Howdy folks, I'm after some advice and opinions from people using the D800.
At the moment I have a D600 which, aside from the oil issue and the slightly unreliable AF, is a fine camera but I'm thinking about replacing it with a D800. My photograhy these days is purely for pleasure, with no customers or camera club judges to please
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So, what are the upsides and downsides of the D800 and will I see any benefit from the change?
You've probably read the spec sheets so I guess you're more after user experience? It's a couple of years since I had my D600 so some things I'm a bit hazy on but...
D800 IQ is better in most circumstances. If everything is on your side and you're using good technique and a good lens, you can get much more detailed images from the D800, no question. But there are some caveats, firstly I think, the shutter is a bit violent on the D800 and there are certain 'medium' speed ranges where this seems to work against you. Secondly, I think the D600 is cleaner at high ISO (even accounting for down sampling) and I think shadow recovery is cleaner too. D600 WB SOOC of camera seemed better to me but I shoot raw so don't really care. But all of these things are hair splitting, there really isn't much in it most of the time.
Edited just to mention something about resolution that rarely gets touched on. It's nice having lots of pixels if you want to print big or wish to crop a lot but the actual difference between 24mp and 36mp in printing terms isn't actually that life changing. If you were to print an uncropped image from a D600 at 300dpi, it would be 20inches on the long edge. A D800 images would be 24.5". It's not that big a real world difference but I have to say, the D800 files sure do look great zooming in to 100% on lightroom!
I have some gripes with the D800 which I don't recall having on the D600. 1. The live view is awful. It does some weird interpolation thing that means it is very hard to check critical focus in poor light and almost impossible for astro stuff unless you're using a very wide aperture lens. At least in my experience. 2. If you shoot in live view, there is a long pause after taking a shot where you cannot then use the camera. This is not effected by choice of memory cards. It's just what they do. 3. If the front rubber grip peels off, you cannot simply replace the rubber like you can on all other Nikons since the dawn of time. For some reason you have to buy the whole housing which means the camera has to be substantially disassembled to fix. Mine is currently with fixation and is likely to be there for a while as the part is on back-order. What seemed like a minor gripe, is becoming a real pain in the arse and is actually costing quite a lot of money too. I'm currently questioning the wisdom of doing that rather than just part-exing it against a newer camera.
AF, I think is broadly similar on both cameras. Both seem to be criticised a bit for AF speed and accuracy but in all honesty I have never really had an issue with either. They don't blow me away or anything but I've shot sports, wildlife and high-speed kids with both and found them fine. D600 hunted a bit more in low light I think though and D800 has slightly wider (though still narrow) spread of AF points.
This probably sounds a bit negative towards the D800 but actually I do think it's a hell of a camera. The IQ and dynamic range that is possible from it is superb. Genuinely as good as many of the current gen of high end full frame cameras which is really quite something for a 7 year old camera that can be bought for as little as £500 these days. The reason I opted for a D800 over a D750 (or indeed a D600/610) this time around was actually more about some the little details that make them more suitable for me for landscape photography. One being that the remote sync port is on the front of the camera so doesn't foul when using an L-bracket in portrait mode (why do camera manufacturers still put them there?!) and the other thing being the View finder cover thing. I shoot a lot at night so that last one is really handy. I like that it has a proper AF-on button. The D600 one is okay but I find the D750 one awkward to get at. Would probably prefer dual SD cards like the D600 but it's no big deal, just CF cards tend to cost more. Don't care about too much else other than good IQ and decent direct access to key controls which both these cameras do well.
I should mention one last thing, no oil spatter issues on the D800. My D600 went back to Nikon constantly before they finally gave up and replaced it with a D610. I don't know what your experience of the D600 has been but at least it's not a concern on the D800.