D800 video questions:

I have used my D800E for video and time lapse photography extensively, and have been very pleased with my results.  If you select Time Lapse Photography in Camera Settings, the  recording will be JPEG in 16:9 format and compressed in H.264/.mov format.  If you select Interval Photography for time lapse, you can record in NEF, JPEG, or both.  You then have to import to FCPX, Adobe Premier, iMovie etc to create your movie and export as .mov file (lots of data with 36MP files).

You can use autofocus in live view while recording movies.  However, the D800E uses contrast detection to focus in live view, which is much slower than phase detection.  Consequently, the video reveals periods of blurring as it searches for high-contrast edges.

I record all of my movies with my camera mounted on a Zacuto baseplate with manual follow-focus, EVF, and Z-Finder.  I use all manual settings with live histogram, and record the clean HDMI output to an Atomos Ninja-2 external recorder.  I also use a Mosaic Engineering VAF-D800 AA filter to reduce moire and an external Zoom H4n to record sound.

Hope this addresses some of youquestioners.

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rcgehrzmd