Had my first two days out with it proper - one on a fly fishing shoot in favourable conditions so wasn't really pushing the sensor much.... ISO 100 for video and ISO 400 for the few stills I took…. and went out again today, shooting the whole feature on it AND doing a raft of video for web use.
On the stills front although i was still trying to use buttons that only exist on my D2x, it was easy to use and the AF is excellent, especially in low contrast scenes. IQ seems bang-on overall - this isn't my main still camera but it's good to know on the occasions it is used, it'll produce the goods. Exposures are consistent, focussing is really, really fast and crisp (plus it has a 'BEEP' unlike my D2x). I still can't work out why Nikon haven't pout an exposure compensation ruler on the top LCD though....
HD video function is excellent. I've totally got used to having to go out of live view to change aperture - it takes milliseconds to make the change - so I'm not really sure what people are whinging about in this respect. The record button works quickly and the record function is really instant. I wish that the widescreen mask could be applied while in live view to help framing.
The AF isn't as bad in HD mode as expected, although it's not a totally reliable system. I've quickly gotten used to manual focussing, doing follow focus as I move around or as I want to blur in/blur out a shot. The screen is excellent, even in the bright sunshine we had today. The ability to zoom focus in live view is good but it can't be done while recording.
I filmed from 10am until 5am in short burst, along with shooting 300+ stills and only did half a battery, which i thought was good going.
Bought myself a cheap (£15) 5m lavelier mic from Maplins today that did the job. It's not amazing sound but with the mic sensitivity turned down in the camera, sound is clear and more than adequate for what I needed.
All in all, so far it seems like this has been the (near) perfect buy. Yes, the body is far too small for my hands so I deffo need a grip and the rubber grips are pants, but as a tool to do a job it excels. More than anything, I'm blown away by what I can do with my 70-200mm, getting luscious shallow DoF that I could never get with the tape HD cameras I used to use. The fact that VR also works means I can hand-hold at 200mm and the image looks the nuts.
I'm looking into making a DIY track dolly but I'm totally sold on what a DSLR can do when it comes to video. We have some Sennheiser radio mics at works that I'm borrowing on Thursday for a shoot, so that will be an interesting test.
Having been down the tamron/sigma routes several times to save pennies to then later go down the Nikon versions and thus spend more to get there...I'd say the Nikon 24-70 f2.8 and possibly the Nikon 24-120 f4. Although you will be loosing a bit on the wide side...
