Submitted by Marko on
It's so light I can carry it easily around on my shoulder or in my backpack and use it for long stretches of time. It's just the right size for me and sits perfectly in my hands, and even allows for one-hand shooting with a light lens if necessary. A borrowed Nikkor 50mm 1.4G seems like a perfect companion to it so I might just replace my old 1.8D with it, especially as a 50mm lens will surely be my most used lens just like the 35mm DX 1.8G was on my D80 and D90.
Greater ISO range means I can use it in much darker circumstances as the old D90. ISO 6400 is completely usable and even boosted ISO of 12800 and even 25600 produces passable images. This is just perfect for hiking in dark woods. Waiting for the sun to come out will no longer be necessary. Unless it's raining or snowing, there's no reason not to go out and take photos with it. The tripod will only be needed for shots where long exposure is necessary from the artistic point of view, for images of waterfalls, night traffic, fireworks and similar objects and of course for time-lapse photography, interval shooting, bracketing and in-camera HDR.
Unlike the first-generation live view on the old D90 the live view works great and the ability too zoom in to better see the focus is just perfect for manual focusing with crazy Lensbaby and other manual lenses. I usually don't make movies but it looks like this camera will be great for the occasions when I do. I don't really care that it doesn't allow me to change aperture while in movie mode, as that would require special lenses to look good in a movie anyway.
The position of the ISO button seemed a bit awkward at first, especially as you can't assign it to any other button, but I found it quite accessible even when looking through the viewfinder, as it sits at the bottom of the row of buttons on the back of the camera. The lockable mode dial is my best friend now, because the one on previous Nikon cameras was not and I ended up using some useless scene mode too many bloody times. User settings (U1 and U2) will be my friends too, as soon as I decide which setting to save in each. As for the scene and auto modes, I can simply ignore them, just like the Qual and Picture Control buttons. The AF/M switch and AF mode/AF area select button in a single package work great. The programmable FN button is a great idea, I just wish there was more things I could assign to it, same goes for the preview button, which is also a bit awkward to press. The "My menu" menu is a great, because finding a particular setting in the whole menu can take a while.
The shutter is very quiet, especially in "Q" mode, so wildlife won't run away so easily and some people won't even notice their souls have been captured on film
And than of course, there's the image quality, which is incredible. The only drawback for now is that there is no Lightroom support for this camera yet, so shooting in raw format requires the use of not-so-good Nikon ViewNX 2. The proof of the great IQ is of course coming soon to a gallery near you.