First Impression with Nikon D810 after Shooting some Portraits.Sample Photos Included

[julianliu]

I brought Naomi and Xavier out to play mini golf and to the play ground yesterday along with my D810 with 24-70 mm F2.8 on it. Had a great time shooting 300 photos in like 3 hours. Used Transcend SDHC 32 GB Class 10 rated 18 MB/s write speed, as I mentioned in another post, I had no problem in shooting raw, lossless compressed in 14 bit photos, about 40 MB/s per photo. I shoot about 1 frame per second for maximum 5 photos continuously. I upgraded from Nikon D7000 with 17-55 mm F2.8 (By the way, my D7000 with vertical grip is for sale, excellent condition. If you are interested, make me a offer). The D7000 and 17-55mm combination was good and I shoot lots of photos with it so I thought I will never have the desire to upgrade to full frame body. But boy I was so wrong. After yesterdays, I realize the full frame bokeh and feel of the photo is much better than on DX body, indeed as people claimed. I used group focus most of the time since the kids were moving all the time. The focus was fast, got it right 97% of the time I would say. Much better than the single focus point of D7000 since the group focus has bigger focus area so you do not need to change focus point often. I use AF-ON button to focus, which is much better laid out than D7000. The AE-L/AF-L button on D7000 is so badly designed that I found it unusable.

Other impression with the D810 is that Pixels DO matter! It makes me not afraid of cropping the photo. Meanwhile I believe the photos look much sharper on my screen, comparing to D7000 and 17-55mm F2.8. Yes, the lens and no AA filter increase the sharpness on D810, but I believe the huge chunk of pixels squeeze on the screen makes it look sharper too. And I feel more pixels make spot healing in PS easier too. My computer (AMD 3.5 GHz, 10 GB ram) feels much slower, not as some people claimed that D800/E photo editing on regular daily home computer is enough.

Little things:
The D810 combination is much heavier than D7000 combination, not expected. I do not feel much better ergonomics as lots of people claimed because the weight basically canceled out the improved ergonomics for me. The build quality even the buttons quality feel much better, which I like. Besides liking the AF-ON button, the MODE button is pretty convenient to change M/A/S/P mode. The battery is ok, I shoot about 900 frames and still one of six battery grid left. Did not test, but feel D7000 consumes less battery. Hoya polarizer filter makes obvious little vignette.

Anyway, below are the photos I shoot, 9 photos I like out of 300. They are all edited in PS and LR. C&C always welcome.
By the way, I shoot these photos in different light conditions as you can tell. And I edited them in similar ways. How do you guys edit photos to make all the photos (shoot in different light conditions) have similar style and look like belongs to a series?


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[D-B-J]

Nice set! I will disagree a bit--I like the increased weight/size of the D800/800E/810 over the D7000. For me, the increase in size meant it feels MUCH more comfortable in my hands.

Jake

 

[julianliu]

Jake,

You must have strong hands. I should hit the gym start lifting weights again.

 

[julianliu]

Ahh, Looks like not many people are interested in D810. I thought it would help people to write up my experience with D810.

 

[ruifo]

Very nice!!

 

[Tailgunner]

I must have big hands because the D800 feels just right in my hands..maybe a little small.

Anyhow, I'm interested in a D810 but my D800 is still doing it for me. Now I'm thinking about renting one in the future though to check out the improved auto focus on our son's basket ball games. That maybe a deciding factor for me.

 

[benp2k6]

Very good family photos

I don't have the D810 yet

 

[julianliu]

Very nice!!

thanks . Ruifo, I am expecting you get a D810 soon

 

[ruifo]

thanks . Ruifo, I am expecting you get a D810 soon

I bought it already!
But it is scheduled to arrive next week only.

 

[julianliu]

I must have big hands because the D800 feels just right in my hands..maybe a little small. Anyhow, I'm interested in a D810 but my D800 is still doing it for me. Now I'm thinking about renting one in the future though to check out the improved auto focus on our son's basket ball games. That maybe a deciding factor for me.

I see. Not sure how much better is the focus than D800, you'll have to check it out yourself.

By the way, If you want to sell your D800 and upgrade to D810, the early the possible while the price for a Used D800 is still good

 

[julianliu]

Very good family photos I don't have the D810 yet

Thanks!

Not yet? So you are considering getting one ?

 

[Tailgunner]

By the way, If you want to sell your D800 and upgrade to D810, the early the possible while the price for a Used D800 is still good

I spent $3,500 for my D800 just 8-months ago and would be lucky to get $1,900 today. Thats a $1,600 loss. So I'm going to keep the D800 a while longer and wait for the prices to drop on the D810.

 

[julianliu]

I spent $3,500 for my D800 just 8-months ago and would be lucky to get $1,900 today. Thats a $1,600 loss. So I'm going to keep the D800 a while longer and wait for the prices to drop on the D810.

Good idea. I could not help but asking, does $3500 include some lens ? The body should not cost so much.

 

[jamie101]

Hallo

 

[julianliu]

Hallo

Hello welcome to the forum