Nikon D800 Released

bobmielke · Feb 7, 2012

I got an early notice from B&H Camera in New York that the new Nikon D800 has just been released. This 36MP full frame camera will raise the bar for wedding, sports and landscape photographers. Although it continues to increase the file size and resolution of digital photos, it is a pro camera intended for working professionals that asked for its new higher resolution and enhanced 1080P video functions. Selling for $2999.00 for the body only it is half the price of the new D4, the top of the line model.

I am not considering purchasing either of these new cameras as my D7000 easily provides everything I need in a quality camera for $1200.

Doug b · Feb 7, 2012

This will be more for landscape and wedding shooters, as well as photo journalists perhaps, but to be honest, mostly for landscape shooters. It only shoots at 4 fps and 5 with the grip. My D300 shoots more than that without a grip. You won't be shooting sports like that.

Granted, it will be nice to have a medium format resolution at such a low price, plus there is the D800 E... in which they have removed the anti-aliasing filter, thereby making for what should be much sharper images! I just hope they came up with a good sensor layout scheme taking care of moire.

It also means having to purchase a new format memory card, and of course at a fairly large size since the file sizes are going to be huge! I guess that if someone was in the market for their first pro camera, this might be enticing.

If I had a D700, I wouldn't be trading it in for an 800, that's for sure.

Doug

Dysfunction · Feb 7, 2012

Media aside, I'm going to take a serious look at it. I still shoot a D200, because well.. I generally shot fairly static subjects.. This may well be a good fit.

bobmielke · Feb 7, 2012

Dysfunction said:
Media aside, I'm going to take a serious look at it. I still shoot a D200, because well.. I generally shot fairly static subjects.. This may well be a good fit.

If I didn't already own a D7000 with 4 DX lenses I'd be buying the D800. I couldn't care less about the video side but the high resolution allows for lower light shooting. Then there's the 51 focus points instead of 39. I'm sure it's a great camera but not for my situation.

Doug b · Feb 7, 2012

bobmielke said:
I couldn't care less about the video side but the high resolution allows for lower light shooting.

I wouldn't be so sure of that Bob. In fact, I'd say just the opposite. The photosite is now reduced due to the clutter of more MP on the sensor, so unless you're downsampling the images (which you can do if you use the crop mode, downsampling to 16 MP) you're basically going to get about the same results as your D7000.

Read what Thom Hogan has written up about the D800: Nikon D800 Introduction

Here's an excerpt:

The sensor itself is a Sony EXMOR-derived one, which is mostly good news. Since the sensor has the ADC circuitry on-board and this results in low read noise and good linearity, we should get the strong shadow capabilities we've seen in cameras like the D7000 and NEX-7. On the other hand, adding all those power and data paths to service 36mp has to have taken some toll on light collection (fill factor). Microlenses can only deal with some of that loss.
So here's the question everyone has been asking me forever: how will the D800 perform in low light compared to a D700? My answer, if you recall, was to tell everyone to shoot with the D700 in DX mode, then shoot the same thing with a D7000 and downsize to 5.4mp. Did everyone do their homework? No one? Bueller?
Sigh.
There's good news in that test: the D7000 holds its own far higher into the upper ISO ranges than you might think. It's a good ISO 1600 camera to start with, but if you let me downsample from 16 to 5.4mp size, it's even better. So I'm expecting the D800 to be as good when downsampled to 12mp. Is that as good as a D700? In some ways yes, in some ways no. The pixel peepers are almost certainly going to notice noise at highest ISO values (just as they do on the D7000).

This camera would certainly be of real interest to me if I were shooting strictly in a studio, which who knows what the future holds, could be a possibility. But the prices of D700's are dropping and I'd rather have that as an all round shooter. Though I'd love to see what huge prints look like up close out of the 800!

Doug

Dysfunction · Feb 7, 2012

Doug b said:
This camera would certainly be of real interest to me if I were shooting strictly in a studio, which who knows what the future holds, could be a possibility. But the prices of D700's are dropping and I'd rather have that as an all round shooter. Though I'd love to see what huge prints look like up close out of the 800!

Doug

Ok, so I've had a chance to take a basic look at the specs.

Things I like:

100% viewfinder - 'nuff said, I miss this.

1 CompactFlash© (CF) card and 1 Secure Digital (SD) card - The SD card would be handy with wifi cards in a studio. Handier than a 50' USB cable for certain.

Support of AI + (which would naturally include AI'd glass) and AF-S

Base ISO sensitivity of 100 (yea, I shoot long exposures often enough to like the additional slower stop)

1/250 sync

DoF preview (I'd be lost without one)

Bulb (duh)

Rear curtain/slow curtain sync

Now, does it have a PC port, or other sync port?

chas_m · Feb 8, 2012

More info on this:

Nikon D800 arrives with super-dense 36.3MP sensor | Electronista

If they do a review, you'll want to read it. Good camera reviews for the non-photonerd there.

Nikon D800 Released

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