Nikon D600

If you've been following the photography world you would have found out by now that Nikon has just released a new full frame dSLR.

D600.

And let's get the question on everybody's mind sorted first. Yes, I am getting one.

In a nutshell it is a full frame dSLR in a weather-sealed D7000 body with Expeed 3 image processor (same as the D4 or D800).

Weight? about 250g less than my D700.

What I like:
- Weight! I've been travelling quite a bit lately and seriously, the D700 and 24-70mm f/2.8 combo has literally been breaking my back.
- Size. I know some people say D7000 feels like a toy in their hand (some even go as far as saying the shutter doesn't sound as convincing) but I don't mind at all. In fact these two changes are very welcome for me. I wish in the near future Nikon actually makes a full frame dSLR (and matching lenses) with the same ergonomics in the size of, for example, the Olympus Pen. Wishful thinking I know.
- Almost 100% viewfinder. My D700 was only 95% viewfinder which is OK but sometimes annoying when I find out there's something that I don't want creeping up at the edges of the frames.

What I don't like:
- Top left dial. I'm used to having my WB and ISO buttons there. I always shoot with A or, at times, M and I don't need any scene modes whatsoever. I might have to shoot with Auto WB and just put a limit on my ISO form now on just to make my life easier. Doesn't look like there's any functions for quickly changing the ISO.
- Still no GPS. C'mon Nikon. As of today, Canon just announced the 6D and has built-in GPS for geotagging. Why not you? I kid you not, I gave you all my love (and $$$) and this is what you give me in return, a longing for something that I think could have been easily implemented. Even point-and-shoots and smart phones have geotagging function these days.

I don't mind the 39 focus points. Some people say it's a downgrade but for my photography purposes, they do just fine. I shoot non-moving objects. I only use 1, always in the middle. Yes, that's AF-S for you. Maybe if you're doing sports or wildlife you'd miss out a bit but then again why go full frame if you're doing sports or wildlife? You should be holding on to the D300S for the crop factor right? Even with my first Nikon dSLR (D80) I didn't have any problems at all with only 11 focus points.

Megapixel count? Double the D700 which hopefully doesn't kill my already very slow PC.

When I get the camera I might give the good old 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 a try and see if I should get the VR version.

escaping winter - august edition + rants

So I just found out that Picasa Web Album can only contain 1000 pics per blog or 1GB overall for free. To make matters worse, Flickr haven't got a function to batch blog pics from their site.

So instead of posting my whole South Korea trip pics, I'm uploading a few which hopefully will represent what I came across there. For the full set of pics click here.