I was in Dar es Salaam all last week (working, didn't take a camera) so wasn't able to play much with the new D810. When I got back yesterday I was glad to see that DxO has upgraded their RAW convertor to support the new camera, since I find the Nikon supplied NX-D to be a pain to use and requiring to learn yet another post-processing software.

I was also glad to see that my camera had come back from the Nikon service center where I had sent it after the recall notice.

Anyway, I had taken my first pictures with the camera about two weeks ago when the weather decided to cooperate and not rain in Rambouillet. I walked the Saturday market downtown and went into the "chateau" grounds as well, with a 28mm lens on the camera.

There are lots of online camera reviews of the D810, so no point in trying to do my own. I'll stick to my first impressions. The first time you look at your photo files on the computer may be surprise, if like me you're previous camera produced a 12 megapixel file. The 36 megapixel files are huge, they take a lot of time to upload and a lot of time to be opened by my software and be viewed and processed.

Once you get used to that, the files are amazing for the resolution, detail and dynamic range. This cannot be seen on a downsized jpg file on an internet forum, so how do you show it? While they don't really do it justice, below are some "straight-out-of-the-camera" files, no processing for color profiles or leveling horizons or lightening the shadows or any of that. Just a full frame photo, converted to a TIF file at the DxO default setting, followed by a crop of a small portion of the same photo. They are of course converted to jpg and downsized for web posting, since the wall-sized original file would be a little cumbersome.

Here's my hometown castle:



You may have noticed in the above photo that there is a poster next to the entrance gate; it's kind of hard to see. Below is a crop from the above photo.



I admit to being totally blown away by the level of detail this camera is capable of recording, in the shadows, in contrasty light. From the coiled light bulbs to the writing on the poster, I just wasn't expecting it to be this good.

Some other examples:






Same photo, cropped to show the just the elderly shopper.



If you've got a good eye for detail you will notice that the above photo shows the main problem with high-resolution sensors that don't have an anti-aliasing filter, namely moiré. It is present on the woman's coat lapel.

Here are the last examples:




An approximately 100% crop from the above:



Conclusion: the Nikon D810 is probably the best all-around DSLR available on the market at the present time and I think I'm going to have a lot of fun playing with it.

Last shot, with the horizon leveled and the shadows lightened.




This is a very impressive camera and screams to have the best lenses made to exploit its full potential. But since most of these image quality improvements aren't visible on a web post or even a modest size print, is there really any reason to buy this expensive kit? The camera itself has some functional and ergonomic aspects which I find to be the best of what Nikon has ever done, but here again, unless you take a lot of pictures you might not even notice. Nikon has changed, just slightly, he shape of the body, making it more comfortable to hand-hold for long periods of time. It has a quieter shutter than any previous Nikon. There is an electronic pre-shutter which reduces mirror slap which reduces vibration when you're using a tripod (fyi, all the above shots were handheld). The dynamic range is the most extensive of any camera made. And it has the shutter from the Nikon D4s (which costs around $7,000), making it one of the most accurate auto-focusing cameras on the market.

Still, you'll have to have a recent and powerful computer, LOTS of storage space for the humongous files, the best lenses available, competency in post-procesing software and powerful software, etc, if you want to get the most out of this body. All in all, a nice tool for a professional photographer but expensive and not too user friendly for somebody who doesn't have powerful post-processing software, doesn't have high end lenses and only wants to take an occasional party picture.

In the end, the people who buy them probably know exactly why they want it and what they're going to do with it. If you're not sure or have some doubts, then it's probably not for you. If you can find a recent low shutter count used D800 or D800E you can answer any doubts and save about $1,200 doing it, since the images are virtually identical. The only way to get technically better images is to buy a Phase One or Pentax 645Z medium format camera. If you think the Nikon D810 is expensive, then hold your breath when you see how much these two cost.

Here's one from last Saturday, also in my Nairobi National Park thread in the photo albums forums.