[Pavel]

I am waiting until the spare parts arrive to Canada. It turns out, that you can keep the door in place without the pin. However, each time you take the battery out, you have to fiddle. I do not have to use electrical tape however. The LCD protector is another issue. Ever since the plastic fell off (part broken) I have no protection over the LCD. I hope that I can get a replacement this week or the next.

The camera is great - things I used to do are easier and end up better and a host of features I did not have and mostly not yet tried. Great boost to motivation is also wrapped in the box.

[Toad]

Matt: Great review. I really like your cropped detail shots. If you can pull that detail out of small bits of the frame, it just screams for a couple of small primes and crop at will. Maybe negate some of the big big camera thing...

[Zig]

Pavel, delighted for you and I guess you're a man who makes very careful and wise choices before opening the wallet. Thus, I can only wince in sympathy to hear of the door-catch's flimsiness..I'm certain though that the rest of the camera will quickly outshine such an irritation.
Adrian's reflection sums up my own: if I were starting afresh I'd be so seriously considering this in its "E" incarnation. Thing is I guess, if I added the vertical grip to the "E" cost, then price personally starts becoming a serious issue(..but yet again, if one wants seriously enough, one finds the extra.)
Related to this but as an aside, I notice that secondhand outlets here at least, have far more used Canon full-frame models than Nikon(statistically always going to be the case), so that you'll see a few Nikon D300s and that's it...whereas excellent used deals are to be had for Canon's 5D(1st 2), 1Ds(1 and 2) and the almost FF 1D and Dn.

[shuttertalk]

Apparently there's a recall on batteries supplied with the D800s. The bad news - it could short circuit, overheat and deform.

See here if your cameras are affected.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Service-And-Supp...isory.html

[Pavel]

Apparently there's a recall on batteries supplied with the D800s. The bad news - it could short circuit, overheat and deform.

See here if your cameras are affected.

http://www.nikonusa.com/Service-And-Supp...isory.html

Thanks Julian, I noticed yesterday - one of my batteries does have the dreaded "E" and needs replacement

[shuttertalk]

Well if your battery does overheat, at least you can pop it out pretty quickly...

Sorry that was below the belt...

[shuttertalk]

Hey apparently Nikon are investigating an issue where the D800 and D4 may lock up or freeze during usage. The workaround is to disable the highlight and RGB histogram on the display.

It supposedly only affects a small number of units so if that's you, see here for more details.

http://www.pdnonline.com/gear/Nikon-Inve...5632.shtml

[Pavel]

according to Thom Hogan it affects all units, but not everybody uses the same setup. If you use the specific setup, it happens

[shuttertalk]

Hate to be the bringer of more bad news, but there may be me more issues - this time with viewfinder/focus...

http://fstoppers.com/news-nikon-d800-has...der-issues
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readfl...d=41427885

[Pavel]

No problems with the viewfinder or focus with my D800, either. But I suppose if it was going to affect someone here, it would be Pavel…

Hold your impure thoughts. I have suffered enough.

[shuttertalk]

Here's dpreview's comprehensive review of the D800. They have a passing mention of the D800E, but say they just received it as the review was being published, and they will provide an update later once they put it through its paces. I'd be interested to see the difference between the two.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d800-d800e

[matthew]

Yup, it's official: the D800 is a pretty decent camera.

Rob Galbraith has an excellent comparison between the D800 and the 800E (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content...1676-12555) which is the if-you-only-read-one one to read. But summarizing from a number of such comparisons, there is a subtle but real increase in resolving power from the D800E model, along with an equally subtle chance of moire and false colour artifacts.

From the echoes of the Diglloyd blog, it appears that both cameras produce very similar results when they're used exquisitely and post-processed (read: sharpened) optimally. If you only do the first, the D800E retains its advantage; if you do neither, then both cameras are excellent even if they don't live up to their maximum resolving potential.

But as we (should) all know, actual resolving power is just one element of a successful photo, and not even one of the most important ones at that. Maybe it's in the top five, but probably not.

[matthew]

according to Thom Hogan it affects all units, but not everybody uses the same setup. If you use the specific setup, it happens

I've set mine up for this now, with no problems so far. That's the problem with intermittent faults – they're so unreliable!

[shuttertalk]

And yes, the D800 has won two Camera Grand Prix awards - one for Camera Grand Prix 2012, and another for a people's choice for best camera.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/05/15/...-45mm-F1-8

The main awards, established in 1984, are selected by a 57-member panel made up from the Camera Journal Press Club (CJPS), along with a selection of editors and experts from around the world.

Pretty impressive!

[shuttertalk]

There seems to be a couple of discussion threads over at dpreview about the Nikon AF on the D800/D800E. Out of the top 10 hot discussions, at least 3 of them are on this issue. Most of them point back to this blog:

http://diglloyd.com/blog/2012/20120811_2...cison.html

So here’s the bottom line: can I point a Nikon D800 + ƒ/1.4 prime at a subject at a moderate to far distance, hit the AF button and consistently get a sharply-focused image at ƒ/1.4 or ƒ/2? The answer is a resounding “NO”.

Has anyone experienced any of these problems?

[Pavel]

Ah, Thom Hogan investigated this issue very thoroughly. There are indeed cameras (D800/E) with this problem and many more where the owners claim that there is a problem and Thom found that there is none. I have not yet looked into this issue, as my photos seem sharp where I want them to be. This does not mean I do not have a problem. I often focus manually to make sure that I have the focus where I want it. The viewfinder in D800 is wonderfully easy to use for precise focusing (In D300, you could tell you are in a "sharp zone", but I was not able to tell, looking into the viewfinder if the image is in precise focus). I often use my lenses at smaller apertures (landscapes) and so a small shift in focus would elude me. I will check my camera eventually, after I adjust focusing on each of my lenses.

[matthew]

I've done a rudimentary check on the left/right focusing on my camera, and found no problems, and I'll happily use the various points as needed. When I have a large enough wall and a tripod I'll run a more careful check. But even if I find a discrepancy, I'm not overly concerned; it's an easy fix at Nikon and I have a two-year warranty.

It's unrelated, but I've gone through most of my lenses for AF tuning, using the centre point, and found that three of the four needed a slight adjustment (5-10 points) in the same direction. I tried that once with my D700, but couldn't see any difference in the focusing results – probably not enough resolution to see the differences.

Thom Hogan points out that the extra scrutiny on Nikon's focusing, with such a massive resolution to reveal any faults in the lens or technique, is likely to create a huge number of 'false positives' as people go looking for problems. This turns up the noise on the large web forums, gets more people with internet access and insufficient experience with the camera to look harder at their results… good times.

[shuttertalk]

It's unrelated, but I've gone through most of my lenses for AF tuning, using the centre point, and found that three of the four needed a slight adjustment (5-10 points) in the same direction. I tried that once with my D700, but couldn't see any difference in the focusing results – probably not enough resolution to see the differences.

You know that's exactly what I tried to do with my 7D as well but after micro adjusting back and forth I couldn't tell the difference and just left it at 0.