Too many mega pixels ???

PB_PM

Are you using high speed memory cards (400x or faster)? Speed seems to be the least of my worries with the D800. I also shoot with a D700, and the loss of burst speed with the grip is a bit of a pain, but not something I cannot live with. High ISO on the D800 is better than the D700, so I'm not sure why you'd complain there. The D800 is no match for the D3s, but then it was not meant to either. That's what the D4 is in the lineup for, to replace the D3s.

I haven't noticed a major problem with liveview, but then again other than when I'm shooting video clips I don't use it much. I think Nikon could have used a faster processor in the D800, but that may have compromised battery life.

sevencrossing

36 Mpix is just slow. Huge files go slow. .

can you expand on this a bit


Slow as in fps? then yes, I agree fps is the D800 biggest weakness

Slow as in filling up the buffer ? Yes but this can improved by reducing the RAW bit depth from 14-bits to 12-bits. and using a fast card

Slow in post production ? yes, this is true with low spec computer, but not an issue with something like an i7 and 12 GB Ram

tc88

I'm with heartyfisher that kstyle doesn't sound like a troll and has legitmate opinion.

Having said that, I don't think those are showstoppers and can mostly be mitigated with faster/bigger storage, faster computer, etc as seven mentioned. Though those do cost extra money and can be seen as a waste in some situations.

The most important question though, is that if there are two identical D800-36MP and D800-16MP with the only difference being the resolution of the sensor, there is no doubt in my mind that the majority people will pick the 36MP version. Because you can always down sample (even with some trouble), but you can never up sample to get the quality of 36MP.

Now for the situations where 16MP is preferred, Nikon should just implement something similar to sRAW in the firmware. For those people insisting 12-16MP is enough, Nikon can just diable the higher resolution in camera for them to stop the whining.

PB_PM

Either that people just need to get used to the fact that the megapixel race is still very much alive, and get over it.

donaldejose

Perhaps a D4x will be out this year and will solve some of the D800 slowness issues.

Photobug

Good discussion.

Have to agree with TC88 about if two versions were available, the majority would pick the 36 MP version especially if there is no difference in FPS.

PB_PM

Perhaps a D4x will be out this year and will solve some of the D800 slowness issues.

The D4x is rumored to have even more MP than the D800, so Nikon would be challenged to make it faster.

Photobug

PB_PM, I note your closing/salutation where you show your equipment:

"D800 & D700. AF-S 16-35mm F4G VR, AF-S 24-70mm F2.8G, AF-S 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G VR, AF-S 300mm F4D IF-ED. "

Several people are doing this, and I am interested in how you are doing this...using a macro to fill this in? Tell me more?

Finally, don't be surprised if I open a new question on lens selection/usage. I am considering making a change and your combination of two wide angle lens is intriguing to me and I am interested in what subjects you shoot. Enough on this before the Moderator tells me I am off topic.

Emcee

Been watching this and I had to get in.

I can count the number of times where my D800 has hesitated and it was only when I was chimping. Never has it stalled when writing to the card. I think your issue is the cards you're using? Are you using CF cards, if not then you should be.

If you're talking about slow on the computer, my i7 w/ 8GB of RAM handles them pretty well again if you're running anything less than that I could see your computer struggling a bit.

And as for high ISO performance... now I know you're BS'ing. I think everything is usable except 6400. Maybe I'm not as picky as you. Show us some of your high ISOs that are bad and we can discuss it.

Here's a ISO 5000 which looks fine to me (just an ISO test)

donaldejose

The D4x is rumored to have more mp than the D800 but speed can be provided by including two processors and a lot of memory. Maybe Nikon will not see any need to give a D4x more speed than a D800 but if they do see such a need, they can accomplish it.

Golf007sd

And as for high ISO performance... now I know you're BS'ing. I think everything is usable except 6400. Maybe I'm not as picky as you. Show us some of your high ISOs that are bad and we can discuss it.

Agreed. The ISO performance of the D800, given the amount of mega pixels it puts out, when used with a nice 1.8 or 1.4 prime and good technique is: fantastic.

tc88

It could be wrong. But I read it somewhere that Nikon's EXPEED is single chip only. I think 36MP at 4-5fps is probably the maximum EXPEED 3 is going to deliver. However, I read that base version of EXPEED 4 is out. That is supposed to be capable of 24MP at 12fps. We probably will see it in D4X or D400 first though, not D610.

Ade

The EXPEED is a single "chip" but has multiple cores inside it, plus other dedicated image processing circuitry.

With my back-of-napkin guesstimate I believe a revised EXPEED 3 should be capable of 24mp at 8 fps (enough for a D400-class camera). However, there are advantages to the new Fujitsu chip which should be the basis of EXPEED 4.

Nikon actually has a different, superfast version of the EXPEED that is used in the Nikon 1 cameras.

PB_PM

I suspect that the EXPEED 3 chips in given cameras is different. My bet is the D4 has the fastest (in a Nikon DSLR), D800 second fastest, D600 etc. In the case of the D800, I suspect the limit on speed has far more to do with buffer space, and energy efficiency. Remember that the D800 runs off a lower voltage battery than the D4, which means that even if they had the same chip, cores etc, the processor likely runs at a lower clock speed to prevent hitting voltage limits.

Ade

There are different variants of each EXPEED generation.

From teardowns, it appears that the D4 and the D800/E use the same EXPEED 3 variant: EI-158.

There is a list of each known variant below:

http://nikonhacker.com/wiki/Camera_Matrix

PB_PM

That's expected, that they use the same physical chip, what that doesn't tell you is what the CPU is clocked at on each model. It's likely they wouldn't bother changing it, but you never know. They could use lower binned variants (failed cores that meant that it wasn't good enough for the D4).

Fred_B

The only issue I see with the D800 is the RAW file size. This is what drives slow transfer speeds and processing times. Storage is a pretty lame excuse. We have thousands of dollars invested in our equipment and hard drives are cheap. PC's are cheap as well (I don't do apple).

The biggest advantage of the high resolution is cropping. It's no problem to frame action shots a little big and pick the best frame later. With macro I can move back a little helping depth of focus and lighting.

I only use RAW files when there are specific post processing operations that require RAW. Many times I'll just shoot JPG's and get on with it.

Plan, think, shoot, and organize. High res cameras are not going to go away any time soon. If you save everything it's going to be a mess.