Hi All,

Very interested in this camera, as a D200 owner who's been hanging back to see what happens before possibly getting a D300. Not anymore!

Anyway, one thing i haven't seen in all the previews is whether the D700 FPS slows down if you are shooting 14bit versus 12bit. (I think D300 was 6fps 12 bit / 2.5 fps 14bit without battery grip). Has anyone seen info on this?

Thanks,
Paul

I thought I saw that the camera's fps speed was the same at 12 bits as 14 bits.

Shoot nature with respect and don't trample it or startle its inhabitants.

oops, sorry, thought you were talking about D300.

No idea about D700, but I'll get a copy on monday, will check this for sure.

Got the cam today and did a fast test about this 12 vs 14bit.. judging by sound only, there is no difference, for sure not 6fps vs 2.5fps as with D300. I will do a more detailed test later in the day and post the results.

Regards,
Mat

Thanks very much for looking into this.

Cheers,
Paul

No problem, some more details..

D700 is indeed 5fps machine. Larger sensor, larger shutter, same power as D300,.. all make the difference.

Anyhow, some numbers. All done in RAW lossless compression, CH, M mode, 1/500, shooting at my stopwatch till the buffer was full.

12 bit:
starts with 3-48, 3-87, 3-90, 4-09, 4-27, 4-53, 4-70, 4-88, 5-07, 5-24, 5-49, 5-68, 5-87, 6-06, 6-29, 6-48, 6-67, 6-98
Made 18 shots till full buffer and I get 5.2fps

14 bit:
starts with 3-37, 3-56, 3-79, 3-98, 4-17, 4-20, 4-59, 4-78, 4-96, 5-15, 5-39, 5-57, 5-76, 5-95, 6-18, 6-37, 6-56
Made 17 shots till full buffer and I get 5.3fps

So no difference really.
I don't have the grip, so can't check if that makes any difference or not.

Regards,
Mat

EDIT: Had to change the number format, since some emotions appeared in the text.

I read that the D700 will be 5 FPS, slower than the 6 FPS os the D300.

Why is that?

MarkF

D800
I still own an F100; do you think film will make a comeback?

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Larger mirror to move and no more battery energy than the D300.

Shoot nature with respect and don't trample it or startle its inhabitants.

I found this preview on Rob Galbraith (very good preview too):

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-9311-9483

He mentions:

"The D700 does not have the 5:4 capture mode of the D3, only FX Format and DX Format. Set to either mode, the camera will shoot continuously at a maximum of 5 fps, or 8 fps when either the MB-D10 Multi Power Battery Pack (with an EN-EL4 or EN-EL4A inside) or the EH-5A AC Adapter are powering the camera.

The processing circuitry is identical to the D3 and features 14 bit analog-to-digital conversions and a 16 bit processing path. The core image processing technologies contained in the D700 and other newer Nikons go under the umbrella name of EXPEED. When shooting NEFs, it's possible to specify whether you want them to contain 14 bits per colour or 12 bits per colour of information (the latter for smaller file sizes and a few more frames in extended bursts), as well as whether they are uncompressed, compressed (visually lossless, 40-55% compression rates) or losslessly compressed (numerically identical after decompression, 20-40% compression rates). Like the D3, the frame rate of the D700 doesn't slow when the 14 bit option is selected."

So D700 can get to 8fps with the battery grip and the right batteries, NICE!!

Cheers,
Paul