Well, I finally caved in and ordered a new Nikon D800e. I figure it will be my primary landscape camera, when speed isn’t important. For my wildlife photography, I’ll probably stick with the Nikon D4, as it has superior frame rate and I prefer the integrated grip body style. That being said, the D800e is very comfortable, too, and it feels lighter than my D700 did. I can see it being a very popular travel camera…assuming you have enough memory cards for those 36-megapixel files.
So… just ran a quick test shot comparison and all I can say is “wow!” The dynamic range and detail on the D800e is nothing short of revolutionary. The light in the back yard when I made the test shots pretty much sucked. Flat shadows and bright clouds.
Here’s the out of camera original:
With some judicious use of shadow recovery, I got this:
That’s pretty amazing! For comparison, here’s the full-frame shot from the Nikon D4:
There’s slightly less shadow quality, but still… very good indeed.
These shots were both made using a tripod, my 24-70mm f/2.8 AFS G Nikkor, 1/125s @f/11, ISO 100.
So let’s zoom in…
Here’s the D4 shot at 100% magnification (1:1)
And here’s the one from the D800e:
The extra detail and resolution is ridiculous! It’s like watching an episode of CSI where they just zoom in on the widest shots to read license plates. Welcome to the future, Nikon shooters!
Congratulations on your new D800E! It’s a fantastic camera and the level of detail is stunning.
I found the sharpness makes depth of field even more important. The focus and detail are so sharp on your subject that image elements slightly out of focus are more noticeable.
I’m interested in what you find about sharpening your D800E images compared to other cameras like your D4.
Welcome Jason, now you need to get a Capture NX2 course on D800/e post ready. I’m finding my PP in areas like sharpness, ADL, noise, etc.. are using much more arresive values, but I know I’m not getting the most out of CNX2 with these totally new images. Like nothing I have seen before…
I have the same combination and you are right the D800 is revolutionary.
Why did you decide to go with 800E rather than just 800? Have you noted any moire as an issue?
Yes astounding is the word. I have been using my D800E for a month now, printing to 17×22 and even my wife has taken notice.
Question: I shoot RAW only and develop in LR4.1 using the lens profiles in software to correct distortion and such (I have two lenses, the 60G and the 24-120G), I leave the in camera lens correction set to off. Is this the best or the preferred way to work?
Thank you.
In-camera settings are meaningless to Lightroom, so it really doesn’t matter how they are set, other than WB.
I went with the “e” as a landscape camera to eek every bit of detail from scenes. I know how to post-process, so moiré shouldn’t be an issue. I also haven’t seen it in my images so far.
Thank you for your reply Jason.
I took your advice about the sharpening of JPEG files for review only, seems to work, unfortunately my eyes are not as sharp as they once were.
Congrats on the new camera Jason. The D800/E is a wonderful machine. It’s amazing how clear and sharp of an image you can get with it. You have to make sure the camera is kept still to eek out even bit of detail from the images. I really appreciated your comments on sharpening with this 36MP monster.