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Stargazer

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Hi there i am David and am new to the forum.

I have been a semi-pro for over 35 yrs specialising in weddings and kids portraits (using RB67s) but have only recently started to concentrate (due to spinal problems) on stock photography,i thought it would be easy peasy but my word QC is strict here.

I had a few years out of photography  (sold up ) but have recently bought a D800 which i am disgusted with,image quality is very poor to say the least compared to my previous Nikons,D100,D200,D300 and D3x and have looked on here for your fav cams.

 

David.

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Welcome to the forum David. 

 

I agree with Geoff, a high resolution camera requires good lenses. 

Do not have a Nikon but Canon 5dsr and mostly use primes. 

 

Also the old rule exposure time = 1 over focal length does not really hold with 50 Mpix. 

Rule of thumb for me is exposure time = 1 over three times focal length (hence hence a 150th for a 50mm lens). 

You may go down to two times focal length, but using the old rule does not produce sharp images for me. 

 

I heard people say you need a tripod with these cameras, in fact I am not bothered and often even do night shots hand held. 

 

cheers

 D.

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David,

 

I've been using NIKON's since 1975, one decade of FD Canon's, and I love my D800's.

The D100 was in my opinion a good DSLR for a short time and most of the digital images

that I have on Alamy were shot with FUJI S5's which were also really great DSLR's in there

day.  I Can not understand why you are unhappy with your D800?

 

Welcome to the "sinking ship of Stock...." BTW 

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Something is wrong - the image quality from the D800 is amazingly good with the right lenses and technique. The camera will expose any faults with lenses and technique though. Perhaps you could explain exactly what it is about the image quality that is poor.

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I didn't care much for my D800, either. That's because the way I shot the D70-200-300-7000 didn't work for the 800.

I did use a tripod for tabletop/food, but hated feeling like I should outdoors. So I hand-held a bit, used a monopod a lot, and a beanbag in my car window.

I do have a fair amount of images on Alamy shot with it, so I figured it out ok. But I never cared for the "look" of images from it. That's a very subjective thing, but it bothered me.

I felt 36mp was overkill. 20-24 is perfect. Again, a subjective opinion.

As far as the look I spoke of....I instantly loved the look from the D7000, but the images were too soft, even with top quality Nikon lenses. I also love the colors from my Fuji X-T1.

Stargazer, my advice is if you hate your camera, shooting it won't be much fun. Sell it and move on. I sold mine with 8087 clicks on it.

 

I'm not recommending Fuji because one's equipment and what you expect out of it is very individually driven.

 

I have to say it can be the quirkiest system out there. Yet, in spite of that and maybe because of the challenge, I love shooting it. It put the fun back into photography for me while it drove some people,who expected it to behave like what they were used to, nuts.

Best lenses, too.

Move on.

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Hi Stargazer, welcome to DT!

One possible thing to do is sometimes downsize your images if you are not getting them tack sharp at full resolution.

You can still have fantastic images even downsizing a lot with your D800.

Specially for noisy images when you need to use higher ISO in places where tripods are not allowed with little light, you can still have pretty nice 8 or 10Mpixels images.

But if you don´t like the camera, than move one, (buy a Canon :) ! ), I mean, buy something you like and have fun!

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Thinking about it again so i tested it again today on the kids rabbits,images werent sharp 50mm 1.8 @ 200 sec 100iso but using fill in flash they are a sharp as a razor that tells me there is a problem with the camera. :(

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Thinking about it again so i tested it again today on the kids rabbits,images werent sharp 50mm 1.8 @ 200 sec 100iso but using fill in flash they are a sharp as a razor that tells me there is a problem with the camera. :(

Try shooting with a sturdy tripod first. If those images are sharp >>>>> there must be a problem with your handholding technique, not with the camera. Remember the slightest mistake/movement is greatly magnified with a 36 MP camera. What could be acceptable from a D700 or D750 could be unsharp from a D800 when looking at 100%

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Agree, even if I press the release too hard it makes the pictures unsharp. I got used to roll my finger gently over the release. 

Sometimes I even use the mirror lockup option on my 5dsr, which give the exposure a little bit of time (1/8 1/4 1/2 or 1s) before starting exposure after the mirror went up. 

(no need to press twice anymore - but sometimes the delay is annoying ;) )

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Been on the phone to the teccy guys at Grays of Westminster and guess what.......Mirror bounce,D800 is renowned for it when being handheld more suited to studio work.

Time for a change now thats sorted.

Thank you all very much.

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I don't buy mirror bounce at 1/200. In any case the double image should be very obvious. There must be hundreds of them in use for Alamy, dozens just on the forum.

The simple fact is that many of our manually focussed film images were probably never as sharp as we thought they were. I've just scanned 6000, including 6x6 from Hasseblad, and it's embarrassing how many are off. Fine for 20x16, but 100% off digital on 16MP is 70"x45". That's the Alamy standard.

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I wouldn't be surprised if mirror slap (bounce) can be seen at 1/200s with such a high resolution, but it'll be the same for any similar camera. I doubt the D800 is any "worse" than another camera. It's a different way of shooting when you have a camera like that, and some of the old rules of how to gain sharp images (minimum shutter speeds, hyper-focal distance calculations, etc.) no longer apply. AF is also more critical, and it's essential to calibrate each lens to your particular camera using fine focus tuning.

 

Geoff.

+1 was just writing something along these lines. 

I needed some hundred pictures to get adjusted to my camera, it is sensitive like hell to camera shake. 

And still I always check sharpness at 100% on camera after I took the shot.

 

EDIT: the sharpness of the pictures that are in focus and not SOLD is so rewarding that I would not give away that camera for anything :) 

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Speaking as a long term user of D800 series cameras, you may well have a problem with the camera. I am extremely fussy about sharpness (Alamy QC trained) and I get extremely sharp images at all sorts of exposures - long exposures with and without mirror lockup, handheld at exposures as low as 1/15s with Tamron IS and Nikkor VR heavy zooms (testing only I wouldn't use such a slow speed in real life), never mind a 50mm Nikkor. Low light, high ISO handheld no problem.

 

There were some complaints about the shutter (not mirror slap but something to do with the shutter which was rectified in the D810 - I can't remember exactly) but I have never seen a problem. If I were you, I would start by testing on a tripod with mirror lock on and move on from there. 

 

People use Photobucket to upload images and link from here.

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Check out "electronic front curtain shutter" which is what was introduced in the D810 to rectify some reported problems with vibration in the D800. It's nothing to do with mirror slap so the advice you got from Gray's would only apply at long exposures I would think. The shutter/mirror in the D810 is very quiet though in comparison to the D800. 

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I would think David doesn't like the camera, since he stated so. If one has decided he/she doesn't like it, it's hard to overcome that feeling. It usually comes from expending a lot of time and energy shooting, then finding out when you load them into software you have a lot of crappy images. You feel angry.

 

There can be dozens of suggestions and cures, but if one wants to be able to get sharp images without jumping through hoops, then....move on.

Each photographer knows what they are willing to put into a shoot. One may love all the fiddling, the tripod, and the next may hate it. Put me in the hate it camp.

I used my D800 on a sturdy tripod for studio and also used a remote, and it was still a crapshoot whether I got sharp images. I always took 5 or 6 shots to insure I might get one I felt I could use. Even then, I didn't care for the look of them. That's exactly why, after the D800, my X-T1 put the fun back into photography. Even with the frustrating quirks I love the images I get from it. Love, love.

 

And yes, I can see it could be mirror slap vibration.That thing sounded like a bomb going off. It felt like it could rattle my teeth compared to other cameras I've shot.

 

Nobody needs 36MP for stock.

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I would think David doesn't like the camera, since he stated so. If one has decided he/she doesn't like it, it's hard to overcome that feeling. It usually comes from expending a lot of time and energy shooting, then finding out when you load them into software you have a lot of crappy images. You feel angry.

 

There can be dozens of suggestions and cures, but if one wants to be able to get sharp images without jumping through hoops, then....move on.

Each photographer knows what they are willing to put into a shoot. One may love all the fiddling, the tripod, and the next may hate it. Put me in the hate it camp.

I used my D800 on a sturdy tripod for studio and also used a remote, and it was still a crapshoot whether I got sharp images. I always took 5 or 6 shots to insure I might get one I felt I could use. Even then, I didn't care for the look of them. That's exactly why, after the D800, my X-T1 put the fun back into photography. Even with the frustrating quirks I love the images I get from it. Love, love.

 

And yes, I can see it could be mirror slap vibration.That thing sounded like a bomb going off. It felt like it could rattle my teeth compared to other cameras I've shot.

 

Nobody needs 36MP for stock.

 

 

Intriguing as to why there is such a huge variation in opinion about the D800. To me it is just a normal camera - no problem hand-holding, no need for special care apart from focusing and using very good lenses.

 

In any case, the problem David is having is strange given that he is a highly experienced photographer and a medium format user for many years. I'm just interested in finding out what the problem actually is, not trying to be a D800 evangelist - although I probably love them even more than Betty hates them  :) - for me the camera I've been waiting for all my life.

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Just ordered a new D750 so the D800 is up for grabs.

 

 

You might want to consider returning the D800 to whence it came if possible as it sounds like not all is well with it.

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I would think David doesn't like the camera, since he stated so. If one has decided he/she doesn't like it, it's hard to overcome that feeling. It usually comes from expending a lot of time and energy shooting, then finding out when you load them into software you have a lot of crappy images. You feel angry.

 

There can be dozens of suggestions and cures, but if one wants to be able to get sharp images without jumping through hoops, then....move on.

Each photographer knows what they are willing to put into a shoot. One may love all the fiddling, the tripod, and the next may hate it. Put me in the hate it camp.

I used my D800 on a sturdy tripod for studio and also used a remote, and it was still a crapshoot whether I got sharp images. I always took 5 or 6 shots to insure I might get one I felt I could use. Even then, I didn't care for the look of them. That's exactly why, after the D800, my X-T1 put the fun back into photography. Even with the frustrating quirks I love the images I get from it. Love, love.

 

And yes, I can see it could be mirror slap vibration.That thing sounded like a bomb going off. It felt like it could rattle my teeth compared to other cameras I've shot.

 

Nobody needs 36MP for stock.

 

 

Intriguing as to why there is such a huge variation in opinion about the D800. To me it is just a normal camera - no problem hand-holding, no need for special care apart from focusing and using very good lenses.

 

In any case, the problem David is having is strange given that he is a highly experienced photographer and a medium format user for many years. I'm just interested in finding out what the problem actually is, not trying to be a D800 evangelist - although I probably love them even more than Betty hates them  :) - for me the camera I've been waiting for all my life.

 

 

 

Hand-holding must be easier with hands that are bigger and stronger than mine. I find a certain amount of weight helpful and miss it with the RX100 but generally am steadier with lighter cameras. I bet some people just have steadier hands, too.

 

Paulette

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Hand-holding must be easier with hands that are bigger and stronger than mine. I find a certain amount of weight helpful and miss it with the RX100 but generally am steadier with lighter cameras. I bet some people just have steadier hands, too.

 

Paulette

 

 

Yep, certainly definitly maybe.

I have hands like a drag (see small picture to the left, with hands on my 5dsr, pretty huge and heavy with its battery grip, est. nearly 3kg with lens) 

 

Not an Edit: Oh,I mean drag as in 'excavator shovel' not as in ~queen ;)  B)

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I don't have particularly large hands but I probably do have good hand-holding technique, learned many years ago shooting push-processed film at the limits of what was then possible. I cradle the camera with elbows to chest, left hand under the lens, try to remember to breathe in and then breathe out slowly as I press the shutter particularly if timing is not important. However, I always use a tripod where possible and convenient. But I genuinely have not had a problem when I hand-hold the D800 as long as I focus properly and use an appropriate shutter speed (and I am really really fussy about sharpness).

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Took delivery of the D750 yesterday and went out with my sons feeding bread to and chasing the seagulls (its just something i do with a new camera) and although focussing seems a little slower the images are alot sharper even on my 28-300 vr,just need to fine tune it to my requirements which are very broad.

Now for a better lens and see if i can get out of the rejection zone lol.

Looking at another 80-400 vr which was great on my D3x and the 24-120.

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