Benchmark performance: Nikon D810 in-depth review

This WAS a major released 2 years ago.

Agreed. If I would be DPR, I would axe the comment section. On the other hand it is very entertaining. There should be also a challenge for the most hillarious comment of the week.

exapixel is right. complaining about the timeliness of dpreviews articles is childish.

Not everyone buys a camera the month/year it comes out.

How can you be so blind to that?

Sorry gentlemen, I thought this was an open forum

It is open.

Thats why we are questioning you as to why you don't understand that people don't buy cameras when they first come out.

Do you understand that?

@ exapixel: I read their explanation the same as you did. When many of DPR's viewers rely on their reviews for assistance in making a decision on whether or not to purchase a new camera, I consider timeliness a responsibility to their clientele. DPR is the best site for reviews and news on the internet and my comment was directed to them, more than you.

@Thematic: Many readers of DPR become very interested at the announcement of a new camera and rely on DPR to help them make a decision to purchase in a timely manner. And, there are a large number of us that do purchase a camera sooner than two years after its release. If you don't recognize this, then perhaps I am not the one who is blind.

D810 successor is a good year away from release, going by Nikon's (roughly) 3 year DSLR body product cycle. Besides, there are other sources for reviews, if DPR isn't timely enough for you. More things to be concerned about in this world than how DPR schedules its reviews.

You are still missing the point. This review by dpreview is very relevant and their explanations are valid.

You need to stop complaining.

Hopefully you also value correctness in reviews, in which case you might appreciate the plethora of new & revamped tests that went into the D810 review, & that most other cameras reviewed over the past year and a half have benefited from.

That doesn't happen overnight.

Once we had gotten these tests rolled out - and the D810 tested - it's hard to hold up reviews of more recent (relevant) cameras. Then we'd get complaints about all those cameras not being reviewed while they were relevant. In other words, once we'd already missed the mark some 6+ months after release, it was hard to justify prioritizing the D810 review over all else. It might help to understand that we're constrained, very constrained and resource limited. We're a small team.

To put things in some perspective, maybe I should point out I worked 16 hr days this entire week, and 20 hours on Wed - till 6am Thursday - to get this review out this week.

Also: hopefully you've noticed the timeliness of recent reviews?

WGVanDyck is right on all counts.

He's right in that the review appeared too late. One had to live in a cave for the last two years not to learn everything relevant about D810.

He's also right in that, being a DPR fan, he voices his concern and lets DPR know his opinion. Everyone understands those reviews are lots of work. OK, fine, cancel entire queue, start over, and do fewer and/or shorter reviews while they still matter.

As to "fewer reviews": if DPR stays committed to those multi-page monster reviews, then, since reviewers' resources are limited, pick only select cameras, the ones being truly important in this or that way, and review only them. But for goodness sake, do it in less than two years.

As long as a camera is still a current model, a review is relevant and still matters. I'd rather have a thorough review two years after release than a short, superficial review within days or weeks after the release date.

I think it was quite candid of DPR to recognise they they may be getting out of their depth with cameras like this and rather than giving some half baked review that wouldn't do the camera justice, to instead put their energies into making changes that, as Rishi points out, benefits all other reviews.

What Richie descibes is very much the development of infrastructure that will aid future reviews.

In the end everyone and every product benefits.

"As to "fewer reviews": if DPR stays committed to those multi-page monster reviews, then, since reviewers' resources are limited, pick only select cameras, the ones being truly important in this or that way, and review only them. But for goodness sake, do it in less than two years."

You speak as if all our camera reviews take 2 years, when it was just this one.

This was an unfortunate exception that fell through the cracks amidst all of our changes, so you can either be happy we did go back to it, or you can just treat it as if we never reviewed it. Telling us something we already know like 'don't take 2 years to review a camera' doesn't really add to the conversation.

Also, as to: "One had to live in a cave for the last two years not to learn everything relevant about D810." -- are you suggesting that in-depth mirror/shutter related findings, low light AF performance dip, and DR/SNR matching 645Z, which no other review I can find on the 'net, covered are irrelevant?

> You speak as if all our camera reviews take 2 years

Rishi, on many occasions, you rightfully blasted DPR users (myself included) for making assumptions. So please practice what you preach and don't do this to me -- I did not say anything close to what you assumed.

That said, many reviews of important cameras have never appeared on DPR because of your review policy. Again, not saying it is "wrong", so no point in defending it. All I'm saying is that I don't like it, and, from what I see in the comments, may user share my *opinion*.

Thank you Rishi Sanyal and everyone for responding to my post. All very interesting.

I certainly agree that the time delay of the D810 was an unusual event for DPR, and I, for one, would hate to see shortened or fewer reviews. DPR's work is without question the best online. And, there are cameras I would have loved to have seen full reviews on too, but understand that there are only so many hours in a day.

Rishi's explanation of the D810 review process makes perfect sense and denotes very understandable priorities. Thank you, Rishi.

Also, thank you vadims. Your kind words made my evening.

You get the best camera reviews for free here and you still complain.

Junk1: like the studio scene, dynamic range, real world dynamic range, and mirror/shutter shock results that were published, and have been available on our site, 9+ months to over a year now?

What you're describing is exactly what we do.

Nonsense -the reviews in Popular Photography, and Modern Photography, were just as eagerly awaited in the 60's. Sure the terrain has changed, but people are the same...

The D810 is better in many ways to the D800 in terms of AF. We never said that it's generally worse.

We're saying that it falters in low light after testing 3 copies of the D810 under controlled scenarios vs. a D800, D800E, 5DS, 5D Mark III, 7D Mark II, and Sony a7R II.

Have to agree with AKH and disagree with Rishi.
Wonder if the testing methodology was flawed.
There is a difference between precision and accuracy.

Sony still struggle to catch up to Nikon in DR low light image with EV push as well. Even in A7RII also.

looks like you never did landscape with high contrast ...

osan, you're confusing HDR with dynamic range.

@stevevelvia50...You've made me smile, thank you.

smiling is a good thing!

Seriously though, there are occasions when these sensors become a real asset. I Was exploring the interior of an old abandoned house that was very dark inside, I could barely see some interesting color and discarded furniture and other things. My meter showed 30 seconds at something like iso 1000 and 5.6. What I did was ignore my meter reading, set camera to bulb and shot at iso 200, f8 and 24 seconds, and checking my histogram which looked promising. I Was able pull the image in ACR and it was perfect, just amazing.

I beg your pardon!? You think we are called amateur for push/pull 4 ev or more? How dare you! I have seen some of photos in that gallery here looks like push well over few stops or even up to 5 stops in few images I can tell.

"But 4EV push for shadows is only for small prints and Facebook photos and it shows all the symptoms of over processing."

So then you must also think that ISO 1000 files from the D810 are garbage, only suitable for small prints and Facebook photos. Yes?

Which one?

Not at all

Switching to K1?

Or is the D820 on the horizon.. :-)

Nikon is really lagging in lenses, especially on that fully modern and affordable f/1.8 prime line-up of the 20/24/35/50/85!

Well, then, it's a good thing we reviewed it while people can still buy it. :)

But we hear you, which is why we've been working very hard to speed up delivery of recent reviews, while not sacrificing quality.

Better late than never.
I don't understand why some people expect DPR to upload a full 200 page review of every product a day after the official release.
DPR may be significant, but it's not the only way to judge whether a product is worth purchasing.

I find this review particularly valuable since it says something about how the camera, in this case the D810, holds up against newer competition, like the 5Ds and A7R II. Apparently, it's doing rather well.

"Unfortunately, the camera gives little indication as to what scenarios would benefit from adjusting these three parameters."
"But on the 80D the settings are listed separately with no clues given for how to configure them."
"For the most part, during my testing, I left many of these options in their default positions. "

Rishi, these lines from the review gave me the impression, that you (=dpr) didn't try to adjust the AF, because you were uncertain about the given options.
Looking at the manual, I found this explanation on a setting, though:
"For example, for an approaching subject, the camera becomes less prone to focus behind it to avoid subject blur." (p.417 )
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