I suppose I will throw in my two sense.... the D4 in portrait is easier to hold with the thumb rest on the back. Could be better but that is because in landscape it is so good it becomes a part of your hand. The new control knob for portrait on the back is great. Allows the focus point to easily be moved about. The entire camera is so fantastic, especially shooting in almost total darkness when on Auto ISO.... unbelievable.

SkintBrit said:
Read in to this what you will, but the head of NPS made the comment that if anyone was thinking of buying the D800/D800e, to put an order in now, as you will have no problem in selling it later.........Possible supply issues?

Looks like he knew!

SkintBrit definate supply issues no doubt. I have heard that the D800E won't make it onto the shelves now until at least mid April and perhaps even late April. Even the D4 date has been pushed back so these bodies will be selling like crazy once they ever do become available. I imagine it will be like the hysteria during the release of the Leica M9 and the months that followed.

SkintBrit said:
Well spotted Nikoner (you were meant to be looking at the 'other bodies' though :-) Yep, that hand is not mine, it belongs to a very helpful NPS member who wanted to help me get a better shot.

I know, eh! and I have put together my meager resources and pre-ordered the lovely D800, but somehow I find women photographers to be strangely attractive! sometimes they mess up my AF and I start backfocusing, not good if you want to get paid :-(

JY said:
SkinBrit,
Forgot to ask, any clue why the exclusion of the U1 U2 thingy from the d7000? I thought it was a great feature, but nikon might have enough feedback from the d7000 users to excluded it on d4 and d800.

They have taken quite a lot of ideas from the D7000, but it would appear that most of their respondents thought the 2 programable buttons on the front, combined with 4 programable shooting banks (which can be toggled between using one of the front buttons) is enough. One thing I did like that I don't know if common knowledge, is the fact that the D4's menu system is more colour coded than it is on current models. The structure you'll be pleased to know is the same, but rather than just having a coloured tab and line, they have given the top and side of the screen a nice flash of colour. Much more like Canon's colour coding which I've always liked but hated the menus.

kanuck said:
5 finger discount? ^_______^ Seriously though I wonder if they ever recovered any of the stolen exhibit gear from two weeks ago? Enjoy the demo bodies SkintBrit.

I was wondering if they would manage to get replacement equipment that quickly myself, and although they only had 1 D800, they did have 3-4 D4's. Read in to this what you will, but the head of NPS made the comment that if anyone was thinking of buying the D800e, to put an order in now, as you will have no problem in selling it later.........Possible supply issues?

5 finger discount? ^_______^ Seriously though I wonder if they ever recovered any of the stolen exhibit gear from two weeks ago? Enjoy the demo bodies SkintBrit.

SkinBrit,
Forgot to ask, any clue why the exclusion of the U1 U2 thingy from the d7000? I thought it was a great feature, but nikon might have enough feedback from the d7000 users to excluded it on d4 and d800.

Nikoner said:
Wow! SkintBrit is a chick. (manicured hands in the photo)

Well spotted Nikoner (you were meant to be looking at the 'other bodies' though :-) Yep, that hand is not mine, it belongs to a very helpful NPS member who wanted to help me get a better shot.

Pierre said:
How's the grip on the D4 portrait side feel compared with the D3s? I don't like holding the D3s on portrait, I find the grip not pronounced or deep enough and find it uncomfortable. Hoping the D4 is better.

You'll be pleased to hear it is better on the D4 Pierre, not necessarily bigger, but better designed with the inclusion of the thumb rest I mentioned earlier, and the second menu select dial (is that what you call it?) by your thumb now. I think you'll be pleased.

Nikoner said:
Wow! SkintBrit is a chick. (manicured hands in the photo)

How do you know it is his/her hands?

SkintBrit said:
Ive got loads on Nikon Pro Guys round me for another couple of hours, any questions you want me to ask them?

Glad to see one of our honorable NR members get their hands on both units. Well done buddy...wish I could have been there with you mate :P

Cheers

How's the grip on the D4 portrait side feel compared with the D3s? I don't like holding the D3s on portrait, I find the grip not pronounced or deep enough and find it uncomfortable. Hoping the D4 is better.

Nikoner said:
Wow! SkintBrit is a chick. (manicured hands in the photo)

Either that or he needs long nails - but yes, I see what you mean.

Wow! SkintBrit is a chick. (manicured hands in the photo)

Wow, sounds like you had a fun time!

Thank you, SkintBrit. Just brilliant that you'd include us on your trip! I appreciate it.

shawnino said:
Can you shoot something on D800 with consumer-grade FX lens and come to a conclusion if D800 really needs pro-grade lens as was (unintentionally?) implied by the Nikon France Q&A on the main site?

Hi shawnino, from what I can see from the images I've taken, I think gold ring lenses are going to be very sought after! They had pretty much every lens available so I was able to try quite a selection. The resolution is amazing, easily as good as MF shots I've seen, so I would say good glass is going to be very important if you want to get the most out of it.

adamz said:
if You still there, can You ask if there's gonna be an option to swap the XQD slot for a second CF, that's at least what I understood from the article in french photo magazine

No i''m not there any more Adamz, but that question did come up in the Q&A session. The answer they gave was "No, that's not possible".

Rx4Photo said:
SkintBrit, lucky you. Can you tell me how the shutter-button response feels on the D800? The D7000 feels a little kushy sometimes. Thanks.

Shutter felt as good as any I've used, I did notice 2 things about the cameras though, firstly the on/off switch is much slimmer (less pronounced) that the current cameras, I'm not sure if it means that the shutters are more likely to be activated accidentally or not, but for me at least I found myself checking I had my finger on the button, as the shutter release & bezell are now almost flush. Secondly, the little rubber thumb rest on the vertical grip of the D4 is a nice addition, especially when holding the camera with one hand. I didn't notice it being a problem with the D3 series, but it certainly give you a better grip. Oh one last thing, I prefer the old rotary dial on the top left hand shoulder of the 700/3/4. The one they have put on the 800 seemed decidedly tacky. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the 800 doesn't feel as tank like as a 700, it felt much more like a 7000 in size and build (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but I've got big hands and the grip was definitely smaller.

Thanks for posting the pics Jonny, sorry I only had my iPhone on me at the time so no critique please :-)

I'm just about to get on a plane to Amsterdam for a shoot tomorrow, so if I don't reply to any new questions till Wednesday that's the reason, I'm not being rude honest!

Thanks, SkintBrit!

Can you shoot something on D800 with consumer-grade FX lens and come to a conclusion if D800 really needs pro-grade lens as was (unintentionally?) implied by the Nikon France Q&A on the main site?

SkintBrit emailed me these wondering if I wanted to post them for him. Jealous!

if You still there, can You ask if there's gonna be an option to swap the XQD slot for a second CF, that's at least what I understood from the article in french photo magazine

SkintBrit, lucky you. Can you tell me how the shutter-button response feels on the D800? The D7000 feels a little kushy sometimes. Thanks.

JY said:
Wow, i am impressed! both bodies are that ergonomic that they still allow you to post here at the same time. My question is, did you wet your pant? :)

Thanks for the update btw.

LOL, I can type with my toes! ;-)

Pierre said:
Will you be able to post samples? And how crisp are the D4 shots say compared to a D700 or D800?

Sorry Pierre, I don't have a way at the moment to view them on a large screen, so an objective test is not possible. Lets face it though, how often do you look at pictures taken with a modern Nikon DSLR and say "they're pretty poor"? I know what you mean though. The D800e is SIGNIFICANTLY sharper than the 800 though!

studio460 said:
Do the Nikon guys feel that the production-release D4, with its latest-release firmware, shows any improvement on high-ISO noise performance over the pre-production, pre-release firmware D4 image samples we've seen?

They tell me the cameras here are using original firmware. They have no experience of any update.

studio460 said:
Will they let you shoot some tests with your own memory card, and keep it?

Sorry studio, ALL the flaps are sealed, but by going in to the menu, I could see that the 800 only had a SD card in it, and the 4 only had a CF! What's all that about? I wanted to compare write speed to a CF and XQD. They say that the CF association will continue to produce cards for as long as there is demand, but that XQD IS the new CF, and it is highly unlikely that we'll see any further cameras with CF.

SkintBrit said:
No zlik, in my opinion it is very similar to the 700, a bit better I think (maybe half a stop). I would say the 3s is (and should be) far superior to the 800.

Thank you.

Wow, i am impressed! both bodies are that ergonomic that they still allow you to post here at the same time. My question is, did you wet your pant? :)

Thanks for the update btw.

SkintBrit said:
No zlik, in my opinion it is very similar to the 700, a bit better I think (maybe half a stop). I would say the 3s is (and should be) far superior to the 800.

So, would you say that the D800 has a 1.5-stop improvement in SNR over a D7000?