[Wired]

man I love this camera. I just can't put it down. I never wanted to take the D600 out. I was so disappointed in the way it handled it actually upset me. But the D800, wow, just wow. It feels really solid. I mean really solid. We know solid the K5 feels, and how durable it is. To me the D800 is quite possibly even better...aside from the battery door. Mine actually fell off.

Yes, the battery door fell off. I found it in the bottom of my bag, and it snapped back in just fine. I have no idea how it just fell off, but I'm very irritated by it. I asked the shop I bought it from if they have seen this before, and apparently its common to them. Kind of frustrating if you ask me....

So far I have only 4 issues including the aforementioned battery door and iso button placement. The next issue here is the bright yellow Nikon D800 strap. thankfully this is something I can rectify with a new strap from Couch (The Mustang Trunk Liner Camera Strap - $29.95 : Best Guitar Straps | Vegan Belts | Vinyl Guitar Straps | Guitar Straps, Seat belt guitar straps and vinyl guitar straps, vegan belts) I got many of their guitar straps and love them to pieces.


Alas, issue four is one that pains me....literally. It's a big heavy camera, and my kit, while modest in size, is also very heavy. When I had an accident involving a low clearance sign and my bike atop my car yesterday, I had to ride my bike home from the mall. Normally not a biggie. but, I didn't want to leave my D800 kit (full kit too) in my car with a damaged window. So it came with me on my bike. I had my thinktank bag with me, which is just a shoulder messenger style bag. Not the greatest for riding, and well, with the D800, 2 SB700, 28 f2.4, 50 f1.4 Zeiss, 85 1.8, and 80-200 f2.8 in it... it was quite heavy. I also decided to take a long walk today, with D800 and 85 1.8G in tow, and it got pretty heavy after the first hour. This is not a camera I want to take with me on long walks or bike rides. Good thing I still got my Pentax kit.

While my thinktank bag (Urban Disguise) is probably the best decision in bags I've ever made for my Pentax kit. A D800 is just too heavy for long use with this bag. So I'm looking at either a sling pack or a full fledged backpack.

more photos






(panormas with D800 is insanely taxing to process by the way)

[richmondthefish]

Awesome pics and thread.

Is there any way when you have time to make some comparison shots with prime lens of both the K5 and D800? Not a test pattern pixel peeping but some real world shots of the FA31mm on the Pentax compared to the 50mm D800. After using the K5 for a while the images are just not blowing me out of the water after looking at the D800’s lol.

[Wired]

Awesome pics and thread.

Is there any way when you have time to make some comparison shots with prime lens of both the K5 and D800? Not a test pattern pixel peeping but some real world shots of the FA31mm on the Pentax compared to the 50mm D800. After using the K5 for a while the images are just not blowing me out of the water after looking at the D800’s lol.

sure, I got some time tonight. Gives me a good excuse to take pictures of my new boy


I was planning on doing a 50mm test on my K5, using the Nikon 50 1.8 and force fitting it onto my k5, so I'll do that test sometime coming up soon as well.



AS for the difference in photo quality, I can tell you right now, the glass I have for my D800 vs the glass for my K5 makes it very hard to distinguish at net sizes between the two. At least in my opinion. If one were to say, go and get some FA Limited quality primes for the D800, then maybe there would be a bigger difference.

[D4rknezz]

Hey Wired, glad you liked your purchase.

I have the same impression as you do. Most of the advantages of the D800 for me is exactly as you described, autofocusing, speed.

@richmondthefish I posted several glamour shot comparison (after PP) for D800 , K200, and K5 a while back. I think pentax is an excellent performer. I've done wedding shots with both cameras, and unless I pixel peep, I dont think I'd notice which is which.

[kenafein]

Great Pano.

[richmondthefish]

sure, I got some time tonight. Gives me a good excuse to take pictures of my new boy


I was planning on doing a 50mm test on my K5, using the Nikon 50 1.8 and force fitting it onto my k5, so I'll do that test sometime coming up soon as well.



AS for the difference in photo quality, I can tell you right now, the glass I have for my D800 vs the glass for my K5 makes it very hard to distinguish at net sizes between the two. At least in my opinion. If one were to say, go and get some FA Limited quality primes for the D800, then maybe there would be a bigger difference.

Thanks

Yeah the glass factor is also a consideration. I'm not sure for example what would be considered the best 50mm prime for Nikon. Is it the NIKKOR 50mm f/1.2 AIS or AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G. Are they even as optically good as the Pentax's?

[richmondthefish]

@richmondthefish I posted several glamour shot comparison (after PP) for D800 , K200, and K5 a while back. I think pentax is an excellent performer. I've done wedding shots with both cameras, and unless I pixel peep, I dont think I'd notice which is which.

Thanks I did check them out. Great shots btw and also I couldn't tell a difference.


The differences I've seen is when viewing really large photo's on my 27"....landscape or even fashion. That's when I start noticing the difference. Also the ones you posted are a little smaller and have a decent amount of Photoshop going on(they look cool though). So you wouldn't noticed the difference on any camera.

[D4rknezz]

Thanks I did check them out. Great shots btw and also I couldn't tell a difference.


The differences I've seen is when viewing really large photo's on my 27"....landscape or even fashion. That's when I start noticing the difference. Also the ones you posted are a little smaller and have a decent amount of Photoshop going on(they look cool though). So you wouldn't noticed the difference on any camera.

Ya...for the glamour photographer - it doesnt make much difference. They look indistinguishable at full size too, because of pp. The pictures @wired is going to take with his primes would show more of a difference

[tuco]

If one were to say, go and get some FA Limited quality primes for the D800, then maybe there would be a bigger difference.

Has anyone tested the limited lenses on a FF dslr? A lot of lenses made to cover a FF seem to perform much better on a smaller sensor across the frame.

[Wired]

Has anyone tested the limited lenses on a FF dslr? A lot of lenses made to cover a FF seem to perform much better on a smaller sensor across the frame.

I've used my 77 FA with an adapter. But there's an optical element there that degrades the quality

[richmondthefish]

Has anyone tested the limited lenses on a FF dslr? A lot of lenses made to cover a FF seem to perform much better on a smaller sensor across the frame.

Somebody has a limited on a Mark II D which I thought looked really good

[richmondthefish]

Ya...for the glamour photographer - it doesnt make much difference. They look indistinguishable at full size too, because of pp. The pictures @wired is going to take with his primes would show more of a difference

I was looking at more examples on flickr last night between the K5 and D800. There is certain shots the K5 just can't reproduce with the same quality. I think landscape shots are where the K5 lacks by far the most compared to the D800. There is just a huge gap between the two.....i've seen cool K5 shots but i've seen tons of D800 shots that make my mouth drop in awe.

With certain glamour pics there is no difference between the two systems. Some glamour shots there is a big difference....a shot on the beach without much touchup in the computer for example.

[benjikan]

Yeah...Just changed my D600 for the D800. Pretty incredible output.

Oh and finally. The 5×4 crop format is amazing as it is so close to all of the magazine formats that I work with. I might need to shave off 1 to 2% but it is almost spot on for most of the magazines. Thus the camera become a very powerful 30+ megapixel powerhouse. It is like it is made for fashion magazines. Of course for horizontal landscape format, will change back to the Full Frame 24×36 mm format and get the full 36.2 megapixels.

[Wired]

Yeah...Just changed my D600 for the D800. Pretty incredible output.

Oh and finally. The 5×4 crop format is amazing as it is so close to all of the magazine formats that I work with. I might need to shave off 1 to 2% but it is almost spot on for most of the magazines. Thus the camera become a very powerful 30+ megapixel powerhouse. It is like it is made for fashion magazines. Of course for horizontal landscape format, will change back to the Full Frame 24×36 mm format and get the full 36.2 megapixels.

One kind of needs to go from 600 to 800 if they were/are a K5 owner. There are so many missing features one is used to having that you can feel crippled. Then there are the added benefit like the crop modes.

[Frogfish]

Some thoughts reading the thread ( I have both the D800E, after selling the D800, and D600).

1. Yes the D800 is a big step up from the D600 but I still think you have under estimated the quality of this camera.
2. I can't understand why you buy a $3,000+ camera and then compromise on the SD cards ! Buy the best !
3. Those huge files are fantastic for bird photography since you can crop so deep into them. The D600's are almost as good and have just as good DR. For a landscape tog the D600 is superb.
4. K5 & Ltds is a fantastic kit.
5. You can reduce file size by reducing 14 to 12 bits with virtually no noticeable degradation.

Oops flight embarkation has started - I'll come back to this later !
Cheers
Kevin