D800 is here..

[I @ M]

Maybe there was some kind of demo fleet that came in early, but the first round of "for sale" cameras was without a doubt more than that.

What are you basing your theory on Mr. B?

[I @ M]

I have mine and it is a real bargain at that price.

Come on Roger, post some images from the camera into this thread to gain the illustrious title of first on AP to do so.

[Chris G]

Come on Roger, post some images from the camera into this thread to gain the illustrious title of first on AP to do so.

So Roger is currently the only person on AP to have recieved the Nikon D800 and his not posting pics..... OMG MAN, hurry up!

[Xebadir]

I wonder if it was worth the additional $500 and supporting of overpriced Australian retailers for the gratification of getting one early?

Note, a corrigendium to my previous post - the first shipment may have been 34, but I believe that was the first shipment after the NPS orders were sent out. Still there aren't many around in Aus.

[Xebadir]

A question for the wiser minds out there - do you plan to change your memory card configuration for this camera - and if so/not what cards are you planning to use?

[reaction]

http://www.discountcameras.com.au/di..._product/37709 $3,283.58 local stock - time to price match?

A question for the wiser minds out there - do you plan to change your memory card configuration for this camera - and if so/not what cards are you planning to use?

SD. I'm not pro enuf to need CF speeds plus I really hate using a card reader.
I'd be interested to see what speeds D800 can write, SD UHC1 can do "90mb/s" now

[MajorPanic]

I've ordered 1 X 64GB SanDisk - 64GB SDXC Memory Card Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I & 3 X 64GB Lexar CF memory card Pro 1000X UDMA 7

I have a FireWire 800 card reader for my CF cards & I was able to find a CF adapter - just plug the SDXC card into the adapter & the adapter into the FireWire reader

[Sar NOP]

I've ordered 1 X 64GB SanDisk - 64GB SDXC Memory Card Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I & 3 X 64GB Lexar CF memory card Pro 1000X UDMA 7

I have a FireWire 800 card reader for my CF cards & I was able to find a CF adapter - just plug the SDXC card into the adapter & the adapter into the FireWire reader

I'm wondering if your cards cost more than your D800...

[Chris G]

CF 128Gb version will set you back a desent lens or a DSLR starter kit LOL (Crazy I think)

Though I have orded this card reader "SanDisk ImageMate All-In-One USB 3.0 Card Reader" 500MB/s transfer which hopefully will be faster enough..

[Xebadir]

Somebody has pockets lined with money :P.
I'm planning to run a pair of 32GB cards...still tossing up on this though - mainly so that I can have video/timelapse going to one when I want it and stills to the other - and backup in the case of wedding photography. Most Probably - 32GB Sandisk CF 60 mb/s (x400 equiv), 32 GB Lexar x400 Class 10 SDHC.

Another part of me is just saying - why not order another 16GB x400 CF instead of a giant CF card- you already have 2 (one of which lives in the D700) - its a pretty rare day that I shoot more than 400 shots chasing anyway.

Managed to pick up a couple of bargain priced genuine batteries today so pretty chuffed about that. Still no camera, but It shouldn't be too much longer

[Chris G]

Somebody has pockets lined with money :P.
I'm planning to run a pair of 32GB cards...still tossing up on this though - mainly so that I can have video/timelapse going to one when I want it and stills to the other - and backup in the case of wedding photography. Most Probably - 32GB Sandisk CF 60 mb/s (x400 equiv), 32 GB Lexar x400 Class 10 SDHC.

Another part of me is just saying - why not order another 16GB x400 CF instead of a giant CF card- you already have 2 (one of which lives in the D700) - its a pretty rare day that I shoot more than 400 shots chasing anyway.

Managed to pick up a couple of bargain priced genuine batteries today so pretty chuffed about that. Still no camera, but It shouldn't be too much longer

The only down side I can see with having slower cards at 60mb/s is that it may bottle neck the D800 due to it being able to push out at 75mb/s, especially RAW files..

Oh I didn't mean I was getting / have the 128Gb versions either, I dont even have that kind of room on my computer at the moment.. lol

Though I'm considering the 64Gb 90mb/s CF & SD Cards

[reaction]

D800 due to it being able to push out at 75mb/s, especially RAW files..

Do you have a source for this number?

I have seen nothing on that front. What's the buffer size for the D800? It does 4fps till the buffer is full but I haven't seen any specs for the speed after that. Historically it's more than 1fps after buffer is full, so it may be an amazing number..

[arthurking83]

75Mb/s sounds about right as a min bandwidth speed, give or take a few Mb/s.
I would expect more tho.

It has too be able to push out this sort of data rate as the files are so large.
If you shoot in jpg mode and the average jpg amounts to 25Mb, then at 4-6fps if the camera's bandwidth can't reach or exceed 75Mb/s you get a bottleneck.
It's almost certain that the camera will shoot 100 or more jpg images at the fastest frame rate before the buffer completely fills and the camera has to clear it before accepting more exposures.
It all depends on how quickly the buffer clears after a series of continuous high frame rates to the point where the frame rate slows down. This is the point where the buffer fills and needs to clear quickly to allow shooting at high fps again, as soon as possible!

SO it's likely to be a min of 75Mb's and could be close to the 90Mb/s of Sandisk's popular fast cards.

I'd be a bit weary of investing too much money over the next few years in CF cards tho!
The writing is on the wall for CF, and while the D4 does have a single CF card slot, I'm sure as time goes on and new models become available, the CF format will be phased out and replaced with the faster XQD format.

Possible card formats for the D800 replacement could be 1 CF and 1 XQD, but as the D800 has an SD card slot with an SD card slot, it's possible that the card slot combo's could be 1XQD and 1 SD for future models.

[Xebadir]

From the Manual (was reading in regards to card capacity) for the D800 directly - I suspect a printing mistake here.
Lossless Compressed 14 Bit NEF Raw - 41.3MB file size - 103 Images on an 8 gig card. - Buffer 17 shots on a Toshiba 8GB SDHC R95, W80MB/s card.
Full uncompressed 14 Bit NEF Raw - 74.4MB file size - 103 Images - Buffer 16
Not sure how the math works there ( with a 41.3MB file size you should be able to fit more I would think? - 193 images +- from my calculation).

Certainly I would say the minimum standard needed for shooting lossless compressed will be 60MB/s, and 75mb/s for full raw 14bits. And this is before we get to HDSLR video needs, which will also mean you need pretty decent card ratings.

I'm sort of leaning towards the 32GB x600 pro speed CF/SD Class 10 as much as it will hurt the bank. You don't want to limit the camera over a few dollars after spending as much as they cost .

[Chris G]

Lets also not forget about the 108Mb Tiff files aswell + if you so choose to as some photographers do like running / recording in both Jpeg & Raw just to add to the mess

What also should be pointed out is that all these numbers are based on if your running full frame / FX (36×24)

[I @ M]

A question for the wiser minds out there - do you plan to change your memory card configuration for this camera - and if so/not what cards are you planning to use?

No, for at least one body anyway. The one that will be used for video will probably need one or two better cards but for stills a handful of old slow 4 and 8 gb cards will do fine thanks.

I've ordered 1 X 64GB SanDisk - 64GB SDXC Memory Card Extreme Pro Class 10 UHS-I & 3 X 64GB Lexar CF memory card Pro 1000X UDMA 7

I have a FireWire 800 card reader for my CF cards & I was able to find a CF adapter - just plug the SDXC card into the adapter & the adapter into the FireWire reader

The only down side I can see with having slower cards at 60mb/s is that it may bottle neck the D800 due to it being able to push out at 75mb/s, especially RAW files..

Oh I didn't mean I was getting / have the 128Gb versions either, I dont even have that kind of room on my computer at the moment.. lol

Though I'm considering the 64Gb 90mb/s CF & SD Cards

Guys, are you really sure that the D800 is the camera you need?

I cannot see anywhere in the specifications anything that suggests that the camera is intended for fast paced photography cramming thousands of images per session onto the cards.
The design looks entirely set up for slow and deliberate usage where photographers go out to capture a handful of quality images at a time.
If you are seeking a speed demon, all in one, jack of all trades camera body then I think you will disappointed with the D800, perhaps a D700 would suit your needs better?

[Chris G]

Well I can't talk for everyone here but what I'm actually referring to is the Nikon D800's image size of that being 75Mb uncompressed
14-bit raw file being writing to either a 60Mb/s or 90Mb/s read & write CF /SD cards.

I'm going point out the math behind it all though I'd say most of us would know.

If we start timing that by 4 we end up with 300Mb of raw data per sec when the D800 is firing its shutter in burst FX mode @ 4FPS.

CF x4 60Mb/s wright = 240Mb
CF x4 90Mb/s wright = 360Mb

And again we are even jumping into Tiff files (108Mb) or talking about recording movies @1080p

But of course if your not planing on taking photos in 14bit Raw files or recording 1080p movies then 30/60Mb/s cards will do you just fine.

D800 can do 100 images before the buffer says I've had enough.. lol

PS: I'm not to worried about the D800's burst as its very rare for me to ever use a cam for high speed shooting. Though I can add that I do value detail and in which
75mb 14bit raw files suites me fine.

EDIT: I should also add that this is all assuming that the D800's card slots can wright to the cards those speeds.

[Xebadir]

Andrew - TBH I am not worried about burst rate at all. I wouldn't care if it was 2FPS - on a storm day I probably shoot 100-150 frames on a normal sort of chase - over the course of several hours (and if I did I am lucky to have the D700 as a second camera ). For me the difference in dynamic range, ISO performance, metering, handling and AF all are very attractive aspects to this camera.
I guess there are three aspects to why I am looking at card options here:
- I don't want to get stuck on the upload bottleneck, The most important aspect here is read speed - can I get the data off the cards in a timely fashion - I would say 60mb/s is going to be a minimum for most users.
- The file sizes even on the lossless compressed are quite substantial - so much so that in the context of say a wedding I am concerned I will not have sufficient card space to fit the event on there - by the time you deal with blinkers and wandering eyes/funny expressions you are probably going to be short. Hence I am considering that I need a larger card for the purpose (but wouldn't go any bigger than 32GB due to redunancy and cost - the best solution might be 2 more 16GB at a higher speed)
- I have never shot 1080p video with a DSLR and have no idea of what the card requirements would be to ensure no problems. Given I have no class 10 SDHC cards (I think my ones for my sony are class 6) or pro high speed CF cards I am wondering how I am going to fare with the D800 - will my 16GB CF 60mb/s really cut it for usage? While my relatively small usage of this aspect of the camera will be a combination of time lapse photography and movies for this aspect of the camera I am just not sure - hence my question.

[I @ M]

Chris, quite frankly I am confused. Given that you don't expect to use the 4fps continuous high mode to capture images, in what area do you think that you will require very fast card speeds?
Granted, video may be an issue and being a total newbie to that area I will have to see what is actually needed before I make any decisions about cards.
Obviously with bigger file sizes, a larger card/s will be required to hold the same number of images compared to say the D700 but I still can't see why the fast cards are needed. Certainly with 14 bit NEF files from the D700 I have never had any problems getting the images into the camera on the relatively rare times when I have used continuous high. I have never had the camera stop taking images, I have never felt that it was taking forever to write to the card and certainly when importing them into the computer I have never ever worried about whether I get 1/2 a cuppa made or a whole brew in the time it takes to transfer a card full of shots at around 24mb each.

John, the reasons that you have given pretty much mirror mine, plenty of very worthwhile features that have been upgraded and the new mp count is just another part of it, not the whole reason to buy the camera. You know your need for speed as far as photographing storms go and I kinda thought you would be one not rushing to machine gun the camera. With weddings, I don't even know that it will be an ideal camera for that job in many of the non posed or non set up shots where the lack of attention to technique may negate any advantages that the camera may offer. That remains to be seen and will be proven in the not too far distant future when people start using them in sufficient numbers.
Bigger file sizes just mean more storage to me and with cards and storage media being very cheap in the scheme of things these days I don't see it as a major obstacle.

[Redgum]

The "write" speed of the card will govern the number of images you capture in continuous shoot mode without stopping. The "read" speed is of little consequence and the "transfer" rate will depend on the PC's capability.
With video (editing) the image size will be restricted to 8 bit and as a consequence is much smaller than single frame shooting. Remember that video frames are 1920 x 1080p which is around 2Mp per frame versus 36Mp. Again, the "write" speed of the card is important because you are recording 25 frames per second.