@LPowell you have D600? As for glass, latest lenses tend to be more expensive- so at least there is a clear price advantage!

I am shuddering to think about getting the new Moire filter only to kill parfocal lenses! :-(

@evero & @LPowell

Personally I have fixed the aperture issue. (My fix) Is to only use manual aperture lenses. As we all know this really is the only way to pull aperture if needed in shot (exposure control). Otherwise you will get a lovely stepping effect.

The issue that I have found is that some of my lenses don't like being in manual aperture control (EE is displayed on D600). My primes are fine - but Tokina zooms (don't laugh- at f4 they are razor sharp!) don't play ball.

To get around this I set the lens to camera control (largest f number lock) then also set the camera to the largest f number- and the correct shutter speed. Then when I enter Movie LV I simply unlock the aperture ring on the lens and BOOM! Smooth aperture control.

So currently I don't have issues with aperture at all. Unfortunately Moire is horrid (aliasing is not that big a deal compared to patterns for me)- and HDMI is playing 'who framed Roger Rabbit'.

Fortunately I purchased this for event photography- studio - etc... so I am not reaching for the invoice quite yet.

YMMV

@evero I have already sent off a service query- as far as I am concerned the black border is NOT uncompressed HDMI. They also should get a reality check with Moire which is a real game stopper, however I understand the technical issues in trying to please every camp.

I have some very large Greenscreen shoots coming up next year, and if nothing changes till December will most probably be investing in a BMDC MFT. Once again I'm not selling my GH2 yet- but greenscreen is a RAW affair, and it will cost basically the same for an external recorder for the D600 as the whole darn BMDC!

@alcomposer Thanks for testing. I was wondering: Any idea what's the best method for giving Nikon feedback about this black border, and no-aperture-change while in live view? I always fear that Nikon is not getting the message, so at least we should provide feedback as best as we can..

The clip is from from Jacob Fenn, (DSLR News Shooter covered this in the D800 posting) Ill ask DSLR Shooter if he can pop in his prototype Mosaic engineering OLP Filter for the D800 (same hole size?) don't know...

Cheers, Al

Oh.. sure sorry @VK and @animanus... My head has been in photo mode for a few days now... (camera is 90% for photos). love the GH2 too much to ever ditch it! :-D

For images obviously just crop... video no crop for sure.

@animanus I haven't had a look at APSC yet (no glass!)- but you can put it in APSC mode ?? Kind of pointless - can just crop after...

@swester Filming power lines is not my idea of fun... however this is the worst... it does have issues, but not as bad as you have shown... This 'may' fix up with a HDMI tap?? (I totally understand that these are sensor issues- however the severity seams to come and go on a per frame basis - so possibly i-frame codec could at lease make it something I could live with) Anyway- this was shot into the sun.. so I am happy with the DR range! :-D (And yes that is dust on the f#king sensor... :( I have to already clean the sensor... :#

Image shot at F 22 Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 shutter 50 (iso I forget- something like 500-1000?)

how is the APSC mode? any reduction in quality or other strangeness?

The early clips seem to suggest that although it gives higher detail, it also exhibits similar moire and aliasing of the D800. So I guess it's pick your poison: softness of the Mk III or jaggies on the D600.

I think of all the cameras that just came out within my $1200 - $2300 budget, this nikon D600 is starting to look like the most appealing. Couple with the fact that I was in the market for a good still camera, this D600 with good video (hopefully great after more reviews) is slowly looking like a winner to me. Before the GH3 came out, I easily could have said the GH3 was my top camera but now I will I have to wait and play with the D600 and GH3 before I make a decision.

@swester I can't understand your point about 24 mbit avchd bitrate. What the Gh2 has shown is that its implementation of the 24 mbits codec is far superior to anything higher that Canon dslr have on camera. More so that the 5dmark 3 image is very very soft and that you can have a D600 + $ 300 hyperdeck shuttle for literally $ 1000 less. I don't think there is any comparison here.

I'm pretty confident that the aliasing is better on D600 - it's a much smaller MP sensor than the D800, so it's dealing with a lot less scaling in the first place.

Perhaps the aperture issue will be fixed in a firmware update, which would make it much more appealing to me. As for the bitrate, the extra cost of the Atomos + SSD basically puts it into Mk III territory, which has a vastly better codec built-in anyway. So it's a toss-up at this price point. 24mbps H264 is lousy, no matter which way you cut it.

Still, it's encouraging to see Nikon jab Canon where it hurts. As for the GH3, the full tests will reveal what we have in store. An exciting time to buying hunting for equipment, for sure.

Argh. I really wanted to like the D600 and consider it as an alternative to the 5D/6D for video. But the no aperture adjustment in LIVE view and the pitiful stock bitrate just kills it for me. It isn't realistic for me to pack an external recorder just to bypass the codec.

Oh well...Nikon could have blown Canon out of the water in the video crowd with this. But they're getting closer!

Nikon D600 came in just under D800 for image quality on DxOMark test. In low light it looks like it even beats the D800, which I suppose is to be expected:

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Publications/DxOMark-Reviews/Nikon-D600-sets-high-bar-for-sensor-image-quality