The first conclusion: the D800 is really the finest piece of photographic equipment that I have for a long time get their hands on!
And now a more nuanced - particularly in response to many reviews here, so the negative points that are always mentioned here first ...
Focus problems - these are no longer existent in the current series. If you still afraid to stop shopping at the dealer around the corner and then take "his" camera previously examined. Who should buy used just pay attention to the serial numbers.
File size - well, who wants a high-resolution camera has to live with a lot of memory usage times now. I do not understand the people who complain afterwards about the fact that a lossless compressed Raw has 48MB at a time. So what you know in advance. This is the Internet ... Apart from that you can because of the huge buffer working with JPEGs (when the exposure is OK) in many cases. And the lossy compression Raw should look at times. Because the files are small chic and artefacts is at magnification 3: 1 visible ... so for me that enough in the resolution of long. More than 3m edge length in the plot I do not need ;-)
Speed - well, 4/5 frames per second are not very fast. But you should know that before. For most situations, that's long enough. Who wants to do sports or action at a high level should buy ne D3 / D3s / D4 to stop. Also, the buffer is sufficient in my opinion. You always have to stop in mind for what have this camera is built.
Memory card slots - the point is also often criticized times. I think the split pretty handy. Because fast SD cards are now available for Schnapperpreis yes. And I find it very convenient that I do not always have the CF card reader with drag around. Apart from that can be so good combinations do with CF = Raw and SD = JPEG or backup. At least you can take when traveling through the cheap SD Cards infinitely more memory. In CF one takes still poor. Clear the CF cards are faster, but I have a slot. And on the subject of speed: see above ;-)
Dynamic range - simply awesome. Recently had a wedding under very shady trees with bangs sun from above without any cloud. Portrait of bride and groom with shadow (black) in the foreground, pair well exposed, sky (white) in the background. Was really crass. On the monitor, the saw is not really funny out. But lo and behold in Lightroom the sky came out beautiful blue and the shadows were pretty brightened at once. So blatant that I have not had with any camera. Really great.
Level of detail of the shooting - staggering. One can simply spend hours back purely in his paintings and marvel at what you can so discover everything details. So you can simply work very differently.
Noise performance - a popular theme. Technically quite simple: The sensor is new (therefore better because technically) than in D3 / D700. For this plan are extremely many small pixels, which eats away this advantage again. If the light is so bad, you get quickly rushing on the sensor, so from ISO 800 is the going. BUT: the at 36MP image size. And because the buffer of the image size comes into play. So if I take a picture with high ISO, I have nasty noise in the picture. In 1: 1 zoom that looks terrible. But you can simply fro in Lightroom and reduce noise. It will look at 1: 1 otherwise horribly, rather like a watercolor from. But now the picture you can just count on an appropriate screen size, ie 20 or 12 MP MP and lo and behold, the quality is top. I have quite recordings with ISO 6400 made that are world-class with 12MP resolution. So always consider noise compared based on the output size, not absolute. And there again the note: this camera is built for details, not for bad light. Who wants to turn when shooting in low light / must should think more about D3s / D4 ...
Optics - I personally think so, that many of the commonly described sharpness problems (not the left focus) go back to the fact that not the right optics are available. Up to this camera it was quite a difference what you screwed his camera, but basically more last nuances in focus and quality between good and top lenses were seen. That's over now. Here is the first DSLR sensor, which calls for the optics mercilessly. So if you have very old optics or much third-party stuff, or you do not, the top line, which should necessarily try, what happens when they are on the D800. Often the realization that even glass must be bought, because nothing else meaningful goes with pictures. Who has the good Nikkor need have no concern. And many old funtkioniert also perfectly - my PC Nikkor 28mm delivers top images!
Practicality and second FAZIT I have the D800 deliberately simple times as the main camera for a wedding last used, because I just wanted to know whether this will work (you can see here that I huge respect for the good piece did). What can I say? It was not a problem. All good. Afterwards my plate was a bit crowded and my Mac given one minute longer needed to generate the previews, but overall this was not wild (and on File size: see above). Already due to the dynamics I will in the future rely more on the D800 and D3 hernehmen when speed is needed. I fear my faithful D700 has become obsolete in this combination. For me, the combination plus D800 D3 is optimal for all. And even "only" with D800 I'd pretty much survive well, what I encounter photographically :-)
