Last fall, Nikon made full-frame photography more affordable than ever with the introduction of the D600 prosumer DSLR. And now the company is back one year later with a slightly upgraded model -- the Nikon D610 -- featuring a new shutter mechanism that not only promises to boost the camera's continuous shooting speed, but also should eliminate the persistent oil-on-sensor problem that marred the D600's otherwise high quality images.
What's new. While the upgrades to the Nikon D610 may seem like relatively minor tweaks, at least one of them could put to rest a serious issue that many owners reported with the D600 -- and that we investigated in our review of the camera last year. We found the same dust and oil spots in images taken with the D600 that others found, most likely from the shutter mechanism splattering the sensor with oil, and perhaps even flaking paint.
The dust and oil were not noticeable in most images -- not unless you really looked for them -- but Nikon acknowledged there was indeed an issue with the D600. The company, however, did not issue a recall or a fix, instead urging owners who discovered the problem with their units to contact Nikon to have camera serviced. According to anecdotal evidence from owners, the problem seemed to go away after a few thousand shutter activations.
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Despite this oil-on-sensor issue, we still highly recommended the D600 for its considerable imaging prowess and great overall performance. So we're very excited that Nikon has designed a new shutter mechanism for the D610. Though Nikon would not go on record to say that the new shutter was employed to fix the problem, we're fairly confident that this is the case.