Is 16Mp better for planes with the D810

merv

merv

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Mervyn
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Have been wrestling with image sharpness shooting planes with the Nikon D810 with long lenses and some suggest reducing the resolution from 36Mp to 16Mp (JPEG NORMAL)
Is this the answer or is there more to it than simply resolution. I'm milking this to death but trying to decide is the D4s a better option.?
Apologies to anyone who's seen this question elsewhere in a different guise
Cheers
Merv
 
I'd imagine that shooting at 36Mp and then downsizing with software if necessary to 16Mp would have the same effect (and it would still be 36Mp if the image was sharp)
 
Some argue that taking the shot at 36Mp enables flaws like camera movement to be recorded more easily. So once they're recorded PP won't correct I would think. Hence lower the resolution first IN CAMERA then take the shot. Mind you makes a bit of a nonsense buying 36Mp camera in the first place!
Cheers
 
When I had my D800 I always went for the full 36mp and got some airshow pictures I was happy with.

It gave me more control of the re-sizing in software than the default camera approach, RAW gave me a bit more leeway with the exposure for editing, and also had some emergency "crop-ability" for when I didn't get the composition I wanted.

Worth point out my panning ability was no doubt the limiting factor rather than the camera's ability to capture a sharp shot.
 
I've just shot the Victory Show with my D800 and used it in DX mode for probably 90% of the shots. Partly as I could get 6fps by using a grip + AA batteries, but generally that at a zoom of between 80-420mm depending on the lens I had mounted, I was still only using the area covered by DX most of the time so there seemed little point in cropping further later on.

Edit: I shot in 14 bit lossless compressed Raw btw
 
merv said:
Some argue that taking the shot at 36Mp enables flaws like camera movement to be recorded more easily. So once they're recorded PP won't correct I would think. Hence lower the resolution first IN CAMERA then take the shot. Mind you makes a bit of a nonsense buying 36Mp camera in the first place!
Cheers
Click to expand...

I've heard that theory before - that less pixels produces sharper pictures. I think Canon was putting that about when users were complaining about the 1DX with only 18mp. It was nonsense then and it's nonsense now.

More pixels may not get you sharper images, as there's much more to it than that, but at least the potential is there. With long lenses, the most common problems are inaccurate focusing and shutter speeds too long, though there are numerous other causes of poor sharpness.
 
Personally I would rather have a full file from a D810 than a D4S ... the D810 shares much of the AF capability of the D4S but where the D4S scores is in the frame rate ... you can just press the shutter and keep going, so you have a theoretical greater opportunity to get a subject in focus a somewhere in the burst ... if that's your style :)
 
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