Nikon D800 / D800E

Well that I didn’t expect!  Nikon’s D700 replacement has been announced with an amazing 36MP!  I had read some rumours along these lines, but I firmly believed that the D800 would have the D4 16MP sensor.  It seems like Nikon has changed the focus of this camera, becoming more of a studio and video camera than a pro-‘junior’ camera, as the D700 was really just a scaled down D3.

The other interesting feature is the introduction of the D800E model – its the same as the D800, but without an anti-aliasing filter to increase sharpness.  AA filters greatly reduce moiré effects, but at the expense of a slight loss of sharpness.  I really am not sure which one I’d get, but probably the standard model as it would be more of an all round camera.

Another interesting point is the usable ISO.  It is very similar to the D700, despite the significantly increased pixel density.  I expect that noise will be slightly higher than a D700 at an given ISO, but this is still an amazing result given the megapixel count.

I must say the price tag isn’t at all unreasonable either.  I was certainly expecting it to be higher.  For me though it is right at the limit in terms of what I am prepared to pay for a replacement to my D700 that I sold 6 months ago, so I will have to make a call as to whether I will buy this or buy a used D700.  If I buy a D800, updating the NEX will be pretty much unaffordable, but if I buy a used D700, then I could more easily afford a NEX7 or Fuji XPro1.

Edward Gardens - Nikon D700 with Tamron 180mm f3.5 macro