D800 'panoramics'

[GetCarter]

The Nikon D800 can crop to decent res panoramics (62.3cm @ 300dpi).

Rude of me not too then:

http://www.stevecarter.com/random/panoramics.htm

[K12beano]

Phew - thought for a moment you were stitching a dozen uncompressed RAWs together - the lights would have gone out in Scotland for a week!


Nice shots, of course, as ever. You do have some nice light to play with and that new tool does do it well!

[GetCarter]

How you getting on with yours?

[K12beano]

Steve - it's an absolute dream. Despite having a bout of "man 'flu" for over half the time I have had it and taking only 200 test shots, I've got all the settings and three shooting and custom banks as I wanted. Also done the firmware upgrade with no problems.

But the level of detail appears amazing, very addictive! And then I remember the long list of reasons I was ready to change (which never included 36Mp). Just a few have included:


White Balance - auto very encouraging, including the "warmer" auto option appears to work well
AF - where I might have struggled before, the AF is a dream. I really have taken to the new button set up.
AF Fine Tune - so easy and effective - three lenses done
Live View - how did I manage for manual focus!
Auto ISO settings - brilliantly thought through and so easy to switch back to take control
High ISO - where I would have been at 640, I can see 3200 with either or both of a bit of downsizing and LR Noise Reduction
FX - It suddenly feels like the '90s again. I've got my lenses back. Have been exploring LR4 profile for Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8

As ever with Nikon, the Custom and Shooting Bank selection is a cumbersome process when switching - I guess they might never get that right - so nothing's perfect!


A crop, part of a frame at ISO 800, 105mm f/10, 1/250th:



2000 pixies wide at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30739877@N02/72571234...

[Simpo Two]

I encountered a chap last weekend with a D800E, kit lens and using pop-up flash.

Should I have (a) killed him and taken his camera (b) or let him be?

[GetCarter]

Simpo Two said:

I encountered a chap last weekend with a D800E, kit lens and using pop-up flash.

Should I have (a) killed him and taken his camera (b) or let him be?

Always kill. It helps in so many ways.

[...Mole...]

K12beano said:

2000 pixies wide at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30739877@N02/72571234...

Impressive detail for a crop, if I had the money I probably would've went for the D800 over the 5dmk2 when I moved from the D200.
Although I am still happy with the 5dmk2, even that made me see how much the D200 was ageing.

Also just realised I didn't have you added on Flickr, done now!

[K12beano]

Simpo. You should have bopped him over the bonce, and swapped the body for one of your modified '200s. Clearly he'd be none the wiser!

BUT....... disregarding the headline feature on the D800/D800E, I have to report that the briquette is an altogether lovely bit of kit and mega-miles beyond the brick in handling. If it was "just" a 12Mp, I'd want one and in a practical sense the abilities of downsized files and/or crops at 1.2 or 1.5 (DX) give it a flexibility that's unrivalled until you go D4 territory. (And that's before any video capability, which I haven't explored at all, yet)

[GetCarter]

K12beano said:

Simpo. You should have bopped him over the bonce, and swapped the body for one of your modified '200s. Clearly he'd be none the wiser!

BUT....... disregarding the headline feature on the D800/D800E, I have to report that the briquette is an altogether lovely bit of kit and mega-miles beyond the brick in handling. If it was "just" a 12Mp, I'd want one and in a practical sense the abilities of downsized files and/or crops at 1.2 or 1.5 (DX) give it a flexibility that's unrivalled until you go D4 territory. (And that's before any video capability, which I haven't explored at all, yet)

I find the colours a bit washed out in video... but haven't even read up on how to change that yet.

[K12beano]

PS. Whilst it's second nature to me to get all and the only answer is what results can you get and Steve's panos answer any question you have!

[K12beano]

GetCarter said:

I find the colours a bit washed out in video... but haven't even read up on how to change that yet.

Personally, I am anticipating churning clips through LR4 which has two obvious routes to taking control over the quality.

What about in-camera time lapse? Another feature I want to explore. Bet that's right up your Highland Path, Steve?

[GetCarter]

K12beano said:

Personally, I am anticipating churning clips through LR4 which has two obvious routes to taking control over the quality.

What about in-camera time lapse? Another feature I want to explore. Bet that's right up your Highland Path, Steve?

Haven't tried it yet. I like the fact that it'll 'stich' them together and export as a single file... whether it'll work or not God only knows.

[wolves_wanderer]

One of ours has turned up and im looking forward to giving it a workout next week. Even from the messing about shots it looks like a big jump from the D3x we were using, it's also the first video-capable SLR we've had, the video is good enough that we can retire our video camera.

Edit, what battery life are you guys getting? Only have 1 battery at the moment.

Edited by wolves_wanderer on Thursday 31st May 19:59

[GetCarter]

wolves_wanderer said:

One of ours has turned up and im looking forward to giving it a workout next week. Even from the messing about shots it looks like a big jump from the D3x we were using, it's also the first video-capable SLR we've had, the video is good enough that we can retire our video camera.

Edit, what battery life are you guys getting? Only have 1 battery at the moment.

Edited by wolves_wanderer on Thursday 31st May 19:59

I think I'm just strange. My batteries seem to last forever. I have the one that came with it, I've taken 3000 shots in 2 months and only charged it twice. I wouldn't even consider buying a backup unless I was away for two weeks. As I speak it's still reading full and I was using it a LOT on Harris. (ETA 786 shots)

[wolves_wanderer]

GetCarter said:

wolves_wanderer said:

One of ours has turned up and im looking forward to giving it a workout next week. Even from the messing about shots it looks like a big jump from the D3x we were using, it's also the first video-capable SLR we've had, the video is good enough that we can retire our video camera.

Edit, what battery life are you guys getting? Only have 1 battery at the moment.

Edited by wolves_wanderer on Thursday 31st May 19:59

I think I'm just strange. My batteries seem to last forever. I have the one that came with it, I've taken 3000 shots in 2 months and only charged it twice. I wouldn't even consider buying a backup unless I was away for two weeks. As I speak it's still reading full and I was using it a LOT on Harris. (ETA 786 shots)

Good to know thank you, I barely use the rear screen so should be similar hopefully. I do around 800 shots a day and saw the battery life quoted at 900 so I worried a bit.

One more observation, our usable ISO ceiling has jumped from 1600 to 6400 and the auto ISO Taking account of focal length looks handy (although I've yet to properly test it.)

[K12beano]

wolves_wanderer said:

Edit, what battery life are you guys getting? Only have 1 battery at the moment.

Difficult to say. First charge was gobbled up while I arsed around with AF tuning and setting up. Second charge has lasted several hundred shots including LV and chimping, and I am just giving the Time Lapse a test on the remaining about 50% charge. Gut feeling is 1000 shots easily just like the D2X on its monster battery.

But I got two batteries from Hong Kong for about £80 (that's for the pair, Fleabay), they're genuine (and weren't in the recalled batch), so that's less than the price for one battery for a D2/3. I anticipate lots more LV and chimping....


Niggles: minor issue for me, but "Quiet" mode breaches Trades Descriptions!

[wolves_wanderer]

Quiet mode is a bit rowdy!

The AF tune is strange, I have a 24-70 which showed a massive difference and ended up +8 but the 70-200 showed very little variation and is +1 (could be 0 but I spent a lot a time and felt like I should at least change it!).