In a strange twist for a camera manufacturer, Nikon announced two different models of the new Nikon D800 full-frame DSLR, much to the confusion of many. While it’s common for other consumer electronics items like a television or phone to have options, the offering of two nearly identical products from a camera maker is a little unusual, especially right at the launch and for worldwide release.
Enter the Nikon D800 and it’s evil twin brother, the slightly more brilliant but “high maintenance” Nikon D800E.
So, which model of the Nikon D800 is right for you? I’ll give you the answer after the jump.
Almost all DSLRs feature what’s called a low pass filter at the sensor level that effectively blurs very fine resolution. The only difference between the Nikon D800 and the Nikon D800E is the fact that the D800E effectively has its anti-aliasing filter removed*.
The reason for this blurring is that for one, the very small degree of blur is almost imperceptible, and two, this blurring reduces a phenomenon called moiré.
Camera manufacturers have generally decided that for consumers, a reduction in moiré is more beneficial than extra pixel-level sharpness.
* More specfically, the D800 does feature two low pass filters, but that these two filters effectively cancel each other out. Removing the low pass filter entirely would have required changing the sensor design, so this “double negative” effect is necessary for manufacturing purposes.
Nikon has released their own comparison images to show the differences in resolution and moiré. Here are two of the samples – click through these images for the full-res, 100% crops.
Of course, the display of the moiré shows a pretty extreme example, but it’s important to note that the D800E sample is uncorrected. In other words, it’s a worst-case scenario in terms of color moiré, but at the same time you can see the increased sharpness as the metallic threads on the red cloth are resolving into single-pixel details.
To learn more about moiré, read my article on Understanding Moiré in Digital Photography.
If you’re a photographer who shoots in RAW and individually processes your image files for maximum quality, you will love the D800E.
In the rare instances that moiré does show up, it’s possible to greatly reduce the artifacts and effects with proper processing, if not eliminate them entirely. Adobe Lightroom 4′s new moiré reduction setting via the adjustment brush works extremely well.
Moreover, the same applications and photographythat will benefit most from the advantage in resolution the D800E possesses are the same ones that will allow for the minimization of moiré to begin with. If you’re shooting product, studio or architectural photography with the highest resolution lenses capable of producing horrible moiré, you should also be best equipped to eliminate artifacts through careful technique and processing.
Of course, if you already know how the D800E will benefit your photography, you’re probably not worried about moiré or other weird artifacts anyway.
If you shoot the following, I’d consider getting the Nikon D800E over the vanilla D800.
In other words, if you’re shooting stopped down and/or on a tripod and squeezing your lenses for everything they an deliver, the D800E is probably your kind of camera. If you’re shooting with Nikon’s own f/2.8 or new f/1.8 or f/1.8 primes and stopping down to f/8, the D800E is probably your kind of camera.
If you are a professional screen door photographer or shoot in JPG, the D800E is probably not your kind of camera.
All that said advocating the D800E, it’s not the camera for most photographers. The truth is that while it’s almost mindbogglingly awesome that Nikon has given consumers the choice between the two models of the Nikon D800, it’s also almost unnecessary.
Almost all users will be best served by going with the standard version of the Nikon D800. The D800E is a niche product with the appropriate price premium. While it will render higher resolution, the D800E doesn’t do so without caveats – and the extra detail is at a point of diminishing returns.
Unless you’re making images under optimal shooting conditions (tripod, apertures sweet spot, etc) with very high quality glass, you’re not likely to need to worry about the marginal increase in image detail that the D800E renders. Moreover, unless you’re actually making large prints or making extreme crops (and not just looking at RAW files at 100% on your computer display), you’re not really going to see any advantage in the D800E.
The higher image quality, while very real, only comes into practical effect in a limited range of applications and technical constraints. This true for any camera, but especially with a high resolution camera like the 36-megapixel D800.
Moreover, anyone who isn’t shooting a Nikon D3x or similarly high-megapixel camera is going to be blown away by the resolution of the D800, anti-aliasing filter or not. And if you’re not blown away, you should probably think about shooting digital medium format.
At the end of the day, the vast majority of photographers would be better served saving the $300 premium on the D800E and putting that money toward a great tripod or a plane ticket somewhere photogenic.
The stock D800‘s sharpness and resolution – which at 36mp is considerable – will serve 99% of all consumers, all at a lower price point. But here’s the real test: If you even have to ask yourself if you’d put the D800E‘s special sauce to use, you should probably just get the D800.
Where to Buy The Nikon D800:
If this article or any other content on www.ishootshows.com was helpful to you, please consider supporting this site and grabbing your next photo gear purchase through one of my affiliate links:
Simply clicking through any product links on this site helps me bring you free content like the photography tips and gear reviews regularly posted on www.ishootshows.com, and naturally it doesn’t cost you a cent more. If you do grab some gear, drop me a line! I’d love to hear about what you picked up.
If you want to donate directly to help support and host www.ishootshows.com (and if there’s any leftover, keep me stocked in tea), you can contribute money to www.ishootshows.com via PayPal.
Questions or comments? Leave a comment below, and let me know what you thought of this post.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Photography Gear and tagged with d800 vs d800e, nikon d800, nikon d800e. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Welcome to ishootshows.com, your source for music photography featuring daily concert coverage, portrait features, and photo advice from professional music photographer Todd Owyoung.
Support this site by purchasing your photo equipment through my affiliate links to B&H Photo Video or Amazon.com
Learn more about how you can support the features of ishootshows.com.
A Day To Remember are known as one of the hardest working bands among their peers; a minute into one…
I have some exciting news. I’m very pleased to announce that the band Slayer are licensing an …
This weekend, my brother Chris Owyoung and I will be shooting something a little exciting: a concert…
This is a public service announcement and an open letter to fans who insist on shooting photos and v…
I have some exciting news. I’m very pleased to announce that the band Slayer are licensing an …
I’m still trying to decide if the 36 Megapixels is overkill or not. Obviously knock on effects like needing more storage and longer processing times, but what size prints would you start to notice the leap from the 12 megapixel D700.
Nice comparison though, and it’s nice to see it written down like this and seeing the pro’s and con’s of each. I imagine the stock response would be the D800E is more expensive therefore better when that probably isn’t the case for the majority of photographers.
Here’s hoping the D700 comes down in price a little once this hits the market.
For events with a large volume of shooting, the D700 is most likely the more suitable camera. The only way the D800 holds a real advantage is the 100% viewfinder.
After seeing the D800 High ISO image samples at DPReview, and comparing them to the D3s, D700 and D4, I don’t think either D800 is the camera for this concert shooter.
Nikon has to have a better high ISO camera coming sometime. If not, I’ll have to find budget for a D4 (or a used D3s)
I’m sure there will be a high-ISO oriented sensor like that of the D4 dropped into a body like the D800 at some point, but it may be 9-18 months off. For most people’s needs, the D700 is still an extremely capable camera.
From what I’ve seen, however, the D800 can easily be looked at as offering high ISO performance as good as the D700 at the pixel level, all with the added bonus of much higher resolution.
Todd also note that the D800E does come with Capture NX2 as well. I am an administrator at http://www.flickr.com/groups/d800_club/discuss/72157629627094867/#comment72157629266498254
Thanks for posting this comparison. I think the most powerful quote from the blog is
“At the end of the day, the vast majority of photographers would be better served saving the $300 premium on the D800E and putting that money toward a great tripod or a plane ticket somewhere photogenic.”
Thank you for everything you share on your website. It’s always interesting and informative. And I will definitely make my next gear purchase through your affiliate links.
PS: I’m a copywriter, and I noticed a couple minor spelling errors in this post. If you ever want a fresh set of eyes to review your work, I’d gladly volunteer to proofread it.
Hey Bill, thanks for the comment. I really appreciate the offer for proofreading, too. I will let you know if I ever want to take you up on it, it’s very kind of you.
Is a D800 practical to you as a concert photographer, and will you be getting one? Or is the D4 more suited to your needs? Or are both multi-thousand dollar expenses that you’re going to skip on because the D3/700 are still crankin’?
Hey Aaron,
For most live music photographers, the D700 is still plenty good in terms of a low light performer. It offers the same image quality as the fantastic D3 and is good up to ISO 6400. 12mp is plenty resolution for a double-page magazine spread.
Cameras like the D4 are going to be ideal, but at the same time, for most people, the extra performance isn’t strictly necessary.
For people who shoot both live and portraits, I think the D800 is a good option, where the extra resolution for portraits will be very welcome.
So would you recommend the Nikon d800 over the d700 for a concert photographer?
Not necessarily, Abby. Overall, the D700 is still better suited to photojournalism and fast shooting, due to a number of factors like file size, FPS, etc. For most shooters, the D700 is a better choice, especially now with the lower price.
[...] – which to buy, the D800 or the D800E? That’s a tough question. Both diglloyd and Todd Owyoung give their [...]
[...] With no anti-aliasing applied, the D800E offers exceptional detail, but also a higher chance of producing these moiré artifacts. It also has many photography deciding whether the Nikon D800 or D800E is the right camera for them. [...]
Great article, I too am looking at the D700. The D800 surpasses it many ways I think but I don’t think it’s a direct D700 replacement, it’s perhaps to much more.
I don’t think the rumoured D600 will do it either, being more of an FX sensor in a DX body with many functions buried in menus.
Much as I’d really like to buy a D700 replacement it’s not here yet and I don’t think it will be for 1-2 years. Not sure I can wait that long.
Feel free to merge both these comments but:
Forgot to add, I shoot mostly events, concerts and catwalk fashion in varying conditions from full and good spotlighting to very poor light. I use mostly the 2.8 Nikkor zooms and also use a 70-300 VRII on a D90 for wildlife. I also use the Tokina 11-16 (which I’ll continue to use on the D90) along with the DX 35mm f/1.8 and the 50mm G.
For me, if the D800 WAS a D700 replacement and the extra $ was the only issue, I’d get the D800, no questions asked. But it’s not a D700 replacement. Sure it does many things better than the D700 (IQ when cropping would be great and I’m sure the AF etc is better) but getting those images, hand-held, at low-lit events with the non-VR 24-70 would be problematic. Much more tendency to get camera shake I think. The 36MP file size is also a pain, albeit you can use 12 bit compression (but it does seem to defeat the object of buying such a camera if you compress all the time). The extra money therefore is not being spent on upgrading what I really want, even better low-light and smaller MP.
The D600 I think will also be great and may well address my wants. But I cant help but feel it will be an entry level FX for sure, likely compromised with a DX body, functions buried in menus and an inferior build.
I bought a D800e for my commercial photography jobs. This camera came at the right time because clients wanted MF without having to pay for MF and this has been a decent compromise. My only issue with Nikon is lens choice. It’s not MF, but it’s the best DSLR I’ve ever owned.