Nikon D800 next for me..any downsides from owners?

simonkit said:
After much deliberating I've decided that when I make the move to Full Frame the Nikon D800 is going to be it, I was tempted by the D600 too but the dust/oil or whatever issue it is bothers me a little, after been out with an owner of one recently the Live view focusing seemed problematic too. Canon 6D, well not enough focus points and too limited Dynamic range, DR also put me off the 5D MK 3 too.

Anyway would appreciate some feedback from owners of the D800 regarding any downsides, I'm primarily using it for landscapes

Thanks

Simon
Click to expand...

I had the same dilemma , D600 or D800. I went for the D800 for one main reason and that was using a remote wireless control. Check it out the D600 is useless in this dept the D800 can take any 3rd party wirelss remote and i found a superb one. its the phottix plato wireless remote shutter release No WXD-188. I havn't been able to get far enough away for it not to work and it takes AAA batteries. Also can be used as wired or wireless , what a bonus

Ok its around the £40 mark but well worth it in my opinion no little aerials to pull up to get broken either. it actually works around corners of buildings, none of this line of sight problem
Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE1Ov5z_19Y

The D600 sticks with its own infrared unit fired from the front of the camera, great if you want to take photos of yourself
 
Last edited:
I was faced with the same choice and went with the D800. Flash sync/af points and solidity in the hand (subjective) sold it for me. The MP count was just a bonus. Having to upgrade my lenses but worth it!!

Love it more than my D90 (didn't think that would be possible!)

S
 
rowland said:
grip is not a problem, Nikon send you vouchers for their grip at about 1/2 price, or there are 3rd party copies.

I have only had my d800e for 3 months, still learning how to get the best out of it, but very happy with it, although get the settings wrong and you can take some rubbish photos !
Click to expand...

Got my D800 from MPB. Sadly they do not provide these vouchers
 
Last edited:
Got mine in november last year I think, and got the vouchers.. and used the 1/2 price grip one..
never looked back, didnt like the D600, as it just didnt feel right in the hand, so got the D800.
with my 50mm1.4 or 85mm1.8 I LOVE it.. not had much use with the 80-400 yet, but I am in no rush.
 
simonkit said:
After much deliberating I've decided that when I make the move to Full Frame the Nikon D800 is going to be it, I was tempted by the D600 too but the dust/oil or whatever issue it is bothers me a little, after been out with an owner of one recently the Live view focusing seemed problematic too. Canon 6D, well not enough focus points and too limited Dynamic range, DR also put me off the 5D MK 3 too.

Anyway would appreciate some feedback from owners of the D800 regarding any downsides, I'm primarily using it for landscapes

Thanks

Simon
Click to expand...

I don't know if this will help but its a good read from an experienced landscape photographer

http://www.fredmiranda.com/5DIII-D800/
 
Last edited:
I got mine in Sep '12, and never got any such vouchers either.
 
Nikon Plus scheme has been running for a while, before the D800 was announced. Park Cameras is part of the scheme and they will offer the voucher and tell customer about them when they make a purchase.
 
Ozei said:
Did it come from a NikonPlus dealer?
Click to expand...

I don't think so actually, they were running that money back on lenses promo though at the time. I just never went through the process.
 
architectfadi said:
Nikon Plus scheme has been running for a while, before the D800 was announced. Park Cameras is part of the scheme and they will offer the voucher and tell customer about them when they make a purchase.
Click to expand...

I just had a look at Park Cameras and can't see any signs of a voucher deal on the MB-D12.

If I add a D800 and MB-D12 to the basket the total comes to £2,274 - if they were offering a voucher on the MB-D12 it should be nearer £2,132. **

(** Price based on the 165 Euro voucher here - http://www.connscameras.ie/NikonPlus-274807cm2.html#D800e)
 
Just been very kindly offered use of a D800, perhaps one night next week, I'm pretty sure I'll quickly make up my mind...I'll be keeping my Pentax K5 for the high iso/travel stuff though, the D800 is going to be a pure landscape camera which will hopefully mean I won't get LBA, one or two should cover most of my needs, I think;)

Simon
 
Ozei said:
I just had a look at Park Cameras and can't see any signs of a voucher deal on the MB-D12.

If I add a D800 and MB-D12 to the basket the total comes to £2,274 - if they were offering a voucher on the MB-D12 it should be nearer £2,132. **

(** Price based on the 165 Euro voucher here - http://www.connscameras.ie/NikonPlus-274807cm2.html#D800e)
Click to expand...

You only get the vouchers once you purchase the camera and the store registers it. They come through a few days later via email.

So you have to make a second separate purchase for the additional items (grip, lenses, flash etc) once you have the vouchers. It might be a little clunky but it is designed to both reward the purchases loyalty to the Nikon pro-centre dealers and encourage people to return visit to the stores rather than bargain hunt each item around the internet.

Amazon, Jessops etc don't have access to the voucher scheme....
 
simonkit said:
How much extra strain have the large files put on peoples PC's
Click to expand...
Hardly noticeable on my machine (built in 2009, based on an i7-920, disk for photos is a Samsung 840 SSD). The only time I notice the difference between the D600 a bit is when going from the image size displayed by default to full size. There, the waiting time is a bit longer than before.

In all other aspects, I don't notice a difference, the system feels fast and responsive.
 
AchimT said:
Hardly noticeable on my machine (built in 2009, based on an i7-920, disk for photos is a Samsung 840 SSD). The only time I notice the difference between the D600 a bit is when going from the image size displayed by default to full size. There, the waiting time is a bit longer than before.

In all other aspects, I don't notice a difference, the system feels fast and responsive.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm running an i3 so a couple of gens behind yours, hard disc will definitely need an upgrade, I'm guessing the motherboard might too though
 
I don't think they're different gens, just different levels. I had an i3 laptop, i found it didn't handle the huge raw files brilliantly. It will work them, but work being the key word. Throw a good batch of RAW files at it and it'll struggle a bit. I really think i5 at least. As its proper quad core tech. The i3 is more a glorified dual core. Fine for most things, but D800 RAWS, not so much.
 
Cagey75 said:
I don't think they're different gens, just different levels. I had an i3 laptop, i found it didn't handle the huge raw files brilliantly. It will work them, but work being the key word. Throw a good batch of RAW files at it and it'll struggle a bit. I really think i5 at least. As its proper quad core tech. The i3 is more a glorified dual core. Fine for most things, but D800 RAWS, not so much.
Click to expand...

Think I'll see how it goes put price up a motherboard/chip upgrade in the meantime, I don't really do batch processing so one at a time might cope a little better

Thanks

Simon
 
Got my D800 about 3 months ago and just about getting to grips with it. I find that it is not a very forgiving camera as some one else has said "get the settings wrong and you have had it".
As for computers I have the latest iMac i7 with 32gb ram so no problems from there.
 
simonkit said:
Think I'll see how it goes put price up a motherboard/chip upgrade in the meantime, I don't really do batch processing so one at a time might cope a little better

Thanks

Simon
Click to expand...


If only processing a handful of RAWs at a time, it'll be fine. I used to run Cs5 & LR4 simultaneously on the i3 [which my partner now uses with no hassles btw] - it just began to show it's weaknesses when I was processing batches for jobs. When you have 300+ large sized RAW files and you want to get through them as smoothly as possible - i3 will struggle to keep up with you. I just couldn't stand the waiting for files to load, just the preview even, it was like watching kettles boil over and over!

My missus was after a new lappy so I gave her the i3, still less than a year old I think, and treated myself to a monster 17" i7 with all the trimmings, Nvidia card, loads of space, a good bit of RAM, up-gradable, turbo boost tech that kicks in for hungrier programs ... I have it about 8 months now and never had one problem. I've paid more money for a lens, that's how I looked at it. And this has helped just as much with my photography.
 
Simon, my i7-920 is around 5 years old. As Keith says, your i3 is not necessarily much slower. I don't have time to look up the specs, but I guess your i3 is slower in certain applications, but not in all. My CPU speed is e.g. 2.67 GHz. If your's is similar, it is not necessarily much slower.

Personally, I think a fast SSD (a non-compressing one is probably best as the write speeds of those that use compression only stay high with uncompressed source material. When you store jpgs to disk for example, they cannot compress that much anymore, and their write speeds may suffer, as compared to for example a Samsung 840.

If you want a new CPU, a new mobo is also not absolutely necessary, as long as for your socket other CPUs are available, and your mobo's manufacturer supports them in the mobo's firmware.

Swiftflo, you may want to have a look into the Post Processing forum here on TP. There's a thread started by Jonathan Ryan, who seems to have the same Mac you have and is not happy with his system's speed in Lightroom. Maybe by looking at your systems, you could help him find out why his is slower than your's.
 
Thanks guys...I'm running an i3-2120 @3.3ghz.16Gb ram and a ATI Radeon HD5400 series graphics card, I'll check the motherboard spec to see if it will just take a higher spec processor, I think it probably will so might just go with new processor and SSD as suggested

Still trying to decide on lenses too, only going to use it as a landscape camera, I like the idea of the 24-70 but it's a bit pricey, the older 28-70 sounds like a possible too as reviews I've found are positive, that and the new 18-35 might work nicely. I don't really need anything wider as on my K5 I find I only rarely use the 12-24 as wider than 14/15mm

Simon
 
Heh, I think you've mentioned that K5 in every post now ;) You obviously love it. The D800 is going to blow it away though. All-round.
 
Cagey75 said:
Heh, I think you've mentioned that K5 in every post now ;) You obviously love it. The D800 is going to blow it away though. All-round.
Click to expand...

Yes, to be honest it's a great camera, Pentax certainly do know a thing or two about ergonomics and usability, not come across another make to match it...yet;)

I'll be keeping the K5 anyway to use as my travel camera, the D800 will purely be for my landscape stuff, although that might change once I get to use it

Simon
 
No harm in that whatsoever. I felt like that about the D90. Often think i should have held onto it as a back up.

On the blank-LCD issue, happened yet again tonight. It's really irritating, as just after the last update to firmware all seemed well and good. It's slowly crept back in. It's somehow connected to off-cam flash, and or the sandisk cards.

I have one non-sandisk card, a 16GB samsung, [only just remembered it now tbh, was about to post that all I have are sandisk cards] I must give that a go in the D800 tomorrow, using the same set up, see if there's any difference.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top