D800 official release

Soldato
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It is a tempting proposition. Do I wait for a year or more for prices of the 5D3 to come down, or do I just say "sod it" and turn to the darkside.... :D I don't really have the money to do that though.

I'm also quite interested to see what happens with the 1Ds3 and 1DIV prices, they could be a good option for me. Currently though I'd be buying a second hand body with no warranty for more than a brand new D800...
 
Caporegime
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It is crazy how they managed to get such a high Quantum efficiency while pushing the resolution so far. It kind of makes the D4 a little less impressive, even although it managed to grab 2nd spot before the D800 came along.
 
Soldato
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im hearing rumours the whole of UK only got like 1000 units to sell andyou wont get a d800 till around august time.

All due to the fact Nikon underestimated the demand for this camera.

No wonder why its 1k cheaper them the mk3. hard to get, like gold dust LOL.

edit: if the d800 really is a sensational camera, then **** canon, charging 1k more then a inferior product. not thanks. canon ripping people off big time or d800 is bargain of the century. which is it? i could buy a d800 plus a decent wlakaround lens for same price asa 5mk3 and flog my 70-200 and buy nikon equivalent.

Canon taking the P
 
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Caporegime
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Although it is a nice review I notice something that a few people keep saying about the difficulty using the 36MP sensor and other drawbacks such as the need for more accurate AF.

The pixel density of the D800 is higher than previous FF DSLR so care will have to be taken to maximize performance but some perspective is needed here, and this doesn't make it worse than low pixel density cameras.
The pixel density of the D800 is slightly less than the D7000, so it will be about the same level of technique and shutter speed required to get the same results. In other words, it will be a fair amount easier than the Canon 7D for example, and actually a lot easier than any point and shoot camera which most people hand hold carefree.

Even if you did induce more pixel level motion blur from hand holding due to the pixel density, if you printed to the same output size or downsampled it you would get the same or better sharpness than the low pixel density D700.

Same with any focus issue. If there is apparent loss of sharpness due to slight focusing issues then this doesn't make it worse than the D700 using the same lens. It can only be equal or better when printed to the same size or downsampled to the same resolution. You wont be squeezing out the best IQ that the sensor can offer but it wont be making things worse.

same goes for lenses and diffraction limits or lens limitations into the corners. The Higher resolution sensor wont make it any worse than the D700 when normalized, it can only be equal or better.
 

And

And

Associate
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The stall chef picture in the first part is amazing (IMO). I'm looking forward to seeing what folk shoot with these, especially landscapes.

Edit: read part two, good write up and great selection of pics, one very nicely done of the buildings. Confirms pretty much what I thought of the D800.

 
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Caporegime
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im hearing rumours the whole of UK only got like 1000 units to sell andyou wont get a d800 till around august time.

All due to the fact Nikon underestimated the demand for this camera.

No wonder why its 1k cheaper them the mk3. hard to get, like gold dust LOL.

edit: if the d800 really is a sensational camera, then **** canon, charging 1k more then a inferior product. not thanks. canon ripping people off big time or d800 is bargain of the century. which is it? i could buy a d800 plus a decent wlakaround lens for same price asa 5mk3 and flog my 70-200 and buy nikon equivalent.

Canon taking the P

I doubt the limited supply rumours are remotely true. thy seem to emanate from Canon fanboys trying to persuade people not to buy the D800. Nikon knew there would be a huge demand for the D800 and setup production to cope with their forecast high demand. What is official is that the demand and pre-orders has been even high than their high expectations, that is official. The evidence is there to see on websites like Amazon where the D800 is the best selling camera of the last weeks and seems to be far outselling pre-orders for the 5dMKII for example. B&H has made similar statements saying the D800 was their fastest ever selling camera.

This doesn't mean there will be a long wait for the next batch to arrive. Supply rarely meets demand for a new DSLR in the first months. If Supply was bigger than demand it probably means no one is interested in the camera. It is not so easy to get people to stump up $3000 for a camera that has barely been released or reviewed. There will be a steady supply of D800s from April I would guess. Thom Hogan (bythom.com) normally has a good over view of supply.


And to answer your question, the D800 really does appear to be a sensational camera and to be the deal of the century. It is pushing $50,000 medium format digital backs out of the way. The $8000 D3x battled with low end medium format backs, the D800 is battling with high end medium format and comapred to the D3x offers better dynamic range, increased ISO performance, increased color depth, 50% higher resolution, better AF, better metering for a mere $3000.
That is a deal of the century.
 
Caporegime
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Shame the Nikons are a pig to hold, use.
For me anyway. Its the only thing stopping me from ever going with them.

:confused::confused:

Most people prefer the Nikon ergonomics. It has been a strong point of Nikon for a many decades now. Canon 1 series is very good but below that the ergonomics is kind of poor.

There does seem to be a kind of left-handed or right-handed difference between some photogs, and the way focus+zoom direction of Nikon and Canon cameras are reversed. Canon lenses clearly go backwards IMO, others probably think the other way round.
 
Soldato
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I doubt the limited supply rumours are remotely true. thy seem to emanate from Canon fanboys trying to persuade people not to buy the D800. Nikon knew there would be a huge demand for the D800 and setup production to cope with their forecast high demand. What is official is that the demand and pre-orders has been even high than their high expectations, that is official. The evidence is there to see on websites like Amazon where the D800 is the best selling camera of the last weeks and seems to be far outselling pre-orders for the 5dMKII for example. B&H has made similar statements saying the D800 was their fastest ever selling camera.

This doesn't mean there will be a long wait for the next batch to arrive. Supply rarely meets demand for a new DSLR in the first months. If Supply was bigger than demand it probably means no one is interested in the camera. It is not so easy to get people to stump up $3000 for a camera that has barely been released or reviewed. There will be a steady supply of D800s from April I would guess. Thom Hogan (bythom.com) normally has a good over view of supply.


And to answer your question, the D800 really does appear to be a sensational camera and to be the deal of the century. It is pushing $50,000 medium format digital backs out of the way. The $8000 D3x battled with low end medium format backs, the D800 is battling with high end medium format and comapred to the D3x offers better dynamic range, increased ISO performance, increased color depth, 50% higher resolution, better AF, better metering for a mere $3000.
That is a deal of the century.

So the 5d3 migth be a dud? they are widely available now. i think its the price tag. 3k is a lot when teh d800 is nearly 1k cheaper yet seems like its the far better then the 5dmk3. whats happening? Canon screwing us over?
 
Soldato
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So the 5d3 migth be a dud? they are widely available now. i think its the price tag. 3k is a lot when teh d800 is nearly 1k cheaper yet seems like its the far better then the 5dmk3. whats happening? Canon screwing us over?

At it's current pricing, yes. I think it will be like when the 60D was launched with a lacking spec sheet consider it's price point...
 
Caporegime
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I wouldn't say the 5DMKIII is a dud, just seem that it is what the 5dMKII should have been, or a 5DMK2.5 The Canon 5DMKIII does seem overpriced compared to its competition but I don't know if that is screwing you over, just less favorable pricing. I'm sure Canon will revise their pricing if the it doesn't sell as well as they hoped. Whether the Canon is over priced or the Nikon under-priced is all kind of relative. For sure Nikon could charge a chunk more for the D800 without loose many sales but it is an attractive price point. There could be several reason why the D800 is relatively cheap. It may be an aggressive pricing policy to entice Canon users or new purchasers to move to the Nikon system. It may be that they want more Nikon people to upgrade to full frame nikon cameras where there is a higher profit margin in lenses.


The D700 was better than the 5DMKII in almost every way, better AF, better metering, better weather sealed body, better ergonomics, better high ISO performance, faster etc. Did people complain that the 5DMKII was a dud, not really, or at least not to the extent that you would expect. The D800 just improves on everything again and sports a great sensor.

Canon seem to be struggling to push there sensor very far in recent years compared to Sony/Nikon. Nothing Canon has released has properly competed with the Nikon D3/D3s for high ISO performance, nothing has compared well to the Nikon D3X for resolution+high ISO+ Dynamic range + color depth, No canon crops sensor competes with the Nikon tweaked Sony sensor in the D7000. When the D3 was released some Canon pro photographers switched to Nikon to get better high ISO performance. With the D3x release some Canon landscape users switched to Nikon, they were already using the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 with an adapter because Canon doesn't have a decent wide angle option. have a look at the DXOMark top ranked cameras, Canon fall someway behind Nikon.

With the D800 there are bound to be many Canon photographers switching system. I've sen several Canon landscape shooters that have already pre-ordered a D800. They were already using the Nikon 14-24 so were good to go. But for the most part it is not a big deal. The biggest weakness of the 5DMKII was the metering and AF, both should be massively improved. The sensor was good before, it should be a little better now, so it is perfectly sufficient. Just not as good as the D800.


But it is all cycles really. Before the Nikon D3+D300 release Nikon sensor technology was some way behind Canon. The Nikon D2h was clearly worse than Canon's offering.
Who knows what Canon release in the next generation of bodies. Nothing inherently stops them using a Sony sensor.


Bottom line the photographer will be more important than the camera in the hands.
 
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Soldato
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I doubt the limited supply rumours are remotely true. thy seem to emanate from Canon fanboys trying to persuade people not to buy the D800. Nikon knew there would be a huge demand for the D800 and setup production to cope with their forecast high demand. What is official is that the demand and pre-orders has been even high than their high expectations, that is official. The evidence is there to see on websites like Amazon where the D800 is the best selling camera of the last weeks and seems to be far outselling pre-orders for the 5dMKII for example. B&H has made similar statements saying the D800 was their fastest ever selling camera.

This doesn't mean there will be a long wait for the next batch to arrive. Supply rarely meets demand for a new DSLR in the first months. If Supply was bigger than demand it probably means no one is interested in the camera. It is not so easy to get people to stump up $3000 for a camera that has barely been released or reviewed. There will be a steady supply of D800s from April I would guess. Thom Hogan (bythom.com) normally has a good over view of supply.


And to answer your question, the D800 really does appear to be a sensational camera and to be the deal of the century. It is pushing $50,000 medium format digital backs out of the way. The $8000 D3x battled with low end medium format backs, the D800 is battling with high end medium format and comapred to the D3x offers better dynamic range, increased ISO performance, increased color depth, 50% higher resolution, better AF, better metering for a mere $3000.
That is a deal of the century.

How a "fanboy" can persuade someone not to buy a camera I'll never know. Stocks are short, that is a fact. For both the D800 and 5DIII early adopter demand is high. The D800 is great and will sell well. Overall it will still most likely be outsold by the 5D3, Canon do what they do well and have the glass to back it up. No matter what Nikon glass you bring to the table, it can always be used on a Canon. The same can't be said the other way.

Whilst the resolution of the D800 is great, it doesn't have the MF look. That's something from the size of the sensor and lens design.

I'm "that" close to buying a D800 or D700 it isn't true, but the second hand Nikon market is so much smaller and to be honest I'm not a fan of their online community from what I've seen lately :(
 
Soldato
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:confused::confused:

Most people prefer the Nikon ergonomics. It has been a strong point of Nikon for a many decades now. Canon 1 series is very good but below that the ergonomics is kind of poor.

There does seem to be a kind of left-handed or right-handed difference between some photogs, and the way focus+zoom direction of Nikon and Canon cameras are reversed. Canon lenses clearly go backwards IMO, others probably think the other way round.

Can you actually back that up at all? The 7D is an awesome camera to handle, the rebel series do suffer from the lack of a back wheel etc though. The D700 felt so odd when I used it lately, but I put that down to Canon familiarisation. I use a 7 year old Canon body with a dodgy two button control methodology so I hope I could use pretty much any camera :D I use lenses on the Canon that zoom\focus different ways and it's not an issue at all. Nikon users are saying that the D800 is giving them cramp when using, which is something they haven't experienced before, that is odd.
 
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