Nikon D700

We lean toward the latter point of view. This isn‘t a camera you‘ll carry around casually, but when you have serious photographic results in mind, a little extra body weight seems worth the lugging, particularly with the camera’s expertly designed grip and balance characteristics.

Handling Ability (7.50)
Full disclosure is required here: this reviewer is blessed with big hands. And you know what they say about men – big hands, big,um, camera. The right-hand grip on the D700 fits my grasp like it was custom tailored for my fingers, rock-solid and perfectly comfortable, in portrait or landscape mode. I can flip and turn and twist with ease. The relatively heaviness of the camera actually helps in my shooting. When I cradle the lens in my left hand, the front left edge secure in my palm and right hand grasping the rubberized grip, it would take an earthquake to knock that camera out of its firm resting place. And while I usually have my left hand supporting the bottom of the camera in portrait mode, I’ve found that shooting one-handed with my right works just fine, the weight of the camera keeping it as perfectly vertical as hanging a plumb bob.

You’ll rarely find "I" in a DigitalCameraInfo.com review, but in this case it seems editorially unavoidable. Some of you are going to have exactly the same reaction to the feel of the D700 as described above, while others will find extended shooting sessions leave them cursing the day they decided to take pictures with a couple pounds of hardware. Even I have to admit that, on travel days when I may or may not have the chance to squeeze off a few photos, a solid point-and-shoot with adequate manual controls seems a lot more seductive than a bag-bulging behemoth. But even those who fear forearm failure when confronted with the D700 will agree that the camera is well balanced and expertly shaped to maximize handling performance.

We found the D700 very comfortable, but your results may vary

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (10.00)
We count 34 buttons and dials on the D700 camera body, which sounds pretty intimidating. In practice, though, they are clearly labeled, well organized and mostly serve only a single function each, making the control scheme fast and effective. The use of two command dials, a larger one on the back and a smaller one in front, makes entering multi-part settings straightforward. When shooting in manual mode, for example, turning the main command dial changes the shutter speed, turning the sub-command dial changes the aperture setting.

Three of the buttons are customizable: the Function (Fn), Depth of Field (DOF) preview and AE-L/AF-L controls. This ability to tailor the controls can dramatically change the way the camera handles. For example, shifting to Live View mode ordinarily requires pressing the mode dial lock release, then turning the dial to the LV setting, a simple but relatively time-consuming procedure. If you shoot in Live View frequently, though, you can simply map it to the Fn button. One press and you’re ready to compose your shot on-screen.

The fit and finish of the controls are gratifying solid, with only one exception. Dials click into place with a solid click when turned, buttons are springy without feeling mushy. We do have an issue with the shutter button, though. It provides little tactile feedback when you hit the halfway-depressed stage, and is too easy to accidentally press fully if you’re jostled.

The exposure compensation button (top left)
is easy to reach while shooting.

Menu (8.00)

The on-screen menus are very easy to read, thanks to a clear typeface, bright lighting and that extremely high-resolution LCD display. All of the choices within the menu system are spelled out in plain English – the only icons you’ll need to recognize are those along the left side of the screen that identify the individual menus. Unlike some tabbed menu systems, which require moving the cursor all the way to the top of the screen in order to switch from menu to menu, each of the available menu sections are available by pressing the multi selector to the left once or twice. For newcomers, helpful on-screen explanations of most menu items are available by holding the Protect/? Button. For example, if you see "Custom setting bank" in the menu and don’t know what that means, pressing the ? button brings up the text "Store custom settings in one of four named banks (A, B, C or D) to be recalled as desired."

The onboard help system provides text explanations
of many setting choices.

The menu system is organized into six sections: Playback, Shooting, Custom Setting, Setup, Retouch, and My Menu.

Playback Menu

Delete Selected, All Playback folder ND700, All, Current Hide image Select/set, Deselect all? Display mode Done, Basic photo info (Focus point), Detailed photo info (Highlights, RGB histogram, Data) Image review On, Off After delete Show next, Show previous, Continue as before Rotate tall On, Off Slide show Start, Frame Interval (2, 3, 5, 10 sec) Print set (DPOF) Select/set (0-99), Deselect all?

 

 Shooting Menu

Delete Selected, All Playback folder ND700, All, Current Hide image Select/set, Deselect all? Display mode Done, Basic photo info (Focus point), Detailed photo info (Highlights, RGB histogram, Data) Image review On, Off After delete Show next, Show previous, Continue as before Rotate tall On, Off Slide show Start, Frame Interval (2, 3, 5, 10 sec) Print set (DPOF) Select/set (0-99), Deselect all?

 

 Custom Setting Menu

Delete Selected, All Playback folder ND700, All, Current Hide image Select/set, Deselect all? Display mode Done, Basic photo info (Focus point), Detailed photo info (Highlights, RGB histogram, Data) Image review On, Off After delete Show next, Show previous, Continue as before Rotate tall On, Off Slide show Start, Frame Interval (2, 3, 5, 10 sec) Print set (DPOF) Select/set (0-99), Deselect all?

 
Setup Menu

 

Format memory card Yes, No LCD brightness -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3 Clean image sensor Clean now, Clean at startup/shutdown Lock mirror up for cleaning Start Video mode NTSC, PAL HDMI Auto, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i World time Time zone, Date and time (set), Date format, Daylight saving time Language Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish Image comment Done, Input comment, Attach comment Auto image rotation On, Off Dust off ref photo Start, Clean sensor and then start Battery info Battery Meter, Pic. Meter, Charging life (0-4) Wireless Transmitter Transfer mode, Thumbnail select mode, PC mode, Print mode Image Authentication On, Off Copyright information Done, Artist, Copyright, Attach copyright information Save/load settings Save settings, Load settings GPS Auto meter off, Position Virtual horizon Graphic display Non-CPU lens data Done, Lens Number, Focal length (mm), Maximum aperture AF fine tune AF Fine Tune (On/Off), Saved value, Default, List saved values Firmware Version A, B

 

Retouch Menu

D-Lighting thumbnail selection screen, then Low, Normal, High Red-eye correction thumbnail selection screen, then auto fix Trim thumbnail selection, then interactive adjustment screen Monochrome Black-and-white, Sepia, Cyanotype Filter Effects Skylight, Warm Filter Color balance Thumbnail selection, then interactive color map adjust with histograms Image Overlay Image 1, Image 2, Preview

My Menu

Add  items Playback menu, Shooting menu, Custom setting menu, Setup menu, Retouch menu Remove items Done, previously selected items displayed Rank items Previously selected items displayed Choose tab My Menu, Recent settings