Help! Thinking about a D-800

[Bob Miller]

I am thinking about purchasing a D-800 , I currently own a D3s which I am very happy with as well as a D-300. I shoot lots of macro and wildlife and occasionallly landscapes. I have a couple of questions that I would appreciate help with

1) I have heard that the files for this camera run 45- 50 mb. Is this a problem when working on CS5 or Lightroom4?

2) What is a reasonable ISO with this camera?

3) With 36 megapixels...I would think that I could crop wildlife shots by 50 %. Is this a reasonable assumption?

4) I understand that this camera has the ability to automatically give a 1.2 x crop factor when using a Dx lens but can I set any lense for a 1.2x crop factor

[Don Lacy]

#1 Depends on the computer if it has enough ram around 12 gigs should be okay.
#2 I have not looked at any RAW files from this camera but from what i have read 400-800 should be fine at the high end
#3 A 50% crop will leave you with about 13 mega pixels more then enough detail if you started with a sharp properly exposed image.
#4 The lenses are irrelevant to the crop mode since it is done in camera by the software all the camera is doing is taking a full frame image and throwing away the edges of the frame so you can use any lens in any crop mode.

[arash_hazeghi]

1)RAW files are larger than 45MB. You need a computer with 12GB RAM, Quad core CPU and a fast HDD or a SSD to process large number of files quickly.

2) D800 can handle ISO all the way up to 6400 with ease (in the hands of a good photographer who knows how to process RAW files). It is the best overall image quality of any DSLR on the market.

3) What do you mean by 50% crop? 50% of the image contains 18 Mpixels, most cameras don't have that many pixels to begin with. If you mean 1/4 of the image (half of each side) that is 9 mpixels. It is enough for any online presentation and even large prints if the image is sharp.

4) DX crop is 1.5 not 1.2. But you can set the camera to any crop with FX lenses.

[dankearl]

The FX files are 50-60mb, I use the 1.2 crop, 90% of the time, the files are 30mp.
I am processing them on a 3 year old Mac with 2GB of Ram. It is doable but I am going to upgrade my computer.
You can do very nice crops with 25% of the 1.2 crop I think. I overdue the crop at times, see the Oriole Nest thread in Avian and you can get an idea of
how much you can reasonably crop.
I think the camera is fantastic.

This is an out of camera ISO6400 photo in extremely bad light of a Ravens Nest on a dark cliff.
Nothing done to it, just converted to jpeg.
You can judge how it looks at high ISO.

DSC_0688bp.jpg

[dankearl]

Bob, one more clarification, a DX lens will automatically be a DX crop.
Only FX lens (most telephoto) are you able to adjust the crop.
Adjusting the crop is nice, it is a wheel roll from FX to 1.2 to DX.
I use FX if I am close and need to, otherwise, I use 1.2. I have never used the DX crop. You really don't need to, you can crop yourself if you want.
I use the 1.2 simply for smaller file size, when I get a new computer with 12GB of ram I will shoot FX only.
Here is a more realistic example of the lowlight, high ISO quality. I took this in my backyard today in good light but in dark shade.
ISO 3200, I did routine PP, ran one round of NR on the BG and cropped about 75% of a 1.2 in camera crop just because that would be
a normal crop for composition.
Hope this helps with your decision.
I took this with a 300 f2.8 and a 1.7 tc (normal bird settings for me).
500mm at 1/1000 at f7.1
This looks as good as my D7000 at ISO 400.

DSC_0770.jpg

[Bob Miller]

Thanks for this post...it does help in making a decision!
Do you know what the difference is between the D800 and the D-800E?

[Linwood Ferguson]

Thanks for this post...it does help in making a decision!
Do you know what the difference is between the D800 and the D-800E?

The D800E has a different kind of AA filter, which allows for slightly more resolution.

I have the D800, and I can tell you that 95% (maybe 99%, maybe 99.9%) of your shots will be limited in resolution by other things - technique, focus , lens , haze/smoke/atmosphere blur, motion blur, diffraction, etc. In that remaining tiny percentage of the shots, under very carefully controlled conditions, you might have a bit more resolution of fine detail.

The D800E may possibly introduce some moire in some kinds of shots. I wager if you have to ask about it, your shots are not the ones it will cause problems for. You can read about it at the Nikon site, however. And Moire is fixable in post processing if you shoot raw.

I have the D800. Would I swap now if someone allowed me to for the D800E? Yes. I like toys, it seems more interested, I got the non-E because it was available first.

Would you be able to see the difference in any of the many thousands of images I have taken to date? Maybe, possibly, if pixel peeping, but I would hazard a guess not a single one from a normal view.

My suggestion? The 10% price difference is minor - get the one you can get first, and start having fun (well, if you shoot raw; if shoot JPG ask yourself why but if you still shoot JPG then get the D800, as you will never, ever see the difference in resolution, but might see moire)