The Nikon D800 is a 36.3 megapixel professional-grade full-frame digital single-lens reflex camera produced by Nikon Corporation. It was given a Gold Award by Digital Photography Review.
It was officially announced on February 7, 2012 and went on sale in late March 2012 for the suggested retail price of $2999.95 in the U.S., £2399 in the UK, and €2892 in the Eurozone. Shortly after the camera went on sale, Nikon's UK subsidiary increased the price of the D800 in that market by £200 to £2599, saying that the original price was due to an "internal systems error". However, Nikon honored the original price for all pre-orders placed before March 24, and added that no price changes would be made in other markets.
The successor is the Nikon D810 - announced June 26, 2014.
Features
- 36.8 (36.3 effective) megapixel full-frame (35.9 mm × 24 mm) sensor with ISO 100â€"6400 (ISO 50â€"25600 boost)
- Nikon Expeed 3 image processor
- 91,000 pixel RGB metering sensor with Advanced Scene Recognition System
- Advanced Multi-CAM3500FX autofocus sensor (51-point, 15 cross-type, 11 points sensitive at maximum apertures as small as f/8)
- H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Expeed video processor. 1080p Full HD movie mode at 24/25/30 fps, 720p at 24/25/30/50/60 fps, HDMI HD video out with support of uncompressed video output, stereo monitor headphone out, and stereo input (3.5-mm diameter) with manual sound level control.
- 4 frames per second in continuous FX mode or 5:4 crop mode. 5 frames per second in continuous 1.2× crop mode or DX (APS-C) mode. With the optional MB-D12 battery grip, fitted with either the EN-EL18 battery pack of the D4 or AA batteries, continuous shooting at 6 frames per second in DX mode is supported.
- Buffer size for 17 RAW or 56 JPEG with maximum quality.
- Built-in High dynamic range imaging (HDR) mode (2 frames up to 3EV apart)
- 'Active D-Lighting' with 6 settings and bracketing (adjusts metering and D-Lighting curve)
- Customizable 'Picture Control' settings affecting exposure, white balance, sharpness, brightness, saturation, hue; allowing custom curves to be created, edited, saved, exported and imported
- Pop-up flash that doubles as a wireless flash controller
- USB 3.0 connectivity
- Image sensor cleaning
- Shutter rated at 200,000 actuations
- Live View with either phase detect or improved contrast detect Auto Focus
- Dual card slots, one CompactFlash UDMA and one SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-I and Eye-Fi (WLAN) compatible card slot (mirror, overflow, back-up, RAW on 1/JPEG on 2, Stills on 1/Movies on 2, copy)
- Magnesium alloy weather-sealed body comparable to D700, but considered less robust than D4
- GPS interface for direct geotagging supported by Nikon GP-1
Image quality
The Nikon D800 achieved a new 'king' result in the DxO Labs/DxOMark sensor rating by toppling the D4 by 4 points, even though the D800 is about half the price of the D4.
D800E
The D800E is a specialized version which uses a new optical anti-aliasing filter with no low pass filter effect (no blurring) to obtain the sharpest images possible. Nikon claims that possible aliasing effects (moiré) can be lessened by software-processing in camera or external programs like Nikon's Capture NX2.
Reviewers have pointed out that whilst increased moiré is difficult to remove in post-processing, it is relatively easy to combat while photo-taking (such as by changing the angle, aperture or position). Furthermore, moire is rarely found in photos (besides man-made, repeated patterns such as in architecture). Hence, most recommend the D800E, as the lack of low-pass filter brings about a noticeable improvement in optical resolution.
References
External links
- Nikon D800 â€" Nikon global website
- Nikon D800/D800E Manual
- Google Image: Nikon D800 and D800E sample, review and user images, >20MPix JPEG or Raw (NEF)
- Nikon D800 Press Release
- Nikon D800 Review at Camera Labs