Impressions, after two weeks with the D800…….

I’ve now had my D800 for two weeks and have really worked it hard, and thus have come to some “initial” conclusions.  I say initial, because over time one’s feelings about a camera can change, but usually in subtle ways. So after a good workout, what are my thoughts?  Here goes;

1.  The D800 is the most “complete” camera I’ve ever held in my hands, and that takes into account that I’ve worked as a photographer for over 43 years!!!!  Complete?  It has he most gorgeous, rich, smooth gradations I’ve ever seen, period.  Images of any subject with a large range of tones, looks significantly different than with any other camera, made by anyone.  The D800 is so spectacular that it makes you not want to shoot with anything else, because you know you’re going to see the difference.  A good problem to have!

2.  The D800 is the right size.  It is very rugged and feels great in your hands, but it’s not burdensome.  It is, at least for me, the perfect compromise between a sledge hammer and something that doesn’t feel substantial enough. The weight and size are very close to the D700, though it feels a little thicker in your hands, which if you have large hands, feels just right.  It feels like a camera that will stand the test of time.

3.  My fears about the difficulty some may have getting it’s full potential have only partially been realized.  It has tremendous resolution and “does” require more care than anything else you’ve ever shot with.  However, it is very possible to get outstanding results even when hand holding.  My recommendation would be use a tripod whenever possible, when it is not possible crank up the ISO enough to give you a shutter speed that will assure sharpness.  the old rule at National Geographic used to be that your hand held shutter speed should be twice the focal length of the lens.  So if you were shooting with a 105 mm lens the closed shutter speed would be 1/125th of a second, they demanded that you go up one stop to 1/250th of  second.  I would suggest that the same rule apply to the D800. Each of us knows how steady we are, and how much VR helps us, but my “strong” suggestion is that with the D800 you should increase your shutter speed as much as you need to, to regain that sharpness!  The reward will be breathtaking images!  The big surprise has been that cranking up the ISO does not bring on disaster.  For me, and this will always be an individual determination, I think it is very usable with very low noise out to 3200, and can be used at 6400 with the post application of only moderate amounts of  noise reduction.  The big plus is that because of the extreme amount of sharpness, even applying noise reduction and reducing the sharpness, doesn’t really change things much, you have so much sharpness that the reduction of it by even 20% leaves you with an image that is still extremely sharp!

4.  O.K. not all is perfect.  The image files are large.  The computer will slow down in most normal operations, even saving files like jpeg fines. HDR crunching is two to three times as long.  Now, I’ve been using a laptop (3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro with 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 ram), the newer Quad Core machines with 8 gig of faster ram should improve that situation some.  My 27″ iMac at home has 8 gig of ram and I hope to see an improvement there.  But the fact is to get the sweet files this camera produces, expect things to slow down in the pipeline!  I have to admit, I am less irritated than I would otherwise be, because of how wonderful the resulting files look!  If the spinning beach ball drives you crazy, it’s your call!

5.  How does it perform with anything less than the best Nikon glass?  Can’t say, I’ve been on the road for almost three weeks and all I have with me are my prime zooms, 16-35 and 24-120, and with both of them it has been stellar.  I have shot a few images with my beloved 70-300 AFS – VR f 4.5-5.6 and fortunately the images have been razor sharp so at least that once feared, lost lens, is still very good.  When I get home next week I plan to shoot sample images with every lens in my arsenal (29) and will have a better idea then.  Based in my experience so far, I would tend to say that if a lens has been tack sharp for you in the past it will work well with this camera.  But, that is a guess at this point.  More testing to come….

6.  The Intangibles:  I am a gun owner and have found that I always shoot better with guns that I know are extremely accurate.  At first thought that would seem dead obvious, but I suspect that at least some of the great results comes from the point that I am “expecting” great results!  I believe the D800 has the same affect on me, I expect stellar performance and so I usually get it from this camera.  This camera makes you work like you were shooting a 4X5 film camera, you know what it can do, and work hard to get the most out of it!  One you’ve seen the images it produces, you don’t want anything less, and thankfully now you don’t have to settle for less!

7.  Who is it for?  First let me tell you who it is not for.  If you shoot sports and need frame rate in the 8 to 11 fps range it’s not for you.  If you want a camera that is the absolute example of ruggedness and you might be tempted to drive a nail with it, it’s not for you, though it is a pretty tough character.  If you shoot for the web, or newspaper print or conventional magazine stock, it has more resolution than you need.  If you want a bigger, heavier camera, it’s not for you, though you can add a battery pack to make it feel bigger.  It is for you if;  you want all the resolution and gradation possible, if you don’t mind buying some larger memory cards (32-64), and if you don’t mind adding some ram to your computer (I think 8 gigs of ram, is going to be minimum).  It’s for you, if you want to make enormous prints (think feet instead of inches).  It’s for you if you get a real kick out of looking at images at 100% and have your breath taken away!  It’s for you if making the best possible image you can make is all you will accept!   That’s why it is definitely for me!

8.  The price.  Nikon has made two cameras in the recent past that have prices I find hard to believe.  The D7000 at around $1,195. and the D800 at $2,999. are both simply, screaming bargains!

The “last slice” of Humble Pie.   I’m not going to admit to my overly aggressive reservations, ever again!  I now have seen the light, the D800 is everything I hoped it would be, and more, and lot less trouble than I had feared.  The 36.3 mega-pixels have a great deal more impact on my photography than I would have ever guessed!  Save some new revelation, which I’m not expecting, I feel certain, I’ve found the camera that will be my constant companion for years to come, naturally, someday, the next model will come and we will see what we think then……..

the pilgrim

Cropped image from above, gotta love it!