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D800 with 24-120 opinions and tests

D&A

Well-known member
Its fine Dave and it is a great question many are wondering on these D800/D800E. The real question and no one has the answer as it is a personal decision is how close is good enough. As you know I have shot already about 2k in images with the D800 and I'm pretty damn impressed and if I had to do a buy call right now on Pentax and Leica it would be wait for next version but thats me. As a MF shooter you want to be way above the borderline of the D800?D800E to do a buy call. I already have that in the IQ 160 and tech cam and that I would buy again. A S2 or Pentax 645 I would be scratching my head pretty hard. Now a S3 with a Dalsa and 50 or 60 mpx no question that would be above the D800 borderline a great deal. The limit on the S2 is the sensor not the lenses they have a long way to go to reach there full potential . My bet a 5 micron sensor so whatever that works out to be than that leica would be worth going after regardless of costs. But thats me and my opinion.
Guy, an excellent, well thought out response and your recommendations are spot on in my opinion. I agree, if someone already had a 40MP MFD camera/back, it wouldn't make too much sense to invest in a D800 system unless they needed an additional body that could handle low light, higher ISO shooting with a required faster AF and FPS rate. Yet if someone was coming from say a lower MP system and wasn't locked into it and had to decide a single ~40MP system strictly for landscape use and large format printing, I would probably say the S2 or 645D might be a better choice/investment since the lenses (especially the Leica"s) have the capability to be used on a future higher MP body, whereas I"m not certain if at 36MP with it's given pixel pitch on 35mm full frame sensor, we've reached a limit....and whether current or even possibly future Nikon/Zeiss lenses could take advantage of additional higher resolution cameras. Obviously the costs of getting into the current S2 system is more of a substantial investment over the Nikon but with Pentax's 645D, the initial body cost is much higher but generallly well performing 645 lenses can often be had a considerably lower cost, so it's a tradeoff.

Interesting times with so many choices at our disposal.

Dave (D&A)
 
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Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yes I should add here the folks that already have Pentax and Leica's in the bag than you should still feel comfort what you already have and also the potential for a even better body sensor combo in the future. Bottom line the D800 loses you nothing but it DOES like me and others give you some backup and for certain primary gigs some options. The heart of the matter like Dave said I'm sitting here with a Canon 7d and want to move up. Those folks have tougher decisions here but they also have a lot of options and the D800 does help those options
 

ustein

Contributing Editor
>The heart of the matter like Dave said I'm sitting here with a Canon 7d and want to move up. Those folks have tougher decisions here but they also have a lot of options and the D800 does help those options

Also fun to use together with the 5D2 (we are two people).
 
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