Jared Polin: Right before we jump into this Nikon D810 preview video if you haven’t
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Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com and this is a preview of the Nikon D810 which is replacing
the D800 and the D800E and I want to go over the specifications right now.
We've got a 36.3 megapixel CMOX Sensor, this time with no OLPF.
As you may recall the Nikon D800 had the OLPF and the D800E did not have the OLPF.
And the OLPF stands for Low Pass Optical Filter and what it does is stuff which you can go
read all about it if you want but basically it's going to mean sharper images because
there’s not another filter that’s cutting down on extra sharpness, things like that.
But if you want to get all technical go read about it, that’s up to you.
So this means there’s only going to be one D810.
There won't be an E version at all.
We now have an Expeed 4 processor which is processing stuff at 30% faster rates, five
frames a second as opposed to four frames a second with the D800E or the D800 with an
E. And I guess that means that the faster processor is helping out with that.
And if you go into DX mode you're going to do seven frames a second but there’s kind
of no reason to go into DX mode.
Personally, in my opinion, I don’t think I would do that.
The ISO range is much better.
The D800 ISO range was – I think it was 100 to 6400 – I don’t even have it on
the notes.
I don’t know why I'm looking at the notes because I didn’t write that down but it
was 100 to 6400.
Now they have a low of 64 and the high is 12800 so they’ve expanded it one stop on
each side.
They also have a low option of 32, and that’s a Low 1, and an H2 of 51,200.
Now I ask why are those considered low and not the main settings?
And they said optimum range that their engineers say is 64 to 12,800, that’s where they recommend
you're going to get the best images in terms of quality when you go ahead and do that.
They added a Group Area AF which is something that they added in the D4S which is going
to help with focusing and focus tracking because I know some people had issues with the D800
with focus when they were shooting.
They added RAW S and the S stands for small.
RAW Small – it's half the size of the regular RAW.
So anybody out there that bitches that RAW files are way too big well now it's half the
size that it used to be.
It's kind of like half the man that it used to be because it went on a diet but it's still
RAW and you could still work with it.
It now has a high lightweight metering, that’s a new metering option that’s basically for
spotlights.
If you're going to shoot concerts – not in manual which I highly recommend – well
this is going to be an option that’s going to take the reading for just what's inside
that spotlight, I don’t know how much different it is from just using spot metering, we’re
going to have to try it out to see what it does.
They have a flat picture control which really means something more for video than it does
for stills.
And they added a new screen, it's now 1.229 million pixels and it's not just RGB, no,
just wait, guess what else it is?
It adds a W. It's an RGBW and W stands for white.
They added white pixels.
They say it does something for contrast.
All right, so then you can also do the LCD color balance.
That means you can balance the back of the screen so anybody out there who bitches that
the screen has a green color cast.
Who gives stuff about it because you can change that.
And if you're shooting RAW it doesn’t matter anyway.
So yes, it's cool that you can calibrate it.
When the day comes that we can calibrate our computer monitor to the back of the camera
that will be a win but until that- time this isn’t that much of a big deal.
The price – before we get into the video – the price $3299.99 which is $300 more
than what the D800 was but the same price as the D800E.
So they're squeezing a little bit more money out of it at that point but there is no OLPF
and I think this is a much better step over everything else.
They have an SRP which is a suggested retail price of the battery grip of $616 which is
absurd but they sell it for $349, you can get find it at all of your local retailers.
But that is still absurd -- $349 for a grip.
That’s why a lot of people look for the third market, third party stuff, and I'm not
sure I'm a fan of those but whatever -- $349, if I had this camera I would be buying the
vertical grip.
It takes SD card and compact flashcard because it only takes one of each.
So I still fully don’t understand that but SD cards have gotten tremendously faster and
more reliable over the years so not a bad option as a professional to get a ton of those
to use that for photos and for videos.
Speaking of video the major video option here is 1080 at 60 frames a second.
It now does that which is going to allow you to do slow-mo or slow things down and still
get good quality after you go ahead and process it.
ISO Auto, it added that, which is a great option that I love in the D4S just for video.
It just changes the ISO as you walk around.
It means you can set your camera to the 1/50th of a second if you're shooting at 24 frames
a second and you could set your aperture say at f5.6 and I'm spitting all over the place
like that Daffy Duck guy but you can then walk into a situation that’s dark and then
move into a situation that’s light and it's going to gradually change your ISO to keep
everything balanced.
It's not going to be herky-jerky and herky-jerky isn’t good when it comes to video.
Flat picture control, that’s good for video, for anybody that likes to do the color grading
and the tweaking after the fact in the computer.
That’s a good option, that’s one step closer to getting the RAW but without getting
the RAW.
They added zebra stripes for those video people out there, still do Clean HDMI out to an [inaudible]
[0:06:12] which is what we do with the D610’s here when we do RAW Talk, that’s a great
option.
Full manual control – it's like they take and give you the full options available in
this expensive camera but as you step into the lower end cameras they start taking out
those options.
So if you want to be able to have full manual control while shooting video this is going
to do it.
And I just wrote solid, solid, solid, solid for video.
This is a very, very capable camera all the way around.
Yes, if you have a D800 or a D800E is it worth the upgrade?
If you are a working professional absolutely positively yes.
If you don’t feel that it's for you and you don’t need it of course don’t upgrade,
you don’t have to dump it right away.
But if you dump it now you're going to get the most value out of your D800 or D800E so
then turn around and reinvest into this camera two years later.
So if you lose $750 to $1000 well you basically rented that camera for $1000 and if you're
making money then that’s all that matters.
You may want to have that gear, that D800.
I would want this one for the ISO.
If I needed a backup or used a backup this one is now falling more into a range of a
back up that I would want to use because of the ISO doing 12,800, that’s a better type
of range.
So this seems to be a very good little evolutionary upgrade from the D800 to now the D810.
The key features – no OLPF and all those other things that I mentioned – that’s
a cool thing.
Will you be buying this?
Won't you be buying this?
Will you not be upgrading?
Will you be upgrading?
That’s up to you guys to let me know but I think it's definitely a buy, buy, buy, buy
now or check it out if you can afford it and you're a professional photographer, solid
all the way around – photos, videos.
That’s all I've got right now, Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com