I have a D800 nikon camera and a D300 to compare it with. First thing I noticed was you have to be more accurate with the shots due to the 36.3Mp sensor size, it is less forgiving than the D300. On the other side of the coin cropping is amazing without loss of picture quality. Couple it with a Nikon24-70mm f2.8 lens and I would even go as far as to say you could almost do away with lenses of a slightly longer mm range, you will find the menu is so far more advanced as well . if you really dive into it you can produce so really weird effects such as distortion and painting by numbers to mention just two. Also in camera editing to a small extent. there is a filter bit and also a virtual horizon which you don't have at the moment. Also such thinds as trim/ image overlay/colour balance// fisheye/ red eye correction colour sketch/ even perspective control, just to name a few
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The menu is a bit bewildering at first even coming from a D300 and in truth most of which you won't use unless you need to, The instruction book has nearly 500 pages to give you some idea
Nikon thankfully stick more or less to the same layout body wise so should be quite at home with it except for the video buttons which are extra. One thing I would mention on the video side is t he microphone picks up every click of the lens if you use auto focus so best in manual.
the 3 holes are the microphone . as you can see right next to the lens. I use an external mike well away from the camera if I have to.
Movies do well considering it is mainly a stills DSLR but it does also have time lapse which I have not tried
one little point is it has 2 memory card slots a CF and an SD one which can be used in any configuration such as backup or overflow or together.having such a large sensor obviously it takes up more card GB. to give some idea if shooting in Raw on a 32 gb card you will only get about 400 shots or just under and don't expect to you the camera like a machine gun when shooting you can't at about 5 frames a second.
The battery (cost around£35 on ebay for genuine ones) is comparatively small due to new regulations so you may well need 3/4 for a days still shooting. I have 5 which one is in the camera and the other in the MB D12 grip. Talking of which does make a lot of difference to the balance between camera and lens.. Battery EN _EL15
You can use an en-el18 I believe but the cost of those batteries and charger does not make it worth getting when with a battery grip and 2 batteries (1 in camera and other in grip) works out a better option and gives just as long shooting time at a fraction of the cost
Weight wise camera -lens 24-70mm - grip and batteries come in weighing around 5lb 3oz (do your own conversion) . That weight makes it a very steady camera to hold, my 24-70mm lens has not got the latest VR but I can hold it rock steady, I have read somewhere that the VR version is not quite as good but not having one i can't. compare
A grip is certainly a big help and would recommend getting the Nikon one. yes their are 3rd party ones but and expensive camera with a cheap grip??? not for me but that is your choice.
at the time i was considering an upgrade it was between the D600 and the D800 and i feel I made the right choice now I have got used to it..
Others mentioned other versions in the Nikon range, at the time i bought mine they didn't exist so can't comment if better or worse,On balance with all the menu features and cropping ability of the D800 I honestly don't think they come anywhere near ,but having said that i would not say don't check them out anyway
Also this is a pro camera so you do need pro lenses for it Having said that there is also in the menu the ability to change to DX if those are the lenses you have and auto detect a DX lens if fitted. There is so much on the camera one can do, so do not expect to be able to do a straight swap without having to go through a small learning curve, but it is worth it.
It is one hell of a camera to have in ones bag and i am well pleased with mine
