Nikon D800 & Sony RX-100 comparizon. Is Sony better? Should I pass on the D800?

[Eric Brody]

I do not know how expert you are but... the D800 is a demanding tool. To get the most out of it requires excellent lenses and impeccable technique. Ask yourself the hard question, is this the camera for me? Should you get something less demanding, perfect your technique so you don't get frustrated and when you're ready, however long it takes, get whatever is the state of the art then, be it a D800, its successor or something entirely different. I use my D800e as a view camera substitute, it's almost always on a tripod and the eyepiece shutter is almost always closed as I use manual focus tilt-shift lenses and live view. When I'm out having a walk, or a non-photographically oriented excursion, I use my Olympus OM-D. It makes good images and is a lot lighter to transport if photography is not the primary purpose of the excursion. Good luck but please ignore the internet chatter.
Eric

[KevinA]

  When I'm away for the weekend with the wife, I use the RX-100. 

Now they are the pictures we all want to see :-)

[pwatkins]

Erik,

Thank you for the link to Tim Ashley's review - and thanks to Tim Ashley for providing the detailed commentary!

I am a Canon user and have been wondering, with the advent of the D800/E, whether it was time to move over to Nikon.  (I started with Nikon back in the '80's and switched to Canon in the early '90's.)  It certainly appears that such a move may not be easy or trouble-free.  I am surprised at that - one would think that Nikon would make the effort to get everything right, and it doesn't seem like they have.  And their lack of honest and straight-forward support is puzzling to me, and it seems like the lack of support has been evident for years.

And thank you Thomas for giving voice to the question.

--Paul Watkins

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I think the Nikon D800/D800E is an outstanding camera. The D600 is also very good. It seems that Nikon has a lot of QC issues, LensRentals had addressed the issue in a funny posting:

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/12/dear-santa

For critically sharp work you need a tripod and use live view focusing. AF may be good enough at f/8 but not at full aperture. If you don't use a tripod you don't need a D800, in my humble view.

Regarding the RX-100, mine is just fine at short focal lengths. In the long end, corners turn bad. It's a fine little camera, but it has it's limitations.

Best regards
Erik

Erik,

Thank you for the link to Tim Ashley's review - and thanks to Tim Ashley for providing the detailed commentary!

I am a Canon user and have been wondering, with the advent of the D800/E, whether it was time to move over to Nikon.  (I started with Nikon back in the '80's and switched to Canon in the early '90's.)  It certainly appears that such a move may not be easy or trouble-free.  I am surprised at that - one would think that Nikon would make the effort to get everything right, and it doesn't seem like they have.  And their lack of honest and straight-forward support is puzzling to me, and it seems like the lack of support has been evident for years.

And thank you Thomas for giving voice to the question.

--Paul Watkins

[risedal]

I have hand held my d800  together with many lenses  100macro VR, 70-200/2,8 VR  and equal lenses on my Canon 5dmk2  and got lot sharper results from D800, so it depends on your own tremor, exposure time , choice of lens  if you must use a tripod or not
there are more than sharpness, more pixels also gives finer tonal transitions, less jaggies, easier to correct with finer results , cropping rotation etc.

[Derry]

only own the 800E and not one issue in my 6K+ photos so far and mine was an early release,,

would I buy again, YES YES YES,,

Derry

[kers]

Erik,

Thank you for the link to Tim Ashley's review - and thanks to Tim Ashley for providing the detailed commentary!

I am a Canon user and have been wondering, with the advent of the D800/E, whether it was time to move over to Nikon.  (I started with Nikon back in the '80's and switched to Canon in the early '90's.)  It certainly appears that such a move may not be easy or trouble-free.  I am surprised at that - one would think that Nikon would make the effort to get everything right, and it doesn't seem like they have.  And their lack of honest and straight-forward support is puzzling to me, and it seems like the lack of support has been evident for years.

And thank you Thomas for giving voice to the question.

--Paul Watkins

My experience is much different..
The nikon service is great ( Holland) Being a NPS member i get a spare copy for each lens/body while the other is in repair.
I have hardly had any problems with all the Nikons i have owned ( about 6) -
My dealer told me some time ago that they hardly get people back with Nikon (D3-D3s -D700-D3x) but a lot of Canon (5dmkII)

[thomashoven]

My opinion is that Nikon has done a great design job with their cameras, I enjoyed using D3, D3x and D700 while attending photography classes - great cameras to use. The D800 appears to be based on similar design as the D700, but QC....

A great design needs to be followed up by adequate QC in manufacturing, to make sure all units are up to standard before leaving the factory. All the posts still indicate to me a QC problem on the D800 - some people has great working units, others are not so fortunate. These differences indicate QC issues to me. I hesitate to buy an expensive ticket in this lottery until I know more.

The lack of honest and straight-forward support as mentioned by Paul Watkins is an attitude I would like to see Nikon reconsider. Nikon: Please come forward, identify the issues, clarify how to get them fixed and advise after which serial number QC has been improved.

Finally, please also make a firmware-update to fix the only design-flaw mentioned I believe is major, the dark live-view screen making manual setting and focusing hard in poor lighting (e.g. when shooting with studio strobes) mentioned in a number of posts on the net. For me, this is one of the two intended uses for the D800 I was considering.

Who knows, may be a good alternative appears before Nikon gets things sorted...
Contrary to some other buyers, I am not in a rush.

[kers]

Must say i have had one issue with the d800e - one that Nikon should have solved before letting it go from the factory..

i have checked the AF accuracy and found out i had to change the autofocus about   -15  each lens!

Surely Nikon made a mistake here and i already lost my faith in autofocus - but now even my 1,4 24mm is autofocus sharp at 1,4...
( but took me about one year to realize what was the problem)
...so check your autofocus!