Truphotos
An in-depth and comprehensive review has just been posted on Dpreview.
In summary, the D800 is not only about sacrificing details and resolution in favour of higher megapixels or pixel density. In some instances, it faces up very well to Canon’s 5D Mark III, and in some tests excels over it in terms of retaining more detail and producing lesser noise in the shadow areas.
1. Particularly of interest to me is the test under Shadow Noise where images produced by the D800, D700 and 5D Mark III are processed to open up the shadow areas using Adobe Camera Raw with noise reduction turned off. From the results, we can see that the D800 does an excellent job at controlling chroma noise while keeping details, similar to what the D700 is known to be capable of.
2. Another point which surprised me was that although diffraction of lenses start to creep in at aperture values of f/16 and above, one could still get back details by applying a little sharpening in post-processing. Refer to the Lens Diffraction section to see an image shot at f/22 and sharpening applied to it to get back details in the brick walls and window frames which were originally blurred due to the limitation of the lens!! This means that lens diffraction may not be as much of a limiting factor as what we have always thought.
For full sized samples, refer to the sample images page on Dpreview.
I was very honoured to have one of my images published in a 2-page spread in the Photography for Beginners magazine issue 10! This is also one of my favourite locations in Japan, and was taken in Nara during one of my solo trips travelling across various prefectures.
As I wrote in the top left hand corner of the page, this was one of my earliest works after I picked up photography. I first came across a similar scene in a magazine and was so inspired by it that I researched and explored the area trying to locate the spot which I had visualised.
For a list of interviews and features, please refer to http://www.truphotos.com/2012/02/09/interviews-features-showcases-and-published-works/
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Some full sized sample images of the new Nikon D3200 are available on Flickr by Nikon France at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonfrance/sets/72157629851394125/
Take a look at the following full sized image taken low light by going to “Actions” and selecting “View all sizes”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonfrance/7092821121/in/set-72157629851394125
The ISO used is shown as ISO1600 in the EXIF data. Personally, this setting looks usable albeit the JPG being a little over-processed for noise reduction. However, keep in mind that this is at 24MP! I doubt many would really need the extra megapixels, and I am quite sure that by reducing the resolution to 12MP would yield very good high-ISO results.
The amount of detail present in the other sample images are also quite impressive for an entry-level camera. Take a look at the eye detail of the model in this sample: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonfrance/6946746648/sizes/l/in/set-72157629851394125/
In the not so distant past, in order to check the shutter count of our cameras, a software such as Opanda Ixif has to be downloaded and installed on the computer. Recently, this process has been simplified greatly to simply uploading an image file to a website.
The 2 websites which provides this free service are Shutter Actuations and MyShutterCount. To check your shutter count, upload RAW (.NEF or .CR2) or JPG files directly from the camera. Try to avoid exported files (eg exported JPG file from Lightroom) as some software tends to strip off the EXIF data.
