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Nikon D800 topic
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  • @heradicattor
    What do you mean with "Mosaic"?

  • @tetakpatak Mosaic Engineering is a company that produces filters for various DSLRs (including the 5D Mk II and the D800) that optically correct moire and aliasing.

    See http://mosaicengineering.com/

  • @ahbleza
    interesting, I didn't know about it yet. Thx

  • @tetakpatak It's a good solution if you're doing a lot of video work, and can be quickly removed for photography. I don't have it myself, but Philip Bloom reports that it works well.

  • it is very good for stills, but ok for video. diglloyd has an informative review (pay version). a hacked gh2 is a better option for me for video apps

  • @hay
    Do you own D800 yourself? It is definitely not poor for video, please don't belive just every bullshit from the internet. That experts should build better camera themselves. Sorry mate, it's really wrong information.

    For the stills: it is not just good, it is amazing- I almost fall off my chair each time I see new pictures on the big screen and can't find time to finally start more exploring its video functions, which also seem to be very exciting.

  • You must not forget the clean hdmi 422 output, and the BBC test put it at about 12 stop of DR and very good rolling shutter. The mushiness is most of the time the result of wide DR which makes the image very flat. A 12 stop DR image with a 8 bit depth poses some question. I guess I will have to make some test when I get hyperdeck.

  • I used one on Maui and while it wasn't quite up to GH2 spec for video it was very nice, the full frame look, but much sharper than a Canon, no Aliasing that bothered me.

  • I shot a video with GH2 and D800 last month, and I thought they both compared very well to each other. Take a look, and see if you can figure which camera angle is the GH2, and which one is the D800.

  • I own a D800 and I'm very happy about the video!! That DR is awesome!!!!

  • Hi,

    Does anyone know the following: the exact distance from the center of the lens to camera base of a D800? the exact distance from the lens mount face to center of tripod screw of a D800? I would love to know if the camera will work with my panoramic head before buying but this vital information is missing from every review.

    Thanks

  • The lens mount distance to tripod mount isn't what you want. Lens mount distance is an arbitrary amount chosen by the camera manufacturer. For example, Canon uses a different flange distance than Nikon for FF cameras. I think the distance from the sensor is a better measurement to start from and then calculate the lens's nodal point from there (and it will vary from lens to lens). Here is a fairly decent and simple explanation of the panorama "parallax" problem: http://www.panoguide.com/howto/panoramas/parallax.jsp

  • I just looked at my D800 and the center of the tripod mount is right at the sensor. That puts it at 46.5mm from the lens flange - but like I said before, that's not meaningful. Here is a list of the flange distances for various cameras (you'll notice, for example that Nikon FF is 46.5mm and Canon FF is 44mm): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange_focal_distance

    Here is a tutorial I found about determining the nodal point of a lens - hopefully you'll find it useful: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/2114189

  • Nikon D800 body will be $2799.95 after $200 instant savings

  • Wish I had the budget for a D800. @Vitaliy_Kiselev, that deal is really good for the D800, THX. It's a great combo cam. The level of Video and Photo that camera is capable of is sick. Especially the photo side. Since I do events where I need both top notch photo and video it's a serious consideration.

    As for the video i'm more of a DR guy than ultimate detail. So long as the detail is high enough to be credible and not at the softness level of the Canons, then I think DR is very much the next most important thing for me. The D800 has really good DR and that's what I think puts it in the same high quality range as the GH line. I also do a lot of posters for clients and the D800 would be a very strong tool for that purpose. D800 just isn't a low budget tool. Bigger Lens investment and for me I think the D800 really shines with an Atomos Ninja, so that also adds to the cost. Man I need some big jobs :)

  • Thanks cbrandin, the panoguide, Flange focal distance and smugmug links are all very interesting and informative . Do you also happen to know the exact distance from the center of the lens to camera base of the D800. Even knowing the distance from the camera base to the bottom edge of the lens mount would be useful. I can work the rest out for myself as Nikon SLR lens mounts are all the same size.

  • I assume you mean the vertical distance. It looks to be 49.5mm from lens center to base.

  • Thanks for that cbrandin its just the distance i needed. From what i read here the D800 looks to be a fine camera and from the figures you gave me should fit my panoramic head. Just need to find the cash now...

  • @Aria it seems to me that the DR of the D800 is bigger than GH2's. It just my first impression, I had no time to test it in detail and probably it would need to be tested with several good patches on the GH2. But I am sure there are some good tests meanwhile. Possibly the upcoming Sony FF NEX could use the same sensor as the D800 and hopefully it will be in your budget, though D800 is not expensive for such a camera.

  • Another article about Dexter:

    http://www.studiodaily.com/2013/01/nikons-d800-gets-down-and-dirty-for-dexter/

    Scroll down to next to last paragraph: ' Nikon support of the D800s "has been and continues to be phenomenal," says Fletcher. "They listen to what we need, they come to the set, they implement firmware updates as needed. That's all made some very unique shots possible that we just couldn't have gotten otherwise'

    Perhaps an ISO and/or picture profile tweak? - Very interesting.

  • Here's more on the D800 shooting on Dexter. They seem quite taken with the quality, even compressed with factory settings. Here's a quote:

    "We used the Alexa as a baseline and had the D800 recording to an outboard recorder uncompressed and to an internal memory card at H.264 compressed," says Fletcher. "We also tested a Canon C300 with a Cooke lens on it—a $40,000 setup—running alongside the $4,000 Nikon D800 setup. The Canon footage had what you might call an over-smooth look to it. But the D800 uncompressed footage blew us away."

    There are some interesting comments on the Nikkor lenses they used too. They also describe the workflow and rigging.

    "The team set a primary look for the second-unit D800 that toned down the sharpening, contrast, color and saturation to flatten the image and make it more pliable in post. "The image out of the box is very naturalistic, but if we baked in a crunchy look, we could only get crunchier. We need that flatness to be able to throw a look at it in post and go." "

    Here's the link: http://www.studiodaily.com/2013/01/nikons-d800-gets-down-and-dirty-for-dexter/

    Read more on NikonRumors.com: http://nikonrumors.com/2013/01/10/nikon-d800-shooting-dexter.aspx

  • @hay, From what i've seen the D800 had more than a stop of DR over the GH2. The Sensor in the D800 has a DR on the photo side of 14 and from the testing i've read on the video side it's 12 Stops!!! Overall the Sensor in the D800 is far superior to the GH2 sensor from a purely technical standpoint. It's amazing how good the GH2 looks given the wide gap between the two sensors.

    I think the D800 is going to be at it's best when using the HDMI output. Using the 4:2:2 HDMI output from what i've seen tests show that the D800 handles highlights better than the GH2 as well as shadows. The D800 also does in fact look better using the 4:2:2 HDMI output versus the internal codec and tweaking in an NLE. The difference in sharpness between the HDMI and Internal recording is not what I would call a huge one but it does improve slightly using the HDMI output. Just based on the technical stats the GH2 and D800 are very close in terms of detail. I also have read that detail improves even more using the Mosaic Anti Aliasing Filter. That's how I would use a D800 if I were to buy one.

    I think it's a tough call between deciding amongst the D800/Ninja/Mosaic Filter, GH2/3 or a BMC. Each has it's strengths and value. I think the BMC does have it's RAW 2.5K shooting strengths. Meanwhile the D800/Ninja/Mosaic combo has it's strengths being a top flight Photo Cam with FF video look, near BMC DR at a lower cost overall since it's not RAW recording and processing. The GH2/3 is such a complete tool with the absolute BEST cost to Performance Ratio of any camera.