Nikon D800E -in pursuit of sharpness


For those that find fault with the argument look at it this way.

You are coloring in squares on graphing paper (sensor) with a paint brush (lens), at the moment your brush fits the squares so you get very nice and neatly filled in squares. Now you change your graph paper to one with much smaller squares but you are still using the same brush. The brush head is now bigger than the squares and it is impossible to fill in each square perfectly.

It is fact. Will it change your overall IQ? If you are viewing it and printing it the same way, no. But then you really don't need to upgrade your body if that is all you needed. If you will be printing bigger or zooming in closer because you can, now you will see a difference.
great analogy :thumbsup:
 

Thomas Hogan's take on lenses for the D800:

http://www.bythom.com/index.htm

quote from the above url ....

I'm always reluctant to quote numbers, though, as my photographs don't consist of numbers ;~). If you can live with f/8 as your smallest aperture, the 28-300mm may be good enough that you won't notice the difference. Duck!

Phew, that one almost hit me.

Come on guys, I said "may not notice the difference." I didn't say there was no difference.

:thumbsup:
 

Having played around extensively with the 24-70 & 24-120, I personally came to this conclusion on my own. Got the 24-120 f4 for general walkabout/travle & the 85 1.8 for portraiture with its speed/bokeh etc. Just waiting for the 28 f1.8 :)

Anyway if one's holy grail is to photograph brick walls, thats fine with me. To each his own & whatever floats his boat. Just thought the photos shown as examples in the test dont look quite right from my experiences & that they may be due to some oversight or bias. For me photography doesnt begin & end with resolution lp/mm or pixels :) And there are other factors to consider like auto-focus etc Thanks for the reference.


Thomas Hogan's take on lenses for the D800:

Thom Hogan's Nikon Camera, DSLR, Lens, Flash, and Book site

"This also brings me to my last thought before I duck down deep behind my bunker: maybe the 24-120mm f/4 is the right choice. Coupled with three primes, what would you be missing?"
 

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Having played around extensively with the 24-70 & 24-120, I personally came to this conclusion on my own. Got the 24-120 f4 for general walkabout/travle & the 85 1.8 for portraiture with its speed/bokeh etc. Just waiting for the 28 f1.8 :)

Anyway if one's holy grail is to photograph brick walls, thats fine with me. To each his own & whatever floats his boat. Just thought the photos shown as examples in the test dont look quite right from my experiences & that they may be due to some oversight or bias. For me photography doesnt begin & end with resolution lp/mm or pixels :) And there are other factors to consider like auto-focus etc Thanks for the reference.

:bsmilie: yes indeed. the brick walls. :bsmilie:
 

...For me photography doesnt begin & end with resolution lp/mm or pixels :) And there are other factors to consider like auto-focus etc...

For me photography is about the subject, the content, and what emotions it brings to the viewers...
 

s1221ljc said:
Having played around extensively with the 24-70 & 24-120, I personally came to this conclusion on my own. Got the 24-120 f4 for general walkabout/travle & the 85 1.8 for portraiture with its speed/bokeh etc. Just waiting for the 28 f1.8 :)

Anyway if one's holy grail is to photograph brick walls, thats fine with me. To each his own & whatever floats his boat. Just thought the photos shown as examples in the test dont look quite right from my experiences & that they may be due to some oversight or bias. For me photography doesnt begin & end with resolution lp/mm or pixels :) And there are other factors to consider like auto-focus etc Thanks for the reference.

Yes! This is Photography!
 

I don't know why some people ( not all) sometimes ( not always)
1) highjack postings and then,
2) make a huge effort to prove other wrong and don't even take the time to read the whole post, when they lack the slights bit of background knowledge about the topic posted.
And, Yes I will be grilled and hanged for this statement.

So again,

1) This post is about the D800E and not the D800. The D800E can resolve, under optimal circumstances, and with the right lens, about 10%-15%% more lp/mm than the D800, like it or not.
2) This post has nothing to do with the artistic / creative part of photography, it is pure technical, regarding the resolution/ sharpness on lenses on the D800E. It has also nothing to do with ISO, AF, VR, Post Processing, and so on. And yes, I could have photographed a brick wall or a Iso 12233 test sheet. It would not make the slightest difference.
3) The sample shots are not posted to proof anyone wrong or right or make a lens look good or bad , they are just posted to add additional and helpful information about this test and explaining the results better.
4) The purpose of this is test, its only purpose, is, to find out, which lenses can, under optimal circumstances, perform well enough to use the D800E 36 mpix sensor with modified AA filer to its full potential. Is is not done to see if there is any visible difference in a 1mb jpeg file, taken with 24-120 Nikon and the Zeiss Planar. I can assure you without doing any test, there is non.
 

Bottom line: use zoom for convenience but compromise IQ. For best IQ, use a good prime. Applies all the time but D800E just make it more significant.
 

Bottom line: use zoom for convenience but compromise IQ. For best IQ, use a good prime. Applies all the time but D800E just make it more significant.

Question: Cheap prime lens better than good zoom lens? Anything cheap and good? ......:p
 

Lets ignore the hijackers who include huge chunks of quotes including pictures. Can you do a test and show us the effects of diffraction on the same lens, same angle. Everything same except f-stops. Appreciate very much.

I don't know why some people ( not all) sometimes ( not always)
1) highjack postings and then,
2) make a huge effort to prove other wrong and don't even take the time to read the whole post, when they lack the slights bit of background knowledge about the topic posted.
 

I don't know why some people ( not all) sometimes ( not always)
1) highjack postings and then,
2) make a huge effort to prove other wrong and don't even take the time to read the whole post, when they lack the slights bit of background knowledge about the topic posted.
And, Yes I will be grilled and hanged for this statement.

So again,

1) This post is about the D800E and not the D800. The D800E can resolve, under optimal circumstances, and with the right lens, about 10%-15%% more lp/mm than the D800, like it or not.
2) This post has nothing to do with the artistic / creative part of photography, it is pure technical, regarding the resolution/ sharpness on lenses on the D800E. It has also nothing to do with ISO, AF, VR, Post Processing, and so on. And yes, I could have photographed a brick wall or a Iso 12233 test sheet. It would not make the slightest difference.
3) The sample shots are not posted to proof anyone wrong or right or make a lens look good or bad , they are just posted to add additional and helpful information about this test and explaining the results better.
4) The purpose of this is test, its only purpose, is, to find out, which lenses can, under optimal circumstances, perform well enough to use the D800E 36 mpix sensor with modified AA filer to its full potential. Is is not done to see if there is any visible difference in a 1mb jpeg file, taken with 24-120 Nikon and the Zeiss Planar. I can assure you without doing any test, there is non.

Hmmm... say so much, only 2 lenses tested... how can you even draw conclusions from just 2 lenses? and two very very very different lenses to boot... and to compare them? hmm...

Want to do tests, do it properly with many more lenses... like this dude...
http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/04/0...h-some-comments-on-specific-lens-performance/

In the end you can throw out lp/mm and all that jargon. But please perform more complete tests with many more lenses, so the review can actually be of use to more people, and not jump to conclusions based on the limited testing that has been done.
 

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Hmmm... say so much, only 2 lenses tested... how can you even draw conclusions from just 2 lenses? and two very very very different lenses to boot... and to compare them? hmm...

Want to do tests, do it properly with many more lenses... like this dude...
And the Nikon D800 autofocus saga continues (with some comments on specific lens performance) – Ming Thein | Photographer

In the end you can throw out lp/mm and all that jargon. But please perform more complete tests with many more lenses, so the review can actually be of use to more people, and not jump to conclusions based on the limited testing that has been done.

I take ming's comments seriously ....
 

Thanks to TS for the effort in starting this thread.

I think the point is made that D800E sensor is able to reveal imperfections of many lenses and at the same time allow us to appreciate and realise the high quality precision of other lenses.

We are delighted when the lenses we hold dear and believed to be superb optics were proven to be so by the D800/E, and we are disappointed when some other lenses fall short under the revealing resolution of the 36MP sensor without AA filter.

To some people, this revelation necessitates an "upgrade" of their lenses to the ones that will be able to perform to a higher standard, under the reign of the new King, the D800E.

To others, their existing arsenal of fine glasses are good enough, despite their imperfections, because their application and output simply do not require that kind of perfection. But these people will probably settle for the D800 without the E.
 

I think a lot of people are missing the point completely.

This has nothing to do with comparison or which lens is better. This is whether a lens will pair well with the D800E if you absolutely want to milk the maximum from the sensor.
 

I think a lot of people are missing the point completely.

This has nothing to do with comparison or which lens is better. This is whether a lens will pair well with the D800E if you absolutely want to milk the maximum from the sensor.

Yes... I agree, this is about wheather a lens with pair well with D800E. so far we have seen the 24-120VR (not a pro level lens) and a CZ prime. Both of which are not your usual bread and butter lenses for most professionals.

The point is, do more tests, on more lenses. Only then, there is more room for comparison or meaningful conclusions.

That is also I was saying earlier, that people start to squabble more, because your test is not scientific enough in conditions not controlled enough.
 

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I think the point is made that D800E sensor is able to reveal imperfections of many lenses and at the same time allow us to appreciate and realise the high quality precision of other lenses.

Bro, I think everyone already knows that point even before these tests are done on the E.
 

Hi TS, Thanks for sharing...per your intention to pursue sharpness, i hope you observe more and possibly set up more tests, despite many side tracks, to work out how to use the D800E to its potential...hope to see how other Nikkor primes pair with the D800E body:)
 

Hi TS, thanks for a very informative user experience. I hope you will be able to see what other lenses will be able to maximize the potential of the 800E.
 

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