Nikon D800/D800E

“Nikon D800 functions as Nikon’s flagship camera” according to DXO Mark, and it is currently the top camera on their Sensor Scores. The 36mp image sensor is an extremely demanding piece of photography both to the photographer and the lens. The resolution advantage is easily lost when it's not focused properly, or the quality of the lens does not meet the highest standards. Only when using lenses like the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 16-35mm f/4G ED VR, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED and the Nikon 70-200mm f/4G ED VR  will get some decent zoom performance wile the best results will only come when using prime lenses like the Carl Zeiss Distagon 15mm f/2.8, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G and will shine with the new Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM.

"Announced in 2012, the Nikon D800 is the current undisputed king of DxOMark, with results that eclipse every other camera from all other manufacturers. However, with so much resolution on tap, the question is, which lenses should you use to make the best of what you’ve got? The DxOMark labs have tested 61 different lenses on the D800 to bring you an unparalleled resource of which lenses are best and which should be avoided.

"As we said at the outset, this review is more about the single difference between the D800 and D800E: the absence of a low-pass filter and its effects. It's clear from our analysis that both the D800 and D800E have moiré issues, but the D800E's is much more apparent and challenging to address. What we also found was that the D800E indeed captures more detail than the D800, making it uniquely suited to landscape photography, or scientific applications where moiré won't be an issue.

"The frame-rate is really 4-5fps. I know what some reports say about having the battery grip can give you 6fps, but I don’t buy it. It doesn’t seem any quicker to me. Because of the massive RAW files, even Nikon’s capacious buffers fill up pretty quickly. However, I like this camera a lot as it takes a step back in some regards. With the D3s I am spoilt. I can be lazy and just fire away with a vague unengaged hope of bagging the right moment. But the D800E takes me back to my 1Ds mkII with its 5fps. I had to be careful. I had to be selective. I had to choose the moment. I think that made me a better

What's better than an iso train? Well, TWO iso trains, especially if they run in parallel and compare the noise quality of these two cameras. Let the civil war begin!:

"With both sets of images processed using the same RAW recipe, the crops from each camera below are unsurprisingly similar in style and to my eyes, preferable to the JPEG versions, at least at lower sensitivities. The RAW recipe described

"I was pleased to see the performance of Nikon D800E. Despite the huge difference in a price, D800E was able to deliver the quality comparable to 5+ times more expensive Hasselblad. Great shadow and highlight recovery was actually a big surprise for me, considering 14 Bit small sensor vs 16 bit in Hassy (more bit depth means more colors and wider dynamic range).

Also, we need to keep in mind that it was not a true sensor-to-sensor performance test, as the glass was playing a big part of the resolution and details quality of the shots. Nikon had cheap, and most likely it would deliver even better

Unfortunately we have to go by the reviewer's words for those claims, since the images chosen to showcase the optical performance and image quality of the D800E, are utterly worthless.  200x200 pixel pics for judging a 36 Mpixel camera? Yeah, right.

"On the resolution front, the Nikon D800 delivers images with a truly stunning amount of detail, comparable to what you can achieve with a number of medium-format digital cameras and backs. The 7360×4912-pixel photographs print to 24”x16” (60×40cm) size at industry-standard 300ppi with no interpolation required, which also means they are ideal

Yes, this is the 'E' version of the D800, with the missing AA filter. Does it live up to Nikon's claims?:

"To process the Nikon D800 and D800E in Adobe Camera Raw, we opened them using ACR release candidate version 6.7 at its default settings, with the exception that we set sharpening to zero. (We like the results of unsharp masking in Photoshop better

Ken Shows almost unconditional love for the D800:

"The Nikon D800 is the world's best DSLR for outdoor, nature landscape and many other kinds of photography. The D800 is the biggest news from Nikon since 2008 when they introduced their last all-new full-frame DSLR, the D700.

The Nikon D800 is the world's best because it has such extremely high image quality that it exceeds not just every

Slowly moving away from the shiny light of the new and exciting, the D800 is now in the hands of a few lucky photographers and its time for a more critical view of the whats and whatnots:

"It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that getting the most out of the D800 is going to require a lot more care than the D700; the

Ok, 'trashes' is a bit of an overstatement, but still, as opposed to Canon's careful product line placement, it looks like Nikon Genuinely produced a camera that will bite into the profit margins from the higher end's butt. Perhaps the only factor that stops a big percentage of pro photogs to go D800 only, is its abysmal fps rate:

No, Gary does not have all three cameras in his possession, he just pits their specs against each other. Surprisingly, this simple roundup is is enough to stir a discussion, and draw some interesting conclusions:

"The main issues that really kill image resolution are AF accuracy, camera shake and optical quality, and it is on the 1st 2 of these

From the guide:

This “Technical Guide” details the principal techniques used
to create two of the more technically advanced photographs
in the D800/D800E catalog. Enjoy this opportunity to admire

Imaging Resource goes deep down on some aspects of the D800/E, like that of the missing (or not so missing) antialiasing filter:

"Anti-aliasing. Like almost all Bayer-filtered cameras, the Nikon D800 includes an optical low-pass filter, sited just above the image sensor.