According to one of the few sites I check on a daily basis, Nikon Rumors, they have indicated that the next big thing from Nikon will be in the form of a 36 megapixel full-frame DSLR. Link here to NR for full details:
Needless to say, the specs have their fans, and those who seem to dislike the whole idea… Which doesn’t surprise me much. After all, their will always be the people who aren’t satisfied with the rumored (or actual) specs or just gripe to do it. We are all entitled to our opinion, thus half the reason I started this site years ago! In any event, how about we just wait and see what the official specs say about it and more importantly, compare real world images from it.
So these questions, comments and complaints came up pretty frequently in the discussion about the D800, here is my take on them:
“It’s $4000, that’s too much!” – Really? Because I’d GLADLY pay $4000 for better than D3x performance. In fact, that’s nearly half price for 12MP more, full HD video and a smaller body camera. (Which is a plus for some people.) And if the price is too much, you’re probably not making enough money with it to justify buying one in the first place.
“Why no 60p video?” – Honestly, full HD at 30fps is fine. Quite frankly, if you NEED 60p video, buy a real HD video camera. I realize the “DVSLR” or “VSLR” are blurring the lines between video camera and still camera, which is great for some, but I’d much rather have a very good still camera with reasonable video capability than a mediocre still camera with good video capability. Worse yet, paying extra for both functions when I really only want a good still camera in the first place.
“I don’t need 36 megapixels” – Why not? After all, this means you could crop the image significantly and still have plenty of megapixels to spare. On top of that, with super-large prints becoming popular options for studios to sell for big profits, the more resolution means better, sharper, more detailed finished prints. I see no drawbacks here. As for storage, hard drives are so considerably large and cheap these days… I have at least 10TB of storage on my Mac alone and still thinking about adding more.
“I bet ISO is going to be terrible” – How so? Lets not forget how GOOD the D7000 ISO performance is, and that’s a DX factor 16MP camera. Scale that sensor up to full frame and quite honestly the ISO performance could be as good. And lets not forget what I said above, do we REALLY need ISO 25,600 that often? (Or even near that?) In fact, I checked my Lightroom catalogs and less than 2% of my images total were taken over ISO 800. Even then, the ISO performance from 800 to 3200 would be considerably better than my 5-year-old D300 making THAT range good enough for practical use. On that, Nikon hasn’t released any official specs yet, so what’s to say the ISO will be bad?
In addition, if you are using a 36MP professional SLR, odds are you also have a selection of F2.8 zooms and/or F1.8 or faster fixed lenses. In which case, high ISO would rarely be a necessity anyway.
“Only 4FPS oh noes!” – Cry me a tear and turn on the video function if you want to capture action. After all, those 8×10″ sports prints of the Jr league football team you sell, you can just capture the best frame out of the video and use that. Problem solved. You think you NEED 36MP at 8+ FPS? Only if you’re shooting the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, NASCAR, NHRA or some other pro sport and are being paid handsomely to do so… In which case, get a D3s which was designed for speed. (Correction, I suppose you could add in pro college teams too.) Even then it will have a “DX Mode” when combine with the battery grip, which will boost it to 6FPS. Sounds like a fine compromise to me.
With my thoughts on peoples gripes out in the wind, here are my only thoughts that I hope Nikon has or will address with the D800:
Can we please get more dynamic range? Seriously, I’d trade a few stops of ISO performance for a few more stops of DR.
Video is nice, but PLEASE don’t mess up the controls for the still functions to make room for video features.
Lets get mirrorless already! (or translucent mirror)
Give me the ability to wireless tether without expensive add-ons or proprietary software.
Build in a GPS, I’d love to geotag my files but I’m not going to spend another few hundred dollars on an attachment that just adds to the bulk.
Make it lighter. I’m all about a big, full size camera. I have big hands, I need a big camera. But lighter will always be a pleasant surprise.
Thunderbolt connectivity please! Granted, my Mac Pro tower doesn’t have it yet… The next one I buy will if I can help it. (USB 3.0 does Mac users little good considering Apple doesn’t support it or plan to do so.)
Anyhow, with my list of demands to Nikon out of the way, I’d GLADLY ‘test’ one out before they hit the market… *wink wink* Aw well, I tried!