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As you might have seen I’ve got my hands on a Nikon D800 during the weekend and decided to do some testing and see how it performs compared to a Nikon D700. Today it’s time for the ISO-testing.
During friday I did some studio testing to check if the camera can take on the medium format cameras, and how good the high resolution actually is in studio. You can find my post about this here.

Yesterday I decided to test the ISO-performance, and if the Nikon D800 really can take on the Nikon D700 on that part. I used the following setup for my shoot:

Both cameras had the same settings, but varied slightly in the results as the output differs some. The same lens (Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII) was used with both cameras and of course the same settings in manual mode for each exposure. The cameras was set to “Standard” picture control with defaults settings. The test images was taken with uncompressed RAW on both cameras and the files from Nikon D800 was downsampeled to 12MP to match the resolution of Nikon D700, which still shows the result clearly as it appeared the same in full res as well.

This was the tests-scene I shot with the both cameras:

The red square marks the 100% crop area of the pictures taken.

Anyways, let’s get to it.
You can see which picture is taken with which camera and which ISO-setting was used in the image title when you open the gallery. The best way to navigate is by using you arrow keys on your keyboard. Take a special look at the area with the butterfly and you will clearly see the difference between the cameras.
Here are the 100% crop pictures from the testing:

And as requested, here are some of the most relevant pictures in full resolution:
ISO 100:
D800 D700
ISO 400:
D800 D700
ISO800:
D800 D700
ISO 1600:
D800 D700
ISO 3200:
D800 D700
ISO 6400:
D800 D700
ISO 8000:
D800 D700
ISO 12800:
D800 D700
Click the link for each image to open picture in full resolution. Be aware that the files are really large and might take some time to load.

None of the cameras are bad in any way and I still love my Nikon D700 and will keep it as backup, but in my eyes the D800 has a clear advantage even though it has three times higher resolution. I’ll leave the rest to you, and stay tuned for more pictures from my photography shoot today with the camera.

I just rigged up the cameras for testing the ISO performance of the Nikon D800 and compare it to Nikon D700. As you can see by the setup I’m using a video tripod with the lens mounted to it to get the exact same picture with both cameras. The lens is a Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II.  You can see the complete setup for the testing below:

You can see the whole ISO-test post later on during the day. So check in later to see how awesome D800 really is!

Yesterday I started testing the new Nikon D800 and did some studio work during the day and night. I have to say that the cameras image quality and resolution is really close to the best digital medium-format cameras out there. The most amazing part is that it does that for less than a sixth of the price from the cheapest digital back for medium format!

You want proof you say, here you go:

This picture was taken with the Nikon D800 in my home studio. With “Standard” picture control with only 1 in sharpening (lower than default) and no sharpening or editing done in post. Since it’s a screenshot it doesn’t even show the sharpness to its fullest since it’s compressed, but you see what I mean. It shows full detail in 100% even down to each pixel.

The picture was taken with a Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4G @ 1/200th and f/3.5 with a singe Quantuum R+300 300W studio light to her left and a 150x100cm reflector to her right. Modelling in the picture is my girlfriend Elin Bergstedt, check out her page!

To sum up my first day:

After a full day with the camera I have to say that Nikon really thought about everything. The camera is really awesome and handles very well. I feel at home with the camera and the menus, the menus are very similar to the ones in Nikon D700/D300/D300S, but with a more modern feel just like the other latest generation cameras from Nikon.

There’s only two things I don’t like about the camera and that is: the design of the new grip which is a bit tight at the bottom for my big hands, so my pinky gets a bit misplaced, which I’ll probably get more used to after a while.. And finally that there’s still no smart solution for setting ISO quickly with Fn or Preview-button + command dials. The ISO-button is not that accessible as Nikon seems to think.

Anyways, this doesn’t change my opinion about the camera. It’s still the best out there for a “overall” shooter and studio photographer and I am really looking forward to my own order to arrive.

When the D800 was realeased I was lying sick in my bed with high fever, but of course I keep myself updated on cameras anyway.. You know that feeling you get when you have high fever and loose the grip of reality a bit and have hard to tell if it’s real or not, that was my feeling when I read the resolution of 36MP on the new Nikon D800. My first throughts went to D3x and the ISO-performance on that camera and thought that D800 would start to struggle at ISO 400 or something, but “I’ll give it a chance” and wait for reviews.

And then the preview and reviews started to show up and the camera performs close to the D700, with three times higher resolution. How’s that even possible?
Didn’t take me long to book my camera after this and I’m sure I won’t regret it. My own camera is close to being delivered and is just around the corner.

Anyways, I got my hands on one over this weekend for testing and plan to do some model/fashion shoots with it, and of course some comparisons against my D700.
I’ll be doing the testing with Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G, Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G, Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8G and Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.4G.

From what I’ve seen so far I’m really amazed by it’s performance, the resolution and IQ is just insane!

I’ve used the Nikon D3x quite much, but the D800 is even better in studio.
Compared to the D3x, the high-ISO performance is on a completely new level. The Nikon D3x was wonderful for studio shoots and situations where you can control the lightning to the fullest. But  when passing ISO-speeds above 640 it rapidly started to struggle with noise.

As an example: I was using the D3x during a model shot in a subway about a year ago, the scene was quite dark so I needed to push the cameras ISO a bit. I brought two portable studio lights which was used to light the model, but I wanted to bring out the backgound some as it showed up too dark whichever setting I used, this was unfortunately completely hopeless as I wasn’t able to get good results above ISO 800 with the D3x. With the D800 in my hands at this shoot it wouldn’t be a problem at all, the noise you got at ISO 800 with the D3x would match what you get at about ISO 2000-2500 with the D800. So it’s a big improvement!

Anyways, stay tuned and you’ll get to see some of the pictures I’ve taken, some video and some comparisons between D800 and D700.

I’m developing film like crazy from my trip to Tenerife. So far I’ve completed one third of the films with a developing tank only able to told one roll at the time. Finally my new developing tank which hold two 120-films arrived from Macodirect.de today so I can develop at the double speed. Still got my “good rolls” left to develop as I only developed my Shanghai GP3-rolls so far, but here are some pictures:

All pictures above was taken with a Hasselblad 500C and Zeiss 80mm f/2.8. It’ been developed in R09 in my own bathroom.

After almost a week in Tenerife with lots of fun, sun, swimming, amazing views and experiences it’s time to pack the bags and head home tomorrow. I shot a lot of pictures here, most of them was shot on a Hasselblad 500C and 120-film so you’ll have to wait for those pictures to be developed before you can see them. I shot some digital pictures as well of course, but haven’t even had the time to view many of them yet.

Tiede

This Thursday we visited the famous volcano Tiede and went up about 2500 meters up a creepy road and walked around for a while. It was a spectacular view and a must-see if you ever go to Tenerife. Next time I’ll try to get a permit to get to the top (3718m) of the mountain if the weather allows it, that would be even more awesome.

Teno Alto

Yesterday we went to see Acantilados de Los Gigantes (Cliffs of the giants) and Teno Alto, at the top of Teno Alto we saw the clouds passing our feet, it was magical! But the way there was all other than magical, it was horrifying..

Acantilados de Los Gigante

After Teno Alto we went down the curly and terrifying road to see Acantilados de Los Gigantes. It took some time to get down there but it was sure worth it. The view was amazing and I got great pictures of it with my digital cameras. I hope my film turns up twice as good as the digital ones.

The pictures was shot with my girlfriends Nikon 1 J1 and 10-30mm which I used as my “point-and-shoot” during the visit.

As you might have noticed we got our furry hands on a Nikon D4 earlier this week and decided to shoot a quick music video just for fun and to test the camera.
We didn’t have a plan, a script or anything. We just went with it and shot things as they came to test out the camera. Robin (the author of the song) loves the sea, so we figured we’ll start shooting by the docks.

Most of the shots was taken at about 1600-3200 ISO and have just gone through some minor color grading in FCP X and nothing else. It was shot at around 18.00-20.00 and was posted on Vimeo at around 01.00, so there haven’t been much time to edit anything. The camera by the way is really awesome and handles great, it’s better than all other Nikon cameras I’ve tried before at shooting video and the footage from the camera superb. The ISO performance is outstanding, OUTSTANDING! I also like the new grip of the camera with the slightly tinted trigger button as well.

Anyways check out the video:

So, we got our hands on a Nikon D4 and plan to shoot a music video this weekend.

We will keep you guys updated and I’ll post a hands-on review about the handling and mainly the movie parts and of course the music video at the end of the week! We’re gonna record to the internal memory this time as we lack a HDMI-recorder to get the uncompressed 4:2:2 HDMI signal. But I know from the testing earlier today and from what I’ve seen earlier that the bitrate is more than enough while recording to the internal memory.

We’ll be testing the movie crop modes, push the ISO to the limit by shooting at night-time, the new 60fps mode and a lot more!

To our hands we got some interesting lenses as well, the newly released Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8G, a Nikon AF-S 24mm f/1.4G, a Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G and the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II.
So far I can see that the ISO performance is a tad better than the Nikon D3s in still images, way better in movie, the video functions is way better and get a more cinematic feel to it and finally there’s 60fps for great slow-mo.
Leave a comment or send me a mail if you want me to test something specific and I’ll try to squeeze it in my tight schedule this week. Stay tuned for updates during the week and the final music video on sunday night!

I’ve been shooting Sebastian and Jenny’s wedding for all week. It’s been an amazing wedding with wonderful people and the party yesterday was from another planet!

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A trip to La Gomera and Tenerife is coming up in less than a month, I’ve got huge plans for this trips and a project to complete while I’m there!