The Blog

Jul

2012

D800 Timelapse / Landscape Test

Posted by dave@davepiper.co.uk on 19 Jul 2012 / 4 Comments

This Video is a test of the D800 Nikon.

A couple of weeks ago, Paul McKelvie and I took the new D800 and the 5D Mark 3 out to Kenilworth Castle for some landscape test shoots. Both cameras , of course are stunning to use and give amazing results. This blog looks at the D800 in a brief way.

I had the cameras to test for a review in Digital Photographer magazine, we thought a Timelapse test would flag up some things in the cameras that normal testing would not show , as well as being a great test for the monster Dynamic range on the D800. (Review published in DP issue 124)

It stands to reason that the D800 was to be set to shoot JPEG as only had 32gig cards, meaning that the duel slots would give us up to 64Gig shooting. When shooting long time lapse work, we was unsure if this would be enough if shooting RAW. We set up the cameras on the Carbon Fibre 3 Legged thing Tripods, shot some test frames and sat back to watch the sunset.

This image was shoot on the Fuji X-Pro

The D800 was a pure joy to set up in Time Lapse mode, or Interval shooting as Nikon call it. We used the IoShutter to set the Canon as it does not have a built in mode like the Nikon. Everything was set to manual with the Sigma 28mm set to infinity for the focus. I do wish we had a better rain cover, as there was a concern about the pop up flash letting water in as it started to rain, when shooting Time Lapse, it turns out getting sorted and thinking ahead is key ! Next time I think setting the cameras up with some water proof covers then just letting them shoot and being confident of them staying dry. Using a large Lens Hood would of been cool to stop water droplets also..

A cover to keep the camera dry, and some place to check images in the dry to avoid touching the camera. Shooting tethered next time !! The Godox battery to keep everything working for a nice long time. Also, coffee would be good to have.

These image have been shoot on the Fuji X-Pro

These image have been shoot on the D800 during the Time Lapse

Just as an interesting note:

Nikon D800 vs PhaseOne IQ180 Nikon D800 tested at DxOMark, gets the #1 spot

We shall be be blogging more about the D800 and 5D Mark 3 very soon.

http://twitter.com/pauldsmart Paul D Smart

Interesting that the Overall score was taken to be higher on the D800 than the IQ180, but only because of the inclusion of the Sports comparison.

Question being… when would you ever actually use a Phase One to shoot sports.
The IQ180 can shoot Up to 120 frames per minute… hardly a sports camera at all.

At least the D800 can do, what?, 4fps… still hardly worth putting a sports comparison down…
dave@davepiper.co.uk

4 FPS, yes, not as fast as other cameras, but as an all round camera, it is pretty good speed to work with for the size of RAW file output. I am not saying either is a good sports camera to use. There is nothing to say you can not use it for Sports either though. How fast could you shoot 120 frames with a Nikon F5 ?
dps

When ever you really freeze images. All Nike, Adidas etc campaigns are shot on digital backs for a good reason – flashing at 1/500s.
dave@davepiper.co.uk

Do you think people will be using D800′s for this sort of work now ?