I've been using a D800 for a couple of weeks. I see it as more of an additional tool than a replacement for the my aps-c cameras. It makes 40Mbyte DNGs. I'll still be using the smaller sensor cameras for sports and a lot of other photos.
I'm starting a couple of longer projects to document some of the more iconic buildings and churches. This gallery contains 11 test photos from 2 public buildings and 1 church. These were taken on a tripod, the intention was figure how much range to capture for input to the HDR software. <http://www.georgesphotos.net/Other/HDR-test/22927857_Rz48LW> The Durham Musem and Burlington building photos started as 9 shots, .7 stops apart. These are at ISO 100 (You don't need this many. It was an experiment.) The Church photos started as 5 shots 1 stop apart. I don't know why, but I shot these at ISO 400. I didn't focus in the right place for these. They go into Photomatix as 40 Mbyte DNGs and come out as a single 200 Mbyte, or so, tiff. They were turned into 20-30 Mbyte JPEGs for upload to Smugmug. So you're looking at photos that have been processed a lot. There is still a LOT of detail that has survived. Look at the "original" size on smugmug and pan around the images. Some are better than others. Look at the items in the display cases in the shot of the snack bar. I'm not sure what Nikon did with the sensor and processor on this camera, but at ISO 100, where there were shot, the dynamic range is wider than I expected. Now that I've run these tests I'll be going back several times to each place to get the actual shots I want. I know it's just evolution, but a 24 Megapixel, entry level camera is just nuts. Most consumers will struggle with the huge files. See you later, gs George Sinos -------------------- gsi...@gmail.com www.georgesphotos.net plus.georgesinos.com On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 7:08 AM, Darren Addy <pixelsmi...@gmail.com> wrote: > That is a terrific video. It is pretty clear to me that the D800/E > represents a real sea change: Performance almost indistinguishable > from a medium format sensor in a body that costs 68% less than the > most affordable medium format digital camera. I've lost count of how > many people I've seen dumping their competing equipment (Craigslist, > etc.) who come right out and say they are switching to the D800/E. And > I'm not talking about only Pentax users, although you can see on > Pentax Forums marketplace that people are dumping all their 645 gear > and clearly selling every piece of Pentax equipment they own. > > I'm also seeing it from Canon owners (including their full frame > cameras). I don't know what Nikon's stock price is at the moment, but > they are going to have an exceedingly good next two or three years. > > Being just an enthusiast, I can't justify the switch and I'm quite > pleased take advantage of all the good Pentax stuff currently being > shoved on the market for my new K-5. But I have forwarded that video > and a serious recommendation that he consider switching from Canon to > my son-in-law. He has editors at National Geographic asking him to FT > PRAW files to them to pore over for possible inclusion in an upcoming > issue on Extreme Weather - and I think that any pro in a competitive > situation is going to be at a real disadvantage once the Nikon D800E > becomes ubiquitous among your "competition". > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
