David Drufke, Minneapolis photographer, storm chasing, sports, outdoor

Two exciting things happened today for those of us still waiting for the new Nikon cameras to be shipped.  First, DXO performed sensor testing on the D4.  As expected, low light performance is about on par with the D3s, but color depth and dynamic range are improved, with dynamic range being improved the most.  By higher ISO’s those, the cameras a mostly the same, as the differences fade away by about ISO1600.  The extra megapixels and other improvements still make this a great evolution of Nikon’s PJ pro camera body

The second fun thing to happen is that dpreview.com has studio shot sample RAW files from the D800. These are really a great tool they offer to evaluate image files.  I used these files last week to determine that the D3s and D4 would have roughly the same high ISO performance at the 1:1 pixel level.  The way I test these files is by opening them in Lightroom, changing the profile to “Camera Standard”, pushing the exposure to +1 EV, and applying standard noise reduction.

Why +1 EV?  Because most full frame cameras will produce an acceptable image file up to ISO 6400 if you nail the exposure.  It’s when you need to bump the exposure up or try to extract shadow detail that you start running into dynamic range, color, and noise issues.

First, I compared the D800 to the D700/D3.  This is a tough comparison because of the resolution difference.  While the 4mp difference between the D3s and D4 isn’t that noticeable, the tripling of megapixels from the D700 to the D800 makes a big difference.  Because of this, I looked at smooth flat surfaces to compare noise, and fine detail areas to see how much detail is resolved and held onto after noise reduction and sharpening.   At the 1:1 level, the D700 is a cleaner camera, but the D800 has so much detail that you can use more aggressive noise reduction and sharpening routines to get a clean file.

Second, I compared the D800 to the D7000.  We bought a D800 to replace our D7000, not one of our D700 cameras.  We had a D7000 camera for photographing distant objects such as wildlife.  The “crop factor” and higher megapixel count of the D7000 made it easier to photograph objects and animals that would be too far away with our D700.  The problem is that the D7000 isn’t a very good camera in moderate to low light.  It’s great in bright light, with plenty of detail and tons of dynamic range to recover from, but on overcast days or indoors, it was pretty bad compared to a full frame camera!  The D800 offers an ideal solution because you get the best of both worlds.  If cropped to the same view (DX) as the D700, it still offers 15+ megapixels to work with, so it can fill the role of a camera for wildlife photography or airshows, etc.  When used as a full frame camera, it should offer good low light ability, resolution to spare, and the large bright viewfinder and semi-pro level experience we’ve grown accustomed to.  It should make a great second body  camera body and companion to the D700 cameras we use for all our professional work.  I almost never used the D7000 for professional work, at least indoors because it just didn’t cut it and produce files to our standards.

Looking at the D7000 and D800 files at 1:1 at ISO 1600, the D800 wins hands down.  Neither file is noise free, but the D7000 file looks very grainy, while the D800 file is more detailed and has a cleaner look overall.  Sharpening routines had more artifacts on the D7000 files because of the grain as well.  The D800 will be viewed by us as a great replacement for DX cameras.