Who It's For:
The Nikon D800 is Nikon’s long awaited replacement to the D700 intended for professionals and advanced amateurs. This camera is incredible for portrait and landscape photographers and anyone who needs an incredible amount of detail in their finished image.
What We Like:
Price: At just under $3000, the D800 delivers a huge amount of pro level features for a fraction of the cost of the D4. Also, the batteries used are the same as in the D7000 so they’re inexpensive and readily available.
Resolution: At 36MP the D800 has the highest megapixel count of any currently available DSLR, which not only gives you the freedom to make high-resolution crops, but also provides a huge amount of detail for post processing.
ISO Performance: The D800 has incredible ISO performance with a range from ISO 100 – 12,800 in full, half or third stops and ISO 50 – 204,800 in special modes.
Card Slots: The D800 has a single SD slot, and a single CF slot which provides for a great deal of flexibility when shooting. You can use one card as a backup or use them both as separate cards, which allow for a huge storage capacity, which you’ll need when you’re shooting 75mb RAW files.
Video: While not as amazing as the Nikon D4, the video on the D800 is still incredible, with very little “jello” effects.
What We Dislike:
File Sizes: The 36MP files from the D800 take up a huge amount of space. 14-bit Uncompressed RAW files are a whopping 75mb. If you’re a wedding photographer or someone who shoots a lot, this is going to be an issue.
Price of the Battery Grip: At $500, the battery grip for the D800 is very expensive.
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Correction needed: ISO range is 50 - 25,600.
I shoot weddings. I shoot events. I shoot for stock. The D800 files ARE NOT AN ISSUE. I also shoot with my D700 as well. I just shot for 19.5 hours a wedding in Puerto Rico over three days and returned with over 3500 images x 2 as I shoot raw and jpeg. Was there a problem? Nope. It's called keeping up and investing in your equipment
And BTW it is NOT the D700's replacement.
If you shoot lossless compressed the NEF (raw) files are "only" about 40megs each. Not a big deal. No one needs to shoot in the uncompressed mode. no one....