Nikon D800/E Review

[JRSmit]

Ggg

Michael, certainly not.

My favourite imaging device is a pencil, I quickly loose patience with anything more complex.

Strange perhaps for a photographer to say, but I've no great love for cameras. The more complex they are the less I like them. The last thing I need when making images is to have to think about or worry about cameras.

With this in mind I could fairly be described as an incompetent photographer.
 

Took me indeed 5 minutes to get a nikon d3 working after 40 years of leica m3/m6. Another year or so to automate my manual actions on the camera, simply by taking options one at a time. At those occasions, the manual was a help.  Now with an ipad i prefer pdf by the way.  Just picked up my d800e from my dealer (cameranu , here in the netherlands), i was the first apparently outside of nps members.
Initial impressions concur with michaels findings.

[Petrus]

One more correction should be made: "In-camera multi-exposure HDR (JPG only)", this is not true, TIFF also possible, RAW not. Apparently people forget the TIFF possibility, as it is quite useless otherwise, as all quality shooters use RAW anyway. But TIFF is there.

Looking at the DR graph it is quite clear that the camera in reality more or less shoots at base ISO and just digs out the shadows more she ISO is raised. It would be interesting to shoot at 100 ISO and expose like it was 6400, then fix in Lightroom to see if it looks the same as "native" 6400 ISO exposure.

[mac_paolo]

It would be interesting to shoot at 100 ISO and expose like it was 6400, then fix in Lightroom to see if it looks the same as "native" 6400 ISO exposure.

Agree. I'm curious too

[Ray]

Looking at the DR graph it is quite clear that the camera in reality more or less shoots at base ISO and just digs out the shadows more she ISO is raised. It would be interesting to shoot at 100 ISO and expose like it was 6400, then fix in Lightroom to see if it looks the same as "native" 6400 ISO exposure.

My reading of the DR graph, in conjunction with the ISO sensitivity graph, is that an ETTR exposure at ISO 6400 should have slightly better DR than the same exposure at base ISO. DR at base ISO, at print size, is 14.33EV. At 6 stops shorter exposure, which is equivalent to ISO 6400, DR should be 14.33-6=8.33EV. According to DXO, it's 9.17EV at ISO 6400.

In addition, the ISO at 6400 is slightly less than what it should be, if one starts doubling up from the DXO-measured ISO 74 for base ISO. ISO 6400 should be ISO 4736, but DXO rates it as 4211. Such small differences count for almost nothing, except in this case it tends to confirm that the full difference in DR of 0.84EV (9.17-8.33) might well be apparent. At the very least, taking into account margins of error in the measurements and margins of error in the QC processes of manufacture, I would expect there to be a full 2/3rds of a stop better DR when the ISO 6400 setting is used in preference to underexposing at base ISO.

It would be interesting to see if this is indeed the case in practice. 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a stop difference at such a high ISO is of an order of magnitude similar to the DR difference between the Nikon D3 and the original Canon 5D at high ISO, something which created a lot of exitement at the time.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hmm,

I wish that my Sony Alpha 77 SLT had a 400 page manual. You can download a PDF manual to your iPAD, or Android pad. That works.

The Sony has pretty decent user interface but a more detailed manual that actually says how things work may be helpful.

Best regards
Erik

Just looking at my canon 5D3 manual. It is 403 pages and the camera needs it. These full featured cameras need good paper manuals.

And I agree, pdfs are useless out in the field.

[BJL]

At those occasions, the manual was a help.  Now with an ipad i prefer pdf by the way.

For portability and readability in both daylight and darkness, maybe a reflected light e-ink reader with backlighting option would be even better: could this become part of the serious photographer's field kit, to carry thousands of pages of manuals, along with nature guides and such? (Plus reading for times when the conditions are bad for photography!) In the USA, a backlighting option has just been introduced in the Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, and the Kindle seems likely to follow.


P. S. Sony should of course provide its manuals in versions for use on its eBook readers ... if it still makes them.

[dreed]

The shadow detail and lack of noise is amazing! Wow! Time to adjust this year's budget to make room for some new kit. Or make plans for next year's budget if it remains a hard camera to obtain.

The description of what Nikon has done with the custom modes makes it sound like they let their engineers at it without consulting any photographers. But that's not enough to dissuade me.

Is MLU automatically activated when you choose a long (10 second?) shutter release time? I can't understand why they would provide "1, 2 and 3" as the available intervals for MLU timeout. What I'm used to is being able to push the remote button for mirror up and then wait some number of seconds and push it again to activate the shutter. Does Nikon not allow that or am I just reading the review words wrong?

The last time I read a review that made me sit up and take notice like that was the one for the 20D (here) oh so many years ago now and after that it was just a matter of time before I switched over from film to digital.

It's a shame that lenses are made to be camera specific and that 3rd party ones (for example), can't be refitted to a different camera by just screwing off/on mount plates. Although I suppose these days there's also electronics that needs to be changed so that the lens and camera understand each other.

[Chris Kern]

For portability and readability in both daylight and darkness, maybe a reflected light e-ink reader with backlighting option would be even better

E-ink certainly has advantages in bright sunlight—obviously, a tablet or smartphone will be at least as legible as an illuminated e-ink reader in low light—but for quick verification of a configuration option, I've found Nikon's ManualViewer app to be quite serviceable.  (It's currently only available for Apple's iOS, as far as I can tell.)  Even on an iPhone, it's adequate as a quick look-up tool.  The iPad version is easier on the eyes if you want to read many pages of a manual.

Having said that, I think Michael makes a good point in commending Nikon for providing a paper manual.  Especially when familiarizing myself with the more esoteric features of a new camera, I find I fumble less if I have only one piece of machinery to manipulate.

Chris

[Fine_Art]

This is the first DSLR that IMO is worth the premium price over the top Sonys. As soon as I saw 36MP with the high DR and the decent ISO 3200 I figured this is going to really sell, even at $3k. Well done Nikon.

[Ray]

This is the first DSLR that IMO is worth the premium price over the top Sonys. As soon as I saw 36MP with the high DR and the decent ISO 3200 I figured this is going to really sell, even at $3k. Well done Nikon.

And don't forget that Sharp have already produced a really sharp 85" monitor that displays an 8k4k image, ie 32mp, or 16x HD resolution. Such monitors may not be available at an affordable price for quite a few years, but when they are, your D800 images can be displayed in their full glory, without the expense and trouble of printing. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE4argZMnsw

[Ray]

For portability and readability in both daylight and darkness, maybe a reflected light e-ink reader with backlighting option would be even better: could this become part of the serious photographer's field kit, to carry thousands of pages of manuals, along with nature guides and such? (Plus reading for times when the conditions are bad for photography!) In the USA, a backlighting option has just been introduced in the Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, and the Kindle seems likely to follow.

BJL,
I quickly realised that my Kindle DX, with large screen suitable for serious people, was lighter than my two Nikon manuals for the D700 and D7000. So I downloaded the pdf versions of these manuals from the internet and stored them on my Kindle, just in case I need to refer to the manuals when I travel.

Now that's what I call real progress. 

[dreed]

There's one aspect that this review didn't cover and that is that the D800/E still only supports one raw file format: NEF. Is it time to give up on hoping that there will be any convergence in that space?

[BJL]

—but for quick verification of a configuration option, I've found Nikon's ManualViewer app to be quite serviceable.  (It's currently only available for Apple's iOS, as far as I can tell.)  Even on an iPhone, it's adequate as a quick look-up tool.  The iPad version is easier on the eyes if you want to read many pages of a manual.

I was unaware of that app: yes., a good mobile device app with search and such is probably the way of the future even more than PDF or HTML. For example, my birding field guide is an iOS app, not an eBook. (I am no fan of the "lowest common denominator" dogma of doing everything with universal formats at the cost of the ease of use that a custom written app can provide, but would hope for Android and/or Windows Phone versions too.)

And I agree that any device costing this much should at least have an option of a free paper manual! I confess to occasionally printing out PDFs.

[HSway]

Very enjoyable read. - As usual in a broad perspective (and with a right passion) which is why it’s original as many other articles on LL – and interesting.
Thanks for valuable reviews and sharing inspiring photographs.

Hynek