In the world of digital photography Full Frame is the defacto format that most hobby Photographers aspire to "upgrade to" because they have the preconception and reputation that they are better and "What the Professionals Use".
Due to intense marketing by the camera manufacturers themselves "Full Frame" has become the biggest buzz-word in the Photography industry used to convince both hobbyists/prosumers and pros alike that they "need a better camera".
In reality many older Full Frame cameras, (such as the Sony a99 I will be reviewing next week) were actually no better then APS-C cameras for handling high ISO noise inspite of the presumption that "Full Frame is Always Better". As such, not every Full Frame sensor is equal just as not every APS-C sensor handles Low Light "poorly" either..
Because of this, I often get very defensive when it comes to smaller format sensors (such as Micro 43rds) being just as Valid as full frame, and perhaps at one point had a stigma against full frame shooters much as an auto enthusiast may have a stigma against someone who owns/drives a Tesla.
That said the goal of this 2023 project is to just shoot a bunch of cameras I can get ahold of in one year and not trash talk nor put on a pedestal one sensor size over another (which is frequently done in the great debate of photographers and their preferences).
I'm not going to exclude two more affordable/ older Full Frame cameras from this list that I have access to and will judge them as fairly as any of my other cameras in these reviews; it just took me awhile to get to them.
So setting any personal Bias aside I may have against Full Frame sensors/shooters I am going to review my two Full Frame entries for this project back to back to round out the very last of the decent weeks for outdoor weather for the year in my home region. The first being the Nikon D610 which is currently on loan from a close friend.
Released in late 2013 the Nikon D610 is a camera that was ahead of its time, and a reason there are still a good number of them in the wild used by people today. It featured one of the first Full Frame sensors (a 24.5 mp FF sensor) which really lived up to the stereotype that "Full Frame is Better for Low Light".
Much like the D70s this camera was a "re-release" of the previous camera, the D600 with some minor tweaks including a fix to a flawed shutter design which were causing the shutter curtains on the D600 to jam. Production wise, the D610 far oversold the previous D600 which was only on the market for one year.
The D610's sensor is extremely sharp with a nice look to it, though it is a lower contrast sensor SOOC then the Sony a99, but has better detail and noise handling at higher ISO then the Sony a99.
The fact that this camera, for low light noise up to ISO 6400 can still go toe to toe with more modern sensors like the Nikon Z6 is pretty dang impressive.
The first day I shot street photography in Blue Hour with a slowish f4 zoom lens and still got some pretty decent and non iso-crispy shots. I don't credit the fact that this is a "Full Frame Sensor" alone to make up for this point as the Sony a99 I'll be reviewing next week really would have struggled under these conditions.
Aside from a jump in high iso performance this camera also set a milestone for a Full-Frame camera for one other big reason: It was an "entry level" full frame DSLR camera that still offered a lot of the same features as a full professional camera had and did not restrict them as much as the Canon 6D did.
This camera was, and still is one of the "First Full Frame cameras" someone looking to "upgrade their photography to the next level" would be able to afford and purchase and provides a viable alternative for those who want to buy into the full frame infrastructure with the budget of a higher end APS-C body.
It had a lot more focus points (although just like the Sony a99 they only cover the center of the sensor) then the 6D, and was overall faster and more responsive while keeping a built-in popup flash (a rarity for Full Frame cameras).
The D610 features Dual SDXC card slots, a robust Magnesium alloy body, weather sealing and a very similar control set to its sister APS-C camera the Nikon D7100. The D610 has more in common with a D7100 and even D7200 then one would think and that's honestly not a bad thing.
It's perhaps the main reason I am trying to figure out a deal to keep this camera for good, not because it is Full Frame but because it is so similar feature and control wise to my favorite DSLR of all time the Nikon D7200.
All of this said, the D610 is not a perfect camera and some of the ways the D7000/D7200 fall "short" the D610 has a few of the same issues.
Liveview focusing on the D610 seems faster then the D7200, but the PDAF through the viewfinder is slower then the D7XXX bodies I reviewed earlier with the same lens and did misfocus on a few shots.
Additionally the fact that the Focus Points were more or less covering the area of an APS-C sensor but on a full frame body meant that if you wanted to use Autofocus to lock onto something on the edge of the frame you first needed to have the object in the center, lock focus, and then adjust the framing.
The preview screen on the back of the D610 is lower resolution then the D7200s as well; which makes chimping a little less valid as its often vastly different then the higher quality image that you will get when the image is brought into your editor of choice in POST.
The biggest challenge I ran into with the D610 is the light metering. It is not at all great in outdoor lighting and even the D7200 blows it out of the water for accuracy with the a99 being a lot more consistent. And consistency is the key that is not present on the D610's light meter. Sometimes it would underexpose and then would over expose on the same shot, making it a lot harder to compensate with exposure compensation and be accurate.
It wasn't off by a lot however, generally a half stop in either direction; so leaving it at +0 EC and letting it get its slightly dark photos along with the slightly over exposed ones was not a huge deal especially if shot in RAW. But it does take a little more time in POST to even out then some of my other cameras where the light meter is more consistent in daylight hours.
During my blue hour shooting however the light meter had a lot easier time with getting the exposure I wanted. So the struggles with metering seems to be specific to specific lighting conditions namely bright outdoor light.
Overall, the D610 is not going to be the best choice for say a wildlife camera where you need split second autofocusing with a good servo AF tracking system (the D610 does tend to "Focus Hunt" quite a bit when in C-AF) but it is an amazing camera still to this day for a Landscape, nightscape or Portrait shooting where you have time to get everything just right before taking a shot; and it's still reasonably responsive for doing Street Photography.
While the D610 isn't the fastest camera out there, not even when it came out in 2013; it is far from the slowest as well. For someone who wants the "Full Frame Look" and is ok with "Fast Enough" and not "Ludicrous Speed" the D610 still remains to this day one of the most solid budget Full Frame kits with reasonable "Low Light Performance" (IE the reason most people decide they "Need" a full frame body) one can still buy relatively easy since there are so many of them readily available on the used market.
In the end, just like the Sony a99 the D610 I feel has "character" and is far from being the "bestest camera money can buy".
As such feel this is a clear reason for me to be able to give a positive review and admit I enjoy this camera, sensor format aside; and hope to one day be able to add one to my personal collection.
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