Below is the current November 2012 Nikon DSLR offerings. They are essentially divided into tow great groups the FX or full-frame versus DX or less-than-full-frame as when compared to the 35mm film of yesteryear. On the moment MidNight's Pickers would be in order D600, D300s, D800, and while the last the D7000. The D300s is in the Blue2CAN community as are the D800 and D600 but to a lesser extent as the 10-pin connection versus a change in body shape does not readily mount the curent case design of the Blue2CAN. FYI
The difference between DX and FX sensors is quite clear when it comes to overall image quality. The first generation Nikon FX sensors from D700 and D3 are about 1.5 stops better than DX counterparts, while the second generation D3s FX camera is over 3 stops better than DX. The size of the sensor and pixels within the sensor is extremely important and FX shows that it is a far more capable sensor than DX when it comes to noise, dynamic range and other factors.
The sensor is the most important component of a digital camera, because it is directly responsible for capturing an optical image and converting it to an electric signal, which later gets optimized and converted to a digital image by other camera electronics. Just like your computer screen, sensors contain millions of pixels, except they are there to collect light, not display it. When you see a digital camera with 12 megapixels, it literally means that the camera sensor contains 12 million tiny pixels for the sole purpose of gathering light. Think of those pixels as buckets that attract light particles – the larger the bucket, the more light particles it can store in a given amount of time. These buckets are known as “photosites” and their size plays a huge role in sensor sensitivity and ability to accurately gather light in various lighting conditions. Bigger buckets are always better than smaller ones, because more light particles can be stored in those, without getting over-filled. The information about light particles is then passed on to the camera processor, which assembles a digital image starting from the first pixel all the way to the last. And all of this happens in a matter of milliseconds!
While larger pixels (or bigger buckets) work best for sensors, they are also extremely expensive to manufacture. To keep the costs low and product accessible to a broader customer range, many camera manufacturers produce smaller sensors. Obviously, as the size of the sensors decrease, so do the number of pixels. To combat this problem, manufacturers have been cramming more and more pixels into tiny sensors while simultaneously increasing the efficiency and throughput of each pixel. Unfortunately, this resulted in a “megapixel race” among the manufacturers and we are seeing more and more pixels in the modern sensors, despite the fact that the size of the sensors has pretty much remained the same.
Nikon DX sensors, for example, have a crop factor of 1.5x. What this means, is that relative to 35mm film, the image will appear enlarged by approximately 50%. So shooting with a 24-70mm lens is “equivalent” of shooting with a 36-105mm lens on a film body.
Read more: Photography Life Nikon DX-vs-FX
Connectivity is also increasingly important. For example the D600 includes both microphone and earphone jacks for its video funcitons as well as a USB for external access to memory and camera control. A HDMI mini-socket is avaialble to external flow to displays as well as to more adequate DVR equipment. Lastly is a port that allows the integration of a GPS device for the automated geotagging of imagery.
Of partiuclar interest are the D800 with a 36Mp FX image, the D600 24Mp FX image. Alternatively the D300s is a DX sensor making a 12.3 Mp and is a common denominator camera. The D7000 is also a DX sensor providing a 16 MP image.
Info on the Nikon D600
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