Wetpixel D800 review

Actually what I found the most annoying thing on the D800/D4 is that Live View can only be accessed via the dedicated button and You have to differ between live view for video and for photo. I mean, there's a lot of multiple choices on AEL, AF-On, AF-On Vertical, Joystick selector, Function button, Preview button whatever for stuff that I don't need but the Live View function can not be programmed on any of these buttons. That's what really sucks!

That is pretty amazing, I thought it was an HDR shot for sure!

The sunballs look very good. I am surprised to see them at such a low shutter speed. The dynamic range of the D800 is very impressive.

 

I have a D800, and those huge files are a big challenge ( slow to load ) on my laptop. I may need to go to a desktop computer to deal with these images in Lightroom 4.0 ( Windows 64 bit ). Looking forward to your input on that issue.

D800 uploads to laptops or destops are fairly quick using usb 3.0 not 2.0 ports and card readers. I am using the lexar 3.0 version card reader. The files are slower than my old D300s but not that much slower considering the size of the files. Also using 1000x Lexar cards.

As you can see: with a D800 you don't need HDR techniques anymore...

Yes, what's also amazing is how clean these shadows are. Some noise, but easily manageable.

One seems to be able to really just expose for the highlights and the rest will fall into place. Udo have you tried any of the in-camera HDR yet? I have yet to play with that.

Yes, what's also amazing is how clean these shadows are. Some noise, but easily manageable.

One seems to be able to really just expose for the highlights and the rest will fall into place. Udo have you tried any of the in-camera HDR yet? I have yet to play with that.

haven't played with the in-camera HDR, as i'm normally not a big fan of HDR photography, but i can give it a try.

best, udo

I did some sunsets with the D800's HDR back in Cayman in January. It worked to open up shadows, but doesn't do RAW, so I couldn't help feeling that you'd be better off doing it the old fashioned way.

Alex

Underwater with sun balls, it may be worth trying to underexpose a little to keep more highlight detail and opening up the shadows in post

You need to take 2 exposures for in camera HDR. Not sure what the effect would be on sunrays, which would move between exposures. ALex

As of yet, no other housings exist in the flesh for the D4...

Seacam's D4 is built but is not yet generally available......

You need to take 2 exposures for in camera HDR. Not sure what the effect would be on sunrays, which would move between exposures. ALex

Yeah, I found that a problem when I tried HDR before.

I mean possibly underexposing 1/2 -1 stop one's normal single exposure WA sun ball shot, and and then correcting exposure for the underexposed areas in post

Most of the times, with sunballs, I find that I cannot underexpose as much as I would like to i.e: shooting 1/250, f22, ISO 100 and still not getting it right... It will be interesting to see what this camera yields (at least, using the tokina at 15mm will let us shoot at f27...)

a large number of D800 users will already have their cameras and housings and the review would be less helpful.

Mate I'm still waiting.!!!! Is it just me or is there more people out there.!!!

Goose

Would i be right in saying in the early stages of testing the D800 its becoming just as good as the D4 but at the fraction of the price when comparing the two.

Goose

First, a quick apology. I had no idea that the use of capital letters was the equivalent of shouting. Drew and Adam seem to have somewhat different interpretations of caps use with respect to netiquitte. Drew says caps can be used (politely?) for a word or a phrase for emphasis. Adam seems to suggest that ANY use of caps is unacceptable. I'd also point out that in that post, no full sentence was capitalized, only single words or phrases. Oh well, Ann Landers and Emily Post didn't agree of everything, either. And I never paid much attention either to them. But I thank you both for pointing out this to me. And will try to remember it in my future posts on Wetpixel.

Adam said that he also disagrees that I consider what had been posted at that time, and Alex's D4 review, more of a housing review than a true camera review. If you look at how car magazines test cars, they have a common series of tests that show performance in a way that allow comparison of the car being tested to other cars. When WetPixel does a camera review, and its suitability for underwater shooting, it would be nice to see each review have some "similar picture" shots that would show the difference of the cameras previously reviewed vs the new camera. Adam's "sunball" pictures, in his May 11th pictures, is exactly the type of picture I'm talking about. This "sunball" picture is a type of shot we could all shoot in the film era. But most digital cameras cannot handle it well. Alex's D4 review did not even include such a shot. It would have been nice to see. And although Alex's D4 review has a number of pictures of his Nauticam housing, it had no single picture of the D4 itself.

I still feel that several of the recent WetPixel camera reviews (all in Nauticam housings) are more housing reviews than camera reviews. Do Nauticam housings provide two lens controls so that you can manually focus a zoom lens on which you have a zoom gear? Alex, in the D4 review says that Nauticam does have a zoom gear for the 16-35mm lens, but no focusing gear. So maybe no manual focusing is possible with a zoom lens on the Nauticam housings. A few days ago, in Bali, I was shooting as dusk fell and it got too dim for my D700's auto-focus to work with my 24-85mm f2.8-f4 lens, even at f2.8. But I could still try to manually focus. I have manual focus gears on every lens I use underwater. If a housing does not have a manual focus provision, how can you focus a lens + tele-converter combination whose combined maximum aperture doesn't meet to the camera's AF system requirements? Many users may not want or use manual focus, but should a camera review ignore this completely? Especially when some underwater photo contests (WetPixels own contest?) have a separate division for "super macro"?

This is why I suggested that a review of all the housings for a particular camera would be useful. Especially when a camera that has made such a significant "jump" over the cameras before it in MP and dynamic range. And although it might take, as Drew suggested, 20 dives to become fully comfortable with a particular new camera-housing combination, I think that a couple hours in a swimming pool would give you sufficient time to check out many things. Like what controls the housing has and how easy those controls are to operate underwater. One hand or two hands? With the camera at your eye or not? And how much the combo weighs underwater. And to shoot a few "standardized" comparison shots.

Several people have mentioned that a particular housing maker (Subal? or Hugy?) now has a control for the "function" button on their D4 and D800 housing. My modified D700 housing has a single triple-function (four-postitions) control that pushes (and holds down) either the preview or function button. And also functions to lock or unlock the port. This control is reachable with my pinky finger while my hand is still on the right handgrip of the housing.

Fred

I'm pretty sure Alex M made it quite clear that it was a review of the D4 and how it performs as an underwater camera as we would use it.!!

Goose

I must also say that the Nauticam housing also performed as did the D4, past expectations.!!

Goose

Hey Fred,

We are all waiting for your review of the brand spanking new Seacam housing for the D800...

Hi Fred,

I think you will find we do offer housing reviews-I am still finishing the D7000 review. I have the Hugyfot and Seacam housings to complete to finish it. The review takes in Aquatica, Subal, Sea & Sea, Ikelite and Nauticam so far.

It is here:

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/wetpixel-d7...housing-review/

I am unsure whether we will attempt a comprehensive D800 housing review or not.

FWIW, Alex's review does have a picture of the D4:)

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/nikon-d4-field-review/

As it happens, our reviews take place when and where we are diving. This will mean that if we are diving somewhere where the sun doesn't come out (Iceland), sunball shots are going to be a problem. I am struggling at the moment to get the D800 into blue water-a combination of time available and budget. So we do the best we can. There are plenty of empirical tests of camera performance out there, I guess Wetpixel's are more "real world", done by people out there shooting underwater.

In a given group of shooters, you will find varying opinions of which controls are essential or useful on a housing. For example, I very rarely use manual focus, even for super macro, as I find that I lock the focus off and rock in and out to get focus. This is not to say that finding manual focus essential is wrong, just that it is not a criteria to which I would assign importance. I do take the point that reviews should be as complete as possible, and with the D7000 reviews, we have attempted to get multiple user input, but no review will ever answer 100% of everyone's queries.

Back to D800, a couple of (AF focused) macro shots from St. Abbs today. AF performance was very good but challenging sea conditions with a lot of surge made photography difficult.

As before, shots are straight from Lightroom without any adjustments

Adam

I find the reviews here are outstanding, especially for the price of my subscription to this website. Thank you for all your hard work.

Good stuff Adam; what's your verdict on the Nauticam housing so far?