it, but it's not as ultimately sharp as the legendary 24-70 f/2.8 or 70-200 f/2.8. The 70-200 f/4 is an intriguing option since it's just as sharp as the f/2.8, but it's also 2/3 the price and so I'm not sure if I'd want to save that little to not have the option of f/2.8. I recently bought the 70-200 f/2.8 and am extremely happy with it.

If you want to get the absolute best pictures, you probably need the latter two and unless you are a fanatic like me, you will not be happy at what you have to spend. To be specific, you will spent a shade over $4,000 buying those two lenses.

The bottom line is that compared to the D300 and D7100, you should get somewhat better results with the D600 and 28-300, and much better results with the D600 and 24-70 + 70-200.

However, they will require more photographic skill to get.

Full frame is significantly more sensitive to imperfections in focus than crop sensors are. So if you find focus tricky and get focus issues, things will get worse on the D600.

Another way of thinking about this is that if you like shallow depth of field effects (where the subject is in focus but the background is not), they will be stronger on the D600 and you will like that. If you want more of your subject in focus, stick with the D7100.

I switched from the D300 to the D4, and am very happy with my purchase, but until I understood the above I had problems getting sharp subjects. With practice and better lenses, I now have much sharper photos than I used to with the D300.

Other than overall image quality, the most important advantage of full frame sensors is significantly better performance in low light. If you are always trying to take pictures where there is no light to shoot them, you want a full frame camera and at least one high light sensitivity lens such as a prime or the 24-70 f/2.8 zoom (about $1,800). However, note that performance of the D7100 in low light is said to be very good, definitely much better than your D300. It might be worth getting the D7100 and the 24-70. I bought the 24-70 for my D300 before I got the D4, and I was really happy with the improvement in image quality and light sensitivity it gave me.

Your D300 has professional build quality like the D800 or D700. The D600 and D7100 have consumer build quality like the less expensive Nikons. So you should bear in mind that in terms of product quality you will be taking a step down with either the D600 or D7100. This is why a lot of people are recommending the D700 even though it's functionally obsolete. Unless you have an urgent need to switch now, you may want to wait for the much-rumored D400 which will have an updated sensor like the D7100 but have build quality and design more like the D300.

If you want to maintain product quality and buy a camera now, you could get a D800 (or D800E) or a D4. I have the D4; it's super big, heavy and rugged, but certainly provides by far the highest quality in low light. Unfortunately, it's $6,000 price makes it a non-starter for most. It would be more practical to consider the D800, which I've seen in the $2,700 range. The main drawback of the D800 is slightly slower shooting speed and extremely big images which will tax your computer and its software to the utmost.

So full frame is significantly more expensive than crop sensor, and only you can figure out whether you'll get your money's worth. If you don't want to make the stretch towards becoming a professional photographer (as I did), I think you'd be happier (and definitely richer) sticking with DX and the D7100.

Hope that helps.

D

(Enclosed are a couple of D4 shots with the 70-200 lens to show the level of quality we are talking about with full-frame and top-quality glass.)

reindeer Loc: London U.K.

Thank you.