Excitement abounds……………..

This last week and early this week, Nikon D4 and D800 cameras have started to be delivered, and the reviews are rolling in!  I got my production model of the D800 today, and tomorrow, the test begins.  I have really been looking forward to this camera that has raised so many questions!  How much of the 36 mega-pixel resolution will you really see?  How good will images look at High ISO?  How big will the files be?  Well we will know all that and a lot more very soon!  I intend to shoot the camera this week hard and really put it through it’s paces. Already DXO has rated the sensor the highest of any it has ever tested, a score of 95, even better than medium format sensors that are in cameras costing upwards of tens of thousands of dollars!!!!

What can I tell you right now?  The camera is solid, and feels very tough, the weight is not too heavy, but it is really well built, and is very much, every bit the tough feeling camera of the D700!  It feels a little thicker and feels great in the hands.  The viewfinder is big and very bright.  How big are the files?  First with a 32 gig card, you can shoot 957 jpeg Fine images, or 403 in RAW.  A RAW file opened in Capture NX2 came out to 43 megabytes, a jpeg Fine in the same software was 17.9, not as big and bad as I had feared!  I tried to shoot a few hand held, available light images with the camera in my hotel room at ISO 1600 and though this is far from a scientific test, they were razor sharp and no matter how much I enlarged them it only showed more detail, and noise was just, almost, non existent!!!!!  Of course the real test will be shots of highly detailed airplanes in great light, locked to solid tripod, and fired with a cable release!!  Can’t wait, and you will see the results later tomorrow!

One slight disappointment, I thought the camera could be fired by the little ML-L3 infrared remote, sadly I misread some literature before receiving the camera, it will work with the ML-3 Modulite, which I have, but not the little remote for the D90/D7000!  Only a small let down, but I do love those little remotes……

Tomorrow months of questions will start to be answered, I have to say, I’m very excited, I can see why so many have been ordered a D800, tomorrow and the rest of this week, I will find out, if I will join them!  Tune in!

Tonight’s Prayer:  Father, thank you for letting me do what I do for living.  I know that few people get to do what they love to do for their job,  don’t ever think that it is lost on my, what a blessing You have given me!  Amen.

the pilgrim