Nikon D800 DSLR Camera Review

Nikon D800 DSLR Camera Review, allows your imagination to create beautiful images and videos. With a 36.3 megapixel resolution and processing EXPEED3 the D800 camera is ideal for professional photographers like you.     Once in a long while, something comes along which changes the conversation entirely. In the camera conversation, the Nikon D800 is one such example, being a full-frame DSLR successor to the three year-old D700. Except that the D800 isn't really a successor, but something entirely new altogether.     The reason for that is the D800's whopping 36MP sensor. Nikon has tripled the resolution for their latest 'entry-level' FX camera, a move which has forced everybody to reconsider what a DSLR camera could and should be.

DESIGN & HANDLING

Designed by Italian industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, the D800 is one handsome beast. The Nikon flagships have always reminded us of Italian supercars, unapologetically straining at the leash with their powerful contours; this is especially so with the D800.     Elements of the flagship D4 are reflected in the D800, the shutter release button is tapered downwards at a lower angle, giving the finger a more comfortable place to rest. The red Nikon strip below the shutter release button has been slimmed down to a single line, and the D800 gains the movie Record button, focus-mode selector and Live View levers seen on the D4.     Like the D4, you can now set ISO to Auto using the front command dial, without having to dig through the menu. The D800's interior body is made of magnesium alloy, which means it can take a few knocks – the body certainly feels solid in the hands. The body is weather and dust-sealed, and it is remarkably 10% lighter than the D700 while slightly wider by about 4.5mm.     Handling is superb; the D800 sits comfortably in the hands and the controls feel intuitive. Unlike on the Canon 5D Mark III where the Power switch is on the opposite side of the shutter release button, the D800 (and all Nikon DSLRs) have the Power switch sitting below the shutter release button, which means you can switch on the camera and shoot with just one hand. The only major complaint we have about the camera body is that battery life is now lower than the D700, at 900 shots versus 1000 shots (as rated by CIPA). This isn't entirely Nikon's fault though; the batteries had to be changed due to new battery regulations in Japan.     The D800 uses the same Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX auto-focus sensor module as the D4, with 51 AF points, 15 of them cross-types. Which is why it's surprising that the D800 focuses more slowly than the D4 in low-light, likely due to the D800's larger 36MP resolution compared to the D4’s 16MP.     In good light we found the D800's AF to be fast and accurate. It's in low light where the D800 hesitates, a breath slower than the Canon 5D Mark III and slower than the D4. Once the D800 achieves focus however, it locks-in dependably, and in AF-C mode it can track moving subjects well (although, like the Canon 5D Mark III, it will sometimes get confused and track in and out in-between shots).     The D800's LCD monitor is slightly larger than the D700's, 3.2" versus 3". You can zoom deeply into the preview images, up to 46x, which is a great help when you need to check focus on the large 36MP images. One disappointment is that pixel count has remained the same even though the screen size has increased, at 921,000 dots the D800's LCD monitor is not as rich as the 5D Mark Ill's 3.2" screen, which has 1.04 million dots.

IMAGE PERFORMANCE

As expected, the clarity coming from the D800 is phenomenal - we've never seen so much detail and dynamic range coming from a DSLR camera before. But the high amount of information contained in a D800 image file comes with a price.     The amount of detail you can get in the D800's images are astounding, measuring a high 2800 LPH (vertical and horizontal) on our resolution chart. It makes the camera suitable for high-resolution work, and also handles cropping well. At the same time though, each image's size is significantly larger, JPEG files are an average of 20MB, while RAW files are around 40MB, and Nikon has said that RAW files can go up to as high as 75MB per file.     You'll also need to be tighter with your shooting technique, as we've found that slight off-focus errors or movement which may look sharp in lower resolution images are magnified and revealed as soft in the D800's large photos.     The D800's images have an impressively high dynamic range, at low ISO sensitivities even JPEGs behave like RAW files from lesser DSLR cameras. There's an incredible range of detail which can be pulled out of the D800's images in post-production, as long as the highlights are not completely blown and the shadows lost. So much so that when pushed to the maximum, images can take on an almost HDR-like quality     With more detail, we also see more image noise in the D800's images. But - and here is where it gets complicated - we are also looking at much larger images here with the D800’s 36MP, so yes, detail should be more noticeable, and so should image noise.     Down-sampling (the act of reducing image resolution) will also have an impact on the perceived image noise in the D800's images" because it will look less prevalent at lower resolutions (which is why noisy digital photographs look less noisy when downsized for the web or when displayed on mobile phones). So when evaluating the D800's image noise, considering the final output resolution also plays a part. Not all users will be printing or displaying their images at the full 36MP resolution of 7360x4912, which works out to be an approximate maximum print size of 25x16 inches at 300dpi, or almost A2 size.     If we look at image noise based on the D800's full resolution, we'd say that images look good up to IS03200, and noise is quite noticeable at IS06400, Which is the D800's native limit and the limit at which we'd shoot at to still get acceptable image quality. Depending on the output resolution, we might shoot up to the first boosted level of ISO12,800, but in general we would avoid shooting at the D800's highest setting of ISO25,600 as both luminance and color grain are quite obvious at that setting.     Just like with the D800's still images, we see quite a bit of sharp detail in the D800'S video. While the rolling shutter effect is well-controlled and hardly appears with pans at normal speeds, the D800's video is susceptible to moire.