Nikon D800......

twist said:
Im sure there are more about, perhaps advertise as a part ex, plenty of people wanting to upgrade.
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But why would I want to go back to an older camera. I never said I did not like the D800, all I said was that I did not notice any difference with my shots. I think the D800 sits nicer in the hand.When I said I would go back to my D700 I was meaning if I still had it, no way would I "buy" one.
 
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Spent two hours this afternoon trying to set up MA with "DotTune". Cannot get it to work no how. It say's look for the green dot's, what green dot's, I see nothing so looks like investing in Focal.
 
Are you looking at the Canon version?
Nikon has the left/right arrows and focus circle - the Nikon version of DotTune refers to these.
 
Left hand side of the view finder at the bottom there is a focus confirm dot.
On each side a triangle will appear,showing if the focus is behind or in front of the target(cant mind which side is which though) if the dot appears that shows focus is confirmed.

You use these if manual focusing or to check your focus is right.
 
gramps said:
Are you looking at the Canon version?
Nikon has the left/right arrows and focus circle - the Nikon version of DotTune refers to these.
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Def.looking at the Nikon Version, maybe I am looking at the wrong place in the viewfinder. As per pmac posting ??.
 
Do you have back button focus programmed?
 
Does the removal of the anti-aliasing filter in the D800E affect noise performance in comparison to the D800?
 
swiftflo said:
Def.looking at the Nikon Version, maybe I am looking at the wrong place in the viewfinder. As per pmac posting ??.
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It's the focus confirm dot in the bottom left of viewfinder. (The one you always use to see the shot is in focus.)

I wouldn't call it green. More like a dull yellow like all the other readouts.

Item 9 on this callout (for the D90 but that bit's the same).

ZD90VFCALLOUTS.GIF
 
I've been neglecting my D800 lately, I'm going through one of those flat phases. Just can't motivate myself to get out and shoot. And I haven't had any job requests in a while. What to do when you find yourself in a lull? ...
 
pmac said:
I've not noticed any difference with the little I've shot my d800E, sites like DXO say that it's actually improved but I'm skeptical about that.
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Interesting, although they show the opposite between D7100 and D5200 (assuming that they share the same sensor?)
 
JonathanRyan said:
It's the focus confirm dot in the bottom left of viewfinder. (The one you always use to see the shot is in focus.)

I wouldn't call it green. More like a dull yellow like all the other readouts.

Item 9 on this callout (for the D90 but that bit's the same).

ZD90VFCALLOUTS.GIF
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Thanks Johnathan - going to have another go in half an hour, so will see what happens then.
 
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Okay folks, tried again with DotTune. I see which is the green focus dot to concentrate on.
I have tried 2 len's and no matter where I move the fine focusing to, i.e. + or - from 0 the green focusing dot is perfectly static.

Does this mean my lens's are perfectly in tune with the camera ??.
 
Just in case anyojne is interested, I was going to order some AA eneloops to run my D800 off AAs in my MB-D12, when I noticed Maplin had a special offer on in my local store for 2400mAH cells. I took a punt on them.

On their first charge, they've been powering my D800 in live view, and recording video constantly since 10:30 this morning... it's now 4pm and they're still showing as fully charged on the battery display and showing no signs of exhausting. The EN-EL15 would be more than halfway flat by now.

I'm sold. If you have a grip, get some high capacity AAs in there.... and so far as I can tell, the Maplin 2400 ones seem bloody marvellous. I'll let you know how long they go for.



[edit]


Hold off on that.... it appears that the batteries suddenly go flat rather than the gradual decline of the Lithium Ion battery. On balance... the performance between the EN-EL15 and 8x 2400mAh AAs may actually be very similar. They're still going but battery is now on one bar.

[edit]

Despite being on one bar... still going for almost another hour of constant recording. They behave very oddly compared to the EN-EL15.

[edit] finally exhausted after 6 hours constant recording. Will do teh same for the EN-EL15 now.
 
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Youll find that if you stop recording and/or turn off the camera for a few minutes then back on again the battery meter will give a truer reading.

Might be mistaken but dont you have to "condition" the batteries for their first dozen or so charges before they reach their optimal working condition

6 hours constant use is very good though

might bag some myself
 
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Gary Coyle said:
Youll find that if you stop recording and/or turn off the camera for a few minutes then back on again the battery meter will give a truer reading.

Might be mistaken but dont you have to "condition" the batteries for their first dozen or so charges before they reach their optimal working condition

6 hours constant use is very good though

might bag some myself
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You do have to condition them, yes, which is why I was pleasantly surprised by how well they did considering they are Maplin's own brand.. mind you, they'll be made by someone else... I wonder who... I'll see if I can find out..

I'll be surprised if the EN-EL15 can give 6 hours continuous recording... we'll see... I'm testing that now.
 
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Status report :)

en-EL15 on it's last legs after 2.5 hours.

AAs win by a country mile. These Maplin ones are a bargain, but they are not low self discharge versions like Eneloops, so they'll need to be charged before each shoot.

I may grab a set of Eneloops too. Not sure whether to get eth regular 2000mAh that can hold a charge for longer, and last for 1500 cycles, or the new XX versions which claim higher power output lower temp performance, but with shorter discharge times (still one year) and only 500 cycles.

Choices, choices.
 
Will be interesting to see the overall lifetime of the Maplins v Eneloops - I have used the Maplins in a non-photographic scenario and found them to be short-lived.
 
Yeah.. no way of knowing. THey were cheap so I'll give them a shot. No one local sold Eneloops anyway, and I wanted to test the grip with AAs. I'll do some more research on whether the Eneloop XX cells are actually worth it over the normal white ones I think.
 
EN-EL15 gave up the ghost in 2hrs 51 mins.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Not so good then. wasn't the EN-EL15 the very first battery out of Japan to have the new regulations enforced on the manufacturers regarding overheating hence their power was drasticly reduced.
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I hope you're wrong. That's a depressing thought.
 
What do people have under 'My Menu'?

I like to have battery info, flash control, image area, ISO setting
 
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Never even been in there. I use my camera almost exclusively manually just as I would a medium format film camera. ISO setting is fast enough by using the ISO button on the top plate for me. When I use flash, it's studio flash heads used manually via the PC sync socket... even on location. Battery info I may well move into My Menu now I'm experimenting with batteries, but to be honest, it's pretty quick to access it in the normal menu.
 
I normally set press the preview button to access the top of My Menu where I have the battery info as number one on the list
 
swiftflo said:
Okay folks, tried again with DotTune. I see which is the green focus dot to concentrate on.
I have tried 2 len's and no matter where I move the fine focusing to, i.e. + or - from 0 the green focusing dot is perfectly static.

Does this mean my lens's are perfectly in tune with the camera ??.
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Anyone - please.
 
swiftflo said:
Anyone - please.
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Set your camera up on a tripod or handhold if youre pretty good at it, set lens wide open, take a shot of a subject, cereal box side for eg. at MA 0 then at MA -10 MA -20, MA +10 MA +20. Use lightroom to review shots @ 1:1 and do a side by side comparison. You can see for yourself the adjustment difference and pick which is best for that lens.
 
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munkee said:
Did you catch the bit about disabling AF on half pressing the shutter? I missed it on my first read through the instructions.
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I cannot see that instruction anywhere, only that you should not set the Nikon to MF.
 
Soda Farl said:
You have to set it to manual focus or the dot tune method will not work.
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*** Important Update for Nikon Owners ***
After making this video it was discovered that on Nikon bodies the viewfinder focus confirmation range increases dramatically when the body or lens is changed from Autofocus (AF) to Manual Focus (MF). I believe this is becase Nikon wanted to make manual focusing easier and faster by increasing the range of focus that provides a confirmation. However for DotTune this behavior is undesirable because it increases the range of tune values, sometimes beyond the limits of the +20/-20 AF tune scale. Luckily there is an easy workaround, which I strongly advise Nikon owners to use:

For step 3, do not set your NIkon body or lens to MF. Instead, configure your body for "back-button" focusing. Back-button focusing means that the Autofocus will not be engaged by a half-press of the shutter, which will allow you to perform steps 4 and 5 while leaving the body+lens still set to AF. To configure back-button focusing, set the "AF Activation" option to "AF-ON only". For the D4/D800 this is setup option a4, for the D3/D3s/D700 it's option a5, and for D600 it's option f4 and D7000 option f5 (for D600/D7000 the AE-L/AF-L button will serve as the AF-ON button). Once you've configured back-button focusing, use only a half-press of the shutter in steps 4 and 5 - do not use the AF-ON button since that will engage the AF on the lens. After you've completed your DotTune you can return the camera back to normal shutter-button focusing if desired. Again, do not set the body or lens to MF as described in the video; doing so will increase the confirmed focus range and make DotTune potentially inaccurate.
 
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