NIKON D600

With the ever-encroaching reach of interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs), it's about time that the SLR world brought out some big guns to lure the headlines away from the little guys. Photographers who are looking for an upgrade from their entry-level SLRs have most likely heard of full-frame cameras, but price-wise they have often been far out of reach. Enter a camera such as the Nikon D600, which has a 24.3-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor. Full-frame sensors have the advantage of being larger than their APS-C or crop-sensor cousins. In a nutshell this means that they are able to gather more light thanks to the larger photosites, and are not susceptible to crop factor. This means that when you mount a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera, it's a true 50mm focal length. Borrowing a lot of the same shooting configuration and look-and-feel of other full-frame Nikon SLRs like the D800, it does have a new locking mode dial design. That means there's a button that you need to depress every time you want to turn the mode dial, similar to what's found on some Canon SLRs. Along with the requisite still image-taking capabilities, the D600 can shoot full HD video (1080p) at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second. Recording can also be done in DX crop, which uses the centre portion of the sensor to provide a 1.5x focal-length crop, still able to record at 1080p. An uncompressed and clean video out is available through the HDMI port, with headphone monitoring also available. At the back is a 3.2-inch, 921,000-dot LCD screen, and the D600 comes with dual SD card slots Connectivity has been all the rage in 2012 camera models, with the D600 being no exception. An optional Wi-Fi transmitter attaches to the USB port and can send images to any number of wireless devices using a dedicated Nikon app. It also offers remote, wireless tethering. There's also a built-in time-lapse functionality to snap images at set intervals. Continuous shooting is at 5.5 frames per second, while there's a 39-point AF system with 9 cross-type points on board. Nikon Australia no longer issues official RRPs for its products, though one Australian retailer is offering it for AU$2599 for body-only. The D600 will be available in Australia from Tuesday 18 September.