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Nikon D800 - The impressive specs no one asked for

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Nikon has just announced an impressive 36MP camera boasting an unbelievable metering system, 51 point AF system, at a relatively low price point of $3,000. Unfortunately for many, the cost of this beastly sensor may be too great a loss. 

nikon_d800Let us start by acknowledging Nikon's achievements. 36MP is an impressive number, even for a full frame camera. If Nikon (and I am sure they can) is able to pull off impressive quality at this resolution, that would be quite a feat. They also claim great results in dynamic range which is difficult to achieve, even with a FX sensor. The video has also been largely improved from the D700 offering full 1080P shooting at 30fps, uncompressed HDMI out, 60fps at 720p, and longer recording times. 

Unfortunately, many of these features depart from the traditional use of this Dxxx style camera. Typically, this body style has been a favorite of run & gun type shooters that need portability, great low light ability, and decently fast shooting. These photographers average 1000's of shots in a single session, shoot raw as limited setup time often means post corrections are needed, and often care more about lowering file sizes than upping megapixels as a result. They also may be shooting in bright sunlight for a minute, immediately followed by limited indoor lighting without the time and ability of setting up advanced lighting. These shooters also typically are on location without tripods for hours at a time making the large clunky D3s and D3x Nikon bodies heavy for some users. As a result, the Nikon D700 was a dream camera. With 5fps shooting, great low light performance, small but still adequate resolution, in a more compact body and a lower price point than the D3s, the D700 was a favorite for many users. The Nikon D3s took many of these wonderful features and made them vastly better with improved low light performance and high speed shooting. 

When the Nikon D4 was announced, the results were amazing. The already unbelievable D3s was upgraded in every way leaving virtually nothing behind. An upgraded 16MP sensor allowed higher resolution, better low light performance, and faster shooting than the previous model. Enter the Nikon D800. In this model, Nikon chose to upgrade the D700 sensor from 12MP to a shattering 36MP on the same size sensor. File sizes for D700 users are likely to blow minds and hard drives alike. Unfortunately, while the 12MP D700 sensor showed some flaws in very large prints, almost no one was complaining that the 21MP Canon 5D mark II was too small. In fact, in most cases the opposite was true. Further examination reveals the true cost of the large megapixel count. Nikon's low light abilities appear to be very similar to the previous model, not coming close to the ability of the old D3s or brilliant D4. The shooting speed has also been decreased to 4fps while file sizes have reached the unusable size of 75MB each. For the many on the go shooters who have previously chosen this model, our typical 1000-4000 image shoots in raw would require over 300GB in memory cards without using the backup feature.

While the impressive nature of this camera is undeniable, what is clear is that Nikon has shifted focus from its previous D700 owners and is likely not to win them back with the D800. However, this might yield an opening for a new D300 camera offering all of the features Nikon has chosen to neglect. We still have yet to see if Canon offers a similar camera to the D800, abandoning their base as well. However, if canon offers a 'mini 1Dx' of sorts to its' 5d Mark II users that are looking to upgrade, Nikon may have lost a considerable market share in wedding and event photographers. This yields a new glimmer of hope for a renewed D300, however, it would be unlikely Nikon would be able to refresh this body so close to the D4 and D800. In the meantime, the Nikon D3x camera owners will probably find it difficult to dump their expensive and now outdated cameras. 

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