Can this be a perfect camera?

talmy · Mar 19, 2015

I bought for landscape photography, for which the 36mp sensor and fantastic DR has made it a real winner. Improvements in bracketing, Live View, levels (horizon), button placement over my earlier Nikons (D300s was previous) are welcome. Still don't like the implementation of shooting banks.

It seems to have less ability to recover highlights from RAW files than my older Nikons, so I must be more careful about exposure. Noise seems most prevalent in mid-tones -- blacks are clean and skies are rendered much better than the D300s.

Retiring soon and I expect this will be the last camera I'll ever feel the need to buy.

vbuhay · Mar 19, 2015

talmy said:
I bought for landscape photography, for which the 36mp sensor and fantastic DR has made it a real winner. Improvements in bracketing, Live View, levels (horizon), button placement over my earlier Nikons (D300s was previous) are welcome. Still don't like the implementation of shooting banks.

It seems to have less ability to recover highlights from RAW files than my older Nikons, so I must be more careful about exposure. Noise seems most prevalent in mid-tones -- blacks are clean and skies are rendered much better than the D300s.

Retiring soon and I expect this will be the last camera I'll ever feel the need to buy.

talmy · Mar 19, 2015

vbuhay said:
If you are ever interested in Action/BIF/Sports/Airshow and low light, the D750 will complete your gear.

I understand that, but I don't shoot action so didn't really consider the D750. Another advantage of the D810 in my case is that when I use a DX lens I get more resolution and DR than my old D300s, pretty much making my D300s obsolete. With the D750, I'd lose resolution compared to the D300s. I'm mostly using primes, but if I bought a D750 I'd probably have to buy a new mid-range zoom to go with it, making the D810 less expensive.

As it turns out, I'm keeping the D300s anyway because it works great when I don't need the resolution or DR, and it has little residual value.

soloryb · Mar 19, 2015

talmy said:
I bought for landscape photography, for which the 36mp sensor and fantastic DR has made it a real winner. Improvements in bracketing, Live View, levels (horizon), button placement over my earlier Nikons (D300s was previous) are welcome. Still don't like the implementation of shooting banks.

It seems to have less ability to recover highlights from RAW files than my older Nikons, so I must be more careful about exposure. Noise seems most prevalent in mid-tones -- blacks are clean and skies are rendered much better than the D300s.

Retiring soon and I expect this will be the last camera I'll ever feel the need to buy.

talmy · Mar 19, 2015

soloryb said:
The D810 will be good for a few more years and then some new technological breakthrough will occur and make cameras like it obsolete, or at least so far surpassed that buying a newer toy will become too attractive to resist. Then there's the wear factor. All cameras are mechanical and all newer cameras are both mechanical and electronic. Machines wear out and break down and electronic components eventually fail.

It will take a major breakthrough because the laws of physics make adding pixels without going to a larger format give diminishing returns. Maybe a 36MP Foveon sensor? I'd also consider a B&W camera. I've tried a few in-camera B&W JPEGs with the D810 and was amazed at their clarity. Much better than anything I took back in the film days.

Osvaldo Cristo · Mar 19, 2015

vbuhay said:
talmy said:

I bought for landscape photography, for which the 36mp sensor and fantastic DR has made it a real winner. Improvements in bracketing, Live View, levels (horizon), button placement over my earlier Nikons (D300s was previous) are welcome. Still don't like the implementation of shooting banks.

[...]

Click to expand...

If you are ever interested in Action/BIF/Sports/Airshow and low light, the D750 will complete your gear.

I do not agree you need D750 mandatorily. Yes, it can help but for most of the situations you definitively do not need any other camera besides D810.

The low light performance from D810 is only a tad lower than D750. Do not expect any drastic difference between the IQ from the cameras... actually I guarantee you most of the people will see no difference at all!

D810 is also capable to get action/BIF/Sports/Airshow:

You can use only D810 and to get very good results under almost any photographic situations.

All the best,

--
O.Cristo - An Amateur Photographer
Opinions of men are almost as various as their faces - so many men so many minds. B. Franklin

soloryb · Mar 19, 2015

talmy said:
soloryb said:

The D810 will be good for a few more years and then some new technological breakthrough will occur and make cameras like it obsolete, or at least so far surpassed that buying a newer toy will become too attractive to resist. Then there's the wear factor. All cameras are mechanical and all newer cameras are both mechanical and electronic. Machines wear out and break down and electronic components eventually fail.

Click to expand...

It will take a major breakthrough because the laws of physics make adding pixels without going to a larger format give diminishing returns. Maybe a 36MP Foveon sensor? I'd also consider a B&W camera. I've tried a few in-camera B&W JPEGs with the D810 and was amazed at their clarity. Much better than anything I took back in the film days.

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Can this be a perfect camera?

talmy

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vbuhay

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talmy

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soloryb

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talmy

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Osvaldo Cristo

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