Nikon D600 24.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Kit with 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED Nikkor Lens (OLD MODEL)

Like many other buyers I have been plagued with the dirt and oil on the sensor. This is a good camera and with good glass takes very nice pictures. But having to constantly clean the sensor is not what you would expect in a camera of this cost and with the reputation of Nikon. I see Nikon has released the D610, the difference - a new shutter system. Funny how Nikon refuses to admit they made a bad camera but it is now replaced with a new model - Nikon should have at least upgraded the focusing system to set up a better reason to buy the D610. Just to fix a design flaw, does not compel me to upgrade! I have just sent my D600 back to Nikon for the third time to try to get them to fix the oil-on-sensor problem. By the way, the Nikon literature saying that the problem goes away after 3,000 shutter releases is not true either. I have about 4,000 now and the problem is not getting better but worse. Unless, you want to spend countless hours in post processing getting rid of spots, don't buy the D600. I would be very wary of the D610 also. Update 12/17/2013 I sent my D600 into Nikon Repair and all is better than new. I have shot about 3000 frames since I got it back and no spots. Nikon finally replaced the shutter mechanism, cleaned and recalibrated the sensor. Great photos now with no dust. I bought a Nikon D7100 as a backup camera and side-by-side the D600 is the better camera (and should be.) I do wish the D600 had the D7100 autofocus system however.

I've bought this kit about a month ago and have been loving it. I don't use the bag it's too big for my liking but it seems like its decent quality. Here are the pros and cons I've found for the camera first then the lens. D600 Pros- this is my first full frame camera and coming from a DX sensor i see the pics contain a lot more detail and under exposed images can be brightened up a lot and still contain a ton of detail. No auto focus issues with my camera. Tested the lens and camera and they both focused well. It's a little bigger than the D7000 but it only took me a day of shooting to control everything with my eye on the viewfinder like I do with my D7000 Battery life is still good. A little worst than the D7000 but only slightly noticeable. Cons- I hate the autofocus points. Their very close together and I like to shoot more in the corners. You must use the recomposing technique with this camera. All those auto focus points are pretty much useless. They could have gotten the same job done with 5 or 9 points. I wish it had 3 user programmable settings instead of two. I really only use M, U1 and U2. A and S come in handy but that Scene setting should be a U3. Also, I don't like how you have to push the middle button down before you can turn the knob to change the settings. My D7000 didn't have that button and I never had a problem with my camera modes changing when I didn't want them to. That's all the flaws I can think of with the body so on to the lens. 28-300mm Lens Pros- I use my sharper fixed lenses under predictable conditions, but there is no better lens for the unpredictable. I wanted this for my general use walking lens. Nothing more, so even though the focal length overlaps all my lenses. I doesnt replace any of them. I take this lens with me in the woods where you never know what you're going to see but when you see it the right lens better be on your camera. This lens is going to let you get a great shot under most conditions. I can be doing a landscape shot, then when that hawk lands on a branch near me I can zoom in and get the shot before it flys off. I've missed a lot of great shots because I was trying to change lenses but now it rarely happens. Cons- well it's decently sharp and vivid but it's not gonna win awards for any of that stuff. Nikon makes a lot of money off lenses so even if they could they would never make a lens that was great at everything. Again, I use my fixed lenses when I'm doing the predictable stuff like portraits or indoor work or low light work because their better lenses for that job. I can't really fault this lens for not being good at stuff it's not supposed to be good at.

had this camera in repair more time than i had it using it. i am not a professional photographer, and for this very reason autofocus is important to me. it did quit unexpectedly, and after contacting Nikon support, i had to send the body of the camera, at my expenses to Nikon in California, there it sat for 3 weeks, with ZERO communications from nikon and had the camera sent back, to have the problem reappear 3 days later. No i did not pay that much to have a very fancy DSLR in repair, and I would therefore NOT recommend this model.

Nikon D600 is just uber amazing. I jumped out of a D3100 and for me, it is like a dream coming true. Auto focus is surreal, ISO does not ruin the picture, instead you can take pictures with very low light without a problem. The lens 28-300mm is pretty decent, although it is heavy. I decided to buy the Nikkor 50mm 1.8G and I can't say how happy I am so far. It takes a while to master the camera functions, but you can pretty much start using it as soon as you unpack it. I had an issue with the delivery to Harrah's Hotel in Las Vegas, but it was well managed by Amazon and I finally had this wonderful gear. If you are are thinking if you should move to a Full Frame camera, my answer is yes if you can. I can't stress enough how great it is in low light, the ISO performance is amazing.

Ok the whole dust/oil spots thing is TOTALY TRUE!! I have Never taken my lens off the camera and when shooting at small apertures (they don’t show up otherwise) my images have about 30 dust spots. Before buying the camera I read several famous-photo-dude blog’s that all said that the camera did not have the dust problem: I can only conclude that they did not use the camera for long enough, or look at images taken with small apertures. But MAN what a camera (and lens combo), incredible dynamic range, incredible sharpness, and incredible ability to shot in low light. I am SO glad I bought it. I just have to get the sensor cleaned.

The dust issue continues to reoccur OVER and OVER. Local camera shop will clean sensor for $90. EACH TIME this happens I need to fork over $90??? And it happens frequently. Every 1000 shots or so. I won't rehash what others have said about Nikon and the D610 but this is so disappointing after spending $2K on this body.

I like D600's full-frame feature. The RAW format gives about 24MP. The menu system takes a little getting used to but the customizable menu shortcuts really help. I also like the U1 & U2 custom settings. It takes two SDXC cards, which is very handy. Have not had the much discussed dirt issue after about 6 weeks of use with about 500 pictures. The battery life is not that great, glad I ordered a second battery. D600's view finder is dark with the 28-300mm kit lens. It's 0.7x the size human eyes can see, so it's hard to compose sometimes. I had to switch to live view mode when it's dark or when the object is far away. The kit lens 28-300m performs better than I expected. The lens has a various f-stops of 3.5 to 5.6, so is not very fast indoor but the quality is decent for its price. I tried many focal lengths ranging from 28, 35, 50, 70, 200, to 300 and it worked admirably. The downside is its weight, especially when extended to 300mm, both hands are needed to hold the entire body to get a steady shot. I tried taking pictures of the moon with 300mm zoom, ISO 100, exposure ~ 1/10 sec on a tripod and was able to see moon craters. The pictures are not super sharp but I will try again when I get a better tripod. D600's Live View mode is great. The LCD screen has vivid colors and is larger than that of D7000. However, it caused the 28-300mm lens to hunt too much in low light conditions. I tried shooting a video in a moving car and the lens was re-focusing all the time and motor was SO LOUD and that's all I can hear when playing back my video. D600 also takes sharp pictures with my Nikon 50mm f1.8D prime lens and 16-35mm f4 zoom lens. The pictures have nice details even when zoomed in. Nikon's View NX2 software is not super user-friendly but it kind of works. In RAW mode, you can fine-tune the white balance, exposure, and convert to JPG format for printing, crop your pictures, etc. I tried auto ISO sensitivity but noticed that the ISO value changed too much indoor (sometimes) when I move my camera angle or position slightly. Though not perfect, I like D600 and look forward to taking lots of pictures with it.

I bought this camera to upgrade to full frame from a D5000, so right off the bat, the image quality and features are much better. I give this camera five stars because I truly love it. While I may be biased because of the significant jump in quality, the pictures, to me, are remarkably better. The primary reason I am writing this review is to give some feedback regarding the sensor issue. Out of the box, there was no issue with dirt/dust/oil on the sensor. After a couple hundred shots, there was noticeable dirt in the shot when shooting at smaller apertures. Solution: I did not have to wet clean the sensor. After 4 or 5 rounds of blowing off the sensor the issue was resolved, for now. To this point, the smudges or circles that look like oil stains have not appeared. All I had was dust or dirt that blew right off. I will update later if more issues arise.