Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsWorth upgrading from the D800 in my opinion
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2014
I have a D800 and have just purchased the D810. I was a bit nervous from reading "previews" that the difference in performance between the two bodies were not enough to justify the purchase of this new body. I am glad to say that at least for me, I am very happy and have not touched my D800 except once since purchase. The differences are subtle, but they make the package. It's sort of like driving a Toyota Camry, and then jumping into a Lexus. You still get there, and the Camry's not bad, but the Lexus just makes the drive so much better.
First of all, and I think most important of all is the autofocus is so much quicker. I was demonstrating it to my friend by just turning the camera to anything and press the shutter and it instantly focus and takes the picture. I set the menu mode for shutter release on focus only. On the D800, you will get the focus just a bit slower. Although this may not sound like a big difference, it allows me to get "that" picture with more confidence. I was never able to to use autofocus "c" mode to follow a flying bird because it is just not fast enough, or maybe I am not good enough of a photographer. However, on the D810, I was able to follow a dragonfly buzzing around my backyard and out of 6-7 pictures, I got 3 excellent in focus one. One of the picture looked like 3D because it was so clear!
The second difference, which I think is just as important to me is the improvement of ISO performance. I compared the noise level between ISO 800 - 12800 on both cameras. On the D800, I could definitely see annoying noise, even with noise reduction turned on by 1600, and by 3200, it was definitely unacceptable. On the D810, I could definitely see noise by 2500, and by 8000, it was definitely unacceptable. So, I can see that the improvement is about 2/3 -1 stop better. On the D800, I limit ISO to 1600. On the D810, I now limit it to 2500, although I think that ISO 3200 is comparable to ISO 1600 on the D800.
If you think this is not important, it is 1 stop difference. On my 24-70mm f2.8, with a 1 stop increase, it's like an f2.0! On my 24mm 1.4, that's like f1.0! I was at a restaurant the other day with the family and was able to click away many pictures without flash! The pictures were at ISO 2500, and looked amazing!
Another difference is the much quieter shutter click. It's not a big deal to me, but it sounds much better than the D800.
I have noticed though, that some of my pictures are not as sharp as I am used to on the D800. I would retake the picture, but I would slow down; breath out, and kept everything super steady, and then the picture would be supersharp! I think the D810 is so sharp without the low pass filters, that any subtle shakes will show. I guess this can be a "minus" if you want to consider that a minus. :))
Another thing I like on the D810 is the "group focus". This is 4 squares instead of one square to focus. So instead of aiming to focus with one square in the viewfinder, the D810 can be programmed to have 4 square next to each other. It is my opinion that this may result in better focus than the one square focus. The one square focus option is still there.
Overall, I really like the D810. I would definitely recommend this body, even if you have the D800 if you want that extra advantage. This is what the D800 should have been. :)
