I have owned about a dozen Nikons since 1980. I have loved them all until now. The D800 remains the worst camera I have ever owned. If I could afford the write-off the $3K I spent on it, I would happily toss my D800 from the nearest bridge just to watch it explode.

Before you discount this posting, allow me to explain further.

1. Like many of you, I bought the D800 with high expectations. 36 MP! Wow! This is going to be great. I can crop, use multiple FX filters or just use unsharp mask until can I see the threads on a $1 bill from 100 yards.
   
2. Over a period of a few months, I realize that I have very few really sharp images. I'm not pixel peeping. I simply have that moment of expectation when Lightroom is rendering an image for the first time. As I wait for the pixelation to end, I hope this time the image will look great. Instead, I get mediocre.
   
3. Compared to my D7000 and D300, my D800 images are fine but rarely great. If I do a double blind test, the D800 loses more often then it wins.
   
4. After several months I realize the only truly sharp D800 images I have were done with a tripod.
   
5. The number of unusable, out of focus shots is higher with my D800 than any camera I've owned in this millennium. According to my Lightroom stats: I used to get 90% focus success over a sample of thousands of images with my D7000. I got roughly the same with my D300 and slightly better with my D200. I am now getting around 75% in focus after about 10,000 D800 images.
   
6. Image bursts of five or six shots have even lower focus success.
   
7. I have used every focus mode but have relied most on AF-C d51, manually moving the focus point, expecting that to provide the best results. All I can say is: It is doesn't.
   

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Craig