hehe, thanks for your comments 🙂 unfortunately it was just one of those lucky mistakes, most of my “technically ok” photos (which can be found in my photostream if you’re at all interested) are a bit boring and sterile.

If you’ve not jumped already Elf then you may find this interesting. NikonRumours is saying the D800 will be announced within 60 days.

The name will be Nikon D800, the sensor will be 36MP (99% probability)

Elfinsafety, i’ve got a D700 to sell if you still want one? Let me know.

If you’ve not jumped already Elf then you may find this interesting. NikonRumours is saying the D800 will be announced within 60 days.

The sensor on that is an upsized version of the one used in the D7000, K5, a55 and a580 which is the class leading aps sensor. The FF version should be impressive (about 2.25x as impressive).

phew STW doesn’t change much does it, you guy’s would argue with yourselves if left alone long enough.

FWIW I’ve got a D90 and a D700.
Bought the D700 amongst other things for the high ISO performance.
Both great cameras, thought about waiting for D800 but as someone above said the best camera in the world will always be coming out in 6 months.. bit like bikes really.
I reckoned in the end that i might as well just buy it, and use it, rather than spending time reading nikon rumours/interweb etc.
D700 will always be (as my pics may well testify) a better camera than i am a photographer.
Enjoy your camera, whatever you get.

I thought the high ISO performance of the D7000 was almost as good as the D700?

Someone’s done a comparison here:

http://artoftheimage.blogspot.com/2010/11/nikon-d7000-vs-nikon-d700-high-iso.html

For a Nikon user solely looking for better high ISO performance, the D7000 would be pretty hard to ignore, considering it’s about half the price.

NikonRumours have been posting more details about the D800 today.

[list]
[*]36MP sensor[/*]
[*]100% viewfinder coverage[/*]
[*]Improved AF with face recognition – the D800 will still have 51 points AF point[/*]
[*]Dual memory card slots (still not sure if they will be SD, CF or both)[/*]
[*]USB 3.0[/*]
[*]ISO range: 100 – 6400, ISO LO @ 50 and ISO HI-2 @ 25600[/*]
[*]The screen will be larger than 3 inches[/*]
[*]The D800 will not have built-in GPS[/*]
[*]Expeed 3 processor[/*]
[*]There will be two different D800 versions/models, one with the antialiasing filter removed[/*]
[*]4 fps continuous shooting, about 6 fps in DX mode with optional battery pack[/*]
[*]Full HD video in 1920 × 1080/30p[/*]
[*]Headphone jack, can input from an external device such as a PCM sound recorder, available also in new small wireless transmitter[/*]
[*]86K pixel split control, AF, exposure, white balance, etc. compatible[/*]
[*]CF card and SD card slot[/*]
[*]Shutter durability of 200,000 cycles[/*]
[*]Market price is about 300,000 yen[/*]
[*]Announcement on October 26, released on November 24[/*][/list]

No idea how credible all that is, but it certainly sounds interesting.

Well i’m going to buy a D7000 afte rmuch umming and ahhing

Where’s the best place to sell my D80?

interesting thread so i hope this minor hijack wont deviate things.

can anyone recommend some good websites / reading for an absolute novice to learn the fundamentals of composing and taking good shots? i have zero camera experience apart from taking pish shots with compacts and iphones and the like. I would like to find out more about how to take good pictures with a possible view to buying my own camera eventually.

TIA

David

There’s a good little set of intro lessons by Jodie Coston here:
http://www.morguefile.com/docs/Classroom

If you want more on composition, then I found The Photographer’s Eye to be a good book for a bumbling amateur like me:

davidrussel – there’s some good basic tutorials in the tutorials section (strangely 🙂 ) of the Talk Photography forum.

D800 could be pretty sweet. 36MP files are a bit overkill for most purposes though.

Thanks Graham + Grum, will take a look at those this afternoon while working™

Cheers

No idea how credible all that is, but it certainly sounds interesting.

Another interesting development – fujifilm have announced they’re doing a MILF along the lines of their x100 but with a ‘large’ sensor (larger than m4/3 and possibly FF large).

They have my attention 🙂

D800 could be pretty sweet. 36MP files are a bit overkill for most purposes though.

Yeah, but bear in mind that Nikon are probably looking to produce a body that they will sell for at least the next five years, so they have to “future proof” a bit.

I’m sure you’ll be able to take lower res shots with it if required. It will certainly have a DX mode.

The 36mp replaces the old 24mp sensor of 2008. I can’t see the next cycle being longer than 3 years.

I reckon we’re getting to the “good enough” plateau though, so I could see this body (or variations of it) selling longer.

That’s been a common line of thought since 10MP sensors. I have several lenses that out-resolve my 24MP sensor so I’m happy to have more. There’s a good article on LL covering resolution and MP.

36MP can be out-resolved at apertures larger than f8. You need a sensor of nearly 1000MP before you can be sure your lens isn’t theoretically the limiting factor at f1.4.

I’d guess the MP race has a few iterations left in it yet and I gave up worring about memory sizes after being convinced the 16K ram pack on my ZX81 was all I’d ever need. 😉

I’m sure you’ll be able to take lower res shots with it if required. It will certainly have a DX mode.

Will you be able to take lower res shots in RAW with the full frame crop factor though?

That’s been a common line of thought since 10MP sensors. I have several lenses that out-resolve my 24MP sensor so I’m happy to have more.

What for though? Do you regularly make huuuuuuge prints? I’ve printed 30’x20′ very successfully off my 12MP GF1, can’t see many occasions you’d want to go bigger than that.

I have a nice newish i5 iMac with lots of HD space but I’d still rather not have to deal with massive files all the time.

Will you be able to take lower res shots in RAW with the full frame crop factor though?

I dunno. Tis all theoretical at the mo innit?

No reason why they couldn’t implement that feature, but that doesn’t mean they will.

See I bloody knew it!

Hmm, means there will be some D700 bargains about hopefully… 🙂

Elfinsafety, i’ve got a D700 to sell if you still want one? Let me know.

Won’t be for a month or three tbh. Got to get winter fuel bills pre-empted and paid up front a bit first or it just gets too frightening. Priorities, then toys. 🙂

How much? I won’t be looking to pay much more than £1100 really, and I’d want it in very good condition for that. Might see if the D700 is discontinued, might be some decent discount kit deals too.

I’ve printed 30’x20′ very successfully off my 12MP GF1

Thirty by twenty feet? 😯 Really? You making billboards?

Done a few more pics with compact. Nowt special, but fun to just snap away, play around with shapes, patterns, light etc.

I meant inches dammit. 😡

Nikon rumours is just that, rumours. The only people that know what the spec of the D800 will be is Nikon.

The spec listed there makes it as good as, or better than the D3s, and there is no chance of that ever happening.

Nikon rumours is just that, rumours. The only people that know what the spec of the D800 will be is Nikon.

Fair point, but they were practically spot on with the Nikon 1 system.

NikonRumours guess:

Actual Nikon 1:

Pretty damn close

Yeah that is damn close

What for though? Do you regularly make huuuuuuge prints?

Yes. My favourite is a 3′ wide 5:2 format which is a small crop from the frame.

Given that storage is essentially free I can’t see a downside to high resolution. The diminishing returns don’t matter.

Given that storage is essentially free I can’t see a downside to high resolution.

I though that before I got my 5D MK2, now I have it set to sRAW (10mp instead of 21mp) simply because it saves space and time uploading. You can also fit almost twice as much on an SD card in the first place. It is good to have the option though, in case you do want to print something BIG!

I guess it’s all relative. I can get 1000 24mp raw files on the 2 cards in my camera which is enough for me. The processing bottleneck isn’t file size but reviewing & PP.

davidrussel
http://www.photokaboom.com/

Yes. My favourite is a 3′ wide 5:2 format which is a small crop from the frame.

Fairy ‘nough.

By the way I can’t remember if we have done the GFX1 rumours yet? Apparently this site has a pretty good rep for accurate rumours…

Announced within 2 months Panasonic will release the true successor to the GF1 and it will be called the GFX1 not the GX1!

It will be rangefinder styled like the Panasonic L1 of 2006 (above, my mock up), with built in EVF. That is 100% confirmed.

The camera is a true Fuji X100 / Sony NEX 7 competitor and is marketed toward GF1 enthusiasts who aren’t satisfied with the GF2 and GF3.

The Leica 25mm F1.4 will be in one of the kit options.

I am also told to expect another Leica prime to be announced alongside it as well as a fast 40mm pancake.

It’s great to see the competition hotting up in the mirrorless world.

Whilst we are on MILFs, I saw a Pentax thing with a Q-mount lens (it said on it).

Very very small, looked like a toy. Pretty portable, except that the lens in question was a prime and Pens with primes on are not exactly huge.

mmh milfs..or mihf…

I like MILFS 🙂

Something went horribly wrong….

By the way I can’t remember if we have done the GFX1 rumours yet?

No, but it’s reminded me that I cooduv got a nice kebab on the way home tonight.

So not particularly useful.

If I were Mafia, I’d be disolving you in some chemical by now. Then turning that into tarmac or Olympic track surface or something.

So think yerself lucky.

Give it a rest Bjørk you nutter! 😯

Whilst we are on MILFs, I saw a Pentax thing with a Q-mount lens (it said on it).

Very very small, looked like a toy. Pretty portable, except that the lens in question was a prime and Pens with primes on are not exactly huge.
5.5 crop factor. Not exactly cheap either.

Just saw that.. compact sized sensor and £600. I’d much rather have an Olympus XZ-1 and some new wheels.