D810, All Discussions, Questions

haroldp

The worst thing about my D810 is that I no longer use any of my other Nikon bodies in preference to it.

paulr

Horses for courses Mr H I use both of my cameras for certain situations one for low light sport shots D4 and the other the D810 when I need all those pixels.
Sadly Nikon at this time, cannot offer a camera that does both.

Parke1953

The rumor is when Nikon comes out with 50MP + it will do both.

paulr

Is that like the D400 and the D4X. Unfortunately I have to pay the bills today with what i can use, not what I would wish for.

haroldp

Horses for courses Mr H I use both of my cameras for certain situations one for low light sport shots D4 and the other the D810 when I need all those pixels.
Sadly Nikon at this time, cannot offer a camera that does both.

I do not shoot low light sports, If I did and had a D4 I would also use it for that purpose.

I primarily shoot land and city scapes for which the D810 is ideal, and wildlife where the resolution of the D810 behind long lenses is a real asset. I am usually in decent light and the ISO performance up to 3200 is quite good with good PP techniques.

I do shoot low (stage) light theater, and found that the D810 when downressed to 12 mp, has better high ISO performance than my D700 by almost 2 stops, and better DR as well. Resolution matters less in that application because my glass is long enough to fill the frame (I usually use a 200-400 at F4 on the 810, and a 20-200/2.8 on a D3x.

Regards ... H

paulr

HaroldP I must confess I am using the D810 most of the time due to the incredible resolution found when cropping images. Having said that, when i use the D4, I really am still impressed with the quality of the images and the lack of noise when using the camera in poor light conditions. The D810 with a grip is slightly heavier than the D4, but not enough to cause a problem. Used lighter cameras but found more stability at long exposures when using these cameras, each to his own I suppose.
I used the D3X and loved the camera, but noticed that when looking at members images with a d4 they were just better. .Same can be said for the Leica S2, it takes the quality to the next level.
Thats why I believe the Nikon D810 is the best value for money for the quality this camera can produce when compared to cameras costing double and more, than the price of the D810.

funtagraph

I Just looked at some of the 25 pages
They really are a jumble, lots of post from people who have never used a D810
I do a think a new thread on first hand experiences would be useful

You're right, lots of people have an opinion to this body and want to share it. First hand experience is hard to find and if a thread goes beyond ten pages I usually stay away from it. About 50% repetition or simply not aware that others posted the same only a couple of posts ago. Some of the NR threads I bookmarked, but none of the huge ones. I'm not entirely convinced, the policy of the mods to close certain new threads in an early state and try to lead the folks asking into the dinosaur giant main thread is always helpful. But that's the way it is.

My experience after 9 months and nearly 5000 pictures: I never looked back or regretted to switch from D800. Lots of features are better, others not worse. IQ didn't improve much in theory - in real life the better damped shutter is a pleasure to listen to and see the sharper results, compared to the earthquake-machine D800. I use it for landscapes, lowlight indoor, theatre, concerts, dance and in DX mode I try to catch some birds occasionally - with not much success, due to lack of experience.

Better AF (while the D750's is even better), massive better display / LiveView (that alone was worth the upgrade), reliable and delivering best IQ of all Nikons I used so far. Downsides for me are minor ones:

I rather had the menu concept and dial of the D750 on it - still hate no friend of the banks. And the release button for the inbuilt flash is misplaced for me, when shooting in portrait mode I tend to flip out the flash without purpose. WLAN and tilt screen would be great for me but those are no real downsides.

Sometimes the camera is limiting my ideas because of the setup, I'm not fast enough to adapt to another situation quickly. But I doubt if I ever will explore all possibilities. Would I buy it again? Sure, it's my main Nikon. Preferably without preliminary deviation of getting a D800 first.

manhattanboy

: I never looked back or regretted to switch from D800. Lots of features are better, others not worse. IQ didn't improve much in theory - in real life the better damped shutter is a pleasure to listen to and see the sharper results, compared to the earthquake-machine D800.

LOL. The shutter is one of the nicest and once you shoot with it you wonder why it isn't in all of the cameras. For BIF the 810 is still a little slow in Fps and the reach weaker compared to the 7100/7200. I second your memory bank comment. Do we really need scene modes on an 810? I would have instead loved some custom quick settings positions on the dial for those fast shots where you shoot immediately upon picking up the camera.

sevencrossing

My experience after 9 months and nearly 5000 pictures............

Thank you for sharing

Hopefully Snowleopard will see your post

funtagraph

If he's quick enough, otherwise it gets buried under tons of 628 posts and counting.

That's discouraging for both, the asking and the replying person. I can't see the advantage of few but completely inaccessible huge posts. Together with the mediocre search engine it's impossible to find a quote again. And since some people (I don't have any names in my memory) sometimes are quoting 4 inch of posts to add one sentence, it's a lot of recursive rubbish in there, too.

Snowleopard

Well, I decided on 2 camera's. I picked up a D810 and a Mamiya RZ Pro II D at the same time. I looked here and only a couple people responded saying how much they liked the D810, but that still didn't give me "first hand experience' with it.

funtagraph

Course not. Nobody can give you a first hand experience except yourself. After all, no hand is more first than your own. Also, anybody could glow for a special feature which is of absolutely no interest for you.

Vipmediastar_JZ

@Snowleopard I been meaning to do a review.
What I like about the D810 is the highlight priority because shooting street and architecture does the automatic spot metering for me.
I like the grip yet this past weekend it had at an event for hours which cause discomfort with my middle finger but I had no blister so that is good. I did have the battery pack, flash bracket, 70-200 f4 and flash to be fair it was the weight not the body.
I like that I can add the D4/D4s battery to it for extra juice.
The menu options and buttons are great. I still preffer the old method of selecting the meter option but the new change is a welcome one.
I like that I can lock the Aperture and shutter to prevent accidental changing.
I did accidentaly set the camera in bracketing mode while shooting vertical (must have been the nerves)
The two card function is great as after maybe 3 years I ran into a situation where the overflow finally came in handy.
While I don't do much video the function is great. The iso seems to have improved but still preffer my DF for high iso.
The quiet shutter is welcome change and less distracting even though I would preffer the raquet the other cameras makes as it is music to my ears.
Love the af/on button and it is a must have for me now (thanks NRF)

DR is a life saver for when you need it.

Thats part of my first hand experience. I'll sit down one day and write a good review and my experiences with it.

sevencrossing

........ I picked up a D810 .......

Please do give us your first hand experiences

Snowleopard

........ I picked up a D810 .......

Please do give us your first hand experiences

Well, I had to charge the battery over night... go through the menus and set them the way i want them, then today I actually shot with it.... Downloading the raw files tonight. It might be a few days before I can say much.

funtagraph

...
What I like about the D810 is the highlight priority because shooting street and architecture does the automatic spot metering for me.
...

With this function I had some troubles to learn how and when to use it. It's less an "automatic spot metering", more a "I'm moving the histogram to the left side until all highlights are in at the right side".

Prevents against good subject, but white sky with blown highlights. Using it in stage situations, theatre, concerts or dance that can lead to correctly exposed light sources, but the main subjects and actors fall into darkness or shadows. The D810 has outstanding dynamics, true. But not limitless, especially not in high ISO situations. And no way back: shadows will loose power and gain lots of noise.

It is sort of a highlight protection - within the whole frame, no matter what I thought to decide to set the exposure on. What I need, is spot metering with +1 stop on the face of an actor - then I don't care about blown lights or black shadows. After all, in a show I can expect the light to be set up with a reason and a meaning. If the director needs the whole scene lighted he/she will care for it. As well as if the scene needs an accent what is important and what not. In that sceneries, the highlight priority becomes a trap with no way to get good shots.

I'm still exercising with it, in landscapes/cityscapes it's a great mode to use.

spraynpray

...
What I like about the D810 is the highlight priority because shooting street and architecture does the automatic spot metering for me.
...

With this function I had some troubles to learn how and when to use it. It's less an "automatic spot metering", more a "I'm moving the histogram to the left side until all highlights are in at the right side".

Can you explain how the 'automatic spot metering' effect and moving the histogram to the left actually differ in the thinking behind each approach and the results?

Vipmediastar_JZ

@funtagraph I agree with your experience. When I was testing it out I found out quickly that you can't always use it for every scene.

I like to shoot up at buildings and this helps with the sky. I also take a second photo without the highlight priority (assigning one of the function buttons for a diffrent metering mode). I can essentially adjust both photos to look the same/similar but for that particular shot the one meter for highlight priority is the best starting point.

I haven't tried that for portraits and adding flash to the subject in the darker area.
I'll have to try it out today outdoors if possible and if weather permits.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I have been using nikon compatible remotes (phottix, yongnuo) and universal remotes (Godox) to trigger flash. Both have worked flawlessly without issue.
However this past weekend at an event my universal remote started to malfunction or not trigger the flash. I had backups but that didn't help so i swapped receivers, remotes and I don't remember if swapping out the remote and re-aligning caused it to work again.
I took out the camera yesterday and same thing. With the universal remote it worked fine then it didn't I took extra remotes and receivers and nothing worked. So then I wiggled the remote and I could see the green led signaling a connection.
I'm thinking either one its the universal remotes or the aligment is off after getting the camera back from nikon or it has the similar issue as the D750.
After I recieved the camera back from Nikon I was using the yongnuo remotes for the auto focus assist beam in the studio with no issue.

TL/DR does anybody have issues with remotes or flashes that are not Nikon brand from proper signaling in the hotshoe?

manhattanboy

Not surprising, but Canon's new 810 competitor still is behind the 810 in DR.
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canon-eos-5ds-sr/7
My question is how much does resolution versus DR matter to you?

Canon's Before:


Canon's After:

sevencrossing

Not surprising, but Canon's new 810 competitor still is behind the 810 in DR.

from the same review

we suspect that shooting the EOS 5DS R especially will require a medium-format approach to get the most out of the theoretical resolution of the sensor.


What on earth is the medium-format approach

sevencrossing

My question is how much does resolution versus DR matter to you?

I would not sacrifice DR of my D800 for more resolution

when i upgrade from a D700 to a D800, both were dramatically increased

I am hoping for a similar increase if / when we get a D900

MaxBerlin

https://sonyvnikon.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/dynamic-range-resolution-14-bit-color-nikon-delivers/

Nikon killing it.

Snowleopard

haven't been on this thread for about a week/week and a half and I can honestly tell you that I have a love/hate relationship the the D810 I got 2 weeks ago.

I don't have time to write a detailed list of the loves and the hates, but in brief, I find myself not using my D700 at all anymore, it is officially my backup camera (until I get a second D810).

I got the chance to put it through photographing a concert (9am in the morning to 1am the following morning outside) from the pit in front of the stage last night for 2 well known bands and it focus locks better than the D700, The contrast and colors in the images are better. The detail..... I am use to photographing by zooming in and out or moving around (The excuses to crop or not to crop (12mp vs. 36mp). So I used my regular style to limit the need to crop in post....., Wow, the detail I can get.

I am not going to change my style because I have 36mp to work with now, I am just getting use to all that extra detail.... I can't say that enough.

One thing that surprised me was they have improved the contrast to where the photo's especially in black and white look really close to what film would get you so the images don't "look so digital" if you know what I mean, which I like and don't like at the same time. I felt the images had a slight softness to them like film....

Film does not have that crisp sharpness that digital has almost making digital look "fake" if you will.

During daylight hours I was shooting ISO 200-800 depending on if I was shooting in a bright area or a dark area under the shaded stage.

Once the sun started going down bumped up the ISO to 6400 just so I could get better F stops and shutter speeds for the performers on stage and what "noise" I did have was so much cleaner than any ISO 3200 film and previous generation digital camera's like the D700 that the little noise I got; didn't bother me at all and was easy to clean up.

ISO 12,800 also looks great on the D810 (Actually using it at a concert) what ever the review sites say.... Going into the "H" or extended ISO's, it starts degrading quick.

Everyone's experiences with computers is different, I build my own and currently I am using a Laptop with an I7 4 core + hyper threading (8 cores total), 32gb of ram, I boot off of an SSD and have 2 hard drives in raid 0 on the laptop for storage...

Opening 14 bit uncompressed full size raw files from the D810, the computer does not hesitate one bit, they open in 2-4 seconds each, sometimes faster. Once camera raw done, it takes maybe 2 seconds to load the raw file in Photoshop.

I shot about 1500 photo's over 16 hours (about 100 photo's per hour) totaling 115gb of storage space.

funtagraph

Didn't recognize the "hate"-bit.