Hooooo-wee! Nikon D600 Tops The Charts!

Well, not quite. It's in third place over at DxOMark. Behind the D800 and D800E. So in the world of performance per dollar, it's #1. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this only further relegates the recently-announced Canon EOS 6D to "why the fuck do you even exist?" status. I'm still not the biggest fan of the D600 because they didn't drop the price to below $2,000, but this test result makes it much easier to like.

Yes, yes, it's only $100 more than that target, but I see the fact that they didn't go for the sub-$2,000 price as further evidence for the severe conservatism in place at Nikon. They were very aggressive with the feature set, which is nice, but that price sticks in my craw. And since this area of the market just got real competitive, real quick, it makes it all the more important to take bold steps in design and pricing.

Moreover, the price of the D800 makes this camera's price harder to see as, not reasonable, but sensible. When I can get the greatest camera ever (for the time being) for less than 50% more, why wouldn't I want and save up? It's smaller and a bit lighter, but in this size category, the lenses are going to negate any noticeable difference.

It must be recognized that Nikon is stepping up their game. I remember the shock and awe when Nikon priced the D3X into the Oort Cloud. The D800 and D600 indicate that they are never likely to do something that arrogant again, especially seeing as they lost nearly half of their market to Canon during the time that the D3X was king. We have a new king, and this time, he isn't handicapped with a ridiculous price.

Now let's see what Sony has up its sleeves.