D90 upgrade to D800

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jamiescottsmith

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Jamie Scott_Smith
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Looking for some advice here!

Decided to upgrade to the D800 after wanting to look more at high quality videography (the D90 is great, but LOVE the added quality and mic slots etc on the D800)

My main money is made through videography and performers headshots, and occasionally theatre stills. I have been asked to photograph a wedding later on in the year too, and this is an area I want to go into...

I have decided a D600 would be not worth it really, and I may as well invest in a better camera if I am going to spend savings anyway.

I would plan to sell my D90 and buy a cheaper camera (Maybe an old D70s or D40) as an absolute emergency back up to have in my bag.

I have two Full Frame lenses, which work on the D800 (Nikon 50mm 1.8D and Nikon 70-300mm 5-5.6G) which I would use for now...

In the camera shop it was around just under £2,000 for 2 Yr Warranty and discount voucher for other Nikon stuff in the future... and the fact the shop is great, and have been great to deal with in the past...

Online, I saw a body for just over £1,500 (Brand New Apparently) but this sounds too good to be true? Online is around £1,900-2,000 too...

Any advice?
 
Not sure that you will get the best out of a D800 with the 70-300.
 
If its for video the a99 might be a better choice.
 
gramps said:
Not sure that you will get the best out of a D800 with the 70-300.
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Please educate me, I understand the lens wasn't very expensive anyway so its never going to be amazing :) Will the 50mm perform well?
 
rjbell said:
If its for video the a99 might be a better choice.
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I like the idea of staying with Nikon, but might change for VERY good reason?

The video on the D800 is stunning, no? I mean its not bad on the D90! But I just want the options and the broadcast-like quality (and audio input!)
 
I think the a99 is more geared up for video.
 
jamiescottsmith said:
Please educate me, I understand the lens wasn't very expensive anyway so its never going to be amazing :) Will the 50mm perform well?
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Reviews indicate that the D800 is best suited to Nikons better quality lenses.
 
sorry but you are upgrading a camera to be used as a camcorder? why not just get a camcorder?
 
ricky1980 said:
sorry but you are upgrading a camera to be used as a camcorder? why not just get a camcorder?
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Because he actually said (my emphasis):

jamiescottsmith said:
My main money is made through videography and performers headshots, and occasionally theatre stills. I have been asked to photograph a wedding later on in the year too, and this is an area I want to go into...
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Anyway, I've no doubt that a D800 would be a good choice, the cheaper ones you see are likely to be grey imports from the far east. There's plenty of dicussion on the legality / ethics of those elsewhere, it's really up to you.
One thing I would say is that Canon 5d Mk2 and 3's seem to be popular for video, not sure how they compare though?
 
If video is your main reason for upgrading, I'd consider the Canon 5D MkIII. MUCH better in low light than the Nikon at higher ISO. Only video mind you... the D800 is amazing as a still camera, but if video was my main use for it, I'd consider the 5D MKIII very carefully.

BTW... I wasn't aware there was a Nikkor 70-300 f5-5.6. Do you mean the 70-300 f4.5-5.6 VR?

If so.. don't write it off for the D800. Used carefully it's a very surprising lens that. I tested the D800 with it when I was considering the D800 myself.

click for full res.


If it's the non VR version, that's not really in the same league, and the older non G version is also not something I'd be putting on a D800.
 
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I don't know why some say the new Nikons are not good for video? The D800 is excellent, at least the times I tried it out I was impressed. Of course, comparing to my old D90 video and my iphone, it wasn't hard beat those really. Stick a 24-70 on there, manual focus, keep it wide and I found it crisp and clear at least.
 
Cagey75 said:
I don't know why some say the new Nikons are not good for video? The D800 is excellent,
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It is excellent, yes. But the 5D MkIII is better.. demonstrably so with higher ISOs.



ricky1980 said:
:wave: why not just get a camcorder :thinking:
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Because for this kind of money you can't get anything with a large sensor to offer the kid of shallow depth of field you get with a DSLR. This is the main reason DSLRs are so popular with film makers on a budget,
 
Even full time pro videographers are now using Dslrs more and more. I was watching a UFC press conference last night, and copped 2 guys up on the stage recording with dslr + Rode mics. Looked to me like one was Canon [most likely the 5DIII] and one looked like a D800.

Didn't find the exact one I was watching but didn't take long to find a shot of one guy using a dslr to film on stage at a weigh in:



The video was 360p max and choppy so couldn't really blow it up bigger, but that looks like a D800 to me?
 
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If that's the trend for videography then I suupose you can't argue with that.
 
Managed to grab a better still, it's a D4 [with 14-24?] I think? But same video really innit?



In situations like this, the lighting is already great I guess, no need for high ISO
 
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The D4 is much better than the D800 with video at high ISO. High ISO vid is the D800's Achilles heel.
 
Yeah I guess the D4 would have to be better. But, D800 is good to 6400 for vid I'd say. [edit, Durr, I just see you said exactly that already :D ]
 
I'm no saying the D800 is rubbish... but the OP mainly shoots video... so I'd be thinking VERY carefully about the 5D MkIII if I were him.
 
Yeah, probably best. I have heard it said before that Canon were still ahead on video, I just don't think as much now as they were with the 5D MKII Vs anything Nikon had before now.
 
True, but when the 5D MkII came out, Nikon had practically nothing worth buying for video users until the D7000 came out.

The 5D MkIII just outclasses every other DSLR for video, as much as it pains me to say so.

I shoot mainly stills though... and the D800 kicks the 5D MkIII's ass in that dept. :)
 
Same here, 99.99% still, the odd clip of the kids acting the monkey isn't worth any better than what I have for vid :D
 
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