1) The Nikon D800 LCD screen has a green cast on some images (D4 doesn't have this issue)
2) CF and SD card compatibility
3) Tethered shooting and Live View: when the D800 or D4 are set to manual mode in live view or when tethered the display shows the aperture stopped down making manual focus difficult (also true with D4). In auto-mode the behavior is normal (not stopped down).
4) D800 master can't fire slave flashes - see video.
I just tested my D4 in live view + manual mode at f/22 and I can confirm the LCD is nearly black. It lightens up as you open the aperture up and you can hear the aperture click consistent with the reported bug. If you switch to A/T/P modes while in live view the problem goes away. I don't have a D800 yet maybe someone else could confirm this.
The LCD is def different than my D3s. The D3s is more on the magenta side and the D800 is more on the green side - both look OK on their own but clearly a difference.
+1 on live view issue. Its a pain for manual focusing. Also do not think it is firmware fixable, it sounds like slow frame readout out of sensor for live view. Canon uses fast off-chip ADCs for readout to optimize for live view at the expense of banding/noise. Here, looks like Nikon has a problem with live view (@ 1:1 pixel level) because of their slow/low-noise column ADC approach.
Another firmware bug i found is: when you use custom function f2 playback -> zoom to focus point when multi-selector center button is pressed. When AF is used this function works properly and zooms in to whatever focus point is used. But, when manually focused using confirmation in viewfinder with anything other than center AF point... It always zooms in on to center AF point and not the AF point used for manual focus confirmation. This also makes it difficult for manual focus verification...
can someone else confirm this behaviour?
BTW, the focus confirmation in viewfinder is working great even in very low light.
bbvaj wrote:
+1 on live view issue. Its a pain for manual focusing. Also do not think it is firmware fixable, it sounds like slow frame readout out of sensor for live view. Canon uses fast off-chip ADCs for readout to optimize for live view at the expense of banding/noise. Here, looks like Nikon has a problem with live view (@ 1:1 pixel level) because of their slow/low-noise column ADC approach.
I agree it's probably a slow frame readout limitation but it's probably not related to Exmor/column ADC since the D7000/D5100 don't have this issue (although granted those sensors have 2.25x fewer pixels).
snapsy wrote:
Add this (I'm "horshack" on dpreview). Interpolated image is used for Live View magnification, making manual focus more difficult than it should be.
It's the same issue with the 5D Mark III... they had to implement fixes to improve video capture, and one of the side effects is this issue with critical focusing in Live View. I guess this is one example where adding video does impact the usability of these cameras for stills work.
The issue being related to exmor/column ADC is an educated guess... I am by no means 100% sure about it..
Any body tried live view in DX mode (i am not sure if that is possible)?? Is it any better or does it have the same issue?? There are chances it can be better as in case of D7000...
I am at work and probably try it when i get home in the evening... but if some one has access to the camera let us know.
RE live view readout/interpolation. I don't know what may be possible via firmware vs limitations of the electronics. Would it be possible to implement a different sensor readout method based on live view mode (photo vs video)? I would imagine that the interpolation method that appears to be happening is to reduce lag time to enhance the apparent fluidity of the live view. This seems very useful when shooting video and perhaps even when shooting images using live view but a major shortcoming when trying to use 100% zoom for critical focus.
Alternatively, perhaps implementing a different readout scheme only when live view is viewed at or greater than 100% zoom. Any additional lag, provided it is only moderate, would IMO be an acceptable tradeoff for the non-interpolated image.
plubbry wrote:
RE live view readout/interpolation. I don't know what may be possible via firmware vs limitations of the electronics. Would it be possible to implement a different sensor readout method based on live view mode (photo vs video)? I would imagine that the interpolation method that appears to be happening is to reduce lag time to enhance the apparent fluidity of the live view. This seems very useful when shooting video and perhaps even when shooting images using live view but a major shortcoming when trying to use 100% zoom for critical focus.
Alternatively, perhaps implementing a different readout scheme only when live view is viewed at or greater than 100% zoom. Any additional lag, provided it is only moderate, would IMO be an acceptable tradeoff for the non-interpolated image....Show more →
It's a good question. Many sensors support selective readouts of the image area, ie reading only a portion of the sensor. You would think this would be employed in Live View, at least for the magnification level that should correspond to 1:1 pixels, since it would greatly reduce the throughput requirements of the readout process.
molson wrote:
It's the same issue with the 5D Mark III... they had to implement fixes to improve video capture, and one of the side effects is this issue with critical focusing in Live View. I guess this is one example where adding video does impact the usability of these cameras for stills work.
It might be related to video. Perhaps they're using the same interpolation process that feeds the video as they are for the Live View feed. I just posted to the 5D forum on dpreview asking others to try it on their 5DM3.
