D800 is here..

[gqtuazon]

Computer upgrades such as external hard drives will be necessary especially if you shoot HD videos at higher resolutions. Technology is advancing and it is unavoidable. From what I have read, f8 would be the sharpest or optimum aperture. You'll start to see less sharp images if you view it at 100 to 300% view. For your typical print images, you might not see the difference.

36.3 mp will be enough once the release they 1440p monitors!

[I @ M]

People need to understand that grey or otherwise, if new, it will come with a factory warranty.

Which factory warranty?
Nikon USA will only provide their 3 year warranty to purchasers of bodies who reside within the USA or have a US address.
Asian sourced units will be generally be repaired at the dealers expense and most of those dealers will offer a 12 month warranty.
A Mack extended warranty will probably set you back between $150-$300.
At this stage it appears that Nikon Aus. is still offering a 2 year warranty on FX bodies.

[Wayne]

Which factory warranty?
Nikon USA will only provide their 3 year warranty to purchasers of bodies who reside within the USA or have a US address.
Asian sourced units will be generally be repaired at the dealers expense and most of those dealers will offer a 12 month warranty.
A Mack extended warranty will probably set you back between $150-$300.
At this stage it appears that Nikon Aus. is still offering a 2 year warranty on FX bodies.

The warranty that Nikon USA used to fix my D3 when I bought it from B&H and sent it back with 10 actuations on it for calibration as it was front focusing on all of my glass out of the box.
See here;
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/333 nothing about only valid to USA residents.

Asian sourced units will be repaired in country under warranty in most cases as well. I know people who have bought from Nikon HK dealer, and returned to HK Nikon service centre under warranty.

[I @ M]

Wayne, yes the USA warranty covers/ed your D3 for 12 months, as I said the 3 year warranty that is applied ( or extended warranty as Nikon call it ) is only available to US residents or addressees.
Asian sourced units sold by B&H, Adorama etc. will not be serviced by Nikon USA either under warranty or out of it. The dealer has to then send it back to the Asian source after you have returned it to them and absorbs the costs.

My post was meant to highlight that not all Nikon factory warranties are the same and by offering a 2 year warranty on FX bodies and a slight sharpening of the pencil, Nikon Australia is attempting to woo more customers away from international / grey purchases.

[Wayne]

Thanks Andrew makes more sense to me now. That 2 years extended warranty from Nikon USA isn't a freebie either... They have certainly sharpened their pencil on the D800, and as I just got my D3s, I am considering selling off the D700, adding the US$1k and getting a D800. I can see my Amex shaking as it sits in my wallet, so close....

[MajorPanic]

If you're gonna get a D800 you better pick-up your game!

http://www.bythom.com/


As usual Thom comes up with some good thinking.
Have a look at the sub article half way down called Shot discipline.
All things that we should know and do but probably don't

[OdinsChild]

God I can't wait for this bad boy to arrive considering I'm upgrading from a D60....kinda like getting a Ferrari and trading in the barina :-)

[MajorPanic]

Yup! I reckon about mid-April if the release is March 22 as suggested........ seems like years away

[NGP]

the Nikon D800 should be available in the coming weeks.. for those who are interested in Australian stock feel free to follow our new FB page.. for those who still resist social networking our pricing will be $3400.. feel free to email me direct for further inquiries..

https://www.facebook.com/pages/NG-Sy...66152830068626

[Sar NOP]

With two years warranty, NGP ?

[rodw]

For those who want to familiarize themselves with the D800, here is a link to the Nikon Flash based tutorial:
http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d800/index.html

[Kym]

Pixel density is a curse !!!

See: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...hotography.htm The Limit of Diffraction

The D800 has a very reasonable density, more mega-pickles are not necessarily good.

[Sar NOP]

As the D800 has lower pixel density than the D7000, it shouldn't have any issue with this 36mpix sensor.

[Lance B]

Pixel density is a curse !!!

See: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tut...hotography.htm The Limit of Diffraction

It won't look any worse than the D700 at the same aperture, just that you may not see as much benefit as with lower aperture numbers under say f8/f11.

The D800 has a very reasonable density, more mega-pickles are not necessarily good.

As Sar says, it has the same pixel density as the D7000/Pentax K-5, so it will be at least as good as their results.

[rodw]

It will be interesting to see some real world results as I suspect as others have said it will still be sharp as there are other examples of similar pixel density. I was once told that film was equivalent to 22 megapixels. I was surprised to see that Nikon had gone well past this limit. I am no videographer but from what I read, I concluded that the choice of 36 mp was setting the D800 up for full HD video.

It was interesting to digest the links and play with the calculators and it was indicated that it was not anything to be concerned about.

[I @ M]

It seems ( not unexpectedly ) that a lot of 'net chatter is focussed on the mp yield of this new model.

Take a step back and look at the other very worthwhile changes / improvements that have been made to the camera. Look at the metering, the viewfinder, focussing attributes, lower native iso level, video capabilities and whatever other "secret sauces" that Nikon have seen fit to include in the camera.
Consider those changes first and then look at the number of mega pickles it has because even with the sensor size it will still be a bargain if it improves on the D700.
It isn't all that long ago that Nikon owners were tut tutting and shaking their heads at Canons "outlandish" 22 mp of the 5D Mk11 but times move on, the sky didn't fall inwards and nobody can say honestly that the 5D Mk11 isn't a capable camera producing excellent images. Yesterdays technology is old news and we have moved onwards and upwards, what we are seeing now is still the infancy of digital.

[Kym]

I was once told that film was equivalent to 22 megapixels. I was surprised to see that Nikon had gone well past this limit.

And that would be a wrong statement on face value! (Assuming you mean 22mp = 135 format film and thus the same size sensor as the D800)
A bit like answering 'how long is a piece of string?' with a definitive '10 metres' which my son did when he was 8 years old.

It depends on the grain of the film stock (lumpiness of the chemicals) which can be seen with high ISO film have much more graininess.
Grain ~ noise, but they have completely different visual characteristics.

[jim]

A bit like answering 'how long is a piece of string?' with a definitive '10 metres' which my son did when he was 8 years old.

I always say "six inches" when people ask me that.

Anyway, just got my Pro Optic (Samyang) 14 F2.8 in anticipation. So now I have to buy the camera.

[arthurking83]

..... I am no videographer but from what I read, I concluded that the choice of 36 mp was setting the D800 up for full HD video.

.....

The the total number of pixels on the sensor is irrelevant when shooting video.
From what I've read so far, the video ability of both the D800 and D4 are both full HD ie. 1920x1080.
And also, they both have a slight crop(from what I've read) .. so whether they're doing some form of pixel binning or whatever I don't know.
HD video is only 2Mp worth of sensor photosites, so there are a lot of 'wasted pixels' from the D800 when shooting video(same as D4).

D4 is only 16Mp and still does full HD too.

There is currently work on a new higher resolution video format called UHDTV which will require 33Mp of active photosites on the sensor.
This was briefly touched on as a topic in a video link I once found to the inventor of the digital sensor.

Nikon's prior issue with doing full HD video on their cameras has been that of data bandwidth from sensor to media card.

[rodw]

And that would be a wrong statement on face value! (Assuming you mean 22mp = 135 format film and thus the same size sensor as the D800)
A bit like answering 'how long is a piece of string?' with a definitive '10 metres' which my son did when he was 8 years old.

It depends on the grain of the film stock (lumpiness of the chemicals) which can be seen with high ISO film have much more graininess.
Grain ~ noise, but they have completely different visual characteristics.

Grain, noise, lines per inch, pixels per inch are all different yet limit picture size/quality but if you Google "how many megapixels film", there are plenty of sources and the consensus seems to be around 16-24 mp for 35mm so my original post was not that far out. I seem to remember it was based on 50 ISO Velvia which I thought was a fine grained film (yes I am old enough to remember film grain and my disappointment from using 1000 ISO film on some fijian fire walkers as even 6x4s were very grainy).

I might add that the mp count has had nothing to do with my decision to pony up for the D800 as having worked in the printing industry's for years I understand the intracies of digital photo reproduction and 6 mp covers off on most needs (except perhaps when publishing a 2 page magazine spread, which I have found to be a limiting factor with my D40). Personally, i would have been much happier with 18-24 mp FX but for the total package, i reckon i am on a winner.

I am still intrigued as to why Nikon went to such a dense sensor count so maybe it is to do with kingarthur's UDHTV or is it just sticking it to their competitors? I'd've really like to know the answer to this question.