Thanks, Eric and Joe. can't wait to use the credo with some strobes!
Erik, BJL and Manoli: The scene is a very small crop from a much bigger scene. Here's the full scene on the Credo:
And here's the full scene on the D800:
(Slightly cropped on the top and bottom, I tried to match the FoV as close as I can. I'm sorry, I don't have a "63mm" lens for the D800, only a 70. Sucks that it has the 3:2 ratio too.)
I shot the scene like how I would in the real world, not with the intention of microanalyzing and whatnot. Both cameras were set up on a very sturdy tripod, mirror lock up was used and both images were shot at "Fluorescent" WB that the respective cameras provide.
I chose f/8 because of the depth of the scene. I can't be bothered to compensate for diffraction and whatnot because I am shooting an image, not a lab test. I need to get all the important elements in focus and if the smaller sensor has the problem of diffraction kicking in earlier, oh well; sucks.
I trusted the meters in both cameras to deliver me a good exposure. This is what the god knows how many bazillion pixel matrix meter of the D800 and the comparatively rural meter of the Mamiya gave me. So yeah, 6s vs 10s.
WB was left untouched in both images. As far as I can see, the D800 does quite well in the blues. It does a very shitty job of separating the lights near the tree from the color of the leaves on the tree. I tried to separate them in post but nope, the majority of the leaves are in the yellow spectrum. Can I do it with some masking etc.? sure. But the point is, the Credo gets it right out of the box.
As for sharpening, I do sharpen my D800 images in post. Every single one of them. And I am so sick of doing it. I've shot with a D800e before and I do own a D7100 and they are not that much better.
I didn't notice the "Color moire" when I was looking at the image at 100%. If it bothers me that much, I'll touch it up in C1. No biggie.
Oh, and those "Splurges" are people. It's a public place. As much as I want to, I can't stop people from walking into the shot. They are getting cloned off the credo shot right now.
I am sure many people are more than happy to shoot test charts and equalized everything and brick walls and what not. I am not one of those people. I shoot images as I would in the real world. the analysis is secondary. I suspect most people who have seen the "MF look" and wanting to know more about it are looking at real world images too and not test images.