Hey guys, I see a lot of posts about supposed focusing issues with the D800. Mine arrived without any problems I could appreciate by focusing on test patterns. My wife and I recently took our cameras to photograph the Fleet Week activities on the San Fransisco Bay. It was a pretty challenging photographic problem, given that we were on a moving boat and trying to photograph stuff that was flying past us at hundredds of miles per hour. My 500mm F4 lens on a D800 made pretty nice images, but was hard to focus and pretty impractical for the fast moving aircraft. My plan for that lens was to photograph the Americas Cup sail boats. My wife's D7000 with a 300mm f2.8 lens was way more successful at photographing the aircraft and I cannot really appreciate a huge difference in image quality between the two. I don't doubt that the D800 provides really superior images in terms of detail, but nobody should discount the abilities of a very good APS-C sensor to create great pictures. Please see my website:

http://www.starrettimages.com/Airplanes/Fleet-Week-SF-Bay/25889954_R6L996#!i=2156798225&k=D8VpvpK or lower quality images at

http://images.nikonians.org/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=23346

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Interesting, i find my D800 and D800e superior to my old D7000 in every way, sharper and clear at airs shows, slightly slower, but I am ok with that.

Visit My Website Nikon Fanboy.

I agree with wesmannmsu 100%. I could go on and on about the D800 specs and sensor. but the proof is in the photos I take. The easy answer is sell the D800 or take it back sounds like it is not the camera for you !

I have compared some of my best photos (wildlife) from my D7000 and D800. The D800 wins most of the time, especially for high ISO, but I have D7000 photos that look just as good as D800 photos.

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Sounds like the big difference was the lenses being used. Unless the planes were a LONG way off, I can easily see some difficulty with the 500mm regardless of what camera is it on.

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Joseph K
Seattle, WA, USA

D700, D200, D70S, 24-70mm f/2.8, VR 70-200mm f/2.8 II, 50mm f/1.4 D,
17-55mm f/2.8 DX, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX

Let's carry on the discussion in this newer thread on the same topic.

Thanks!

Brian
Welsh Nikonian
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