Originally posted by MJSfoto1956 I have shot extensively the D7100 vs D800 and I can flat out tell you from experience the images produced on the D800 are noticeably better than the D7100 (using the same lens). OTOH, if I put a killer lens on the D7100 and then put an ordinary lens on the D800 the less-capable camera suddenly can compete and in some cases surpass the D800. It has nothing to do with pixels. It has to do with SYSTEMS of which the sensor and the lens are just two key parts. In my case, I believe the Nikkor AF-S 80-400mm to be a less capable lens than the Pentax 60-250mm which would explain in my system comparison how the K-3 was "comparable". It has to be noted that the K-3 sensor by itself is *NOT* comparable to the D800. But as a system with the absolute best lens attached the K-3 can indeed produce similar IQ. Another lens that I expect to produce similar results will be the forthcoming Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. Crop sensor cameras suddenly have a lot of high-quality glass to choose from.
M
Any chance you confirmed your opinion with a few 3rd party, blind evaluators. I know lots of folks that have been shocked by the opinions of other people, thinking their own evaluation was in some way typical. The K-01 guy actually had his wife help with the evaluation. So, while I do value your opinion, I know of many cases where folks who know what they are evaluating, bias their opinion in favour of the one they think they prefer. In a D7100, D800 evaluation, it would be easy to do that, by evaluating on detail, instead of evaluating on the effect of the whole picture.
Personally I put someone like yourself in their opinion ahead of someone like myself, although I've had minimal experience with a comparison of a D800 with the 14-24, and though it wasn't unbiased probably, I preferred my K-5 images taken with the Sigma 8-16. But I put someone who has used a third party who doesn't give a crap what camera was used and just picking between two images, more credibility, and if there are 5 or 10 of them, that's even better.. My K-5 definitely had less detail than the D800, but the detail was distracting. Kind of like smooth bokeh compared to busy bokeh. Busy bokeh has more detail, but smooth bokeh is what people pay for. The Sigma 8-16 produced the more enjoyable and in my opinion, more saleable image.