carstenw
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.5 #13 · Nikon D800 + Zeiss ZF lenses - ur experience | |
Oh boy, that just reads like a Canon fan handling a Nikon  So here is my counter-part.
I had the opportunity to handle the D800 yesterday and make a few shots, and I was surprised how robust the body felt. Better than a D700 I think, although I didn't have one there to compare directly with. The D700 feels quite a bit better than the 5DII, but I haven't yet tried the 5DIII, so I cannot comment on that.
The D800 body was great, everything was where I expected it, the new LV button is a nice improvement, and there was clearly careful attention paid to the ergonomics here. I was afraid of this, coming from a D3, but I think it will be quite okay. The grip was the perfect size (maybe my hands are larger?), and I can easily handle the body with one hand, using the other hand for settings or whatever. Really nice. The weight is lower than the D700, which is very welcome, coming from a D3.
The one thing which gave me pause was focusing. I made four shots, and only got two in focus, and one was borderline. This was with a 100MP though, which can be tricky to focus, but clearly, this camera will be a beast to focus with. The problem is not the AF system or focus indicators, which are at least as good as on a D700, but simply the monstrous resolution which highlights every small error. The LV seems capable of showing where the focus point is with almost no slop, but the missing lines makes it not that visually attractive while doing so.
I was very surprised at the dynamic range of the photos. It wasn't obvious at a glance, but I pulled data out of a shot which looked like it had blown-out skin tones, and it looked great afterwards. Combined with the clean shadows, that is just amazing, and I guess the image quality is simply unmatched by anyone, for photography. For video, I understand that the 5DIII pulls ahead, although it does look like high NR is partly the reason for better high ISO here, i.e. it loses detail compared to the D800.
-
Okay, I am going to use this opportunity to vent a little on Canon ergonomics. Why do they have four completely different ergonomic layouts (1D series, 5D/7D and smaller bodies series, 50D and 60D)? It is like they haven't figured out what works best yet, and so they are stumbling around in the dark. Every Nikon I pick up has almost the same layout, with some minor deviations for the pro bodies due to the extra space, and some missing buttons on the low-end bodies, and of course minor differences in each new generation due to continual incremental refinement. With a Nikon, you instinctively know how to operate it within seconds, but whenever I pick up a Canon (several friends have them), I have to hunt around and figure out if/which buttons are doubly assigned, where the various buttons are, and so on, in spite of being a former 5D owner, and having used a 5DII for some time.
|
