I’ll start this post with a horse…
A few days ago I upgraded my main camera.
My previous main camera (and now my new back-up) – a Nikon D700 – had given me over 4 years and 120,000 photos of fine service and it probably could have lasted me a few more years, however last year Nikon really pulled out all the technical stops and have been dangling a tantalising magnesium-bodied carrot in front of my eyes for several months in the shape of their new-ish D800.
To say that the D800 has reviewed well would be an understatement. It is universally acclaimed as having the best image sensor in a DSLR right now. This is mostly thanks to the unprecedented level of definition it can capture with its 36.3 megapixel sensor. It was also said to have a build quality to match that of the D700 and – crucially for me – dual memory card slots, meaning that at a high-pressured job such as a wedding it’s possible to have back-ups of all images right from the moment they are shot. Quite a boon.
So, with the above in mind, I found myself at Park Cameras in Sussex last Friday purchasing a brand new D800 body. My early impressions of the camera have been hugely favourable. It captures more detail than my D700 does in any situation: it is noticeably better in low light, it is hugely better in high-contrast scenes (e.g. bride in a white dress standing next to a groom in a dark suit), and of course it hoovers up a truly extraordinary amount of detail with all those pixels.
On top of that it can do something that wasn’t even attempted on the D700 – video capture. It’s not something I have delved into much in the past – I have dabbled with it on my Nikon D5100 and my Olympus e-p1 but the results haven’t really bowled me over all that much. Judging by my early tinkerings I think video is something that will now really beg to be explored with the D800.
To finish, here’s an alternative crop of the top photo (I almost imagine it as an album cover…). It’s really quite a tight crop from the original yet is still has over 13 megapixels!
