Thom Hogan Declares D800 "Not Recommended"

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Kent: Ouch. Hard luck. I do think my 14-24 gave more trouble than longer lenses, possibly more on the left than the right, but it did hit focus at least some of the time. I'm now wondering whether I should retest, but the problem certainly wasn't consistent or obvious. I'm assuming that yours was consistently behaving this way and didn't just miss focus. I'm beginning to think that Nikon would be better just recalling everything so that we know for sure. I'll probably ask them to check next time I get a sensor clean out of them.</p>

[Kent Shafer]

<p>Thanks, Andrew. I did repeat the test several times and always got the same result. At first I thought that 14mm might be too extreme to expect the end sensors to work correctly, but the right sensor handles it just fine—only the left one is goofy.</p>

[Kent Shafer]

<p>Well, I must shamefacedly post a retraction of the horrible 14mm supposed test result shown above, with apologies to Nikon, all of you, and Winnie the Pooh too. I repeated the test once more, and this time the viewfinder focus was very close to the live view focus, certainly within the range of acceptability.</p>

<p>So as of now, all my test results show live view focus as being a bit better than viewfinder focus, but not by very much, and that's probably one of the good things one should expect from live view.</p>

<p>I think I know where my mistake lay but am embarrassed to spell it out. Suffice it to say that I am probably too stupid to live and definitely too stupid to be turned loose with a D800E without adult supervision.</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Kent: Given that I saw inconsistency with the 14-24 as well, I wouldn't worry about it. It's why I think Nikon should test all D800s for free at their owners' convenience. I'm <i>sure</i> I'm too stupid to live (fortunately, so are most of the people I encounter outside this forum, so we deserve each other) and I certainly don't deserve my D800E!</p>

[Mike D]

<p>While I can understand the real focus issue with the D800 plus the fact that Nikon posted a "proper shooting technique instructions" sheet prior to releasing the D800/E, might some purchasers be suffering from buyer's remorse by looking for perfection at this price point? My D800 with 24-120 F4 VR or 200-400 is excellent but so is my D7000 with these lenses. In fact, if I'm going somewhere where I have to walk over a mile, I always take the D7000 with Sigma 17-70 micro OS instead. It just takes crackling sharp images, even at close focus. I understand that I lose the ability to significantly crop an image in post processing but I try to shoot tight so I don't have to crop. In short, the D800, as excellent as it is, makes me realize how good my my D7000s are. </p>

[richard__]

<p>Thanks for reminding me to look at the 'D800 TechnicalGuide' again I breezed over it when it was first released because I thought there wasn't enough new information in it at the time.</p>

<p>However even in checking that reference, I found it has nothing much to suggest about the initial problem I had with the Live View contrast detection autofocus system. And that was addressed by adding more light, and not using Thom's suggested pattern which was unworkable in the lower light situation I used it in.</p>

<p>In fact at the top of the list for Live View focusing problems, the Nikon documentation states this:</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>The camera may be unable to focus in the following situations:</em><br /><br /><em>The subject contains lines parallel to the long edge of the frame</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>So I cannot understand why Thom would even suggest the pattern he does unless he wants to make more of a problem than this is.</p>

<p>I have however never owned a camera before that I can't acceptably focus, so the big surprise with these new digital bodies is that they don't come with screens to help improve manual focusing. At least now I finally understand why I should be using the autofocus systems whenever I don't have enough time to closely attend to a clear best point of focus.</p>

<p>It should really come as no surprise that the camera's autofocus sytems, like the best photographs depend on the quality of the light. The better the light is the better everything works.</p>

[elliot1]

<p><em>"...</em><em>they don't come with screens to help improve manual focusing"</em> They do - its that big rectangular thing on the back of your camera.</p>

[richard__]

<p>Well if I have the time to use Live View for a shot, I'm not sure how much it would help do that I would need done by that point.</p>

<p>I probably should trade it in for a view camera instead if I want to always have to work that way.</p>

[mukul_ranjan]

<p>As an owner of the 800e I can say that I wish I had had this advice when I bought it. I'm very dissapointed in the way that Nikon has handled this issue - denial and incompetence in their ability to fix it.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>So after declaring the Nikon D800 as "not recommended" in July 2012, this was what the same Thom Hogan had to say about the D800 and its twin the D800E in 2013/2014, when he reviewed the Sony A7 on his "sansmirror" (mirrorless) web site: http://www.sansmirror.com/cameras/a-note-about-camera-reviews/sony-nex-camera-reviews/sony-a7-and-a7r-review.html</p>

<blockquote>

<p>As an aside, I have to say this: when Nikon hits a home run, it’s clearly out of the park. The D800E, after two years on the market, still clearly produces the highest quality images I’ve seen out of camera other than Medium Format ones, and it does so clearly. It’s the best all-around camera I know of at the moment, which is why you see me using it so much.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Since Nikon introduced the D800/D800E in February 2012, after two years on the market must have been 2014.</p>

<p>Personally, I ordered my D800E in April 2012 after some complaints about its left AF point issue had already surfaced. I had to wait two months before I received my camera in June, and I immediately tested it very thoroughly. I could find no AF issue at all on my D800E and it had absolutely no problems until it fell from a chair onto a hardwood floor at home in 2014. After that, AF has been off and I need -20 fine tune. Unfortunately, I'll have to send it to Nikon for adjustment soon.</p>