Just read this interesting article on the Nikon website explaining the rationale behind the design of the D800.

It appears it was not designed as a D700 replacement. One reason was as a Nikon entry statement into the world of medium format cameras.

Read this interview with members of the design team:

http://imaging.nikon.com/history/scenes/32/index.htm

I got this post from the Nikon Rumors RSS feed.

I am still working on getting my wife to let me upgrade to FX from my D300s and I think this would be the camera to start with

Martin

As FX pushes into what was MF territory in terms of resolution, I think we could see DX designs pushing into what was FX territory in terms of low light performance and speed. The key phrase with the D800 in this article is that it supports a deliberate approach to photography.

Jim

I found the following comment particularly helpful:

"In FX format, the large size enables shooting with about 36.2 megapixels, while about 20.3 megapixels are used for the medium size, or maybe if you're taking snapshots you'll find you can get by with the small size, which is about 9 megapixels. Both the medium and small settings use data from the full extent of the 36.3-megapixel sensor optimally processed to a smaller size using EXPEED 3. Therefore, we suggest selecting medium or small for normal use and choosing large only for, say, group portraits or very high resolution landscape shots."

I didn't realize that the selection of small, medium or large size applied to the raw files as well as to the jpgs. If I understand this correctly, this provides you with a 20.3 mp camera if you choose to shoot in medium setting. For all of those who thought that 36mp was simply too much, they can shoot in medium for most of their shots, and only use "large" when they want all the detail you might get in a large landscape, for example.

This is a big deal, I think, and it is something I didn't understand before.

Larry Miller, Annapolis, MD
D700/D800
http://www.pbase.com/lmmiller9
http://lmmillerphotography.smugmug.com/

>I didn't realize that the selection of small, medium or large
>size applied to the raw files as well as to the jpgs.

It doesn't. The Large, Medium and Small option applies when shooting JPEG's.

The only options with NEF are compression and 12- or 14-bit recording. The smallest D800 NEF files will be from 12-bit Compressed NEF, at around 13.2MB.

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
Check out the Nikonians Team pages

Brian, how do you reconcile that with the direct quote from the camera's designers? I think what they said is very clear... maybe they misspoke.

Larry Miller, Annapolis, MD
D700/D800
http://www.pbase.com/lmmiller9
http://lmmillerphotography.smugmug.com/

Larry,

Perhaps there is more to the quote that what is shown. I don't see anything in what is show that indicates RAW.

Roger

Roger,

I know they didn't say "in RAW", yet it seems odd to me that they would say "20.3 megapixels when shooting in medium" etc., and be referring to jpgs.

To be honest, I never save in jpgs until I have processed and am then saving to send to someone or post on a website. When you shoot with your D700 "in medium" you are still using 12.3 megapixels, which are then processed down to the medium format jpg. Right? That is why I have trouble understanding how they could be referring to jpgs in this statement.

But, we'll find out when we get the cameras. One more thing to test for.

Larry Miller, Annapolis, MD
D700/D800
http://www.pbase.com/lmmiller9
http://lmmillerphotography.smugmug.com/

20.3 megapixels is the size of the photo , the resolution & not how big the file size is even if you save it as a 1 MB file size with lots of compression it will still open in Photoshop at 20.3 megapixels.
I mostly shoot raw , when I did shoot jpegs with the D700 i allways used large fine , the D800 with 36 MP those fine normal & basic options will be much more usable.

>But, we'll find out when we get the cameras.

No, we can be certain now that S,M and L options apply only to JPEG shooting. Page 26 of the downloadable D800 brochure is quite clear

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
Check out the Nikonians Team pages

>>I didn't realize that the selection of small, medium or
>large
>>size applied to the raw files as well as to the jpgs.
>
>It doesn't. The Large, Medium and Small option applies when
>shooting JPEG's.
>
>The only options with NEF are compression and 12- or 14-bit
>recording. The smallest D800 NEF files will be from 12-bit
>Compressed NEF, at around 13.2MB.

The smallest files will be 12-bit Compressed NEF, at around 13.2MB with a DX lens when ON is selected for Auto DX crop
If you are using FX lenses when On is selected for Auto DX crop smallest file size is 29 MB.

Yes, I should have made it clear that I was referring to DX crop mode - since the question seemed to be about achieving the smallest possible file size

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
Check out the Nikonians Team pages

Now here is an interesting feature I was just made aware of reading this article. I am looking forward to exploiting this option in my studio.

Thanks Martin for sharing this with us...


"...The D800 is the answer to their prayers. And – this is a pretty technical example, but anyway – photographers who use a flash in a studio setting often match white balance to their studio flash units before shooting, but because the actual background lighting in studios usually consists of incandescent bulbs with low color temperatures, the live view preview looks extremely red, which I've been told makes it hard to visualize the results. So this time we've made it so you can choose separate white balance settings for live view and the final photograph. You can match white balance to the background lighting for live view and to the flash for the photograph, which should make a lot of studio photographers happy, given that high resolution is a must in their line of work. We've included a lot of features like this which should make photographers happy."





All the best and Good Light,

Dennis


Dennis Owens
Germany
Nikonians Team Member

Yes, I wondered about that too! I am not sure if i would ever remember to reset the live view white balance when changing shooting locations!

Martin