I got the reply from Nikon Finland: D4 cannot be used to control CLS settings from camera menu, it has to be done from Flash, this means that I cannot see how to use Radio TTL remotes, have to wait for D800 for that...

I have now asked from Nikon Finland, let's see what they reply...

Jyri said:
I tried all the banks, still e3 dimmed, I checked the manual and it refers only to SB-400 as external flash, that can't be the only one to work?

Here is where I would go with this one....

http://support.nikonusa.com/app/utils/login_form/redirect/ask

This issue requires more expertise and experience than I have for sure, but as there are so few D4's to there and most are in the hands of folks justin their tails working, they may not be here to answer our questions.

I tried all the banks, still e3 dimmed, I checked the manual and it refers only to SB-400 as external flash, that can't be the only one to work?

Jyri said:
I just tried to use D4 with SB-900 as a commander, but I couldn't find any way to control the flash outputs from camera menus, only way to do it was from SB-900 menu. I did see in the camera menu e3 but it was dimmed and just said TTL as chosen value. How do I use Radio TTL controls, if there is no menu in the camera to control the remote flashes.

Mmmm... I had a similar problem in attempting to shoot an HDR shot. The menu was dimmed and I could not do it. So, I went into the shooting bank menu and went from the two programmed menus with names to Menu "C" which was unassigned.
I then had the HDR menu illuminated and completed the shot.

So, it could be if you are in a specific "bank" the flash is not active and you will need to move to a different "bank". Please see how this works and let us know. I am just trying to figure all this out.

I just tried to use D4 with SB-900 as a commander, but I couldn't find any way to control the flash outputs from camera menus, only way to do it was from SB-900 menu. I did see in the camera menu e3 but it was dimmed and just said TTL as chosen value. How do I use Radio TTL controls, if there is no menu in the camera to control the remote flashes.

Jyri said:
I just cannot see why Nikon did the Banks the they did.

Well, we certainly agree in this respect.

I would say this... in setting up the camera for a particular venue, I find I am much more comfortable with going through a "checklist" of settings, just so I can choose what I want at anyone time. I rarely have a "normal" setting. Somehow I am always thinking about either shutter speed, depth of field, motion stopping ability, camera shake, shadow depth, just a lot of things and I may have developed habits from years ago which still persist and suggest I need to go through my checklist each shooting session. If, one magic button could adjust every setting, then maybe I would go for it, but that is not the way it is.

So, NIKON most likely has some motivation for the way they deign these things. Possibly on NIKON's support forums the answer is found???

The performance of the D4 is so absolutely beyond my abilities I think I will just go with the way things are. I rarely ever use all the fancy stuff.... just did not grow up (if this ever occurred) that way.

I just last night realized that there are both Shooting banks and Custom Banks, shooting banks being for the image settings and custom for other. Since there is no way of saving the settings and loading them separately, also that the Custom setting cannot be chosen with any key + selector combo, you can assign the Shooting Bank selection to different keys, but not the Custom Bank.

All this means I cannot never trust what the settings arre when I change to different bank -> every different setting must be checked before shoot. D7000 had the U1 and U2 and those were great, all you had to do was swap the mode to either one and You knew what the settings are for sure, since all the settings were recalled and you had to separately save the setting to those to have them changed. I just cannot see why Nikon did the Banks the they did.

Jyri said:
Does anyone know how to copy settings from one bank to another, I haven't found a way to do that. Do I really have to do all the basic settings manually to every bank, if so, so frustrating.

You must be talking about shooting bank A, B, C, huh? Well, I have them named, now I have to figure out how to make them work, ha, ha,ha...

Actually, I think if you set up Bank A and then switch to B without changing anything, then store the same settings in Bank B you will have A & B the same. But this is something I find I really do not use much. I try to do a check sheet and go through all the settings before shooting so I know where I am. Works better for me.

Does anyone know how to copy settings from one bank to another, I haven't found a way to do that. Do I really have to do all the basic settings manually to every bank, if so, so frustrating.

amazing! Love this...you guys are really making it difficult for me in my personal debate between the D4 and D800!

msmoto said:
And for the rest of the story. Some bokah... but no sky. The first shot above has plain color in it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/7025023587/sizes/o/in/photostream/ This is 4860 x 3235

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/6878912992/sizes/o/in/photostream/ This is 4928 x 3240

Take a look and see what you think. I wonder what these would look like in RAW.... Maybe better? These are both JPEG Fine

Give me some feed back. I spent an hour out near the tracks waiting for the train, only to have it come by about 30 minutes after I returned home. I love it!

OK, just added this last one. If you look carefully, you will see where I used the auto-mask in Lightroom to bring the sky down, and I was a bit sloppy. But for the purpose of resolution and the "sky bokah" this should work, but the sky is horrible looking after I darkened it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/6879005314/sizes/o/in/photostream/

My conclusion, comparing the Dogwood blossom and the head of your bird.... the detail is so great in the head I would say there is more there. But the little stamen in the blossom are very sharp as well. Let me know what you think..

OK, I think I made the appropriate changes so anyone can access the original images sizes.... hopefully.....

@aesnakes... love the bird.... what is it... Beech UC-45J Expediter?

Here is another shot I took a few days ago with the D4

Larger here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbannister/6879865854/sizes/o/in/photostream/

msmoto said:
...Your shot is absolutely incredible....

When I follow the links you provide, I am only offered the 1024 pixels as the largest. Maybe a setting on your flickr account.

BTW, the image was not mine, it is the nikonrumors flickrs. These photos were available from the main page http://nikonrumors.com/2012/03/27/full-size-nikon-d800-sample-images.aspx/

Right now, I have some reserve toward my yet-to-come D800 purchase. Looking at the D800 samples at the full resolution and 100% crop, I see a lot of noise in the background bokey even at ISO 100. At this point in time, I am still considering my options and I may decide to get a D4 instead. I still haven't seen a single full rez D4 shot yet so I find it hard to figure what to do.

Edit: I just found full res samples.

And for the rest of the story. Some bokah... but no sky. The first shot above has plain color in it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/7025023587/sizes/o/in/photostream/ This is 4860 x 3235

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/6878912992/sizes/o/in/photostream/ This is 4928 x 3240

Take a look and see what you think. I wonder what these would look like in RAW.... Maybe better? These are both JPEG Fine

Give me some feed back. I spent an hour out near the tracks waiting for the train, only to have it come by about 30 minutes after I returned home. I love it!

OK, just added this last one. If you look carefully, you will see where I used the auto-mask in Lightroom to bring the sky down, and I was a bit sloppy. But for the purpose of resolution and the "sky bokah" this should work, but the sky is horrible looking after I darkened it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/6879005314/sizes/o/in/photostream/

My conclusion, comparing the Dogwood blossom and the head of your bird.... the detail is so great in the head I would say there is more there. But the little stamen in the blossom are very sharp as well. Let me know what you think..

Pierre said:
msmote, I am looking at the D800 full rez picture. I would like to have a few sample to compare them against the D4, something that would involve bokeyed uneven bright sky or background similar to this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonrumors/7019634839/sizes/o/in/set-72157629289734604/
You think it would be possible for you to post them for us in your flickr?

Well, there is this one which I think is a full frame. It is 4928 x 3280, which is 16.16MP. I believe it is an 8 or 9 MB JPEG file.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/7014984231/sizes/o/in/photostream/

I will try, however to grab a shot this evening with my 135mm f/2.0 on the D4 and then download the file maybe tomorrow??? I am shooting JPEG, Fine as I do not have my Lightroom 4 yet and LR 3 does not accept the RAW files from the D4.

Your shot is absolutely incredible. I will go find something with small detail so we can have some comparison.

msmote, I am looking at the D800 full rez picture. I would like to have a few sample to compare them against the D4, something that would involve bokeyed uneven bright sky or background similar to this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonrumors/7019634839/sizes/o/in/set-72157629289734604/
You think it would be possible for you to post them for us in your flickr?

studio460 said:
For those who haven't pre-ordered a D4, what is the conventional thinking on when stock will become more readily available? At only 5,000 units being produced per month, could this be expected to take as long as six months? Longer?

What a great question. I wonder if there is any data which would indicate the number of pre-orders for the D4. Or, how many D3s bodies were sold in the six months of production. For sure the ADMIN would have the data, or know the source as this is not really a secret. Then we can guess the wait at a the 5,000 per month rate of production. How about it guys?

For those who haven't pre-ordered a D4, what is the conventional thinking on when stock will become more readily available? At only 5,000 units being produced per month, could this be expected to take as long as six months? Longer?

IndyGeoff said:
I think I need to be slapped ....

I was talking with my wife about my desire to upgrade my D90.

She looked at me with one of those well what are you waiting for then said, if that suits your needs better order one.

We know more about these things.... go order your D4.... you will have a couple months to save up the money... the camera is so good you will love it. But, maybe you need to tell her first, you will also need to order about five or ten thousand in lenses for the FX format.....

And thank your wife....

jzcinema said:
Help! Other than needing to wipe the drool off of my D4 every 10 minutes...I am having two "real" problems. Can anyone help?

Problem #1: When i select the 1080p 60fps movie mode; the movie still plays back "real time" at 24fps....is there post work required to get slow motion?

Problem #2: I have input the date for my manual zeiss lenses "non cpu lens data" ...however the metering does not work. If I have the lens wide open (F2) and the camera in aperture priority mode....it exposes every shot correctly. If I stop down the lens to 22 then it is basically a "white out"....5 or 10 stops over....really weird. The aperture setting shows up properly on the display based on where it is adjusted on the lens....but have a missed a meter setting?

Please! Help me enjoy the greatest camera i have ever owned by leading me to these solutions! Thank you so much!

Have you solved these problems? What is your NLE?

On #2, in A mode, you should be able to adjust with -/+ exposure compensation.

My best,

Mike

She sounds like a real keeper...

:D

I think I need to be slapped ....

I was talking with my wife about my desire to upgrade my D90.

I talked about a D700 or a D3S (used) but commented on the loss of lens length (you know what I mean) and how the D800 would give me the room to crop and still have the same or more MP left over. She said well that sounds good. Then I told her about the 4FPS and how I would like more and the D4 has more, however is $6,000.00

She looked at me with one of those well what are you waiting for then said, if that suits your needs better order one. I jumped inside then told her I cannot justify $6k for my hobby even if it makes me a couple thousand a year from the side jobs I do.

LoveTheBerry said:
Thought on the new D4:

I have enjoyed using the D3s more than I can share. One feature I really like is having two CF card slots. This enabled me to shoot jpeg on one card and RAW on another. This was also a "safety" feature for me so if I had an issue on a transfer or a bad CF card, I always had another card to get the pics from.

The new D4 does not have this feature with two CF card slots, just one CF slot and one XQD slot.

Any thoughts about this?

I have used the two slots the same way. An XQD as primary, CF as back-up, using a Lexar Pro 600x, 16 GB CF, UDMA.

I now do the XQD as primary and the CF as overflow. This is because I am checking he images fairly often, editing in camera as I shoot. Thus, I offer the experience of a first time D4 owner, i.e., never had a D3s.

Thought on the new D4:

I have enjoyed using the D3s more than I can share. One feature I really like is having two CF card slots. This enabled me to shoot jpeg on one card and RAW on another. This was also a "safety" feature for me so if I had an issue on a transfer or a bad CF card, I always had another card to get the pics from.

The new D4 does not have this feature with two CF card slots, just one CF slot and one XQD slot.

Any thoughts about this?