bill_brooks

<p>Great commentary and advice throughout but Mac's points hit home for me, my ears were burning. I realize that my gear now outpaces my working knowledge of the software that will make my images better. I've resolved to go to my local camera store (National Camera Exchange, they are fabulous to work with) for one of their excellent software classes to get up to speed.</p>

For a true pocket or mini belt pouch stowable

camera, +++1 on Canon S100. Look @

amazing images posted on Canon P.O.T.N.

Superb, intuitive video with great IS. Just be

sure to have an extra battery along.

Someone at Nikon should tell us, as

worldwide customers, whether packaging is

consistent in shape and color, or varies by

country. They would do well to display

packaging by market on the regional Nikon

web sites. It would be most reassuring to

loyal customers.

Shun, thanks much for sharing your technique.

Appreciate it- Bill

<p>I am having excellent success with AF shots on my D800, more so than my D7000, which was excellent. Shun, can you share what AF mode you are having success with photographing hummingbirds? Your shots are great. So far I am only able to get sharp hummingbird photos by shooting manual, no VR on tripod and pre-focusing...</p>

<p>Manolis, I was afraid I had gone overboard getting a 1000x CF card.. but thanks for confirming my hunch! I noticed fast recovery in live view with this card. (Lexar Pro 1000x 32GB UDMA 7). It ain't cheap! :-)</p>

<p>House finch at the feeder.</p><div></div>

<p>Shun, I used the D7000 extensively prior to the D800 and agree with your comparative ISO analysis. The most striking difference with the D800 to this amateur is the ability to crop in; the detail retention is staggeringly crisp. This camera does indeed make it possible more often for someone like me to capture highly satisfactory images. I worked hard learning technique with the D7000, which could be pretty demanding. In some ways the D800 seems somewhat easier for me to get tack sharp images. I will be striving always for compositions without cropping, but also will getting some excellent, crisp, low-noise keepers with judicious cropping. Having pretty good luck by the way Shun, pairing a TC-20E-III with a 70-200VRII.</p>

<p>Shun, I'll corroborate Barry's observations. I have the MB-D12 grip as well and the build quality is no different, as far as I can tell, from my MB-D11 grip. Just more expensive. As noted elsewhere, though, I'd rather pay the $200 premium for the grip than $3500 for the D800... </p>

<p>Shun, just formatted the Lexar Pro 32 GB 1000X UDMA 7 card and shot a few NEFs, and transferred from my D800 into View NX2 from the USB3 cord, and the transfer was fast as blazes.</p>

<p>Mike, superb images. If I may ask, and I did notice that you manually focused for the posted images, have you nonetheless AF fine tuned any of your lenses with the D800 to date?<br>

I can only hope to get results such as yours with my D800, but as a very determined amateur, I'll keep trying until I get more satisfactory keepers. Best wishes!</p>

<p>Shun, Wow, thanks for sharing that testing with us. I have a Lexar Pro 32 GB 1000X UDMA card on order from Adorama. I did format SanDisks myself in my D800 copy, as I mentioned earlier. Cheers-</p>

<p>Bear with a quick analogy: John Singer Sargent was one of the greatest portrait painters of any time, and his writings on oil technique were phenomenal. He selected a brush for the area he worked on within a painting with the utmost care. He described how you load that one brush to create vastly different effects. He would load it with mixed pigment oils, and by twisting and turning his stroke open up hues, shades and color values at will.With *one* brush stroke you would see folds of fabric, shading, color gradation and value to knock your socks off.<br>

I think the D800 is one hell of a brush that is going to allow us to "load up" in so many ways that dramatically re-write what the traditional trade-offs in a camera are. Maybe all of you guys are right! </p>

 

<p>Shun, can't wait to hear your first impressions of the D800! Thanks again for your information on the cards. </p>

Update: Ruled out camera or user errors, as I

formatted and shot images with a Sandisk

CF at the dealer's place this morning. Have

not yet heard any other reports of other

brand cards that the D800 won't recognize.

<p>Nigel, I loved reading about the new D800 on your web site, and really resonate in terms of providing confidence to this amateur. I hesitated to move up from the D7000 to the D800, assuming it would require demanding form on even a higher level to capture sharp images. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover in many ways that the D800 is actually easier in terms of providing crisp, sharp keepers. The D7000 proved to be an excellent "flight trainer"!<br>

Thanks again for posting your D800 images and impressions. Bill</p>

<p>The card brand that I purchased is: ProMaster, 16G 420X Compact Flash UDMA. www.promaster.com They are based in Fairfield CT.<br>

I hesitate to single them out, because the buzz I'm getting is that a fair number of other cards are not being recognized too, hence my original post.<br>

Also, it's still possible I could be improperly attempting to format, though the directions for both methods are direct enough. The camera shop folks said that Sandisks were all formatting. I have been very satisfied with Promaster cards in Nikons and Canons. Of course, they are not on the manual list of Nikon approved cards, so please no need to mention that.</p>

<p>Hmmm, I'm getting some interesting info from pros here in town about some CF cards and the D800 that corroborates my experience. I am withholding saying that any particular card doesn't work (even though that is exactly what I have experienced) until I get word here or elsewhere that recognition has failed for any particular CF card or another.</p>

<p>I have a recognition problem with a card from a very reputable local dealer, and I would rather avoid saying just which one as I may doing something improperly; I'm heading over there within the hour to see what the situation is. The SD card is fine. Thanks Eric--</p>

<p>Just curious if anyone has tried using CF cards that the new D800 does not "like" ("ERR" or "CARD" messages).</p>

<p>Leslie, Ha, that is a good acronym play! I was racking my mind, didn't make the connection. I heard somewhere that because of the D800 body size + video components, adding XQD was not possible.</p>

 

<p>For a true pocket-able point and shoot camera, I love my Canon S100. Great 1080 HD video too with wonderful stabilization. Surprisingly good mics. It's a true toss-into-a-bag or into-a-small-hip-pouch camera. It's a blast to use and the images are very satisfying.<br>

The D800 I picked up this morning will be a blast too--eventually. Thom Hogan has been comparing image capturing challenges to the D7000 in some ways. With my non-pro but decent amateur learning curve, it took me a good 6 months to really get into the groove with my D7000... so it could be awhile before I get any nice keepers with the D800! (My 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 VRII lenses might help speed me along though!)</p>

<p>Thanks everybody. Hadn't given much thought to video capacities, Shun, but I know I'll get hooked into some of that too; it was fun shooting vids on D7000.<br>

Dan, good point re: time lapse storage requirements. I want to head more into that direction too.<br>

Leslie, did I miss a joke? :)</p>

<p>I am interested to know what other new D800 owners are selecting for their memory card configurations. I have upgraded my PC and added a TB of memory... now it's time to buy some cards! Thanks in advance for your input, people.</p>

<p>Matt, I have had great satisfaction using that combination, with a high rate of sharply focused keepers throughout the aperture range. Love that lens.</p>