Writing a review of the Nikon D700 today, 17 years after its release, may seem far from useful, and that’s why this is not actually a review. I still use the term because it’s what usually makes articles discoverable online, but this won’t be a classic review.
For starters, it makes few sense enumerating the technical features of the camera, since they won’t be compared with its contemporary alternatives, and they will be useless for informing a buying decision. And if we compare the numbers to nowadays cameras, then the sounds of the numbers alone may drive someone away from this article before it’s even started.
So, if this is not a review, what will it be? What can we say today about this old camera, and why is it even relevant to talk about it?
If you are spending some time on YouTube and looking for channels that talk about photography, you may have realized that these channels are mostly about gear, not photography — and then that many of them sooner or later will talk about the Nikon D700.
These channels all follow the same script, that I can summarize here with a selection of keywords: built like a tank, filmic look, noise like grain, legendary camera, amazing colors, it forces you to slow down. And so on.
This is usually accompanied by random shots of mundane scenes, and maybe a photowalk. You will rarely see any photo that will justify anything the video says about the camera. Nothing that couldn’t have been done with another tool. Any other tool.
So, the whole romanticizing of the Nikon D700 turns out to be content for the sake of content. For me, most of these are just attempts at producing videos that capitalize on a popular argument, for feeding the algorithm and earn from ads. Because the Nikon D700 is indeed a popular argument.
This camera accomplished a move that Nikon repeated a couple of other times. Last one, with the combo Z9 / Z8. They produced a great flagship, the D3, and then brought most of it inside a smaller and cheaper package, the D700. It provided some features that at the time were surely impressive and that helped making it a darling of the professionals.
A very good sensor that traded a bit of resolution for better high ISO image quality; a body that was created for professional photographers and featured everything they needed, from the solidity and weather resistance to the well thought ergonomics. Put some high end Nikkor glass in front of it and you have quite the versatile and powerful setup. And that’s what countless professionals did at the time.
This is a camera that belongs to a different time indeed, a time where marketing departments were relying on what professionals really looked for. We were still far from the race for the highest numbers and newest tech (megapixels, focus points, 8k, AI AF, etc).
Photographers wanted better image quality in low light, they wanted a camera body they could depend upon, they wanted realistic colors straight out of camera, they wanted intuitive physical controls. And this camera delivered.
Why am I talking of this camera in 2025?
I’ve been shooting with Nikon for job since forever. I used other brands too, most brands actually, but Nikon is what I trust the most when it comes to work. Not because I say Nikon is the best: I just prefer it. I am an architectural and luxury real estate photographer though I venture into fashion and commercial photography from time to time.
With time I built a good selection of Nikon lenses and camera bodies. As many readers probably know, I also shoot a lot with the Ricoh GR II and with the Olympus Pen-F, but lately I am gravitating more and more towards Nikon, and it became not uncommon to bring the D850 with me in my backpack also for personal photography.
The D850 is a dream to use, and I don’t mind the weight. There is a problem though. At least, it is a problem for me. The files are huge. I don’t need to always shoot photos with 45mp of data.
They fill my hard drives and slow down my editing. When I shoot portraits, I capture so much stuff I don’t need. Skin pores, small pimples, gray hair, it’s all there and it makes post producing slower.
So I started looking for a camera that gave me less resolution, that could use my Nikon glass, that had a professional body and possibly not bigger than the D850. The Nikon D700 did fit the description, and so I got one.
I was aware of it of course. Back when it was released, I could only dream of affording it. How things have changed! With 300 euros I got one in a very good condition, with around 70k shots and two batteries. And so my adventure with the D700 began!
My every day kit is made of the D700, two batteries, a Nikkor 28mm f2.8 Ai-S, a Nikkor 50mm f1.8 G, a 32GB Compact Flash card. That’s around 600 euros in total. I sometimes may take some other lens with me, but these are the two lenses I always have in the backpack. This system allows me to shoot pretty much everything I need.
If I had to choose a favorite focal, it would be the 28mm. If I had to choose a lens to complement it, it would be the 50mm. And that’s what I am doing.
I mentioned my backpack a couple times. It’s not a photographic one. I hate photographic bags. Mine is a normal every day backpack that I usually bring along because I like to always have with me a book, stuff for writing and sketching, maybe the laptop and other small items. I don’t like to keep things in pockets.
So, I just added the camera and lenses inside of it. I understand this is not a situation everyone can relate to, and many could find it cumbersome to go out with a small every day backpack. For me, the advantages definitely surpass the weight and size problem.
The price.
I also mentioned that I spent 600 euros for my every day system. Please, let’s stop and think about it for a moment, because it’s a huge part of why I believe it makes sense to talk about the D700 today.
We will get to the more photographic content, and I think by watching the photos in the article you can already guess that yes, with the D700 it’s possible to take photos that make sense in 2025. But let’s go back to the cost.
The Nikon D700 is a democratic tool. I won’t say it costs few, because I know people that earn 300 euros in a month. Not every country has the same salaries and cost of life. So I can not say this camera is cheap. Cheap for who? But if we look at what it offers and how it compares to the costs of modern photographic gear, we can say the camera is surely priced very conveniently, to use an euphemism.
With 300 euros you can buy a full frame professional camera, capable of producing professional photographs. With few hundreds more you can buy very good lenses, like the two ones I mentioned: the 28mm f2.8 Ai-S is the second best 28mm ever produced by Nikon, and the 50mm f1.8 G is the best F mount 50mm from Nikon. Together, used, they costed me less than 300 euros.
It makes me sort of mad to see people wanting to get into photography being sad because they can’t afford what the marketing tells them they need. YouTube is a great offender of course, with its constant flow of reviews for the latest and greatest tech. There will never be a good enough camera or lens, because they need to sell you something new, something that will solve problems you didn’t think you had. I am so sick of this.
These people could instead buy something like the D700 and start learning to take photos. If they love photography, they can get a professional, versatile tool and start learning what matters: seeing the light, finding subjects, exposing correctly, and so on. Instead, they spend the time on forums, Reddit, YouTube, learning details about tech, marketing terms, rumors.
A French actress once told me: these are not creators, they are consumers. And I think it’s true. But I also think some of them may be creators that companies turned into consumers, by covering their passion and curiosity with tons of ads and marketing pressure.
Yes this is going to be a long article! And I confess, the D700 is actually a rhetoric instrument for touching some arguments I deeply care about. But this article is also actually about the D700.
The sensor.
The camera has a full frame 12 megapixels CMOS sensor (model NC81338L), manufactured by Nikon. Some say it was manufactured by Matshushita, but really, who cares. After this one, Nikon started designing the sensors but having other companies produce them, and nowadays they use Sony sensors on which they put their own spin.
This sensor on the D700 has a native ISO range of 200-6400, 12.2 EV of dynamic range and the camera can use it for saving 14bit raw files.
12mp may seem few, so let’s check some data.
An Instagram posts requires 1.1MP.
A 4K screen requires 8.3MP.
A 5K screen requires 14.7MP.
An A4 print at 150 DPI requires 2.2MP.
An A4 print at 300 DPI requires 8.7MP.
An A3 print at 150 DPI requires 4.3MP.
An A3 print at 300 DPI requires 17.2MP.
This means that a camera with 12MP like the D700 can cover most of the amateur and professional scenarios in terms of resolution. Higher resolutions are only needed for printing really huge when high DPI is requested, or if we need to crop a lot. And yet they keep trying to sell us 40, 60, 100 MP cameras!
The inconvenient truth is that most cameras from last 18 years or so can cover the requirements of most professionals and amateurs. So why do I use a D850 and Z8 instead of the D700, for my job? The answer is the importance of dynamic range in my profession.
The D850 has 14.8 stops of DR vs the 12.2 stops of the D700, and dynamic range is making shooting and editing architecture and luxury real estate faster. “Faster” is very important. And the Z8 is what I mostly use for video.
Let’s go further on this topic. Negative film has an estimated dynamic range between 12 and 15 stops, while slide film’s dr is included between 4 and 6 stops. So the D700 with its 12.2 stops is vastly better than slide film and it somewhat matches negative film. Film behaves differently than sensors, but the numbers are still helpful for understanding that we already have so much! Of course I would dream of a sensor with 20, 30 stops of dynamic range, but the reality is that Slim Aarons shot marvelous photos with Kodachrome and 4-6 stops of latitude.
Once you start taking these number into consideration, you start realizing how much the camera manufacturers are trying to brainwash us into thinking we need more. We don’t need the latest and greatest.
I could actually shoot also for my job using the D700, if I wanted. It would mean I need to be more careful and understand I lose those 2 stops of dynamic range, but it would possible, also because I often use flashes anyway.
When I compare using the D700 to using the D850, what I notice the most is that I have indeed less dynamic range and I must use it more carefully. With the D850, I can often expose for the foreground and bring back an almost white overexposed sky.
With the D700 it’s better to expose for the highlights and try to recover the shadows. Or let’s say it’s better to give highlights the priority. What I usually do is expose for the highlights and then I raise the exposure a bit to bring some more detail to the shadows. We can say I try to keep the priority between highlights/shadows around 60/40 %.
The autofocus performance in low light is also worse than the D850 / Z8, as expected. But I mean very low light. Almost pitch black.
The Nikkor 28mm f2.8 Ai-S is a manual lens: since the D700 has no split screen like analog reflex cameras, focusing manually means either trusting the focus confirmation dot or using hyperfocal. One thing I noticed with this lens is that it seems optimized for giving great results for subjects that are quite close. If I focus on something that is, let’s say, 5 or 10 meters away, then I end up on infinite and unless I used very small apertures, the resolved detail won’t be optimal.
The sensor being 12mp, we get the advantage of being able of shooting at f11 or sometimes f16 without incurring in sensible diffraction, while on the D850 with its 45mp sensor it’s usually a good idea to stay maximum at f8, and with the Pen-F at f5.6. This means that with optimal light, it’s possible to have quite a deep focus with the D700. Of course, we are still talking of a 12mp sensor, so don’t expect to find who knows how much detail in the shots.
If you want crazy levels of detail and impressive dynamic range, then this is not the camera for you. But I ask you: do you want that detail? Or do you need it? These are very different situations.
I remember being amazed at shots made with Phase One and Hasselblad medium format cameras, where you could zoom and zoom and zoom in a portrait and count the eyelashes and see the pores in the skin of the model, until I asked myself, what is it for?
I don’t want that level of detail. I want to capture reality in a pleasant way, with realistic and interesting colors and a good tonal rendering. If a job requires extreme detail and resolution, that’s a different situation. But what the D700 offers is more than enough in most cases.
The colors.
Many YouTube videos say the D700 offers magical colors. I don’t like that, because many expect to pick up this camera and get some Kodachrome moment or something like that. I don’t think there is magic at work, here. But we are talking of a very good sensor and very good processing for sure.
The colors produced by the D700 are extremely pleasing, and especially when it comes to portraits and skin tones. Nikon did a very good job balancing its color science. I rarely have to color grade my D700 pictures, unless I mess up something while shooting. With the D700, the colors are so nice that I just convert from raw to jpg applying some contrast, selective sharpening and maybe some masking. That’s all.
My D700 is usually set to use the D2XMODE3 or D2XMODE2 color profile.
These profiles were developed by Nikon to emulate the color rendering characteristics—including saturation, contrast, and tonality—of the original in-camera “Color Mode” settings from the D2X/D2XS cameras.
They were later made available as optional Picture Controls for use in Nikon’s software (like Picture Control Utility 2) and are also sometimes found as Camera Matching profiles in Adobe products like Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) for older Nikon models (such as the D700).
There are three profiles:
D2XMODE1 (Mode I): apparently designed for natural portrait skin tones and rich gradation.
D2XMODE2 (Mode II): it produces images with rich texture and color.
D2XMODE3 (Mode III): this one reproduces the green of trees and blue skies vividly without the need for additional saturation or processing. This is typically a more punchy, vibrant profile.
I think the Standard color profile is also a nice starting point, but I find that these D2X mode profiles offer something that is most of the times already good for me. They can sometimes bring very intense colors and that’s not everyone’s tase. The same as with Ricoh GR II Positive Film though.
I had troubles finding these profile online, so I thought of putting them in a zip file for everyone to download them and install them on their D700 camera: https://andreabianco.eu/files/Nikon-D2XMODE.zip
All the color photos in this article were shot with these two color profiles and received no additional color grading. As mentioned before, all I did was play a bit with the tone curve, highlight/shadows, and sometimes doing a bit of masking.
I saw many D700 reviews and videos where the photos were shot with the D700, but then graded with presets, film simulations and so on: what’s the point? How is that helping anyone understand what the camera produces? So for this article I decided to only share the actual colors that I got out of the camera.
I don’t say these D2X profiles are always ideal nor the best way to experience the D700, but they work for me.
Another thing I do on each photo is to bring sharpening to 0. Lightroom defaults it to 40 and I don’t like to have sharpening on all the picture. Especially since sharpening is a very delicate topic on a 12mp photo.
At first I used the masking mode to bring the sharpening only to the edges, but I then decided I just prefer to have no sharpening at all, and just add it selectively where I really need it.
We are told we need sharp detail, but I don’t think that’s what I want when I take a picture. I usually want to capture a moment, a special light that I think is beautiful. Whenever I pick up the camera I never think “let’s capture those eyelashes!”. I think: let’s capture this moment, this light.
Each photo includes information, and the amount of information we need depends on the destination of the photo. When I shoot for a client, I know how much information I must capture. When I shoot for myself, I also know. And it’s much less.
The noise.
The D700 is also known for having a pleasant noise, and that’s true. My idea is that Nikon does some baked-in chroma noise reduction and leaves the luminosity alone, so the result is something less obviously digital.
In some situations it may pass for film grain, if you don’t zoom and compare it to actual grain. Grain is made of blobs, digital noise is made of pixels, but the look may occasionally be — again, if not zooming — somewhat similar.
The thing is, I don’t care much about how much it looks like grain, but I do care about the fact that I don’t feel it ruins my pictures. I shot at 3200 ISO and I think these are absolutely usable photos. I would not be that confident shooting with at 3200 ISO with the Pen-F, for instance.
Some may say that software noise reduction is now very good, and it usually is, at least on surface. The truth is that we can’t grow back detail that was lost. Noise is by definition eroding detail. What AI tools do is try to guess the lost detail, rebuilding it according to their databases of references.
The final result may look fine, but is it real? Especially when it comes to faces, I prefer noise than having software trying to guess what should be present instead of the noise.
Some are fine with that, I am not. The D700 gives me a noise profile I can live with, and to be honest, I actually like it and think its adds a nice touch to the final photos.
OVF vs EVF.
Some say a big advantage of the mirrorless over the dslr is the fact that on the mirrorless, the viewfinder shows you the final picture you will get. I would argue that’s not exactly the case, and here’s why.
What we see in the EVF is an 8 bit bitmap showing an interpretation of what the camera will capture. If you are saving jpg files, then that interpretation will coincide with the saved file. But if you are shooting raw, then that interpretation is not accurate.
On the contrary, using the image in the EVF for judging the actual exposure of the photo as saved in the raw can be quite misleading.
Some may suggest using the histogram, but that’s also based on that same interpretation that the EVF gives of the actual content that will be stored in the raw file.
And again, they are all 8 bit previews, while the raw files usually save 12 or 14 bits of data.
This means that no, the EVF is not showing you “exactly what your picture will be”.
Knowing that, it’s easy to understand how exposing using well the light meter in a dslr can potentially give more accurate results.
The D700 has a 1050 pixel RGB light meter sensor with a 14-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC): it measures the color and brightness in different parts of the frame, and uses that information to intelligently determine exposure. It can also communicate with compatible lenses to determine subject distance (hence the “3D” in Nikon’s “3D Color Matrix Metering II” system name), which helps it make even more intelligent decisions about exposure and flash.
The D850 has a 180.000 pixel RGB light meter sensor and it offers much better accuracy.
So, the light meter is working by analyzing the actual scene and it’s calibrated to make the rendition of the scene an average of 18% gray. Different light meter modes offer different results, which can be more or less accurate.
Now, in a dslr we have the advantage of getting info about the correct exposure, while seeing reality as it is, with no lag. In the mirrorless, we see an 8 bit interpretation and we have lag (to some degree).
I am not bashing the mirrorless and its EVF. What I am saying is that camera brands marketing departments work really hard to convince us that the EVF is better. It is not necessarily better. In some cases it can be worse than an optical viewfinder.
I believe that a photographer proficient with using the light meter in a dslr can get better exposures with a dslr than a photographer using a mirrorless and relying completely on what’s shown in an EVF.
The interpretation given by the EVF is also depending on the color profile we are using. For instance, when I shoot with the Pen-F I usually have the Color Profile 2 set and a slight S-curve. What I see in the EVF is not what is being saved in the raw file, because I am seeing a preview that crushes white and blacks. If I were to follow what I see in the EVF, I would needlessly underexpose the photo.
In the end it is a matter of habits and taste. What I wanted to say is that the EVF is not necessarily better than the OVF, both have their strengths, and depending on how we want to shoot the OVF may give better results, if we put the skills in.
Conclusion.
In an historic moment when economy is worsening and many struggle, it’s difficult for me to recommend buying something, even something apparently cheap as a Nikon D700.
This camera has no magic colors and won’t change your photography. YouTubers love hyperboles. Please take their statements for what they are: content for algorithms.
The D700 is an extremely good and capable camera from the past and it is now available for relatively few money. It has a professional, durable body, and it has everything a photographer may need for creating photography. It’s not offering sophisticated automations, and using it requires some thinking, which is in my opinion a very good thing.
As I wrote before, choosing the D700 means spending a relatively small amount of money that can get you a professional camera and some very good lenses, enough for learning photography, for doing serious photography, and for having lots of fun.
Is it enough for working? Yes it is, unless your job has some special requirements.
Is it a good choice as everyday camera and is it better than a smartphone? Absolutely, if its size and weight don’t bother you.
Is it a good companion if you already have better cameras? Yes it is, if you want what it offers: smaller files, a body you don’t have to babysit, and the requirement to be more in the moment when shooting.
Let’s spend a moment talking about that “being in the moment”. This is another evergreen in YouTube videos. It’s usually employed when the reviewer is talking of Leica cameras, as a reason for justifying the existence of the M and its price.
I find this argument is a bit overestimated: we can “slow down” with every camera, if we have the will and the discipline.
With the D700, being in the moment means understanding that we are using an optical viewfinder, and we must pay attention to which metering mode we selected, for instance. On a modern mirrorless we can see a preview of the exposure and we have more dynamic range on the sensor, so we can try to shoot by feel and hope to fix it in post. Not with the D700: in this case we must pay attention to the exposure triangle (shutter speed, aperture, ISO), use the proper metering mode, and put some skill in focusing. It’s all basic stuff and it’s definitely rewarding.
Is this better? Is it worse? It depends. I think it adds a layer of experience to the activity of taking pictures, and I do enjoy it. At the same time, it’s not uncommon I get back with photos that were exposed in a less than ideal way, or with focus slightly misplaced. I don’t make a drama out of it, and I take it as a reason for being more careful.
Our attention is constantly shortened and stolen by smartphones, social media, news and so on. I think using an instrument that requires us to pay attention is good for our brain first, and then of course also for our understanding of photography.
I really enjoy using the D700 and it’s doing good to me as a photographer. In most ways it’s the antithesis of the Ricoh GR II, and I enjoy experimenting and changing.
Its weight doesn’t bother me and I love to take it with me and use it for capturing what happens around me. It’s fun to use and it produces photos I love, what else can I ask for? And it makes me pay attention, which is tremendously important.
It helps me being less a consumer and more a creator, which is what I want to be.
PS: why did the D700 become my every day camera, taking for the moment the place of the Pen-F? This will be the topic of a future post.
PS: the photos in this article all come from bigger sets that I will publish in next posts. For this one I wanted to offer a wide view on what I recently shot with the D700.
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Great photos and your words are spot on. I agree, we don’t need all the gizmos. Steve Jobs warned us of the consequences of letting the marketing department guide the engineers rather than the opposite—that’s why numbers are guiding our purchases, it’s the easiest thing to differentiate one camera from another.
I don’t have a D700, but I do have an old aps-c Sony a390 that I bought my wife for a project. My wife never really used the camera so I adopted it and I love shooting with it for the reasons you stated above. It came with an 18-55 kit zoom and I picked up a Minolta 50mm f1.4 AF film era lens as well as a 70-210mm “beer can” lens. I almost exclusively use the 50mm and the combo is so much fun!
I know there isn’t a magic color rendering from classic CCD cameras, but there is a signature look. Where current systems attempt to optimize dynamic range, ISO performance and true to life color rendition, CCD sensors had no such intention—instead baking in a look with less color separation and simpler colors. I prefer editing the basic colors that come from my a390 rather than any other modern camera I have purchased. They look more punchy right out of the box and have a certain unique character to them—not something you hear anyone saying about modern Sony cameras. So yes, no secret sauce, but they do have a certain undeniable charm to them. I love the path you are on with your photography and the ethos you employ.
Warm regards,
Brandon
Hi Brandon! Thank you very much for your words of appreciation and for commenting on the blog. Older cameras can offer lots of joy, and it’s unfair many. think they’re just some niche interest for people that is into vintage stuff. Most cameras from the last 15-18 years can give very good results if properly used. I never used the Sony a390 but a friend had one and she was very happy with it.
And when you say:
This is exactly how I feel about the D700!
Have a great day,
A.
Hello Andrea,
I absolutely devoured your blog post 🙂
Almost 36 years ago, I started with an analog Nikon and then used my first digital camera, a Fuji S3 Pro. After that, I bought the Nikon D700.
A tool that, if necessary, could also hammer a nail into a wall 🙂
I sold the camera a long time ago, but I still have most of the lenses I had. Actually, I’ve never been as satisfied as I was with the D700.
The sale was due to the marketing, as you mentioned. Only the new is the best, and you can’t work with such old tools. That’s what they say.
My wife always says:
“Life is lived forward but understood backward.”
Thank you for this very informative post.
Best regards,
Adam
Hi Adam! I am glad you enjoyed the post! The Fuji S3 Pro was an interesting camera! It was basically a modified Nikon F80 that Fuji turned into a digital reflex. The sensor was a CCD with its own peculiarities. Sooner or later I will also get an S3 Pro or an S5 Pro, they always sparkled my curiosity.
I understand camera brands need to be aggressive with their marketing, because they need to make profits. What I don’t like is the way they manipulate creatives, using influencers for convincing them they don’t have what they need, and they need more, and that “more” has to be modern and expensive. That’s not really the case!
And by the way, your wife is a wise woman 🙂
i am really glad that i found your blog and through it your portfolio Andrea..your architectural photography is a demonstration of some serious skills of understanding depth and composition and in combination with natural and artificial lighting gives some tremendous results..i already commented on your blog for the ricoh gr and i would also like to add some thoughts on the D700 also..as i mentioned befre i have 2 D700 cameras..for the last few years i was fighting with the idea of getting maybe a newer dslr from nikon bu keeping both of my d700s…the thought f getting a newer camera faded away in an instant when last year i printed some black and white photos of the size of an internal door..about 2 meters high and 1 meter wide..the photos were taken mostly with the 105 2.8D micro and i was blown away by the results..i quickly realise that i don*t want neither i need i higher resolution camera..The camera is robust and a trusty tool ..it really shines with old ai-ais lenses..the 135 2.8ai is also an excellent lens for the D700.. you really *sold* me on the 28mm 2.8 ais, i have the 28mm 1.8G lens and although is super *sharp* i foind that the color reproduction is not of my taste to be honest..too much yellowish most of the times..and yes i agree about the 50mm 1.8G it is a pefect lens for the D700 and on the cheap side of things most importantly
Thank you very much for your words, Vasileios! I also own the Nikkor 28mm f1.4 ED and it’s my absolute favorite lens ever; but the 28mm f2.8 Ai-S is also extremely good and since it weights much less and it is much smaller, it’s a perfect fit for the D700. Manual focusing is not an issue using the dot confirmation, it only takes a bit of practice. Sometimes I mount the f1.4 on the DS700, because I like the combination of shallow depth of field and wide angle, or because I know I have to deal with very few light, but 90% of the times the f2.8 Ai-S is what I have on the D700. I also own a copy of the Nikkor 28mm f2.8 D and though more practical (it has AF), it’s not as sharp as the Ai-S and I think the rendering is also less pleasing. Have a great day!
hi there again.
i can’t seem to install the profiles for the D700..are the files still valid?
Thanks
This is what I did:
Connect your CF card to your computer. Create a folder structure: NIKON → CUSTOMPC (if they don’t exist). Copy your .nop file into the CUSTOMPC folder. The path should be: [Card]/NIKON/CUSTOMPC/filename.nop
Install on the D700: insert the card back into your camera. Press MENU. Go to Shooting Menu. Select Manage Picture Control. Choose Load/save. Select Copy to camera. Choose your .nop file and select which Picture Control slot (C-1 through C-9) to save it to.
That shoudld do it!
This did not work for me as well. After asking Gemini, it seems the correct place for the .NOP files is in the NIKON folder and not in the NIKON/CUSTOMPC folder. The CUSTOMPC folders seem to be only for .NCP files.
Hi Andy! Maybe I remember it wrong, I did it quite some time ago. Thanks for pointing that out!
Hi, you absolutely don’t need higher than 12mp. With the advances in software and Lightrooms amazing new super resolution feature that will upscale 12mp to 24mp, you can now crop images from the D700 and still get great prints. Invest in some top glass and you have a killer combo. The files are much quicker to work on, smaller in MBs and the tones and colours the D700 producers are gorgeous. I say this as someone who also has the D800 and I had the Fuji GFX50R, but sold it because I preferred the images and process of using a DSLR.
Feel free to check out my black and white work shot with the D700. http://danieldytrychphotography.co.uk
Beautiful shots, Dan! Thanks for sharing the link to your work.
Love and respect the article. Do we really need what we think we need. More and more I’m stripping back to a more basic sense of photography. MP , ISO. Really. You maybe selling me on this camera which has some aspects of Ricoh GRII and great traditional Nikon specs.
Thank you for your comment dear Laura. I believe stripping back is important when it is really felt as a necessity, like you are doing.
On YouTube there is a whole trend of promoting photographic minimalism and stripping down, but it’s just a way to create more content and promote certain products or apps. That same YouTuber that says you need to stick to a camera and a lens, after a month will be reviewing new gadgets and cameras, with affiliate links 🙂
i just got a D700 few weeks ago. i tried your d2x mode2 at blue hour, the color looks even better than reality especially the deep blue sky. the noise in low light makes photos look like film photos. the only problem with the D700 is low angle shots. i can’t find a way shoot low without a flip screen and the live view mode in D700 is weird. it blacks out during focusing. i looked at your photos and seems like you don’t shoot low angle.
I’m switching to full frame for the first time and i notice your photos are amazingly sharp. i wonder if you have any tips on using flash since closing aperature affects flash power. i started to appreciate what you said about depth of field in micro four third. More light but still have great DoF. And your opinion about having more DoF in an image teaches me alot over the years. it shapes how i see and compose and avoid the shallow DoF trap.
Hello Andrew. Taking very low angle photos with the D700 (or any other fixed screen camera) is not the nicest esperience 🙂 Especially since the live view in the D700 is not comparable to a modern camera. It’s still possible to take such photos of course, but it mean lying on the ground.
I didn’t shoot the D700 with flash yet, becaus ethat’s not really the usage I have in mind. It’s absolutely possible of course, and it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicate: a YongNuo flash and a couple of transmitters/receivers allows you to use offcamera flashes. Maybe I will post about this too!
My advice with the D700 is not to fear high ISO, and try to keep aperture closer and venture into ISO 1600 or 3200 if needed. Having more stuff in focus is important even if there ia a bit more noise. At keast that’s what I think.
The m43 has the advantage of having more stuff in focus at each aperture, which is very handy! And they are cameras with bright modern screens that often swing (like my Pen-F), plus their contrast autofocus is less hit and miss than the D700, but the tonal richness and pleasant noise in the D700 are in my opinion superior. I love my Pen-F but I think the D700 will stray my everyday camera for a while!
“A commonly cited advantage of smaller digital cameras is their greater depth-of-field. This is incorrect.”
… quotating Roger N. Clark, and he explains this further on his very informative website https://clarkvision.com/articles/dof_myth/.
Thanks for the link, Wolfgang! The article is scientifically correct, though the title feels a bit provocative 🙂
I’m swamped with work so I only gave it a quick read, but it seems to focus on ‘equivalence’ (stopping down Full Frame to match). In my posts, however, I’m referring to shooting at the same f-stop. In the field, my Pen-F with the 25mm at f/1.8 simply yields more DOF than my D700 with the 50mm at f/1.8, and that real-world difference in practice is truly what matters to me.
I once fell down the rabbit hole of correct math and physics, but I decided I prefer to stick to the essentials and just take photos 🙂 Thanks for reading and commenting on the blog!
Wonderful post, I wouldn’t normally read an entire post like this but this was really well done and thought out.
Thank you very much for reading the post and leaving a comment, Jai! Glad you liked it.
Thank you for this great post and all the insight you have shared. I would like to try the D2XMode picture controls, unfortunately I am getting a 404 error when I try to access https://andreabianco.eu/files/Nikon-D2XMODE.zip. Would you be able to fix the link or email them to me?
Thanks for sharing them!
Hi Stuart! Thank you for letting me know! I recently rearranged the files on my server and I forgot to also move the files/ subfolder 🙂
Hi
Great blog on this camera. I have this and a few F mount lenses incl the 28mm 2.8 ai-s. However my images do not seem so vibrant as yours, what PP do you use to get the colours to show to their best?
Hello Stewart, all my color photos in the post are using the color profiles I mentioned in the post and no extra color grading. The only post production I did was a bit of curve adjustment for optimizing contrasts where needed. When I want the curve to also increase the color vibrancy, I use the curve in Lightroom (which works in RGB mode and affects colors). When I want the curve to let the colors alone and just work on the luminosity, I do it in Photoshop using Lab mode. But really, the colors are basically straight out of camera.
Hi
Thank you for the reply, I have been using this camera for about a year now ( I have a Fuji XT4) and although this is much heavier and generally a lot more awkward to use I get more pleasure from using it. Also the price of good Nikon FX lenses has plummeted in price since the release of the Z series, which can’t be anything but a good thing for us mere mortals with shallower pockets.
TBH I’ve been playing with the idea of replacing it with a D810 just for a few more MB ( for cropping, where necessary) but after reading your blog I think I will persevere with this body for another 12 months and see if I can improve my composition to reduce the need for cropping.
Keep up the great work. 👍👍
I actually had a D810 for the more demanding professional jobs, and sold it for getting the D850. I regret not keeping it though, it was a great camera and it would have been handy here and there. In the end I sold it and got first the D850 and then the Z8 for the video stuff.
I second the idea of giving the D700 a chance for one more year and take written note of all the times you actually wished to have more pixels and why: that’s what I did. It turned out all the times I wished I had more pixels, it was because I didn’t compose the photo with a final idea in mind, but just shot “wishing to fix it in post”, and that’s where having the D/00 really forces us to improve and approach photography differently!
What you say about F mount lenses becoming cheaper is very true and important. So much high quality used glass, that many times absolutely out-resolves the sensor on the D700!
Thank you very much for reading and commenting the blog! Have fun with the D700!
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for a very inspiring blog post with a lot of beautiful pictures. Honestly, I have read it more than 3 times and everytime I had found something new inside.
I had been a long-time Canon shooter, tried and used many different FF / APSC bodies and lenses for work and my private activities. When I changed my job and got an iPhone Pro, I started to think that I don’t need a real camera anymore. So, I have sold almost all my Canon DSLR gear. Later, this proved to be a very wrong statement.
I was always curious how the FF Nikons feel in hands and remembered how I dreamed about D700 when it was new.
This was the time when I started to look at second-hand market and I also found your blog. It has to be somehow “coordinated from God”, because some days later a photographer from a nearby town offered his D700 with 85 mm 1.8 G lens on a Marketplace. For the price, it was no-brainer. I’ve literally paid for the lens and got D700 for free. It has done almost 180K shots, but looks very well preserved and works with no issue. To confirm the falling prices of F-mount glass, I recently also got my Nikon 24-70 2.8 (no VR) for 400€. I never thought this would be ever possible!
Hi Jakub, thanks for sharing your experience! My first dSLR was a Canon EOS 300D, and that’s what I used for my first photo book of nudes (using an adapted Contax Yashica Planar 50mm 1.7 (here is a post about the lens). I then moved to Nikon because I liked their industrial design more and lenses seemed overall cheaper than Canon ones. I have been very happy since then, I had many Nikon cameras and they all behaved good and were build well. It’s nice you got a good deal on the D700! It’s so inspiring we can now buy for relatively few money a professional camera that is capable of very good quality and that is built to last. And there is such a variety of great and often cheap F mount glass to choose from! I really wish you to enjoy the new camera and have fun! Thank you for reading and commenting the blog!
An article that deserves to be read by those who are really into photography and not into gear. If the photo agency I once worked for did’nt had required a minimum of 20 MP one day, I probably would shoot with the D700 today, although I love my D750 too. I remember a real estate assignment where I had forgotten to adjust the ISO and got home with images at ISO 6400. I would not have noticed, if I had not looked at the EXIF data. And the agency did not complain, too.
The D700 is still enough today for a great number of professional assignments, yes!
Hi Andrea,
Wow … as a fellow D700 and other Nikons owner I like to browse the Internet to see what hype speach is written about the D700. I also often have to laugh about those youtube “photographers” who just chase the next hype.
Then I landed on your page and wow, I felt at home. Very well written, beautiful photos and above all an honest review about the D700. No hype, no magic, just facts sprinkled with emotions. You can be proud of yourself. This is honestly the best D700 review I have ever seen. I tip my hat.
If you love the D700 can I recommend you the D200 also? It is my favorite camera ever. My daily driver. And I also shoot the D700, Zf and 5D classic.
If you like the files coming out of the D700 I think you will love the D200 files. Also here no CCD magic, it just has a very unique color filter array on top of the sensor that just hits hard imo. It’s no high iso camera for sure but for daylight photos it’s perfect. As an old analogue shooter for me the D200 is the closest I can come to film within the Nikon ecosystem without shooting film.
Lastly. Since you have to awesome 28mm ais, can I recommend the Voigtländer SLII-S series to you? It’s all I shoot on the D200 and D700. No need for af lenses since the Voigts render so insanely beautiful. Since you already got 28mm and 50mm the Voigtländer 90mm f2.8 Color Skopar would be my recommendation for you. It is a very special lens.
Thanks again for you long review. It was a joy to read!
Greetings Raoul
Thank you very much for your comment Raoul, I am so glad you liked the post. I am definitely going to get some Voigtlander glass this year, thanks for the advice! About the D200: I heard great things bout it and I am curious about playing with it! My only issue is the APSC, because it would mean losing the 28mm field of view, which is where I basically live in 🙂 Thanks again!
Hi Andrea,
I can see. If 28mm is your jam apsc doesn’t have nice older primes for it in that range. That’s true. If I need 28mm on the D200 I use the 17-55mm f2.8 behemoth.
Nevertheless it’s worth it. Especially with the low prices it goes for.
My current Voigtländer SLII-S prime collection (almost found them all) consists of:
– 28mm f2.8 Color Skopar
– 40mm f2 Ultron
– 58mm f1.4 Nokton
– 90mm F2.8 Apo Skopar
On the D700 the 28mm and 58mm are my most used. The 28mm Skopar is just pure love and the 58mm Nokton just hit different. The 40mm ultron is my standard walkaround lens for when I want to bring one lens only. Like mentioned by you and someone else here, just get it. It is a beautiful lens. They all are.
I also got the F mount 50mm 1.8G and 35mm 1.8 dx (D200) bit tbh I don’t use them much anymore since getting the Voigtländers.
I’m only debating if the D850 will be added one day. I read your D850/Z6II review and I agree. I also got the Z6II and Zf and while nice they ain’t dlsr nice. I used to shoot the Canon 5D mark IV (before I switched back to Nikon) and man, I miss having a bulky beast at times. The D850 and 5D mark IV really were the last gods of their era.
Hi Raoul! Thanks for sharing your experience, I am definitely intrigued by Voigtländer lenses. I still remember when I dreamed of using a Bessa, before digital changed everything.
Right now I am shooting with the D700 as my every day camera, and D850 and Z8 cameras for job. The Z8 is a step up compared to the Z6 II, both technologically and in terms of feelings, but even if more substantial and solid, it still feels like a mirrorless. The viewfinder is extremely good but still clearly a small screen in front of my eye, and so on.
I thought a lot about why this sensation happens, where does it come from. At first I thought it was just nostalgia, but I don’t think anymore that’s the case. Not completely, anyway. Even if dSLR cameras include advanced and sophisticated technology, I never feel I am using a fragile computer for taking photos. They still have enough mechanical soul for me to feel them as instruments. The mirrorless feels like another computer. Another iPhone. Another iPad. You get what I mean.
Years ago a friend bought the Sony A7 III when it first came out, and I had a bit of fun making him mad, saying that it felt like using a TV remote control. It was just a joke to tease him a bit, but that’s also like I truly felt about holding it in my hand and shooting it. The Z8 is in a completely different class and definitely the best mirrorless I ever used, but I still have that feeling. I do keep it mostly for video, but I prefer to shoot with the D850 and even the D700. Go figure!
I still enjoy shooting the Olympus Pen-F from time to time, even if that’s a mirrorless. In that case, I appreciate the small primes, the metal and beautiful design, and I most of all have an emotional connection with it, for personal reasons. But it is still a mirrorless, and I can never forget this when using it.
Thanks for reading and commenting the blog.
I really enjoyed reading this article and appreciate your writing. One year ago I sold me D810 to upgrade to Z7. Whilst I appreciate all the advancements in tech and lenses now available with the Z series I really do miss the D series cameras. My first Nikon was D90 and I loved the Nikon ergonomics and files since then. I am now scanning the internet for the right option to return to the D_ _ .
Thank you for your lovely article.
Hi Peter! I regret selling my D810, and that’s why I won’t ever sell the D850. I don’t see the mirrorless as an improvement over the dSLR. They are just different tools, with different positives and negatives. I can’t deny the Z8 is an amazing camera, with crazy good autofocus and so on, and I do use it in my profession, but I usually prefer shooting the D850, and sometimes even the D700, specially for my personal / art / every day projects, when I want to feel more involved and connected to the scene. Thanks for reading and commenting! Happy new year!
hej, świetny artykuł, właśnie podjąłem decyzję że po 10 latach wracam z d800 który od początku sprawia mi problemy (ciemne zdjęcia, duże pliki i ogólnie od początku mi nie przypasował) i kupuje d700 który był moim najlepszym body. porównam obydwa na żywo a potem któregoś się pozbęde.
Thanks for your comment, Orzech! I used a translator for understanding what you wrote, I don’t speak polish 🙂 I Never had the D800, but I had the D810 and I regret selling it, it was good! But yes, files were huge and the smaller ones produced by the D700 are almost always enough!
Hi Andrea,
thank you for this article, which really made me thinking. I decided a couple of years ago that mirrorless is not what I am aiming for, mostly because of the reasons you mentioned. And nowadays you even get the nikkor glas at very reasonable prices since everybody aims for the new z-lenses. I also went for the D700 as an alternative camera to my D850 which I really love. You are absolutely right: it still is a very useful tool.
Thanks for the D2XMode picture control files, btw! I could not find them online and downloaded them here. For my creative work (not professional) this combo works just fine. As a wedding and event photographer I sometimes need very good low light performance. I prefer the D850 (and the D750) for the job. But sometimes the Ricoh GR II is just too small for serious photography in bright light, where I prefer the D700.
Keep it going, I check regularly on your site for you articles. Great read every time!
Thank you very much for you comment, Ingmar! It’s funny we have the same cameras 🙂 The D850 is such a wonderful tool, I honestly never had a single personal or business situation where the D850 was not enough. On the contrary, it is constantly much more than enough. And the D700 is such a joy for my daily personal projects. I wish my GR II still worked fine, maybe one day I will finally fix it, but in meantime the combo D700 + Nikkor 28mm f2.8 Ai-s and D2XMode3 is giving me lots of satisfaction. I rarely do color grading, just some luminosity curves in Lab mode if needed, and that’s it. Thanks again for reading and commenting the blog!
Andrea. I do not quite get this D2XMODE3 thing…. It does not affect the RAW file at all? Since I shoot in RAW and still believe that it is superiour cause I do not loose any dtat as it is by in camera “jpg development” so where is the use of this MODE… I can choose them in LR DX2MODE2 v4 … it is called there
Hi Ansgar! The color profiles only apply directly in camera to jpg, but I don’t use them that way. I shoot raw, and then in Lightroom I apply the D2XMODE3 to the file instead of Adobe Color or others. This way I keep all the raw data but I also get the colors from that very nice color profile. It is good to have them saved in camera so they show in the jpg preview in camera when I review the photos, and I think this is also necessary for having them available in Lightroom (though I am not sure about this!).
Curious how you are applying the profiles in LR after you import your RAW files?
Hi Josh! They just appear in my Lightroom. I never installed them there, I always supposed the camera embedded their info into the raw file or something like that. I honestly have no idea 🙂
The D700 is a very good camera, and it’s look out of camera is very appealing. Yet on the other hand, for a little bit more – the D800 is a far better camera in every respect bar fps. Images from the D800 also look very nice, 36MP is too much – yet it’s a great camera and IMO the D700 whilst I see the fondness for it, is a bit over hyped.
I never owned the D800 but I had the D810 and I regret selling it, it was a very good camera.
Hey nice article. I love the D700. Just so you know, you got a feather picture (looks identical in your Ricoh GR IV article, I’m assuming one or other camera shot it, but not both!
Hi David! All the photos in the GR IV post are shot with the D700, I write about that at the end of that post 🙂
Dear Andrea what a lovely love letter to the D700 and it is filled with knowledge experience and profound argument … and it is well written and a joy to read. I would also point to the proposal of the Voigtländer SLIIS series. I use the 40mm Ultron f2 as my standard maual focus lens on my D700 (The 28mm AiS 2.8 is mostly attached to the D200). Do you think the 50 mm G is outperforming the AF D 1.4 which I have?
Thank you very much for your comment, Ansgar! I am so curious about the 40mm Ultron f2! I want to buy a manual 40-50mm lens and that is one of my top picks. If we believe the reviews, the 50mm 1.8 G possibly is the sharpest 50mm F mount Nikon prime, actually sharper than the 50mm 1.4 G at some apertures. I never tried the 50mm 1.4 G nor D so I can’t really comment on this. I had some other D lenses and their G equivalent (85mm and 28mm) and the G was always much sharper, with less flares, and with an overall cleaner images. D lenses do have lots of character though, so it all comes down to what we are looking for I think. I kept the 28mm D though I rarely use it, I just love the 28mm Ai-S and I also own the 28mm 1.4 ED, the best 28mm I ever tried (but so big and heavy!).
Thanks for your answers!
I will give the 50mm G a try and so should you the V40mmf2
regards from Berlin
That’s a deal 🙂
Andrea I did it
…. the 50mm G is nice but I miss the “work” to focus manualy then so is stick to my manual Voigtländer more often
That’s fair! I still didn’t get my hands on a Voigtländer but I ‘ll let you know when I do 🙂
Thanks a lot for sharing those three .NOP files! Just a heads-up for anyone reading this: you can find great .NCP profiles at https://nikonpc.com/. From my experience, if you use the Tri-X or T-Max 400 monochrome presets and shoot at ISO 3200, the JPEG straight out of the camera has this amazing, authentic film grain texture, almost like a real film scan. I highly recommend you all give it a try!
Thank you for sharing your idea! I will try it soon!
I think I didn’t comment on a blog post in probably 5 years. I’m doing so to say : please continue writing. This piece was fantastic and it brings back the joy of “discovering blogs” on the web, about a passion we all share.
More creators. Less consumers !
Thank you for your comment AZ! It really made me happy to read your words. I believe there is a lot of potential in personal blogs, in sharing our experiences and creations outside the popular social networks. I will publish a new post very soon, I hope this weekend (the topic will be AI, again!). Thanks again for reading and commenting the blog 🙂
I just read this and the earlier GRIV post. Both are works of beauty.
I recently pulled my old D810 out of a cupboard and was amazed at how wonderful the colours were without doing any editing. From a colour point of view, that camera can match my Hasselblad X2D, which is famed for its colour science. I do miss some of the conveniences of modern mirrorless systems—especially the ability of something like a Sony to grab focus on an erratic toddler and shoot 30 perfectly sharp images! But I think you’re right: it is now possible to buy for a few hundred euros a device that is very much better than the best camera ever used by any photographer at any point in human history up to about a decade ago. Ansel Adams, Yousuf Karsh, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, virtually anyone who ever worked for National Geographic or Vogue, have all done their best work with tools inferior to those now within reach of so many. What a privilege it is to live in such a time when only individual passion and creativity are the limit.
Hello! “What a privilege it is to live in such a time when only individual passion and creativity are the limit.”: absolutely”! This is something I am trying to communicate with this blog. We got to a point where everyone can get a camera that is good enough, and do great photography. In the end, even a cheap used gem like the D700, a good used lens or two, a used cheap laptop: that’s enough for getting out there and chasing light and ideas! Thanks for reading the blog and commenting.
Andrea, muchas gracias por el tiempo, pasión y ser tan profesional. Encuentro más que interesante tu relato (soy fotógrafo hace muchos años) encontré tu sitio por casualidad, con mucho agrado terminé de evaluar la posible compra de una D700 que está impecable. Muy agradecido por tu análisis tan profundo, profesional y hablar con tanto conocimiento. Soy fotógrafo de equitación en Argentina y me gustan las fotos “al natural” como si fuesen de negativo….. No acostumbro a “tocar” mis fotos, solo lo necesario para su posterior impacto comercial…. Muchas gracias! Un saludo cordial.
Muchas gracias por tu comentario, Benito¡ Espero que disfrutes mucho con la D700, es una cámara estupenda!
Thank you Andrea, I love your photos. I started with a Nikon D200, adore its colors, but hate the limited ISO. I then moved to a Lumix GF1 for the portability, love that one and still have it. I still FOMO for full frame, so eventually I got a not too shabby D700 with a Nikkor 35 F2D, my favorite focal length, and love it ever since.
I have something that I need your help. I adore the D2X picture control profiles, but I cannot figure out how to add NOP files to my D700’s in-camera profiles. I made NIKON > CUSTOMPC folders and successfully added .NCP files, but not .NOP files. How did you manage to add these profiles to your D700, please let me know.
Hello Kai! Someone in the comments gave the correct procedure and others confirmed it. I did it some time ago and I forgot 🙂
What a gorgeous writing and pleasing photographs! Your text made me pause so many times to: reflect on my past decisions (successes and failures), remember who I am, and to rethink some acquisition ideas I thought I had already devised. You inspired me!
I don’t have the privilege of owning a D700, but I have owned a Df since it was brand new. This reading, as I’ve told you, made me recall all the reasons about why I chose to own that camera. I desired it so much at the time and you made me re-ignite the spark for it and appreciate the joy of its simplicity: nice performing sensor, exterior controls, no need to fiddle in screen menus, no video, small 16 Mp files (compared to the D810 that I also had). Simple. Easy. A frictionless experience (plus the enjoyment of its exterior cosmetics). Philosophically, only me and the photograph.
Gladly, I also have a Zf, but it is not the same satisfying experience. This camera is more cumbersome to enjoy as purely as my simpler DSLR. My aim is to keep it with Voigtlander’s 50mm Nokton welded to it taking advantage of the availability of that kind of lens for the Z mount, but leaving the Df as second (or first) camera just as you are suggesting—with a 28 2.8 ai-s—which I can also use on my FM2 if I fancy (yes?)
You are so right, or at least I agree with you so much—oftentimes we are “influenced” to consume stuff that we only fantasize about needing when we don’t. What you are defending applies to so many things. I enjoy motorcycling as well, and while reading this, I understand everything you say to the bone because I defend the same values in a parallel manner against the current marketing schemes. I have my own D700 of a motorcycle, and I have talked much about it with people, but they are zombies on a consumerism pilgrimage. Im glad to have found your blog and to know Im not alone. Again, you inspired me to hold to my guns. Thanks!
Thank you very much for your kind comment, Javier. It really filled me with joy to see that what I experience and share resonates this deep with someone else.
I know others that say about the Zf what you also said. I think Nikon just decided it was too risky to take too much away from users: they wanted to design a camera that looked like a 80s camera if seen from the front and top, but that also offered as much tech as possible. I understand them, it is not easy to bring to market something very minimal and very focused on pure photography, especially now that the economy is very unpredictable. But at the same time, I understand the Zf is not for me. I am still struggling to like the Z8 and I mostly relegated it to video tasks.
The dangers of marketing are always lurking around, and when they don’t, our personal infatuations do the rest. I am not immune to that, but I learned to identify and calm down such extravagant ideas of never-ending acquisition! Lately I saw lots of beautiful photos taken with the Nikkor 58mm 1.4 G, and I started fantasizing about buying it, until I realized I really don’t need it. I have the 85mm 1.4 and the 28mm 1.4 and they both offer a different take on the shallow depth of field topic. Which by the way I am not even such a big fan of! I understood what I liked was not the lens rendition, but the content of those photos. Which brings me to my mantra: what matters the most is what is in front of the camera, and what makes a photographer great is mostly how they can get interesting subjects and light in front of the lens. This is something I realized long ago and I won’t shut up about 🙂
So I didn’t buy the 58mm and I am instead focusing on using what I have. I hope I will soon have more time for personal projects and experimentation! The D700 is always with me in my everyday backpack.
Thanks again for your comment and for reading the blog!
Hello Andrea,
I’ve just finished reading your Nikon D700 review for the second time, and I have to say it’s an excellent and spot-on article, especially in 2026.
Coincidentally, I recently picked up a used D750 with a 50mm f/1.8G for about €400 to replace my Ricoh GR III, simply because I wasn’t enjoying using it anymore. It really comes down to that. Over the years, I’ve owned cameras from most major brands, from DSLRs to mirrorless, and some of them truly inspired me to shoot—while others did not.
For example, modern mirrorless flagships from all the big brands can take away a large part of the photographic process, leaving you mainly to press the shutter button. I know that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s genuinely how it feels after going back to a DSLR. While those advanced features are useful—and sometimes necessary—for certain types of photography where speed is critical, it can feel like we’re drifting further away from the essence of photography into something else entirely.
The main point I wanted to make, beyond the fact that you clearly demonstrated that you don’t need the latest and greatest gear to create great images, is how the industry pushes photographers in that direction. It’s not just YouTubers – large camera retailers do the same, constantly steering people toward newer and more expensive systems.
Today, I took the D750 in for a sensor cleaning. It has 200K actuations and had never been cleaned, so it was little dusty. In the shop they immediately reminded me that this is an older camera, with typical wear like a peeling grip and other cosmetic issues that don’t really matter for photography and they offered to buy it from me and give me a discount on a new Z-series body. I suppose that’s just how things are in 2026.
Thank you for the great article. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Hello Radovan, thank you for sharing your experience! I am often thinking about how the modern mirrorless cameras changed the way we shoot. It is not only their tech, but also the abundance of storage and computing power, and the innovative software tools… everything is pushing us to shoot more, mindlessly, to edit faster, share instantly, without much worries about how much we shot. Since it is so easy to focus and get a usable photo thanks to the extended dynamically range and resolution, we tend to shoot a lot. Too much. I am sometimes guilty of this too. I feel the dSLR is partially mitigating the issue, because it generally offers a slightly slower experience, slightly less “magical” autofocus, and so on. When I shoot with the D700 or D850 I do shoot less than with the Z8.
I am trying to rationalize this and understand it, because I feel it is wrong, and that I need to go back to the way I approached photography in the past. Youtube and the web are filled with talking heads preaching how important it is to “slow down the experience” but of course they do not evolve this thought and its implications, they just repeat it as a marketing term. I am planning a post about this topic, taking notes and trying to understand.
I am not surprised at the shop they wanted to sell you to the Z system. The newer systems are what keeps the economy flowing, no one wants use to be happy spending few 🙂 As much as I can see the Z8 is an amazing camera, I just don’t enjoy using it. I do have to use it for some jobs, mostly video. But for photos I much prefer the dSLR.
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Thank you, for sharing those profiles. I’ve been looking for them for a long time. I love my D700. I also have and enjoy the 28 2.8 AIS and the 28 1.4E.
You are welcome, Jeremy! These two 28mm are wonderful lenses!
Really enjoyed your piece Andrea, I am totally aligned with your POV. great writing and gorgeous photos. I’m in Australia and searched on Marketplace for one, but they were all in poor condition – so I recently found a D700 in mint condition with only 7,000 releases from an eBay Japan seller. I’ve added a battery grip for ergonomics (love the F5 vibes!) and the eyepiece magnifier, paired with a 28 2.8 and 50 1.4 ais set of lenses. Could not be happier. I use my FujiFilm X-T4 for anything commercial plus my live music work – but the D700 is becoming more and more integrated into my every day carry, my camera for weekends away, street photography…. pretty much any and everything. The files are gorgeous, the versatility is so surprising for an 18 year old camera, and I feel like it has accelerated my skills rapidly because I genuinely have to think about every shot – but oh so rewarding. I’m now looking at the 85mm and 105mm to really build out the set. And when I can justify it I’ll also find a low usage F5 and be very satisfied. Thanks again! Chris.
Hi Chris! The D700 is such a nice camera, yes. I am writing a new post about it, it will be online soon. The D700 is always with me in my backpack, mostly with the 28mm 2.8 Ai-S mounted on it and the 50mm 1.4 G as backup (but I sometimes upgrade it to the 28mm 1.4 ed and the 85mm 1.4 G, just for fun). Everyone loves the colors out of this camera, and it is liberating to use something that is costing few, produces great imagery, and is totally out of the marketing games. I want to try doing more BW photography with it and see how it goes. Have fun with it!
I just read the entire blog, and thanks to you, I just bought the Ricoh GR2, I had the GR3 and ended up selling it, there is something special in the GR2 that I just love and you just managed to explain it amazingly, now I am sold, I will be buying D700, I would like to know how to convert the color images to black and white, and also if you recommend the D300 or D300s, I read they can also use the D2XMODE, I don’t like editing, I do know how to do it, but prefer SOOC photography, I just wanted to tell you that Gemini show me how to somehow do the double exposure trick you do with photoshop for the GR2 images, and managed to do a simpler version of it but using Snapseed, and it worked out just fine to my taste.
Greetings from Mexico, thanks for sharing all your knowledge, I could not agree more with you, I am against consumerism, it is very exciting for me to finally be able to buy gear that is somehow inexpensive yet absolutely capable of creating amazing results.
I am not a photographer, I always wanted to do photography as a hobby, Thank you for your blog and your work, thanks to them, I felt inspired to tap into my artistic side, if it can even be called that.
Hola José, thank you for reading and commenting! For the black and white conversions I usually work with SilverFX or sometimes just Lightroom, it depends on the photo. I will soon post more about the D700! I am glad my words inspired you to embrace your creativity and I wish this to give you joy and fulfillment!
Great content. Nicely and thoughtfully written. Glad I found this page.
I have now just ordered that supposedly legendary Tamron 45 mm 1.8 lens to pair with the D700. Do you have any eperience with that setting?
thanks again for the inspiration.
Hello Richard! I owned the Tamron 45mm 1.8 yes, and it is indeed an amazing lens. I highly recommend it. My copy needed AF calibration but apart from that it was really amazing. I used it on the D810 and D850, I didn’t have a D700 at the time. I ended up selling it because I was rarely shooting in that focal range, and I regret doing so, I confess, because the image quality was brilliant and the stabilization genuinely useful. I now have a 50mm 1.8 G for F mount and the 50mm 1.8 S for Z mount and I still use them quite rarely, I prefer to use the 28mm or jump to the 70-200 for most of my photography. I am sure you will enjoy it!
Probably the best blog post I’ve read about a camera and online photography in general. My first Nikon was an FM, bought with hard earned money when I was 17. I still have that Nikon, which works perfectly, still. I use my D700 for shooting publicity pictures for the BBC, in particular, a lady of a certain vintage who has her own baking show. The D700 is perfect for this as it renders with class and a sympathetic palet. Very many thanks for the profiles, I’ll give them a try. I do find the D700 slightly too red out of camera, but this might be due to any number of things. Thank you for an excellent post and confirmation of a great camera with few bells and whistles but everything that anyone ever needs.BTW, I bought my D700 for £250 with 6 months guarantee and 5,ooo shutter actuations!
Hello Neil! Thank you very much for your kind words, I am happy you enjoyed the post! There will be many more about the D700. You surely found a sweet deal for your copy of this beautiful camera!!!