D800 studio test

They say that the D800 is primarily a landscape and studio camera so i set up a couple of studio lights and again Alfie was the unfortunate model as he is cheap and my wife said that she wont let me shoot her with the D800 after seeing some images on the web where you can see every bump,pimple and hair, It was a quick test and really i was getting ready as my neighbor has a new cairns terrier puppy that i will soon be shooting, I set the lights up using a hand held light meter and set them to 1/125@F11, The aperture at F11 puts me into diffraction territory as the D800 has so many pixels that after F8 the image will soften slightly as you stop down, I thought that i would start with F11 and see how good or bad the image would look as a dog as a longish face and i didn't want a blurry nose and its quite a nice aperture to use outside for landscape work, As you can see the D800 really is at home in the studio, The files are beautiful and the images has plenty of sharpness and detail

This image is cropped by 25% from the original


And this crop is 100% of the cropped image above


Alfie soon showed that he was bored and so we stopped the session


And a couple of 100% crops of the above image showing the detail



So the D800 passes the studio test with flying colors which was hardly surprising, Now if the weather brightens up i will see if i can get some macro images

Dave

Nikon D800 field test

Yesterday i took the D800 to a lake in Raleigh that i have been to many times, The birds here are used to people and do not fly off when you get within a hundred yards like they do elsewhere here, Its a great place to test equipment and a good place to teach people how to use their cameras and walk away with some results, I haven't been there for a while but as its a popular place for joggers and walkers nothing had changed in the behavior of the birds, One thing that was noticeable was the amount of kingfishers, I watched a group of 3 fly past followed by 2 more,
I used the 600 tripod mounted and without any extenders as i wanted to test the AF and not have any variables, One thing i will say is that i still haven't had time to check for calibration so until that's done you really cant do proper tests but the images seemed pretty good, I arrived mid afternoon and stayed for a few hours to allow the sun to sink somewhat and get better lighting, I wanted to get some birds in flight and although there were a lot of geese none of them wanted to get airborne although i did get some mallards in flight and against a very busy background, I will say that the AF performed very well against the background even when the birds were small in the frame,
I had the camera set to AF-C or continuous and 9 point AF, The 4 FPS really showed how slow the camera is for this type of shooting and if you do birds in flight and do not have another camera the D800 is not the best choice, Saying that it worked well and as long as you took your time and only shot when the time was right the results were good.
The heron there was a very obliging and a few times came so close that i just got a head shot, It was a very skilled fisherman as well and caught fish in rapid succession and some were pretty big,




Sad to say that the top image isnt as sharp on the birds head as i would have liked and it was the best shot of the day but that was my mistake,
The AF felt a bit faster than my D3s certainly in acquiring focus, At one point i turned around and the heron was flying towards me, i quickly swing the rig around and managed 17 images of it in flight and all were sharp
Heres the first image


And here is the last


And a 100% crop


One thing with the D800 is that you have to careful with whites as it seems that exposures are on the light side compared to the D3s
Busy background were not a problem as this image shows, its a big crop and the birds were very small in the frame


I also shot some birds at distance to see how well cropping held up as i think alot of people will shoot this way and it was fine




The images are full of detail when zoomed in on a computer screen or even on the camera screen which is very good-apart from the greenish cast i mentioned last time.

Crop of above image

On the way back to the car i noticed some birds bathing in a small stream so i stopped and grabbed some images



Crop of above

I think i was there around 2 hours and the weather was a bit on the bright side but as this was just a test session i think it went ok, The D800 gives great files and has amazing detail even when cropping close, The files come out at around 103MB in an 8bit tiff so even cutting them in half gives more than a D3s file uncropped
All images were shot at F5.6 so that diffraction did not come into play, I now need to order some cards, I do have a 32GB Cf card so i will get a 32GB SD to compliment it, I put a 4GB card in and it showed 50 images-not much more than the old roll of film, The upgrade in PC last year was worth the money as it opened the files very quickly and worked through CS5 without problem

Dave

D800-Decisions

So i have made the decision to sell the D7000 and it wasn't easy, I have enjoyed the D7000 and looking back its given me some of my favorite images over the last year or so, I see lots of people on forums asking if the D800 will be a good wildlife camera, Generally the answer will be no, If you shoots birds in flight and nothing else then its a definite no, I shoot both birds and mammals and alot of my garden type shots are set ups, Like an outdoor studio so i feel for this type of photography it will be fine, If i need some extra reach like i had with the D7000 i can put it in DX mode and it goes from 36mp to around 15 and 6fps so basically the same as the D7000 although the viewfinder will not be as nice and will be masked, I hope not to have to use the DX mode but its there if i need it, I do shoot some landscapes and well as studio work so there it will shine, Later in the year the D400 should be announced and this should be an excellent body for wildlife, it will be faster fps wise and have the cropped sensor although there are rumors of it being full frame but its all rumors at the moment, nobody knows when it will arrive or what the specs will be, So you could wait and wait and then wait some more whilst people scramble to get the early batches, in reality you could be looking at early next year, So i will go for the D800 to use alongside the D3s, I have had a FF body with a cropped body for a few years now and it has suited me perfectly, Now i will go for 2 FF bodies so that may take some getting used to but by the end of the year the D400 should be a known entity and then i can re-evaluate what what and if i

1.keep the D800
2.Buy a D400
3.Keep or sell the D3s

I am hoping that the D400 will have good high ISO which for me is clean at 1600 and if it has and the MP is a good increase the D3s will go and i will be sorted for the next 4 years
Its easy to be seduced by pixels and the manufacturers have been playing the MP game for years but its getting to a stage where we dont or wont need more, Agencies like big files and that's the main reason for me looking at the D800
Nikon is being sensible and have obviously been reading forums, They have just released a Technical Guide to the D800 and it already has some people cancelling their pre-order, Basically when you read it and i hope that you will they are saying that

1,Its best to use live view for sharper images
2,Use a tripod
3.Use a faster shutter speed than normal
4.If you don't use good technique and the best lenses you wont get a good result

I expect to see a complete sell out followed shortly after by returns and moans and i guess that this is what Nikon are trying to prevent, I think that its one of those beware what you wish situations as alot of people wanted a high MP camera under $3000-now that's its here it could be their worst dream

Dave

Nikon D800/800E announced

As i mentioned in the last blog the Nikon D800 has now been announced and it looks like one hell of a camera and the big surprise is the cost at under $3000 it looks to be the bargain of the century, Congrats to Nikon and i cant wait to see some real life images and reviews
more here