Folks

When reviewing shots on the D800 screen, what key indicators should i look for to confirm that i have a tack sharp shot.
A few times i have zoomed in on my shot, in camera, and thought i had a great shot, but when i reviewed the shots later in post on a larger screen i have been disappointed to see a softer focus than i was expecting.
Had i detected this at the time i would have refocussed and shot some more.

regards

Justin.

The first indicator is the "green in-focus dot" when you are taking the picture.

After that, zoom in on the display and see what you got.

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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, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX

It always looks sharper on that 3.0 inch monitor than on the much bigger monitor at home.

Like most I am finding that I have to pay more attention to shutter speed and techniques like bracing to get the sharpness that D800 is capable of.

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Thanks for your answers

Yes, i have actually moved to pretty much exclusively using manual mode with the D800 so i can select both the shutter and apeture
I find i get more keepers ...

I also am more conscious of bracing elbows against body and not breathing when i invoke the shutter release.

But anyway, yes, the 3 inch screen does hide the flaws a little

what i would like to know is on my D800 i can zoom 11 times, until yellow box is at its smallest

does anyone know how at what point from 1 --> 11 zooms, we hit 100%

Justin,
I recently went on a workshop with fellow Nikonian and for the second year running the Nature Photographer of the Year and the International Photography Awards, Marsel Van Oosten. He showed me a neat trick that I now use all the time for zooming during playback.
On your D800, go to Custom Settings Menu>f2 Multi selector control button>Playback Mode>Zoom On/Off. There are three options - Low Magnification, Medium, and High. Select one of the three options. From then on, when you press the multiselector button during playback of an image, it will zoom to that magnification. Press it a second time and it goes back to the full frame.
Marsel said that medium was 100%. Darrell Young in his excellent book Mastering the D800 says that medium is 200% and low is 100%. I'd say try both settings and see which one works for you. I used Medium and have found it extremely useful for a quick chimp to check focus.
Hope this helps.
Best, Tom

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I set this up and I LOVE it. Thanks for the tip.

Carol

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Thom Hogan's Complete Guide says this:

Low - 50%
Medium - 100%
High - 200%

Simon,
Thanks! That's 2 for medium being 100%.
Best, Tom

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Tom - I am not so sure about this now. See
http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=430&topic_id=20192&mesg_id=20192&page=

Great tip .... Thanks

Assuming you are shooting raw (if not, start), and don't use NX, then go into the settings and change the sharpness all the way to max.

This will over-sharpen on the LCD, but will not affect the raw image, nor how Adobe (or I think any other than NX) view it.

Having done that, I find that I can much more quickly see if I have sharp focus as I zoom in, or at least see better exactly what part of the frame is sharp. In some ways it makes the images a bit ugly, but I find it a big help in evaluating focus in a quick look zoomed or not.

If using NX you can turn it back down, but I think it then defaults, which is why you might not want to set it up. And of course don't set it up for JPG.


Linwood

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Found this on Utube, :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAu8sCti0wg&feature=channel&list=UL

It explains the D800 Live View setup.

greyscale