Seems like a good deal…but if you are getting this you are getting into the professional range, in which case the kit lens will probably spend it’s life in the case. A brand new 610 body only from Amazon runs ~$2000. This model corrected the oil splatter problem of the 600. If you are making your living off your camera, or even just trying to have your hobby support itself, you are probably better off paying the extra 500 for new tech and full warranty rather than taking the (probably minor) $500 gamble on a tool you are using for work. If you don’t fall into the pro or semi-pro photographer category this is really too much camera for you anyway and you would be better served by the 3000, 5000, 0r 7000 series Nikons which are very good cameras and cost significantly less. BTW I attended a National Geographic seminar a couple of months ago, and one of their travel photographers said that his go to camera is a 7100, and his stuff was incredible.
I buy refurbs from Woot, including cameras, all the time and yet to have an issue, and buyers are probably safe with this one too. But given that a failure with this camera would probably mean a very bad day at the office and possibly lost assignments and clients I would probably spend the bucks on new rather than buy this one. Just my thoughts
Back in the old days, where anyone who takes photography even slightly seriously, the have to get a full frame SLR, thus the camera lens mfg having to make crap lens in the same format as their better lenses. But nowdays, that same category of people could be buying P&S, mirrorless…all the way up to DX sized DSLR, leaving the full frame cameras to serious amatuers or pros. So why still produce the modern day ‘E’ series equiv lenses when there is camera for it.
Please note that this is unsuitable for underwater use (without protection) or temperatures above 700 degrees. DO not, for example, put it near a vent spewing lava or inside a furnace or kiln. There are specialized cameras for those applications. It’s also too heavy for drone use or even as a Petcam. My dog was somewhat annoyed having one strapped onto his collar and I gave up after several attempts. It does, however, take good photos in normal settings.
This is indeed a professional or at least semi-professional camera. I bought the Nikon D300 from a local professional photographer last year and it’s AMAZING. I love it! This (woot’s offer today) is an amazing camera and will offer MANY years of fantastic photos (as long as you learn how to use it!). I’m still learning how to use mine.
I have this camera. I bought it about a year ago. It’s amazing and I don’t regret the purchase whatsoever.
You can get some great, old, AI-S Nikon lenses for relatively cheap on eBay or KEH.com. Mostly manual stuff, but very fun to use (and great if you’re shooting video).
It DOES have the Oil/Dust issue for sure. However I contacted Nikon, they paid for my 2 day shipping, and I got the problem fixed right away at no cost to me (they also did a general maintenance and upgraded the firmware, etc while they had it).
I think that’s quite a bit of an exaggeration. The guy using Soft Scrub obviously had no clue what he was doing, but there are plenty of dedicated at home sensor cleaning kits that do an alright job.
That’s apples and oranges man. Zooms and primes will inherently be a battle between convenience and quality. Me personally? I can correct the barrel/pincushion and vignetting issues in post processing, so I’d go with the zoom. I like to shoot wide in daylight mostly, so I’m stopping down to f/8 or 11 anyways. If I shot with the 105, it would be for a “Oh hey, that’s neat.” experience, but the focal range doesn’t quite appeal to me.
[MOD: no personal attacks pls]
Edit: Sorry, I didn’t mean for any offense to be taken. I guess that was kind of direct.
Man I really need to do this… I use my D600 as my main camera in my photography business. It has been an awesome tool except for the dust/oil issue. I clean regularly with Eclipse and swabs but it’s annoying.
The price on this refurbished D600 is merely OK. You can buy it on several other sites for about the same price, or less. The D600 is an excellent camera, except that it had a serious engineering flaw that resulted in many of the units developing oil spots on the sensor. The problem was so widespread Nikon discontinued the D600 and reintroduced it as the D610 with a new design to fix the problem. Since the one Woot is selling is refurbished by Nikon it’s most likely had the sensor issue fixed. However, many D600 owners complain that the problem can reappear even after Nikon has fixed it, so proceed with caution.
No way of knowing. They could have replaced the shutter mechanism that has been the problem or simply cleaned the sensor.
Reality is you can get a D610 for a few hundred more and it hasn’t got the problem and comes with a 1 year warranty… So I’m not sure there is any reason to slum it with a refurb of a defective product that the company replaced very quickly.
Exactly right. I am a proud owner of a infrared converted D200, D90 and a D7000. I purchased the D600(thankfully from Costco) and have NEVER seen 1/100th of the dirt/oil problem that troubles the D600.
Nikon has failed to adequately back-up their product and I would highly recommend against this purchase.
It was flawed from the get-go. And I doubt reconditioning fixed anything.
Nikon ignored the complaints and kept producing it. I assume it had to have improved, but considering how fast they brought the 610 to market tells me something.
I have heard the 610 is a killer piece, but with discounts, the D800 is only $200 or so more. And since all I want is the body…
I currently have a D200 with a number of lenses and the Speedlight 800 flash. The only downside to the D200 is that the sensor gets noisy if you push the ISO too high.
Actually, Nikon has been replacing the shutters in serviced D600s, and there are people who have purchased the re-certified D600s without issue.
The bigger issue here is if you’re going to buy this camera, then you should probably already know how to clean a sensor anyway. I cleaned my sensor after 6000k shots and haven’t had any issues since. I paid a total of $50 for the proper swabs and solution to clean the sensor.
lol - the amount of hating on Nikon for the sensor issue is hilarious.
While it’s a PITA, you send them your camera and they fix it in a couple weeks.
Clearly none of you own gear from Sony, Samsung, Asus, or Toshiba - because once their crap warranty is up and your garbage gear breaks you are screwed.
Nikon may not have issued the love-letter apology all of you seem to require, but at least they take care of the issue with near zero questions.
And the lens - guess what - we’re not all shooting for Vogue or NatGeo as you seem to be. It’s a fine lens for 95% of the consumers this unit was intended for. The sewing machine under the hood of your Sentra won’t win any Formula 1 races - does that make it complete crap as well?
And saying “the D600 is complete crap but the D610 is awesome” is about as stupid a comment fathomable…
That’s nice and all - but Adobe decided to f**k anyone with a newer Nikon as the version of RAW these cameras use is only supported in CS6 or above. Adobe has stated they will NOT back-port to any prior release.
So - if all you shoot is JPEG you’re OK - but if you bought this camera and only shoot JPEG you kind of wasted your money…
How many of your 8 quality posts were for the 16 that appear above?
