Upgrading Soon to Nikon FX Format 810 (or 750?)

[Derrel]

When the D750 came out, I was one of the few people that said, "This sounds awesome! What a great feature set!" Most other people were poo-poo'ing the D750. But now, people are realizing that the D750 is one of the best-balanced and well-equipped cameras for the majority of shooters. Thom Hogan's recent column sort of compared the D750 versus the D810. The problem with the opinions of people like Thom relates to their status-seeking and high-end equipment lists. For people who have multiple multiples of high-end RAID drive enclosures, and basically, unlimited storage capability, 36 MP raw files are just a case of spending a few thousand dollars more per year on storage, for the rest of their careers.

The same mentality allows them to shoot with 400/2.8 and 200-400 f/4 lenses and so on. Landscape/wildlife shooting places a premium on MAXIMUM data capture. If you have 24 terabytes of drive space on each of eight RAID enclosures, who cares about file storage, right? But, if you use a real computer, with a normal-size internal drive and a pair of more-mortal external back-up drives, what you end up doing is filling up the internal drive rapidly, and then constantly find yourself saying to yourself, " I need to offload this chit,now! Hard drive's full again!"

Products? 36MP is not much better than 24 MP, if at all. Why? Most product shots are done at CLOSE distances, which means a physically small area, which can be recorded adequately on 24 million pixels, AND since you need to use small f/stops to get the desired depth of field, diffraction renders a 36MP sensor basically not any better than a 24 MP sensor at f/11 to f/32, which is where you'll end up shooting many product shots with a macro lens.

Weddings? 36 million pixels is NOT needed for most frames, and be aware, the sRAW of the D810 is not raw data!!! It has already been tone-curved, and is highly-compromised data. Again, the sRAW option is not really RAW data!!!

I would say, spend the extra $1,000 on some monolights, a pair of recessed-front, grid-equipped made in China softboxes, a pair of umbrella boxes, and some 20 and 40 degree grid and barn doors. And some books on how to do lighting.

 

[DevC]

The same mentality allows them to shoot with 400/2.8 and 200-400 f/4 lenses and so on. Landscape/wildlife shooting places a premium on MAXIMUM data capture. If you have 24 terabytes of drive space on each of eight RAID enclosures, who cares about file storage, right? But, if you use a real computer, with a normal-size internal drive and a pair of more-mortal external back-up drives, what you end up doing is filling up the internal drive rapidly, and then constantly find yourself saying to yourself, " I need to offload this chit,now! Hard drive's full again!"

Only if you pixel peep.

24mp is quite exquisite for landscapes

 

[Derrel]

- real mode dial for fast access, including U1/U2 quick access of user configurations

Don't forget, an all-new dedicated VIDEO MENU page on the D750! Much better nod to video, and according to those who shoot video a lot, like the videographer that films all of the segments for The Camera Store, the D750 is now the video leader among FX d-slr's, having bypassed the Canon 5D-III and all others in video.

But back to why I quoted Solarflare: the U1 and U2 positions on the mode dial: I would LOVE to have this "amateur" feature on my Nikon FX camera. I mean it; this is a valuable feature that would allow the camera to be be custom-configured for weddings/events in a Mode 1 configuration for ambient light in U1, and then when you add the second item, the FLASH, you'd switch to U2, since there are two pieces of gear, the body and the flash. The optimal way to configure the camera in bright light, or low light, or with flash, is NOT the same. There are many scenarios where a wildly-different set of ISO value, tone curve,shutter, and aperture and flash/no flash are, all five, in need of radically different settings from the standard approach.

If you like Nikon's AMAZING AUTO ISO feature, which is actually useful and usable in the new, FX Nikon bodies, but also like to shoot fill-flash, where AUTO ISO is a liability, this would make a HUGE difference to me. More and more over these past few months, I have begun to shoot a mix of auto ISO and fill-flash, and it is a PITA because I need to manually reconfigure all the time. A mishap here, made under pressure, can be costly.

If you want to have an INDOOR and an OUTDOOR custom pre-configuration, the U1 and U2 mode option of the D750 makes that easy and reliable. Of course, many people use only 5% of their cameras' capabilities and technology, so many people will not understand the value of U1 and U2. But considering how 'effed-up Nikon's current "banks" setting system is (mostly useless in real world scenarios), I honestly think that the U1 and U2 option ought to be made the new standard going forward, on ALL Nikon d-slrs.

 

[sleist]

Buy glass.
New glass is so much more fun.
It's like buying new eyes.

 

[zutty]

Here are two examples, one with the D610 and one with the D810. Both are amazing for landscapes and detail is super sharp on both. My opinion is to get the D610 and buy trinity glass with the rest of the dough.

 

[Vince.1551]

Though it's not safe to gauge image over the internet yet based on the photos here the shot taken by D810 carries more details.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PaulWog]

1000 more worth of glass is 1000 more regardless of how you look at it. That's nearly a Tamron 24-70, a sigma 50 1.4 art, part of a 70-200 f2.8... Money put towards a Tamron 15-30, or a 105 macro... Etc... Or extra flashes, lighting equipment... I would buy the d750.

But...then there's croppability on the d810 for something like a wedding. It's almost like an FX camera with a built in fully functional dx camera, given the dx mp count.

The main difference is those mp's... Is that mp jump worth 1000 to you? Will all your lenses be able to resolve the extra megapixels? And do you care about the aa filter difference in practice.

 

[shadowlands]

I sold my D300 and D700 in favor of a D800, and I'm thrilled.

 

[kdthomas]

Weddings? 36 million pixels is NOT needed for most frames, and be aware, the sRAW of the D810 is not raw data!!! It has already been tone-curved, and is highly-compromised data. Again, the sRAW option is not really RAW data!!!

OK, but the raw files from the D810 are actual RAW files, correct? I don't want to pay and extra $1k for degraded image files.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, the full-sized D810 NEF files are raw. Here is Thom's article "The sRAW Myth", The sRaw Myth | byThom | Thom Hogan

The gist of which he summarizes at the start as this:

"For those not wanting to read far, here’s the bottom line: Nikon’s sRaw files (D4s and D810) are basically equivalent to something like 11-bit JPEGs. To be clear:

• You get fewer bits of data
• You get lossy compression of data
• You get color data that is compromised, particularly in the shadows
• The data is YCbCr (a color model), not raw data or even RGB"

 

[kdthomas]

OK, so with the D810 I'm spending an extra $1k to get ~10 extra MP, 1/8000 shutter speed, HDR bracketing, and I lose the convenient U1/U2 button, but I can use the settings banks as a (kludgey) workaround for this. Am I getting close?

I've been looking at the controls & manuals and I think I may like the D810's controls a bit better.

 

[Vince.1551]

Instead of U1/U2 you get customizable shooting menus.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[crimbfighter]

I'm with Darrel on this one. Shooting with my D800, the file size is annoyingly large, and unless you're regularly cropping huge amounts of the image off, or printing 10 feet wide, 36mp is excessive. 24 is plenty. I actually know a pro who is now using his new D750 as his primary body, and he resigned his D3s's to backup bodies for weddings because he loves it so much.

Even the slower max shutter speed and lack of AF on button can be worked around most of the time. The AF/AE lock button can be programmed for AF on and unless you're constantly shooting with huge apertures in bright light or very fast moving objects, most situations don't need 1/8000 sec. I certainly concede there are times when certain pro-level features are handy, but all in all, the D750 is a really nice, capable body, that will probably suit almost every situation the OP described without issue, and still leave you enough money to get some nice glass.

 

[chuasam]

What kind of computer do you have? I have a D810. The file sizes are breathtakingly huge.

 

[Derrel]

Instead of U1/U2 you get customizable shooting menus.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, you get 4 shooting menus and 4 settings banks. The entire 4 x 4 banks + settings menus thing is a f*****g MESS. It's a system that sucks. Big-time sucks. With U1 and U2, you get TOP-deck, dial-mounted pre-set positions that can be accessed INSTANTLY with full memory of all settings. The 4 menus + 4 banks system blows. The two systems are not even remotely comparable: the D750 system is better. It's also used in the Canon 5D Mark II because the separate, simple system is the better system than a mixture of 4 + 4, which has soooo many possible permutations that it basically becomes almost useless. When one has four settings options, which are depended on getting the exact right corresponding settings menus right, both ways! the chance for a royal screw-up,at any time, is very high.