Woohoo

[dubaiphil]

Well a local photography magazine that I was recently published in have come up with the goods. They want me to review the Nikon D600 and D800 - excellent!

It will be interesting testing my D700 against these - 12 vs. 24 vs. 36MP full frame

I'm not going to be getting too techie but I'll have to do a comparison between the 3 sensors on a tripod with a good lens at the same settings.

Can't wait!!

[Rhoads238]

Congratulations!

That should great fun. I just purchased a d600 and I love it. Do post a link to the review or just do one for us here on cic. I'm sure we would all be interested in reading about them.

Congratulations again on a wonderful opportunity

-Jason

[Dave Humphries]

Congrats Phil,

Genuine offer: I have done a fair bit of reviewing and (admittedly, mostly technical) writing in my time, so if you need a proof reader (I'm told I'm quite good at it), drop me a PM. That offer only valid if you're writing in English

Good luck,

[jeeperman]

Congats Phil, I look forward to the read.

[Manfred M]

Congratulations Phil - have fun. I suspect this will be a real photographers review, rather than one coming out from a pixel-peeping lab.

[Mark von Kanel]

making my purchase in 2 weeks, so get your finger out! look forward to the review, hope you get to keep your favorite!!

[dubaiphil]

I'll be doing a bit of 'on the job' testing, rather than resolution charts and the like. Low light, hand held, High ISO, on tripod, testing dynamic range, indoor photoshoot etc. I met a guy with the D600 yesterday morning and had a very quick look. High ISO looks OK - it will be interesting to compare the 3 directly though.

Cropability will be interesting. As will write speed and transfer speed to the laptop. OMG - that's got me thinking - I'll need new Adobe Camera Raw updates!

[ggt]

Woot!

[Carl in Louisiana]

Alright! I am looking forward to your reviews even if I can't afford an upgrade it will be interesting to read from someone on the forum. Big Time Congratulations!

[dubaiphil]

I've been preparing for the D800 by stitching D700 files together to create 250MB Tiff files, before editing in Photoshop

[PhotoByTrace]

I've been preparing for the D800 by stitching D700 files together to create 250MB Tiff files, before editing in Photoshop

I gave up on trying to shoot panos until I get a new computer as I kept causing my present one to hang and crash, and that was just with 12mp images from a D90 LOL.

Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these full frame cameras as you compare them side by side as I've been trying to make a decision on whether there is a full-frame camera in my (reasonably) near future before I spend money on a wide angle dx lens. And from that perspective I would also be very interested in your thoughts on the key differences you've found between your D90 and the D700 for your style of shooting that you've shared with us here (from your night long exposures, architecture, sport through to the street portraits.)

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Trace, have you been reading Nikon by thom's pages? he has an interesting perspective on Nikons DX strategy that might influence your thinking.

[PhotoByTrace]

Hi Mark... thanks for chiming in. And yes, I frequently read Thom's page which is part of why I'm questioning which direction I wish to go.

[WJT]

Great work Phil, 36MP Full Frame sounds exciting. Thats a big file. Congratulations and please post the article when you can.

[dubaiphil]

Well I've had the camera since last night at 10pm, so not a lot of chance to play yet.

I've tried a few nightscapes from the same location with the same lens. 24MP D600 is good, but the full 36MP D800 is startling. Coupled with Lightroom 4.2 RAW conversion of D800 files, allowing you to recover highlights more readily without affecting the whole exposure, it pulls out amazing detail.

This morning my son Oliver was testing the grip and finish of the D600, while reviewing a video recording of himself:

D800 crops - ISO2500, 85mm f2.5 - varying shutter speeds:






You've put the plastic 50mm on for me - get the Zeiss out, dammit!




So so far, resolution of the D800 can be stunning, hand held you've got to watch your shutter speeds to make the most of the resolution, high ISO doesn't look as good as the D700 files SOOC, but once resized it's comparable or slightly better. However, you'll need to shoot faster shutter speeds to get the detail so you'll need higher ISO for hand held night shooting. It's very no compromise and the D700 is very forgiving in comparison. So no surprises so far, and oh my word, stitching files for panoramas is quite processor intensive!

I'll be doing a lot of hand held night shooting tonight, and wandering around today with both the D600 and D800 - lots more to report by the end of the week.

[Colin Southern]

So so far, resolution of the D800 can be stunning

Without wishing to sound like a "wet blanket" (or a broken record), I still think these super MP counts are just crazy. Just did a quick calculation ... the images you've presented here are of a perfectly adequate size ... and measure around 0.66MP - meaning what we're seeing here (which is perfectly adequate) is less than TWO PERCENT of the information captured.

I think the MP war should have been declared a draw once they went past the 8 to 12MP range.

[dubaiphil]

I'm in your camp here. As I said before - I've found my happy place with 12MP on full frame. Tangible high ISO benefits and low light focusing over 6400 at 12MP would interest me far more. I won't be buying the 600 or 800 but it's interesting to see the resolving power.

The D700/D3 sensor was so forgiving that my camera became a tool that just allowed me to concentrate on photography. Using the D800 hand held is a lot more tricky. It's a precision tool - if you're shooting landscapes with great glass and printing regularly to 30" x 20" then there are great benefits. Shooting to post online or print up to 18" on the long edge and I just don't see the benefit - so far.

[Mark von Kanel]

This is all great info Phil, im looking froward to the next installment. I too am in the camp of the files are to big, i didnt want a cam that i have to use faster shutter speeds or higher isos to resolve extra detail so i guess ill be doing lots of downsizing... what i really wanted was 24mp with a pro build the best focusing system possible and the highest flash sync speed, really i should get a D4 but i cant justify it. i supposed the detail will come in handy when using a tripod. do you think youll be able to improve your holding technique to get those shutter speeds down?

[revi]

I'm not so worried about file sizes for high pixel counts: downsizing works quite well, and actually using 2×2 binning in RAW development could be easier and faster at the cost of leaving you with 1/4 of the pixel count or 9MP in this case.

What I'd think is more of a problem would be more noise and less dynamic range: more pixels/area means less area/pixel, so less light gathering capacity. I'm not all that well acquainted with sensor physics, but I'd expect to get better performance with larger pixel sizes (given what we see from compacts and bridges).

[Colin Southern]

It's a precision tool - if you're shooting landscapes with great glass and printing regularly to 30" x 20" then there are great benefits. Shooting to post online or print up to 18" on the long edge and I just don't see the benefit - so far.

Hi Phil,

My standard print size is 44 x 22 inches - and I've got prints on my galleys wall from an 8MP 20D all the way up to my 21MP 1Ds3 - and there really isn't any difference at normal viewing distances .. and I think that "normal viewing distance" is the key; I know that with many photographers the standing joke is that minimum viewing distances are limited only by the length of their noses, but for the public general, they just stand back and look at the whole image -- and for that we've just not needing that kind of resolving power.

For what it's worth, I know that Canon have produced a 120MP sensor ... and it's a 1.3x crop-factor ...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2010/8/24/canon120mpsensor

... gawd help us!