Nikon 8800

Just purchased and have decided to keep.

Two things that are of concern but are probably nothing to worry about:

When the camera is powered up there is a quite discernable 'electronic' type noise (don't quite now how to describe it). Sounds like the internal circuitry buzzing away.

When on manual telephoto and the display icon turns yellow, the whole screen (EVF or LCD) displays very oddly. Definite split across center as evidenced by a clear division in colour tone between top and bottom. Display generally very 'bandy' and looks like some sort of interference.

Has anyone else experienced these two and if so are they normal and nothing to worry about - need to know soon as I will return the camera if there may be a problem.

Hi Kevin,

Welcome and I hope you enjoy your 8800 as much as I enjoy mine. If you are using your 8800 in the green auto mode or any of the scene modes that use continuous focusing, that is probably the noise of the continuous focusing. There may be also a slight hum from the VR stabilization working also. Try using the camera in P, S, M or A and see if there is still a noise. Make sure in these modes that you are using single focusing, i.e. half-pressing the shutter button to have the camera focus. The slight hum of the VR will always be there and the continuous focusing as well as the zoom of the camera noise will be there at the times you use those. If you feel the noise is beyond the above, you might have a problem, but this is an often asked about question from people new to Nikon.

I can't answer your second question. Perhaps you can clarify that a little or someone will see it and know what the situation is and if it is a problem.

These are some helpful settings:

Indoors to focus quicker: AREA FOCUS (FOCUSING OPTIONS) = OFF

Indoors - camera continually not focusing: You cannot zoom in toward tele much with the slow lens of the Nikon indoors and in low light. Stay near wide angle.

Indoors, camera not focusing on subject but on background I would choose AREA FOCUS = MANUAL and set the red brackets exactly over subject.

MACROS: AREA FOCUS = MANUAL (make sure the red brackets are right over the actual part you want most focused, i.e. inner part of the flower). To me this is absolutely necessary for auto focus macros.

GENERALLY OUTDOORS: AREA FOCUS = MANUAL But sometimes I do just use area focusing = Off Depends on what I am shooting and how busy the background is. For sunsets and such, I turn it off. Also sometimes for quicker focusing.

I always turn off continuous focusing and use single shot and I always shoot with Continuous H burst mode so I can take one or up to five photos by simply leaving the shutter button on. This burst mode does not work with onboard flash and I turn it off indoors.

In Monitor Options in Setup, I enable Quick Response.

Always respect the tiny square green/yellow box. When the camera shows this, it is writing to card and you cannot change settings, take photo, etc. With the hour glass (which you see less often in burst mode), another photo can be taken and stored in the buffer, but settings cannot be changed.

When you use Continuous H burst mode, you will have a longer wait till the camera writes to card and clears the buffer than you would taking one shot at a time.

--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Kevin Boardley said:

Just purchased and have decided to keep.

Two things that are of concern but are probably nothing to worry
about:
When the camera is powered up there is a quite discernable
'electronic' type noise (don't quite now how to describe it).
Sounds like the internal circuitry buzzing away.

Click to expand...

As Darlene stated, this is probably the Vibration Reduction gyroscopes spinning. If, when turned on, you turn the command dial to "Playback", you should here a soft "clunk" as the stabilization lens group gets parked. Also, the humming noise should disappear.

Kevin Boardley said:

When on manual telephoto and the display icon turns yellow, the
whole screen (EVF or LCD) displays very oddly. Definite split
across center as evidenced by a clear division in colour tone
between top and bottom. Display generally very 'bandy' and looks
like some sort of interference.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to digital telephoto, then this behaviour is normal. The zoom indicator turns yellow, and you will notice a horizontal band at the midpoint of the display/evf. You may also notice this banding when in quick response mode under monitor options. I believe the camera allows some of the memory used for the bottom half of the display to be used for other funtions when these options are selected.

BTW, you may want to take some tests using the digital telephoto option and see if you are happy with the results. My experience has been that I get better results "digitally zooming" in when on the computer.

Kevin Boardley said:

Has anyone else experienced these two and if so are they normal and
nothing to worry about - need to know soon as I will return the
camera if there may be a problem.

Click to expand...

Nothing to worry about so far. Congratulations on your fine new camera.
Best regards,
Kelly

Thanks Darlene, Those tips for settings are very useful when someone is just starting to get to grips with a new camera. Had the 5700 previously which I am now going to try to sell. Sounds like the 'hum' is the VR gyroscopes.

Thanks Christiak. Spot on. Heard the clunk of gyroscopes parking when switching to playback.

Nearly sent this camera back after reading all the negative stuff about it in various places and as I was sturggling to get some results from it in various modes.

Have decided to keep it now and am getting happier and happier with it.

Off to Iceland in a month or so to give it a workout. Hope to capture some great images there.

The monitor thing - spot on too. Obvious from your description that we are looking at the same thing. Thanks for confirmimg that this is not a fault.

I am anxious to get a neutral lens filter to protect the min lens. Just find I relax a bit more with a camera that way. I am looking at the Nikon offerings and website says that any filter with an exposure factor greater than 1 requires some changes to metering method.

I was going to go for the Neutral Density filter factor =2. Is the Neutral Color filter ok for my purposes as it only has a filter factor of 1 so hopefully I could use metering options as normal?

The NC filter is fine. If you're doing alot of seascapes, landscapes, skyshots, etc, you may want to consider the circular polarizer, FF-CP11 also. It has very nice optics. When set, it also acts as about a 1-1.5 stop ND filter.
Regards,
Kelly

Thanks for the post, I learned a thing or two as well. I wondered what the whir was too!

I have had mine about 30 day's. Getting better with it all the time. It is my first true digital camera. I have learned more about photography with it than any other camera I had. Maybe due to the immediate results!

Post some pic's!
--
aguy

Kevin, by all means get both of those filters, but especially the NC. I have seen people in this forum and an 8800 forum recommend a protective filter. I always thought that was a waste of money, but two months ago did buy the NC filter and began using it all the time when I did not have my other filters on. On vacation earlier in the month, I was doing roadside macros of wildflowers. Got too close and got a sticky substance on the NC. To make a long story short, conservative methods did not remove it. Since it was only the NC, I ended up scrubbing it to get the substance off and probably took off some of the protective coating. But I was SO glad this did not happen to my actual lens.

--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Darlene, Thanks. Just waiting for the price to come through (for spare battery too).

What are the other 8800 forums that you mentioned?

Kevin

I am considering a creative filter set from Cokin!! Seems to be a very flexible set-up!!

Kevin, there is an 8800 forum at imaging-resource.com. Just go to the forums, choose the Nikon forums, and then choose the 8800 forum. A smaller group than here but lively and helpful.
--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Thanks Darlene, will check that out.

I'm having real problems getting hold of the Nikon NC filter for my 8800. Nowhere seems to have them in stock and very few even have them listed. Amazon lists a Nikon 62mm NC filter with no other details. Any suggestions. I am in UK but I think I might consider shipping from overseas.

The battery will hopefully not be so much of a problem although that too seems pretty scarce.

I'm really desperate to get bith before a trip to Iceland in July.

Kevin, if you want to send me your email address--mine should be on my profile, if I locate one, I will email you where. But right now I am coming up empty. ([email protected])

Another alternative is to buy an adaptor ring specifically for the 8800 at nextphoto.net and use your own generic or brand name UV filter. I went that route so I could use the 5700 filter 67 mm set I had. And then later I happened to see the NC filter and bought one.

--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Darlene, Just want to ask another question of your experience with your 8800.

I have noticed with mine that the image displayed on the LCD seems noticibly blurred in comparison to the 5700.

The image seems to be less blurred momentarily just after recording to disk then seems to 'snap' into a slightly less focused. I wonder whether the same 'size' image is used as for the 5700 but displayed on the slightly larger screen it looks less focused...?

Is this something you have noticed?

Kevin

Kevin, I am not sure if this is what you are seeing, but if you have not turned on Quick Response in the monitor options in setup, you will get first a low resolution photo review and then a higher resolution one. If you have it turned on, you will only get the lower resolution review so it can cycle the review through quicker and possibly it may not look quite as good as your view when you were taking the photo. In macro I have also seen, as the lens adjusts and is in the process of focusing that it seems for an instant to be focused but then when the lens is through focusing, it does not look quite as good. When this happens I usually am too close and I recompose and try again.

--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Darlene,

Thanks. Of course. Had forgotten the quick response setting. There is so much to remember with a new device like this!!

I think I have seen the macro thing that you describe as well.

Thanks again.

Kevin

If you don't have any filters at all, you should buy the 58mm step-up ring from http://www.nextphoto.net , as allmost every brands have 58mm filters in the program.

I have a 58 step-up ring, and filters from B+W (UV), Hoya (NDx4 and NDx8) and Canon (250D macro).
--
Wigen
CP8800 - SB600

Another question if that's okay.

Probably one that I should have asked before upgrading but I'm not sure that it would have meant that I might buy and SLR anyway at this stage, but does the 8800 produce images that would be considered good enough for any sort of 'commercial' use?

I would like to put together a portfolio of images that I hope to offer for sale (all Hi Quality and takenon a tripod).

I would think that it does. The problems might arise for certain action or low light photos, but regular stuff, especially in RAW/NEF should work out fine. I know that Peter Bendheim (spelling?) who posts in this forum has his DSLRs and he also has an 8800. But I suggest you do a separate thread about that and see what responses you get from the pros.

--
Darlene
Nikon 995, 4300, 4500, 5700, 8800
Panasonic FZ10
http://www.pbase.com/imacatmom

Kevin Boardley said:

Probably one that I should have asked before upgrading but I'm not
sure that it would have meant that I might buy and SLR anyway at
this stage, but does the 8800 produce images that would be
considered good enough for any sort of 'commercial' use?

Click to expand...

Of cause you can; remember the camera is just the tool. If a picture is good or bad, depending on the photographer, and the eyes who look at the picture. And the CP8800 deliver the same quality as dSLR's.
--
Wigen
CP8800 - SB600