Why consider a D810 and who should consider it?
1. The D810 is a rock star in high-resolution image capture, not much better in this genera.
2. The low light shooting is ok but not what a D810 is known for. The main purpose for this camera is landscapes, high res, large prints. You can't get the much better camera for highly detailed landscapes, Nikon Rocked It out with the D810.
3. You need pixels and this camera has a few extras. If you have good glass this camera allows for tight cropping and still have enough pixels for large printing and has a crop setting for a 1.5 x nice for wildlife/birds and the image still holds up.
4. The D810 has fast focus and tracking. You have to get a lot of things right to get tack sharp images that fill the frame and with an FX camera. A DX camera CAN give a tighter field of view, and rival this camera's detail at around 24mp. Remember, your 400mm with a DX body represents about a 600mm. The D810 offers great cropping capabilities due to the LARGE file sizes :)
5. Are you a Macro Nut? You're in luck. D810 = Extreme details and can be had with the right equipment. - I recommended the D810 for macro. Get your technique right and you're in business.
6. Large Prints - Yes, said it already. you know who you are. If you need to put it up on a billboard - the D810 can accommodate.
7. To date, this is my finest overall Nikon camera for general use. It is easy to use and shoot with all day and with all Nikkor glass' and never give you a minute of troubles. The D810 is fully weather sealed, so you are covered out in the wild.
Bottom Line: If you are in the market for an FX Nikon camera at the top end of Nikon's Technology Stack but don't want to spend 6K on their flagship, this is your camera. If you are on a more restrictive budget the D610 or D750 are both worthy + the 750 gives you WiFi. I am not a videographer but the D810 has wonderful full HD video as well as the other two cameras.
That's it - but if you are really bored.... keep reading.
One thing I noticed was the rear screen and info button which features for a quick way to change shooting banks plus a few other common settings and it is easier to read – clear, bright and colorful, although not a major update the rear screen does offer a finer more detailed advantage over the older screen. The view through the camera is also debatable, brighter with white fluoresce lettering that is easy to see. The BIG thing I noticed is the very quiet operation of the shutter, a wonderful upgrade for my outdoor wildlife shooting.
The other big thing for me is the new group area focus, I hope this will be a big advantage when trying to shoot those flying birds next nesting season or possibly some sports shooting this fall. Although I can not say I gave this much attention but in some situations, it appears to “magically” focus correctly. Also, the autofocus seems more responsive even in the very low light, I was testing the D810 focus with a 60mm 2.8 in very dim lighting and the camera did amaze me without focus assist light – which I normally turn off as default...
Some users are reporting the images are cleaner with less noise at higher ISO and I attend to agree somewhat; after shooting a few hundred images in low light I did notice cleaner files both NEF and JPEGS. But I will not claim this is a big improvement over the D800 but an improvement overall. The D810 now has an ISO of 64 & 80 with a base of ISO 100 which may please those sunny days open aperture shooters.
Shooting Speed: 4fps to 5fps, 6fps with the grip, don’t sound like all that much – but I can tell and know this camera is faster. How? I was use to my D800 that when I used this D810 the camera would have taken 2 shots when I only expected one because I held the release down as accustomed with the D800 timing. Even though I was in continuous high mode, with the D800 my timing would know when to release for a single shot. Not now, I was taking 2 shots sometimes before I realized it. Holding down the release will get you about 20+ shots before the buffer is filled – much better than before. The “speed” of the camera overall performance (focus, FPS, etc) I believe is the EXSPEED 4 processor. Speaking of speed. I moved my old CF card from my D800 which never gave me a minute of trouble to the D810. Within a day of shooting, I began to get write errors. the camera’s buffer was pushing the card to its limit. I now have a new Extreme SanDisk on its way.
Things I don’t like: Not much not to like, just a few minor changes I now have to retrain myself on the button layout; the evolution of a camera.
In a nutshell: The D810 is an improved camera overall and it just works better than my D800 did which is saying a lot, I do notice the new subtle differences, more refined, faster and a better camera all around. Well Done Nikon!
Death of NX 2: or at least the start of it for editing the new D810 RAW format.
With all the good news there is one disturbing piece of news from all this. The wonderful Nikon NX2 software will not support the NEW D810 NEF files, this to me is a BIG annoyance and disappointment because I have become reliant on NX2 as my first editing tool before moving to Lightroom because NX2 was simple and easy to use with good “control points, and touch up features”. Bad Bad Nikon. One would think the NEXT number change would be the deciding factor for dropping NX2 support – like the Nikon D900, not drop support with an enhanced D810. Horrible I tell you (me whining). NIKON please re-think this; I suspect this is because NIK software was bought out by GOOGLE, and a lot of the underlying features from NX 2 was from NIK Software. Now you can spend $149.00 to get the plug-ins for your $500.00 Photoshop or Lightroom. NX2 use to be my one-stop software used for editing, I used LightRoom for cataloging and tagging for easy recall. Although NX2 will support some of the legacy and even Nikon 1 cameras raw, it will not open/read the D810 files.
Bottom line:
The D810 is a pro-level camera that is fully capable FX camera, and if you need a quieter faster FPS shooter with 36mp maximum resolution – then a D810 may be in your calling. Help this site: Buy a D810 Camera