# Nikon D800 full frame 36MP dSLR announced



## editor (Feb 7, 2012)

I'll take two if anyone's offering. 













Full specs and press release:
http://www.wirefresh.com/nikon-d800-and-d800e-36mp-full-frame-dslrs-officially-announced-and-priced/


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 7, 2012)

Hmm I wonder if that means that a few older full-frame Nikons will be turning up in the second-hand market. I would like to have a play with full-frame although I would find it heavy and bulky having been using an LX3 for the last few years.

Come to think of it I even find my Olympus E420 with pancake lens, bulky by comparison.


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## RoyReed (Feb 7, 2012)

Yes please! And a new set of lenses to cover the full-frame sensor.


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## Ranbay (Feb 7, 2012)

FFS now i need this one yeah?


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## editor (Feb 7, 2012)

Hocus Eye. said:


> Hmm I wonder if that means that a few older full-frame Nikons will be turning up in the second-hand market. I would like to have a play with full-frame although I would find it heavy and bulky having been using an LX3 for the last few years.
> 
> Come to think of it I even find my Olympus E420 with pancake lens, bulky by comparison.


I'm all a-tizzy with deciding what camera to get. I've sold a few pics recently (and sold on my D5100), so I've got cash to buy a decent camera but I'm not sure what to get. 

The D300 is still performing well, as is my LX5, but I can't decide whether to flog off my Nikon and go for the D800, or get one of the new rangefinder/Micro 4/3rds cameras. Or the new Olympus....


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 7, 2012)

Lovely specs, but neck-ache territory if you're not sensible enough to bag it, rather than having it on a strap. 900g without a lens attached is half as heavy again as some of the other DSLRs on the market.


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## sim667 (Feb 7, 2012)

£2400

ouchee.


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 7, 2012)

sim667 said:


> £2400
> 
> ouchee.


To be fair it is aimed at professional photographers who simply have to have the best kit they can get their hands on for competitive business reasons. They won't be paying for it themselves, it gets charged to their clients who are paying for the quality images the camera and photographer can produce. Nikon will have done their market research into what photographers need and will be prepared to pay for.

Now it is down to Canon to come up with their answer.

@sim667 You know this of course but maybe some people reading this don't.


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## sim667 (Feb 7, 2012)

Hocus Eye. said:


> To be fair it is aimed at professional photographers who simply have to have the best kit they can get their hands on for competitive business reasons. They won't be paying for it themselves, it gets charged to their clients who are paying for the quality images the camera and photographer can produce.


 
I know...... but its still oucheee...

Will they be discontinuing the d3x? Thats in the same price bracket isn't it?


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 7, 2012)

Ah you responded while I was editing.


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 7, 2012)

sim667 said:


> I know...... but its still oucheee...
> 
> Will they be discontinuing the d3x? Thats in the same price bracket isn't it?


Most likely, discontinuing and discounting no doubt to clear the stock once they have allowed their dealers time to clear their shelves first.


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## editor (Feb 7, 2012)

Mind you, the D7000 is a hell of a camera for a lot less. I think I'm over heavy cameras now.


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## weltweit (Feb 7, 2012)

I like FF .. But I can't really see myself needing 36mpx for any reason.


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## Bernie Gunther (Feb 8, 2012)

How big do you have to print before you'd notice the benefit of the sensor, compared to say a D700 I wonder?


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## weltweit (Feb 8, 2012)

weltweit said:


> I like FF .. But I can't really see myself needing 36mpx for any reason.


 


Bernie Gunther said:


> How big do you have to print before you'd notice the benefit of the sensor, compared to say a D700 I wonder?


 
36mpx is a 7360 x 4912 px image. That seems massive to me. My current 6mpx output gives me files of about 3000x2000 which are good for printing at 15x10 inches, so this 7360 x 4912 will probably be good for at least double that i.e. more than 30x20inches without interpolating up.


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## weltweit (Feb 8, 2012)

One of its focus modes is "face detection"! I have seen something like this on the D3, you can focus in instantly on eyes to check focus on a taken pic. Quite cool but a bit erie.


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## Cid (Feb 9, 2012)

weltweit said:


> 36mpx is a 7360 x 4912 px image. That seems massive to me. My current 6mpx output gives me files of about 3000x2000 which are good for printing at 15x10 inches, so this 7360 x 4912 will probably be good for at least double that i.e. more than 30x20inches without interpolating up.


 
I've come close to resolution limits of the D700 cropping pictures for my portfolio, so presumably people who are actually professionals (well, crop-heavy ones) will easily eat up the extra resolution, especially if they're doing posters or large prints etc. Obviously you need good glass for it to hold up well, but I doubt they'd have problems with that. It puts it into the bracket that a pro would often turn to a MF camera for, which is er... significant. The D700 (not mine, so only used it a little) is certainly weightier than my old D70, but it's not exactly massive... It's not the kind of thing you'd just carry around casually, but certainly portable.

It looks like a phenomenal piece of kit tbh, I'd love one.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 9, 2012)

Hocus Eye. said:


> Now it is down to Canon to come up with their answer


Canon really need to update their flash system, the Nikon one is streets ahead.


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## weltweit (Feb 9, 2012)

Cid said:


> .. It looks like a phenomenal piece of kit tbh, I'd love one.


 
I am not sure I would want one, I would like FF but image files sizes of that order are not attractive to me.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 9, 2012)

I wish Nikon would release a full frame SLR at a sensible (up to a grand) price. I've got various old ultra-wide angle lenses I want to use, a 1.5 focal length factor kinda makes them a bit pointless.


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## paolo (Feb 9, 2012)

weltweit said:


> 36mpx is a 7360 x 4912 px image. That seems massive to me. My current 6mpx output gives me files of about 3000x2000 which are good for printing at 15x10 inches, so this 7360 x 4912 will probably be good for at least double that i.e. more than 30x20inches without interpolating up.


 
I've done crisp-as-fuck posters off 8mp.

This is shit-giddying resolution. I guess the question is... why? (cropping) and erm, can you?

You'll need top dollar glass to get this to sing. But hey... gonna be interesting to see what happens with the Canon 5d Mk III. Canon had the lead for a few years but now it looks like Nikon have done the leapfrog. (I say that as a Canon owner)


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I wish Nikon would release a full frame SLR at a sensible (up to a grand) price. I've got various old ultra-wide angle lenses I want to use, a 1.5 focal length factor kinda makes them a bit pointless.


It might be cheaper to buy some film to put through your old SLR and to pay to have the results scanned - assuming you still have the camera.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 9, 2012)

Hocus Eye. said:


> It might be cheaper to buy some film to put through your old SLR and to pay to have the results scanned - assuming you still have the camera.


I've still got an F100 body but film is just such a pain nowadays. 

It's a shame because the F100 was a truly lovely bit of kit.


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## paolo (Feb 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I've still got an F100 body but film is just such a pain nowadays.
> 
> It's a shame because the F100 was a truly lovely bit of kit.


 

I'd really like to try some film... but I know it will just be a nostalgia trip. Get some stuff developed. Go 'coo'. And then, probably, never again. 

I really miss 'old' stuff. It ranges from quaintly nice, like film, through to ballistically cool, like Concorde  We're in a race to the bottom, and I'm part of it.


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## weltweit (Feb 9, 2012)

Interesting that the D800E has modifled over the chip filters, instead of the D800's anti aliasing filter over the chip.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 9, 2012)

paolo999 said:


> We're in a race to the bottom, and I'm part of it.


I've still not seen a digital file that can match the wow factor of seeing a well exposed/developed Velvia 50 slide


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## Hocus Eye. (Feb 9, 2012)

weltweit said:


> Interesting that the D800E has modifled over the chip filters, instead of the D800's anti aliasing filter over the chip.


Yes I read somewhere that this would make the camera perform as well as a Medium Format camera for pictures where an anti-alias filter was not needed. This will be landscape and other subjects where moiré patterns were not likely to happen.


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## Cid (Feb 9, 2012)

paolo999 said:


> I'd really like to try some film... but I know it will just be a nostalgia trip. Get some stuff developed. Go 'coo'. And then, probably, never again.
> 
> I really miss 'old' stuff. It ranges from quaintly nice, like film, through to ballistically cool, like Concorde  We're in a race to the bottom, and I'm part of it.


 
I dunno... Think you're right if it's just getting everything done for you, but I started using dSLRs around the same time I started using film properly (at uni, good AV department and darkrooms) - If I had access to the kit now I'd... Well, i'd probably not be posting here while I put off fiddling with PS. Only did b&w with film mind you.


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## Cid (Feb 9, 2012)

Another advantage of the 36mp is that it will handle DX cropping pretty well; down to 15mp rather than the 5 you get with the D700... Seems to me that Nikon are using it as something which will cover all the bases for most photographers... Yeah, you might want a D4 if you're a sports or wildlife photographer, but this seems to be a very versatile piece of kit.


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## weltweit (Feb 9, 2012)

Cid said:


> ....but this seems to be a very versatile piece of kit.


 
And so it should be at £2,300


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## George & Bill (Feb 26, 2012)

weltweit said:


> And so it should be at £2,300



Well, I'd expect a camera to be less versatile the more it costs, generally...


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