Plz Advice: Should I buy D600 now or wait until Christmas

dinamaria · Mar 17, 2013

I have the opportunity to purchase a D600 to use as my primary camera (d90 as backup). I found a nikon authorized dealer who is willing to sell the D600 to me for $1754 or I can buy a kit which includes an extra battery, battery charger, third party grip, and some none essential other accessories for $2,000. Do these prices warrant purchasing the camera now, or should I wait until Christmas with the idea that the price will drop?

I appreciate any kind advice you may able to provide.

Thank you

480sparky · Mar 17, 2013

I'm fairly certain that waiting 9 months for a possible price reduction wouldn't be worth it. Get it now... you won't regret it.

dinamaria · Mar 17, 2013

@480sparky: That brings me to my second question. Should I go balls to the walls and purchase new or save a little and get refurbished from B&H at 1599? I am thinking with only a 90 day warranty, it is probably better to go the new route but only puts me out an additional 150 to 400 depending on which package I purchase.

Parker219 · Mar 17, 2013

Isnt refurbished with this camera better than new because on the refurbs they fixed the issue with the sensor getting dirty?

dinamaria · Mar 17, 2013

That is very possible @Parker219. I guess my only worry really was the limited warranty, but if it surpasses the 30 day mark, the perhaps it is a given it will be fine past the 1 yr mark as well.

Parker219 · Mar 17, 2013

The only reason why I am asking is because I am in the market for a d600 as well. Im thinking about holding off till black Friday, but if I know for a fact that I could get one with the sensor issue resolved then I may jump on it.

KmH · Mar 17, 2013

Parker219 said:
Isnt refurbished with this camera better than new because on the refurbs they fixed the issue with the sensor getting dirty?

Not necessarily.

Repairs are rarely, if ever, made to cameras destined to be sold as refurbished.

Nikon factory refurbished cameras include a 90 day warranty from Nikon. Nikon authorized sellers then usually add their own warranty that extends coverage to 1 year.

Parker219 · Mar 17, 2013

^ So what's the best way to be sure the d600 you are buying will not have dirty sensor problems?

dinamaria · Mar 17, 2013

Honestly @Parker219: The only way to know is to either purchase in store and test it out first or get your hands one and keep your fingers crossed. Still I believe the issue goes away over time right?

Parker219 · Mar 17, 2013

^ idk about it just going away or not.

2WheelPhoto · Mar 17, 2013

Buy it

Garbz · Mar 18, 2013

Parker219 said:
^ So what's the best way to be sure the d600 you are buying will not have dirty sensor problems?

Why do you need to ensure that? Warranty exists for a reason.

DarrylJ · Mar 18, 2013

Garbz said:
Parker219 said:

^ So what's the best way to be sure the d600 you are buying will not have dirty sensor problems?

Click to expand...

Why do you need to ensure that? Warranty exists for a reason.

Why would you want to deal with it? Its still a hassle and there is no guarantee that it will not still be an issue 6 years down the road after the warranty has expired.

From what I have read... Buying refurbished and new both can result in the sensor dust issue. It seems to be luck of the draw.

Some people the dust issue has slowly gone away. Some people it has not; and they are on 15K - 20K shutter counts.

The problem is that you can not return for a full refund after a few thousand shutter counts if your issue does not go away. I have read of lots of people that have to clean their sensor every few hundred clicks and they may have to do this forever while owning the camera.

I am in the same boat. I would have bought it already except for this issue. I would like to wait a little while to see if the newer units are still having the problem. NIKON has got to be trying to address this issue at the plant. Its definitely costing them money and reputation. Also I have a feeling the prices will be dropping a little in the next couple months.

Garbz · Mar 19, 2013

DarrylJ said:
Why would you want to deal with it? Its still a hassle and there is no guarantee that it will not still be an issue 6 years down the road after the warranty has expired.

If you made it 6 years I think it'll probably be your fault it doesn't work. Warranty exists to cover manufacturing defects to allow people to buy new things. Or you could just not ever buy anything new and wait until the end of time to ensure something works 100%. Incidentally that's what I am paid to do at work, run "proven in use" scenarios for the systems I install.

Speaking of which do you want to buy my D200? It's been in active use and beat around and has some 80k shutter actuations on it. Guaranteed free of manufacturer defects

But seriously it's a 6 month old camera now. Are you waiting for the D650 before you buy last year's equipment, or why not just go for it and realise that out of the many 10s of thousands units sold only a very small percentage of them have defects and that warranty exists to ensure you get your money's worth even if you're unlucky?

Oh also many manufacturing defects are the result of a fault in production which isn't necessarily related to the new technology. I.e. a batch of D800's not being properly calibrated. This can crop in at any time and isn't necessarily related to new products. Heck Nikon issued a product recall on the D200 for some models with a dangerous manufacturing fault some 6 months after I bought it, and it was already 6 months old when I got mine.

bratkinson · Mar 19, 2013

Being a Canon shooter, I don't know if the price on the D600 is a good deal or not.

As far as 'the package' deal, I'd probably pass. Most likely, the grip is not very good and the extra battery may be of questionable quality. As for the other 'stuff', probably bargain-basement quality. I'd rather get the battery grip -I- choose and battery -I- choose instead of the brand -they- choose. Whether you really want a grip or not is up to you. For what it's worth, I will never go back to non-gripped. 95% of the time, I use only the hand strap only to support the camera. The neck strap gets attached when my hand gets too tired.

As far as holding out for Black Friday, I thought I'd do the same for a Canon 5D3. Unfortunately for me, the discounts that day were on the 'consumer' bodies rather than higher-end bodies. So I paid full price, minus the Canon $200 discount from $3499 that day...plus a Canon grip, too.