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Jim Young photo
Ukraine, Kiev
1 Level
744 Review
43 Karma

Review on πŸ“· Nikon D800 FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) - 36.3 MP CMOS Sensor (Previous Model) by Jim Young

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Great camera no. .

The capabilities and performance of the D800 are second to none in my opinion. Very very good camera. Very happy with the resolution. You can virtually crop to the smallest detail (in RAW format) without fear of losing detail. Keep two main points in mind: 1) If you're shooting in RAW format, get a large memory card. Some images exceeded 50MB for me. I took at least three 64GB cards with me when I traveled. On a recent two-week trip abroad, I skimmed three maps without even blinking. Arrived within 20 frames running out of memory at the end of the trip. That was more than 1200 pictures for me at the time. Also, beware of something more troublesome, but in terms of maintenance. You can see that in other reviews too. I don't know if this is Nikon only or not. The shutter mechanism on this camera seems to be overly lubricated, possibly on other Nikons too, although my D7000 doesn't have this problem. You will see results on your images with small annoying dark gray spots or dots on your images. It's not dirt, it's drops of oil. There are "splashes" of excess oil as it sticks to the sensor. They will NOT be "dumped" or scraped off by the camera's self-cleaning feature. They must be removed when cleaning the sensor. Will degrade over time to a point where around 10,000 pictures have been taken from what I've read on other sites. I've already erased my sensor twice in just 5000 frames. They disappear after being erased, but reappear after more shots. Disappointing if you're picky about your photos and whoever has a camera in this price range. Cleaning the sensor can be a daunting task if not approached with care and confidence. Many experts say you shouldn't do it yourself, but it really doesn't matter if it's done right with the right cleaning tools. I'll leave that to the experts to dig into other sites. In any case, note that this is a problem with the Nikon D800, so you won't be surprised if this happens. It's really annoying, but image defects can be removed in Photoshop (the clone tool) or other software applications. It's just not a subject worth dwelling on, and Nikon should take it seriously. If it's under warranty you can send it back to Nikon to have the sensor cleaned of oil stains, but you'll do this more than once unless you learn how to clean it yourself.

Pros
  • understandable even for the old ones
Cons
  • so-so