Nikon D700, Oh what a mess it is!

Hi all,

I'm alway's surfing the web (ebay) for good deals (I think), so Hunts was selling a Nikon D700

in As Is, but it works condition a high shutter count 175879 so it's really up there and need to replace a part

or two, card door and top glass but otherwise it might last me awhile I do have a few more camera's

around to use and I could not pass it up. I am in a process of selling my Canon stuff so I'll balance

it out there. So you Nikon D700 owner do you think it will hold up if it went this far?

Thanks

Built like tanks. I guess the shutter/mirror mechanism is the only thing that might go.

If it was fitted with the MB-D10 grip to get the highest fps. it might be more worn than some, but 180000 isn't so high.

Much wear on the body/lens mount?

How much does an 'As-Is' D700 cost these days?

I guess it depends on what you paid for it?? Is the top glass cracked or missing?

I mean, an 'As-Is' for, say $300, is worth a punt. What sort of shooting are you planning on? Something crazy mucky like motocross? or tripod mounted landscapes/studio portraits?

I suppose you could keep the card in the camera and make a semi permanent seal over the card-slot to stop crap getting in there. Just use a USB cable to access the pix on the card.

I'm not a pro, I do jobs once in awhile but I won't be abusing it. The mount looks good to replace the glass on top is about $10.00

the door a little more, at a price of $219.00 not bad.

FWIW, I have owned two D300ss with over 400K actuations. They worked fine, but looked a little rough. I sold one-with full disclosure of the shutter count-and kept the higher of the two.

I haven't used it in a little while, but it's still trucking along nicely.

I sold a third one of that same lot-with a shutter count in the low 100,000 range-to regular hear, and AFAIK it's still working fine for him.

Well it's here, just drop off by our trusty wet UPS man, it's not bad, little worn in some spots (no surprise there) I fixed

the card door (Krazy Glue) works wonder. Took a few shots and it seem good. it surprises me there's a few on ebay now

with higher shutter counts over 200,000 and asking more money for them, well I guess Nikon full frames have value I guess.

It surprises me there's a few on ebay now with higher shutter counts over 200,000 and asking more money for them, well I guess Nikon full frames have value.

It is rather surprising how many eBay shoppers really don't care about the shutter count of a D700 or D3: perhaps they have faith in the durability rep / legendary aura, or they're more interested in getting a body that doesn't look externally beat even if the clicks are higher.

Other factors tend to stabilize the value of a used D700 specifically. It has a somewhat unique niche, with little competition in its current price range. There are still many older 35mm film photographers who either haven't fully made the jump to digital or could not afford full-frame, and really wanted a Nikon full-frame that has full compatibility with all their manual focus and/or screw-drive AF Nikkor lenses. The D700 was their "Holy Grail" for years, and is now finally attainable. The only other Nikon body that comes close pricewise is a used D600 or D610, but lets face it: most Nikon enthusiasts never loved the thing, and the oil spot PR nightmare pretty much nailed the coffin on its desirability.

The D700 is still thought of fondly as Nikon's last fully-thought-out bug-free body, and one of the few digital cameras considered a "vintage classic". It is the coolest available bargain body for exploiting older F-mount lenses. It feels more solid, fun and professional than anything since offered to the "budget" full-frame market, enough that many are willing to tolerate its 12MP sensor (which still holds up fairly well). Adventurous photographers with a bit more money might find the Canon 6D or Sony A7II a better, more versatile body for older Nikkors: their sensors are higher res, and they offer a couple MF focusing advantages over a D700. But they don't offer the full AI meter/EXIF coupling or screwdrive AF feature of the D700, and cost twice as much. Depends on your lenses, usage priorities and budget.

I actively like having an F5 that's beaten up with missing paint, so nobody assumes it's anything valuable. I've scuffed a bit of paint off the bottom of most of my dSLRs; I'm trying not to do so to my D850, but every now and again they have to get put down on a rock. (Maybe I should get some armour for when I'm not using the L plate.)

There was a lot of grumbling that the D800 wasn't as fast as a D700. I don't put much stock in that since the D800 could hit 5fps just by using the 1.2x crop. A lot more people seem to think of the D700 as an 8fps camera due to the grip than I would - I suspect some of these people would these days be better off with a D3, although I've got to admit that 8fps from AA batteries (rather than having to shell out for EN-EL18 clones on the D850) has some appeal; taking the D800 and D810 to 6 or 7fps with a DX crop never seemed all that interesting to me in comparison.

The D6x0 bodies... are a grown up D7000, not a grown up D300. Enough people stuck with their D300 bodies rather than going down the D7x00 route that I don't think it's surprising that the D6x0 didn't tempt the D700 crowd. The D750 is more comparable, but certainly still feels D7000-class rather than D8x0/D500-class. I maintain that Nikon would have made quite a lot of people happy by just sticking the D4/Df (or even D3s) sensor in a D700 body. I maintain that the D8x0 series are better successors to the D700 than many people seem to think; losing 1fps, increased per-pixel noise (but less noise at the image level) and scaremongering about file sizes and whether computer upgrades were needed seemed to put people off, but they're certainly more expensive. There's a big feel difference between a D700 and a D6x0, but it's not like the lighter body is poorly-assembled.

The D700 and D8x0 series are basically digital F100 equivalents (maybe with a sprinkling of F5, especially around the meter). I'm not sure a 6D is going to do that job (in that its handling is more Eos 5-ish - I've tried using a 5D with my Nikon-optimised digits and nearly dislocated my thumb on the rear wheel), and it has an AF system that, at least in number of points, is even more primitive than the D6x0 (and actually matched by the D3400). It's also slightly slower in frame rate than the D700, although I don't dispute the image quality (except at low ISO, where it suffers from "Canon dynamic range syndrome" and only keeps up with the D700). So, 6D, perfectly reasonable camera, but I'm not sure I'd be adapting Nikon lenses to it. The A7 series are probably closer (and even an A7S is arguably more D700-like).

Of course, by the standards of this year, the biggest problem with the D700 is that it had a single card slot. Which is obviously criminal, and nobody could use a camera like that. :-)

It is rather surprising how many eBay shoppers really don't care about the shutter count of a D700 or D3: perhaps they have faith in the durability rep / legendary aura, or they're more interested in getting a body that doesn't look externally beat even if the clicks are higher.

 

Other factors tend to stabilize the value of a used D700 specifically. It has a somewhat unique niche, with little competition in its current price range. There are still many older 35mm film photographers who either haven't fully made the jump to digital or could not afford full-frame, and really wanted a Nikon full-frame that has full compatibility with all their manual focus and/or screw-drive AF Nikkor lenses. The D700 was their "Holy Grail" for years, and is now finally attainable. The only other Nikon body that comes close pricewise is a used D600 or D610, but lets face it: most Nikon enthusiasts never loved the thing, and the oil spot PR nightmare pretty much nailed the coffin on its desirability.

 

The D700 is still thought of fondly as Nikon's last fully-thought-out bug-free body, and one of the few digital cameras considered a "vintage classic". It is the coolest available bargain body for exploiting older F-mount lenses. It feels more solid, fun and professional than anything since offered to the "budget" full-frame market, enough that many are willing to tolerate its 12MP sensor (which still holds up fairly well). Adventurous photographers with a bit more money might find the Canon 6D or Sony A7II a better, more versatile body for older Nikkors: their sensors are higher res, and they offer a couple MF focusing advantages over a D700. But they don't offer the full AI meter/EXIF coupling or screwdrive AF feature of the D700, and cost twice as much. Depends on your lenses, usage priorities and budget.

Don't forget superior Flash system.

I'm (almost) inspired to dig my D700 out of the loft and use it again.

I'm pretty sure it's in better condition than my well-used D800 that's developed a floppy 'joystick' control that still works but no longer self-centres.

If I'm honest, 12 megapixels is quite enough for very decent image quality. Arguably equalling what was got from 6x6 or 645 film. If I print to A3, I can just detect the extra resolution of the D800 with closer-than-is-decent scrutiny.

However, IMO the D800 has better IQ at ISO speeds above 1600.

OTOH, I might be tempted to sell the D700 if I thought I could get anywhere near to £600 for it!

"Don't forget superior Flash system."

- Very true. The D700 recognises pre-SB-800 speedlights and sets the synch speed appropriately and relays the lens focal length to the speedlight 'zoom'. Nikon has rudely disabled that ability on later bodies.

"Don't forget superior Flash system."

 

- Very true. The D700 recognises pre-SB-800 speedlights and sets the synch speed appropriately and relays the lens focal length to the speedlight 'zoom'. Nikon has rudely disabled that ability on later bodies.

While that vaguely rings a bell, I've got to admit that I blotted it out, and I can't spot it being clearly documented in Nikon's flash compatibility tables. It wouldn't ever have applied to me, because I pointedly got SB-600s so as to make both my dSLRs and my F5 play nicely, but I don't think I've registered the difference between the D700 and the D8x0 models (other than the D850 having the internal flash lopped off). Is there more detail somewhere, in the interests of furthering my education?

The D6x0 bodies... are a grown up D7000, not a grown up D300. Enough people stuck with their D300 bodies rather than going down the D7x00 route that I don't think it's surprising that the D6x0 didn't tempt the D700 crowd. The D750 is more comparable, but certainly still feels D7000-class rather than D8x0/D500-class. I maintain that Nikon would have made quite a lot of people happy by just sticking the D4/Df (or even D3s) sensor in a D700 body.

I've had a bit of a weird route down my Nikon DSLR journey.

I'd fully committed to Nikon for 35mm film, but was still doing Canon for digital and decided that made no sense. So, an impulse buy at the local camera store had me walking out with a D70s and 18-55 for not a lot of money(I think I paid more for the lens than the body, but it was maybe $125 or $150 for the pair).

Unfortunately, that showed its limits VERY quickly, and it wasn't long before I "went pro" and bought a D2X. I used it a lot over the course of a few months, and I still have some images from that camera I love. I still can't match the color rendition and tonality of it in certain situations, but in 2017 it definitely made its weaknesses known. In particular, ISO 400 was about my limit for it. I still get it out and use it some, but I think it's a lot of the source for my unrequited lust for a D3s(which I hope to add soon).

By that point, I was ready to make a BIG upgrade, and jumped on a good deal for a D800 at a local shop. This was a few weeks before the D850 was announced, and the $1000 price tag-at the time-was a virtual give-away(it was because of the 150,000 shutter count on it). Unfortunately, I had mechanical issues with it in just a day or two of use, so agreed to let the store repair it. That actually worked out great-I agreed with the shop to split the $300 repair bill as it got a CLA and a shutter replacement-neither was needed but were "might as wells" while it was apart, and I ended up with a basically new D850(shutter recount reset to zero) for $1150.

Still, I was without that camera for ~2 months, and for a lot of reasons was becoming unhappy with the D2X. I bought a D300, and loved it and again shot the snot out of it. I then proceeded to barely touch it after my D800 came back from repair :)

I picked up a bunch of other cameras along the way, and a lot were to satisfy the collector in me. I couldn't pass up the virtually unused D100 for $50, for example.

Also, I do a decent amount of studio work where I intend to go straight to the web, and I don't necessarily want to deal with configuring my D800 in that role and have to deal with huge files that I don't need. To be clear, most of this would be considered product-type photography is and is done with strobes. In any case, I used a D200 for a little while, but my first one had a few miles on it and started giving me issues(I think it wasn't stopping down the lens, but would regularly give dramatically overexposed frames and display Err on the top panel-shooting a few more frames would clear it, but it got to where it was annoying). Since the D200 worked so well in that situation, I bought another but there were times where I found it a bit lacking. I ended up instead using a Fuji Finepix S5 in that role, a camera built in a D200 body that's doing everything I ask of it. BTW, the D200(and S5) really for me were the first "digital F100" and a lot of the UI elements(as well as overall design) can still be seen in the D850 and D500.

In any case, several months ago I decided I needed a second FX body(since the Kodak DCS 14/n I'd picked up along the way was lacking for a lot of reasons, although I do still use it in the studio some). A D600 from the local camera store followed me home after I parted with $600 for it. It's a very different feeling camera from my D800, which can of course cause problems using them side by side. I like how light it is. I honestly have a hard time in casual glances telling it apart from D800 photos. One of my biggest issues is that the meter isn't quite as good, and I find myself fiddling with EC a lot more(and often leave it habitually set at -.3 since the camera routinely overexposes). Still, I really can't complain about it. Also, as much as I hate "green box" mode and would never use it for my own photography, it gives decent results if I'm handing the camera to someone who's not a photographer and it often does a good overall job. There's no equivalent to this on the D200/300/500/700/8x0.

I can see myself getting a D700 one of these days, and I'm honestly interested at current prices just to satisfy my curiosity. I need to scratch the D3s itch first, though, and there's a good case to be made for its high ISO performance.

Is there more detail somewhere, in the interests of furthering my education?

- Not that I'm aware of. Well, not in Nikon's publications anyway.

Nikon appear to have deliberately kept quiet about their needless crippling of flash backward-compatibility in their later cameras.

For example: If I fit an SB-25 to my D700, it automatically switches the shutter speed to 1/60th, the flash zoom follows the lens FL, and the aperture on the flash reflects that set on the camera.

OTOH, the same speedlight fitted to my D800 is totally ignored by the camera as if it isn't there at all. Although the flash is fired by the camera OK.

I also had some peculiar effect when a TTL extender cable was fitted. It fired the flash 100% reliably on the D700, but only sporadically on the D800.

None of this really bothers me too much, since I hardly ever use flash on-camera, except for fill or a macro ringlight. Off camera flash is fired by 'dumb' radio triggers with the flashes set either manually or in auto-aperture mode.

I-TTL and CLS? Overrated, unreliable, expensive and completely unnecessary IMHO. Buy a flashmeter (or two!) with the money you save by not buying an SB-910 or SB-5000.

Come to think of it; buy a studio monolight instead of an SB-5000 for the same money!

I've had a bit of a weird route down my Nikon DSLR journey.

 

I'd fully committed to Nikon for 35mm film, but was still doing Canon for digital and decided that made no sense. So, an impulse buy at the local camera store had me walking out with a D70s and 18-55 for not a lot of money(I think I paid more for the lens than the body, but it was maybe $125 or $150 for the pair).

 

Unfortunately, that showed its limits VERY quickly, and it wasn't long before I "went pro" and bought a D2X. I used it a lot over the course of a few months, and I still have some images from that camera I love. I still can't match the color rendition and tonality of it in certain situations, but in 2017 it definitely made its weaknesses known. In particular, ISO 400 was about my limit for it. I still get it out and use it some, but I think it's a lot of the source for my unrequited lust for a D3s(which I hope to add soon).

 

By that point, I was ready to make a BIG upgrade, and jumped on a good deal for a D800 at a local shop. This was a few weeks before the D850 was announced, and the $1000 price tag-at the time-was a virtual give-away(it was because of the 150,000 shutter count on it). Unfortunately, I had mechanical issues with it in just a day or two of use, so agreed to let the store repair it. That actually worked out great-I agreed with the shop to split the $300 repair bill as it got a CLA and a shutter replacement-neither was needed but were "might as wells" while it was apart, and I ended up with a basically new D850(shutter recount reset to zero) for $1150.

 

Still, I was without that camera for ~2 months, and for a lot of reasons was becoming unhappy with the D2X. I bought a D300, and loved it and again shot the snot out of it. I then proceeded to barely touch it after my D800 came back from repair :)

 

I picked up a bunch of other cameras along the way, and a lot were to satisfy the collector in me. I couldn't pass up the virtually unused D100 for $50, for example.

 

Also, I do a decent amount of studio work where I intend to go straight to the web, and I don't necessarily want to deal with configuring my D800 in that role and have to deal with huge files that I don't need. To be clear, most of this would be considered product-type photography is and is done with strobes. In any case, I used a D200 for a little while, but my first one had a few miles on it and started giving me issues(I think it wasn't stopping down the lens, but would regularly give dramatically overexposed frames and display Err on the top panel-shooting a few more frames would clear it, but it got to where it was annoying). Since the D200 worked so well in that situation, I bought another but there were times where I found it a bit lacking. I ended up instead using a Fuji Finepix S5 in that role, a camera built in a D200 body that's doing everything I ask of it. BTW, the D200(and S5) really for me were the first "digital F100" and a lot of the UI elements(as well as overall design) can still be seen in the D850 and D500.

 

In any case, several months ago I decided I needed a second FX body(since the Kodak DCS 14/n I'd picked up along the way was lacking for a lot of reasons, although I do still use it in the studio some). A D600 from the local camera store followed me home after I parted with $600 for it. It's a very different feeling camera from my D800, which can of course cause problems using them side by side. I like how light it is. I honestly have a hard time in casual glances telling it apart from D800 photos. One of my biggest issues is that the meter isn't quite as good, and I find myself fiddling with EC a lot more(and often leave it habitually set at -.3 since the camera routinely overexposes). Still, I really can't complain about it. Also, as much as I hate "green box" mode and would never use it for my own photography, it gives decent results if I'm handing the camera to someone who's not a photographer and it often does a good overall job. There's no equivalent to this on the D200/300/500/700/8x0.

 

I can see myself getting a D700 one of these days, and I'm honestly interested at current prices just to satisfy my curiosity. I need to scratch the D3s itch first, though, and there's a good case to be made for its high ISO performance.

Wow your hooked, I never purchased a new digital camera when it first came out. I don't know why cost most likely is a big factor and the new camera's

have so much in them I most likely never use it all so I really like the older stuff, to me less is more. it's funny I had a D3 and really never jelled with it,

I really like the look of the pictures from the D2X and D700 and they feel so good in the hands when holding compared to a Canon (feels hard and stiff).

Good luck with you D3s search a friend of mine had that camera and it is pretty sweet.

Not much to take pictures of today but so far the D700 looks great! Taken with a Nikkor 28mm f2.8 AF 1st version.

That 28mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor looks pretty good. It's a lens that hasn't attracted my attention much, since 28mm isn't my favourite FL, but I can see it working as a short 'standard' on DX.

It knocks the socks off an old Pentax 28mm Super Takumar I recently bought. Stupidly relying on the Takumar reputation. I shan't make that mistake again, but at least it wasn't a very expensive one.

The top LCD cover is just stuck on with double sided tape, just pry off the broken pieces, clean up any old tape and stick on the new one. I recall seeing somewhere that Nikon won't sell parts to the public anymore, but the part can be bought from the big auction site (search "Nikon D700 top LCD cover", the lowest price I found is from a seller in China offering them for US$2 + shipping -- probably a cheap knock-off, but it should still be better than the busted cover you have now.)

The CF door is also available on the auction site, but you'll have to disassemble the camera a bit to replace it, see here: Removal Of Back Cover - Nikon D700 Repair Manual [Page 12]

That 28mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor looks pretty good. It's a lens that hasn't attracted my attention much, since 28mm isn't my favourite FL, but I can see it working as a short 'standard' on DX.

 

It knocks the socks off an old Pentax 28mm Super Takumar I recently bought. Stupidly relying on the Takumar reputation. I shan't make that mistake again, but at least it wasn't a very expensive one.

It's in good shape real clean glass and works smooth, you just have to wait for one at a good price because Nikkor lens prices are all over the place.

Thanks for the info, I ordered the new top LCD cover, I fixed the card door for now really have to get new rubber covering.

Replaced the LCD top cover on the D700 yesterday, boy that glue is wonderful to get off but it's done.