So I took delivery of a shiny new D800 a few days ago, and was keen to try it out in anger, there’s only so much photo’s of your dining room table can tell you. I have always been a canon user, right from my first 40D, through the 50D, 1DSmk2,5dmk2 , and then a switch to Fuji. So I thought I would share my thoughts on this , my first Nikon!
First off, it’s a wonderful camera to hold, very soild and well built, much like the 5dmk3 in terms of size and weight. The frustrating thing for a canonista is that everything seems backwards to what you know, even the way the lens is attached to the body! However, if you know your photography it takes very little time to be up and running, and a few days in, I can honestly say I haven’t tried to force the lens on the wrong way more than twice in a day.
So what does the D800 do well? The autofocus is simply outstanding. There are the usual plethora of modes, but it is a less complex system than the 5dmk3, and compared to the mk2, it is in a different league. In fact at the start I found it almost too quick, and I kept firing off shots before I had the composition ready.
What else works well? Pretty much everything. The menu system is intuitive and easy to use for anyone who has owned a high end DSLR before. The only thing I don’t like are the file sizes, but, there is a way around this issue. Let me explain! I shoot website content for a US glamour site, and I do not want 800 75mb files to upload on Filezilla, I don’t even wan’t 800 20mb files. You can shoot in DX mode, but to be honest I didn’t buy a full frame camera to only use half the sensor, and I find the DX outline irritating and hard to compose with anyway. However, if you shoot in normal RAW, and then import the files into lightroom, you can convert them to a lossy DNG file which is 15mb in size, and doesn’t take that long. This could be a godsend to event shooters too. At some point I’ll probably invest in a D610 body and shoot the website content on that, but for now, this is a great solution.
Enough waffle, time for a picture!
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Before I go into how I shot this, a word or to about the gear I use. The lens is the Nikon 50mm 1.8D , and I have used an SB700 flash, with diffuser attached, fired into a brolly mounted on a light-stand. The Nikon flash system is awesome, and one of the reasons I came over from Canon, although I know Canon are catching up with their latest units. However the SB700 is reasonably priced and worked flawlessly for this shoot, it was actually the only flash unit I used, despite having a case full of studio strobes. For a shoot like this with available natural light, and fairly small rooms to shoot in, you want flash you dial right down to a low setting.
So this was a simple shot in manual mode, I played around until I was happy with the highlight clipping on the window, adjusting the flash using the Nikon pop up flash in commander mode. I have mapped this part of the menu to the function button, it has already seen a lot of use!!!!
The next shot was similar.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
For this, I used natural window light, but placed the SB700 behind the curtains, and dialled it down until I got the effect I wanted. Another thing I love about the D800 is the dynamic range you get, the detail is exquisite.
It is appropriate to mention that for all these shots I used a tripod, and for this one the lens was a Sigma 70-200mm, so a tripod was essential. I also used the mirror up mode, which lifts the mirror out of the way with the first press of the shutter and then fires the shutter on the next press. This will reduce image blur due to vibration apparently. To be honest, I don’t know if this works or not, but with the D800 I shoot as if I am using a medium format camera, and every shot must count. To get the most of out of a sensor this size I think it is essential to slow down and take each shot with care, something I had read about in reviews before I bought the camera, but only really understood after I looked at my first slightly blurry images of the dining room table!
Shooting in mirror up mode, with a tripod, helps because it forces you to slow down. Waffling again, so here’s another piccy.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
I hope you can see the detail the camera has captured even in this low res version of the image. It makes editing a joy! I should add , that last statement only applies if you have a beefy computer.
There were other shots, but sadly they were a little on the glamour side and not suitable for the website.
What are my thoughts on the D800 after the all important first shoot?
It’s an amazing camera, but not suitable for every job. I think perhaps a lower resolution body for those events, and certainly for any website content shoots, would be a sensible choice. However, for pure image quality, you just can’t beat it, so long as you take care with your technique. This is not a forgiving camera! And certainly not a camera for newcomers to the SLR world. I am blown away by the image quality, and I look forward to seeing just what I can get out of this beast of a camera in future shoots. Do I miss Canon? Nah.