What Have I Done?

Bristolian

Bristolian

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Steve
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Today I was offered a used D800 with a very low shutter count at a price that I couldn't say no to ... will I regret this in time?

I have two concerns; are my handling skills and/or my lenses good enough? For sure I am going to have to take more care about how I hold the camera and my shutter activartion as it won't take much to get blurry images just from hurrying too much. I think this accounts for at least 50% of my blurred images but I no longer stress over getting tack sharp results ... it's the memory/ocassion/emotion I want to capture.

My lens collection is pretty slim these days. The camera bag normally contains the AF-S 24-120mm f/4 G ED VR and the AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G ED VR. I also have a 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 D (plastic fantastic) which is probably the sharpest of the three but is lacking at both ends of the range compared to the 24-120 so is normally to be found on the shelf in my home office.

What does this mean for the virtually new D610? Well, the jury is still out on that one until I have a chance to try the D800 out this weekend. I can afford to keep it but can't really justify doing that as this is only a hobby these days.
 
The D800 is a great camera,
There was a lot of hype at launch about file sizes and need for a vice-like hold but I was able to manage okay and so was my little laptop.
Warning though, after 36MP you won't want to go back ... my D850 is at Nikon for repair and my temporary D300s is leaving me wanting more. :)
 
With higher mp counts we'll see issues that we perhaps haven't seen before with lower res cameras because the lower res cameras couldn't show them. With the high res gear I suppose looking at pictures at the intended output size is the real test rather than looking at them at 100% on screen which in reality would be as a massive output size viewed very closely.

I don't mean to criticise people who pixel peep as it's something we all do but I do think it's worthwhile trying to step back and look at the picture as we will the final output. Relatively small amounts of camera shake will be more of an issue if we truly need that 3m wide picture to be perfect at 100% though :D
 
Thanks for the input and comments guys, it has alayed some of my fears.

The camera is due for delivery tomorrow so the acid test will be to see what I can get over the weekend. I'm not expecting great results straight out of the box but I will want to see signs that my technique isn't so bad I won't ever be able to overcome it. Practice, practice and more practice will be required :)
 
If you don't mind the size and weight then the slight trade off of dynamic range against pixels may be worthwhile. My feeling as a non-owner is that the D800 needed to lose its AA filter to make the most of resolution.
 
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So, the camera turned up as scheduled today and as I got home from work a little early I thought I'd see what all the fuss is about. Our dog, Molly, was taking the sun in the back garden so I threw the 24-120 f/4 on and shot a few frames ... not bad for the first time with so many pixels.

DSC_6655

I'm impressed with the detail that comes through. I think I'm going to like this camera :)

More testing and practicing at the weekend.
 
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