I fell in love with the Nikon D600 the day I got one to review, and purchased one the day they were released. It’s been nearly 100K miles with me, and done a workman-like job on six photo safaris and countless other opportunities. Image quality is stunning, and the camera offers a great feature set in a relatively compact form factor (at least compared to a Nikon D4) and a relatively-reasonable price. The only blemish on the otherwise nearly perfect record of the Nikon D600 has been persistent reports of “dust” gathering on the sensor that doesn’t come loose with self-cleaning. It appears that the spots are actually a somewhat oily compound thrown from the shutter….

For me, this shortcoming has been very minor. Sure, I probably have to use a LensPen to wipe the sensor more often than I’d like – but so far it seems to do the job. Because the residue is slightly oily, I also buy new LensPens more often than I would otherwise, but they’re cheap. However, it looks like Nikon is finally responding to the concerns of potential customers, and is rumored to be about to introduce a new model – The Nikon D610 – that will have the same specs as the Nikon D600, except it will have a newly-designed shutter unit that won’t have the leak issue. While at first it seems a little odd for Nikon to bring out a whole new model for such a minor change, it also may bode well for existing Nikon D600 owners. If the only change is the shutter unit then perhaps as shutters need replacing on the Nikon D600, they can be updated to the new version. Much more exciting would be some type of offer from Nikon to perform this service on a subsidized basis.

Either way, if a D610 comes out, you’ll likely get an opportunity to get a Nikon D600 at a fire sale price, or pay-up in full for the Nikon D610. So, how much is a clean sensor worth to you? Let us know.