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Nikon D800 & D800E
Nikon's best camera: 36MP FX, 4 FPS, 1080p, $2,999, March 2012
© 2012 KenRockwell.com. All Rights Reserved.
Intro Specs Recommendations More
Nikon D800 and 28-300mm VR. enlarge. 35.3 oz. (1,000g) with battery and SD card. If you hope to get yours anytime soon, you have to order your D800 today from Amazon, the D800E today from Amazon, from B&H, from Adorama, or from Ritz. This free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thank you! Ken.
07 February 2012 More Nikon Reviews Nikon Lenses All Reviews
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Adorama pays top dollar for your used gear.
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Introduction top
Intro Specs Recommendations More
The Nikon D800 has over twice as many pixels as the new Nikon D4, for one-half the price, and is the lightest full-frame digital camera ever made by Nikon. Mine's already on order, what else do you need to know?
With a 36.3 MP FX sensor, the highest resolution of any 35mm-based DSLR in the entire history of mankind, and lighter than the D700, I want mine! We've been expecting this since 2009, so it's high time! The D800 is the biggest news from Nikon since 2008.
Back, Nikon D800. enlarge.
Other side, Nikon D800 and 28-300mm VR. enlarge.
Top, Nikon D800. enlarge.
Top, Nikon D800. enlarge.
Old
Lacks the U1 and U2 settings of the D7000. Poop!
New
SD and CF Slots, Nikon D800. enlarge.
Two card slots.
Direct Picture Control access button.
Lens Compatibility
Innards, Nikon D800. enlarge.
With a built-in AF motor and an aperture feeler for manual-focus lenses, it's the same as the D3X and D7000: it works great with every Nikon lens made since 1977. More at Nikon Lens Compatibility.
The D800E is the same camera and has the same sensor as the D800, except that the D800E has its anti-aliasing filter removed. IR and UV rejection are the same.
Nikon simply replaces some of the D800's blurring (anti-alias) filter elements with similar pieces of glass that don't blur, or blur less.
Anti-alias filters are used in almost all cameras to blur sharp edges and points of white light that might hit only one R, G or B sensor just enough so that it hits all three. If a point of light hit only one R, G or B sensor, that white point of light would appear colored.
Anti-alias filters ensure that bright points of light and repeating patterns don't turn funny colors or excite moiré patterns. They blur things very slightly to do this.
The D800E, like the LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P, remove this slight blurring filter to get slightly more pixel-to-pixel sharpness, but at the risk of adding unremovable spurious signals (aliases) to the image. Aliases cannot be removed in software, although software can try to lessen some of their effects. This is why most cameras use anti-alias filters. Aliasing is an artifact that occurs when trying to sample a signal or image that has frequencies or details finer than the pitch of the pixels or samples.
Removing this filter gives the D800E potential for sharper images with exceptional lenses, and also the potential for irremovable moiré patterns on fabrics, screens, distant fences and fine repeating patterns.
The reason the D800E costs more is simply because Nikon will sell fewer of them, and because Nikon is playing market segregation by creating the same thing, but charging more for it because they can.
With the regular D800's resolution so high, it will be difficult to find lenses good enough to excite aliases in the first place. It is much more difficult to excite aliases in a sensor with resolution this high than with a lower resolution sensor, which may explain why Nikon didn't offer this option with lower-resolution cameras.
I use a LEICA M9 with lower resolution than the D800, and use it with LEICA lenses which are much sharper than NIKKOR lenses, and rarely have any problem with aliasing, so if money doesn't matter, sure, get the D800E.
I'll be testing both as soon as real, shipping samples are available. Tests or previews of manufacturer-provided (cherry-picked) units only mean that someone is accepting favors from manufacturers, and you know what that does to the truthfulness of those reviews.
Specifications top
Intro Specs Recommendations More
Sensor
36MP FX (35.9 x 24.0 mm) CMOS. 7,360 × 4,912 pixels (L), 5,520 × 3,680 (M), 3,680 × 2,456 (S).
Sensor cleaner.
14-bit linear ADC, 16-bit data pipelines, same as the D3X.
Crop modes
Professional 5:4 (30.0 x 24.0 mm). 6,144 × 4,912 (L), 4,608 × 3,680 (M), 3,072 × 2,456 (S).
1.2x Canon emulation (30.0 x 19.9 mm), as if anyone cares. 6,144 × 4,080 (L), 4,608 × 3,056 (M), 3,072 × 2,040 (S)
DX (23.4 x 15.6 mm): 15.4 MP. 4,800 × 3,200 (L), 3,600 × 2,400 (M), 2,400 × 1,600 (S).
ISO
100 ~ 6,400, expandable to 50 (LO-1) to ISO 25,600 (HI+2).
AF
51 points (only 15 are cross-type, and 9 will work even at f/8).
Same CAM3500-FX sensor as D3X.
Fine-tuning, if you have slight errors with certain lenses.
Finder
100% coverage.
0.70x magnification with 50mm lens, same as D3X.
17mm eyepoint.
Electronic Level
Yes, electronic virtual horizon with roll and pitch, better than the D3X.
Meter
91,000-pixel 3D Color Matrix Meter III with Advanced Scene Recognition and Face Recognition Systems. The funny thing is that it still uses only a 30,000-image reference database, the same as the Matrix meter of the 1980s!
i-TTL flash metering for use with SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, SB-600 and SB-400.
4mm Spot and 8, 12, 15 or 20mm-diameter center-weighted.
Meter coupling: AI or CPU.
In-camera High Dynamic Range (HDR) capture.
Built-in Flash
Controls wireless flash.
GN 39/12 (Feet/meters at ISO 100).
Shutter
1/8,000 ~ 30 seconds in full, half or third-stops.
Bulb.
Flash Sync: 1/250.
Carbon fiber and Kevlar, tested to 200,000 cycles.
Frame Rates
4 FPS FX.
5 FPS DX.
(6 FPS in DX with MB-D12 battery grip.)
Live View
Two modes, with a rear selector lever.
23x zoom electronic loupe.
Video
FX or DX gates.
1080/29.97p.
1080/23.976p.
1080/25p.
720/59.94p.
720/50p.
720/29.97p.
720/25p.
Time-lapse mode from 1 FPS down to about one frame every half-hour.
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
Up to 29:59 minutes per clip at normal quality.
Live, uncompressed 1080 HD signal directly from the HDMI port (8 bit, 4:2:2).
Audio
Built-in mono mic.
3.5mm stereo mic jack.
20-step manual recording gain control.
30-step manual output gain control.
3.5mm headphone jack.
Linear PCM recording.
File Formats
JPG, TIFF, NEF, or NEF+JPG.
NEF in 12- or 14-bit with no, lossy or lossless compression.
JPG in BASIC, NORMAL or FINE, Size or Quality-based.
LCD
Exquisite 3.2," 921,000 dots.
Tempered glass cover.
Auto brightness control.
Data Communication
USB 3.0, micro-B connector.
HDMI, type-C connector.
10-pin remote.
Storage
One CF card to UDMA-7 and one SD card to SDXC / UHS-1.
Power
EN-EL15 (same as D7000).
Rated 900 shots.
Size
4.8 x 5.7 × 3.2 inches HWD.
123 × 146 x 81.5 millimeters HWD.
Weight
35.3 oz. (1,000g or 2 lb., 3.3 oz.) with battery and SD card.
31.7 oz. (900g or 1 lb., 15.7 oz.) stripped.
Price (USA)
$2,999.95
($3,299.95, D800E).
Included
EN-EL15 Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
MH-25 Battery Charger
DK-17 Eyepiece
UC-E14 USB Cable
USB Cable Clip
Camera Strap
BM-12 LCD Monitor Cover
BF-1B Body Cap
BS-1 Accessory Shoe Cover
ViewNX 2 CD-ROM
Introduced
07 February 2012.
Promised
Late March 2012.
(early April 2012, D800E)
MB-D12 Vertical Battery Grip (optional)
Nikon D800 with MB-D12 grip. enlarge.
MB-D12, new for D800.
The MB-D12 uses Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries EN-EL15 and EN-EL18, AA cells or an EH-5a/b AC adapter if you buy the Power Connector EP-5B.
When the MB-D12 is mounted on the D800, high-speed continuous shooting at almost 6 FPS happens in DX.
The MB-D12 has its own shutter-release, AF-ON and multi-selector buttons for vertical shooting.
Same seals as D800 for dust and water resistance.
Recommendations top
Intro Specs Recommendations More
Order yours as soon as you can if you hope to get it anytime soon. The D800 is Nikon's biggest news since 2008, so it will not be easy to get for a long time.
Yes, ditch your D7000; the D800 is it. (Ditch the D4, too, unless you're a sports pro).
The D800E is for tweaks and professional lens testers like me. I wouldn't spend my extra money on it unless I either was a tweak, or really had my technique down and printed at 30 x 45" all day. If you're shooting at f/11 or smaller, or printing at least several feet or meters wide, you'll never see the extra sharpness of the D800E, but everyone will see the D800E's moiré at any print size on fabrics or screens. If you're a tweak, you'll love the D800E, but for photography and for normal people, stick with the D800 for better pictures.
General FX Lens Suggestions.
The best lens to use on full-frame is Nikon's newest 28-300mm VR. As you can see at my review, it's just about as sharp as all of Nikon's previous reference lenses, and covers the entire range in a twist of the wrist. Likewise, it will be sold out very soon with the announcement of the D800, and so if you don't have yours yet, now is the time to order it while you can.
Lens quality can be a huge limitation if you're counting pixels. You suckers who got cheap with Sigma and Tamron will learn why the old adage says "the poor man always pays twice." This is why the 18MP LEICA M9 and LEICA M9-P completely obliterate the resolution of all DSLRs, because LEICA's lenses, especially normal and wide lenses, are so much better than any SLR lenses — even Zeiss.'
Therefore, unless you really know what you're doing and shooting micro lenses with flat subjects at f/5.6, you'll only have full resolution in the middle of your image, and only for what's exactly in focus.
If you really want to use all 36-million pixels, you'll have to shoot flat subjects! Honestly, though, the 28-300mm VR is a great lens. If you want sharper, you'll have to go for the 24mm f/1.4, Voigtländer 40mm f/2, 60mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro, 105mm Micro and 200mm AF-D Micro, which are Nikon's very sharpest lenses of all time. For ultrawide, shoot a LEICA camera, or the 16-35mm VR.
Beware of diffraction. At apertures smaller than f/5.6, simple physics will dull the image if you're looking at files at 100%! This is why digital point-and-shoot cameras are designed so that their lenses never stop down to more than f/8.
On a good day, however, the 24 MP of the D3X really does bring out more real resolution even when I tried it with a Tokina 28-70mm zoom, so don't worry about your lenses — worry about your pictures.
If you hope to get yours anytime soon, you have to order your D800 today from Amazon, the D800E today from Amazon, from B&H, from Adorama, or from Ritz. This free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live.
Thank you!
Ken.
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