Having owned the camera now for over a week I just thought I would give yous a short real world review on it..
Ergonomics / Build / LCD screen -
Feels abit lighter than my D700, grip is thinner at the bottom, this feels better for me in the short bursts I have been using but I would imagine it may be a little annoying using it all day with heavy lenses. I will most definitely be buying the MB-D12 grip!
The LCD screen is sharp and contrasty, also dims depending on the ambient light (loved this feature on the 5D). However I would advise to take what you see on the LCD with a pinch of salt as motion blur etc or slightly OOF images may appear sharp on the LCD but not on your monitor
Having previously owned the D7000 the new AF mode selector switch is a welcome for switching between AF modes and not having to take my eye away from the viewfinder
In short its built as you would expect it coming in a similar body to that of a D700
Image Quality -
This is where the camera truly shines! ISO - 100-3200 is perfectly usable and considering the staggering MP count this is fantastic. Suits me as I never shoot beyond 3200 ISO
The dynamic range is really in a world of its own. The detail you can pull back out of the shadows without introducing terrible noise is staggering. I think I counted that I was able to pull back about 3-4 stops from being under exposed to a perfectly usable image.
The detail in the images out of this camera will amaze you! My 50mm 1.4G is remarkable at f/1.4 and by f/2.8 its uber sharp
Color such as skin tones are rendered beautifully. No overly harsh magenta to the skin tones that you see on a D7000 camera.
Metering -
For me as I tend to primarily take pictures of people, the new metering system is fantastic. The face recognition incorporated into it is great when using backlight or complicated lighting when taking portraits. This was never a problem on my D700 really either as I just compensated for the backlight. With the D800 you don't need to use it to the same extent!
File Sizes -
In short this is my biggest gripe with the camera but I can live with it
RAW files are just over 75mb and when you open them in photoshop they're around 104mb
The files eat up space like never before. Processing the images on my imac is smooth as butter, however people with older computing hardware may need to take this into account.
I found I was thinking more about the shot as I knew the files would be so large. I only shoot RAW uncompressed but may start shooting JPEG for everyday shots! Using a Sandisk 32GB UHS-1 60meg card I had no lag at all when shooting.
Autofocus -
This is one of the areas I was most concerned about when buying this camera and the sole reason I held off for so long (left side focus issues etc)
I can say this impressed me almost as much as the image quality! It has a superb AF system. I just locks on in any situation. Even the 50mm 1.4G doesnt hestitate (and that includes using outer focus points) it just locks on perfect every time
Even using fully automatic AF(not a mode I ever use but tested it out) when taking pictures of people it magically picks their face and in most instances their eyes!!!
I was close to switching back over to Canon again after getting the D700, yes its a fantastic piece of kit but going from 20 odd megapixels of the mk2 to D700 12mp I was always abit disappointed
The D800, for me is the perfect camera.
I will keep my D700 as I think it compliments the D800 well (8 FPS burst, smaller files etc)
I will update this with sample images ASAP
Hope this helps anyone considering it
Ergonomics / Build / LCD screen -
Feels abit lighter than my D700, grip is thinner at the bottom, this feels better for me in the short bursts I have been using but I would imagine it may be a little annoying using it all day with heavy lenses. I will most definitely be buying the MB-D12 grip!
The LCD screen is sharp and contrasty, also dims depending on the ambient light (loved this feature on the 5D). However I would advise to take what you see on the LCD with a pinch of salt as motion blur etc or slightly OOF images may appear sharp on the LCD but not on your monitor
Having previously owned the D7000 the new AF mode selector switch is a welcome for switching between AF modes and not having to take my eye away from the viewfinder
In short its built as you would expect it coming in a similar body to that of a D700
Image Quality -
This is where the camera truly shines! ISO - 100-3200 is perfectly usable and considering the staggering MP count this is fantastic. Suits me as I never shoot beyond 3200 ISO
The dynamic range is really in a world of its own. The detail you can pull back out of the shadows without introducing terrible noise is staggering. I think I counted that I was able to pull back about 3-4 stops from being under exposed to a perfectly usable image.
The detail in the images out of this camera will amaze you! My 50mm 1.4G is remarkable at f/1.4 and by f/2.8 its uber sharp
Color such as skin tones are rendered beautifully. No overly harsh magenta to the skin tones that you see on a D7000 camera.
Metering -
For me as I tend to primarily take pictures of people, the new metering system is fantastic. The face recognition incorporated into it is great when using backlight or complicated lighting when taking portraits. This was never a problem on my D700 really either as I just compensated for the backlight. With the D800 you don't need to use it to the same extent!
File Sizes -
In short this is my biggest gripe with the camera but I can live with it
RAW files are just over 75mb and when you open them in photoshop they're around 104mb
The files eat up space like never before. Processing the images on my imac is smooth as butter, however people with older computing hardware may need to take this into account.
I found I was thinking more about the shot as I knew the files would be so large. I only shoot RAW uncompressed but may start shooting JPEG for everyday shots! Using a Sandisk 32GB UHS-1 60meg card I had no lag at all when shooting.
Autofocus -
This is one of the areas I was most concerned about when buying this camera and the sole reason I held off for so long (left side focus issues etc)
I can say this impressed me almost as much as the image quality! It has a superb AF system. I just locks on in any situation. Even the 50mm 1.4G doesnt hestitate (and that includes using outer focus points) it just locks on perfect every time
Even using fully automatic AF(not a mode I ever use but tested it out) when taking pictures of people it magically picks their face and in most instances their eyes!!!
I was close to switching back over to Canon again after getting the D700, yes its a fantastic piece of kit but going from 20 odd megapixels of the mk2 to D700 12mp I was always abit disappointed
The D800, for me is the perfect camera.
I will keep my D700 as I think it compliments the D800 well (8 FPS burst, smaller files etc)
I will update this with sample images ASAP
Hope this helps anyone considering it
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