@arioch82 (any idea on availability?) Just re read your first post... so funny, ha, ha, ha, availability, ha, ha, ha, .....I suppose you meant, "Can I get one this year?" ha, ha, ha... Now, dear, please do not get upset. Just cruise through all the grumbling on NRF about this idea of availability and you will start laughing your self. We do this a lot. But, always good to have a Canonite Convert.

arioch82 said:
hi guys,

just want to thanks everyone for all the advices, i haven't had time yet to look into these lenses i hope to do it soon.

quick question... what about weather sealing? with canon when i go for an L lens i know that i will find superior build quality and weather sealing but nikon doesn't seems to have this distinction... are they all weather sealed?

the fact that the d800 can only shoot at full res it's a bummer, i only shoot raw and i guess each file would be around 70/80MB :(

thanks again

Chances are most Nikkor lenses over $1000 are weather sealed.

But for the most part, even cheaper AF-S lenses now have a rubber gasket around the rear mount, especially if they're metal mount AF-S lenses even if they're not weather sealed.

Nikon doesn't have "L", just look for Gold Ring (same as red ring). D800 lossless compressed RAW files are just over 40MB, so don't worry too much.

hi guys,

just want to thanks everyone for all the advices, i haven't had time yet to look into these lenses i hope to do it soon.

quick question... what about weather sealing? with canon when i go for an L lens i know that i will find superior build quality and weather sealing but nikon doesn't seems to have this distinction... are they all weather sealed?

the fact that the d800 can only shoot at full res it's a bummer, i only shoot raw and i guess each file would be around 70/80MB :(

thanks again

Apart from the self-evident 105mm macro, I would consider if you really need the 50mm at all. If so, the 50mm f/1.8G will save you a little compared to the 1.4G - and if you can afford it, get the 24/1.4G to go with your D800. Sharpest autofocusing wideangle I ever bought.

70-300 - there is a cheaper alternative that is at least as good as the Nikon offering -the Tamron 70-300 Di VC USD. If you have the money and want better image quality at the long end, get the AF-S 300mm f/4 IFED instead. Works with TCs as well. And OFC, there is the Sigma 120-300 f/2.8 OS, which is quite a monster to lug around, but it delivers.

Thanks for the insight. Yes I like the override and so I ended up with the 85.4G
I heard about the 85.8G being sharper at 2.8 and below but I barely go below 2.0 with primes for portraiture.

Oh the 5D3 has gone along with the 35L (but the 5D2 is still here as a backup).

Will go out and take pics to try out this beast of a camera (*refuses to take pics with the camera cap on*)

arioch82 said:
the 70-300 (VR version) that i've found seems really cheap compared to the canon one... haven't had a look at the MTF chart but i don't think it can compare with that price on image and build quality.

I think you're right concerning build quality, you are comparing it with an "L" lens after all, but as looon said earlier don't be too quick to judge it based on it's price alone. Many on the forum have one as a cheaper alternative to a 300 or 400 2.8 (MUCH cheaper) if we don't do a great deal of telephoto work, and apart from some softness at the 300 end, I think it's a universally liked lens especially for the price. Obviously if your bread and butter work is at this end you may need to go up a notch, but if not, why not save the money on this lens and get one of the "trinity" with the change?

P.S. I couldn't tell English wasn't your primary language :-)

Odie, welcome to the forum and to Nikon. I have the 85 1.4G and I love it, however the only reason I bought it over the "D" is the ability of all the modern AFS G lenses to offer you instant manual AF override, that really was worth the extra money to me, if it's not to you I would have no problem recommending the "D", it's a great lens.

I also have the Nikkor 16-35mm f/4G VR and love it on my D7000. It's sharper than the 17-40mm f/4L, and having vibration reduction on such a wide angle lens enables, with some practice, sharp handheld 1 or even 2-second exposures!

@odie - it is my understanding that the 85mm f/1.4G is a significant advancement above the 85mm f/1.4D... I used the 1.4G only briefly at a folk festival when someone else had it, and I thought it was a lovely lens. That said, I hear the new 85mm f/1.8G is a bleeding sharp lens, surpassing the f/1.4G at any aperture from f/1.8 on up. Additionally, with the huge price difference you could certainly get your hands on more glass, or just save a ton of money. Unless of course you absolutely want the extra 2/3 stop for shallower DOF or just using 77mm filters or wot-have-you.

Welcome to the Nikon family. I just migrated over too. Having started with the 7D then 5D2 I also thought the 5D3 would be a huge step forward but owning the previous two bodies I realised that I am paying over HK$13000 for a full frame on a 7D (well not quite that but I don't see much difference anyway).

I'm also in search of lenses and I was wondering if there are that much of a difference between the 85D and the 85G? (f/1.4)

Picked up a D3S last night from a seller and it's practically brand new (except for the 10xxx shutter). Going to offload the 5D3 later and get some nice Nikkors. Already decided on the 35G but anyone who shoot portraiture can offer any insight into the two 85s?

thx

Canon's mRAWs and sRAWs just isn't RAW. It is more like TIFF. You do have to notice that, although Nikon's lenses are more expensive, they are better in terms of image quality. I've seen some Canon lenses performing worse than Sigma lenses in terms of image quality.

arioch82 said:
Hi SkinBrit,

I'm not really looking toward the d800 for the MP, actually i think in the case i get one i will always shoot in the medium raw format (or whatever is the nikon counterpart nomenclature), I don't really won't to handle a library with huge files, apart from some special cases i don't like to do any post processing in general to my pictures (only a bit of contrast/saturation controls) but just the idea of the storage for those raw scares me...

The D800, like all Nikon cameras only has one RAW file size, full resolution.

Hi arioch82,

A quick word about the 70-300. That is one sharp lens. The bokeh is nice too. The plastic housing keeps it lightweight as it was designed to be handheld, but there is nothing cheap about the quality of the images this lens produces - especially on the D800.

Great move!

@arioch82......Welcome to NRF. Always nice to have someone from the "other"side, ha, ha,ha.

I suspect you will learn NIKON has its little quirks as well regarding "politics" and the release of cameras, etc., but most of us love the stuff we use.

The 16-35mm f/4.0VR Nikkor is nice. See the B & W I posted today on PAD in front of the Atlanta Hilton and some of the other stuff recently. All my photos will click to Flickr, and all the Exif data is there along with access to all the photos I have put on Flickr.
Then the 24-120 f/4.0 VR Nikkor is excellent. And going up, the 70-200 f/2.8 VRII Nikkor. Primes....well any of the new G Nikkors are good. I have the 85mm f/1.8G which is great. The older 135mm f/2.0 Nikkor is really sharp. Just search the forum for the lens you might be thinking of and you will get more info than you wanted. Going on PAD (Photo-A-Day) will often give you the shooting info, either in the post or by clicking on it and going to the Exif data.

So, glad you are here....

Hi SkinBrit,

I'm not really looking toward the d800 for the MP, actually i think in the case i get one i will always shoot in the medium raw format (or whatever is the nikon counterpart nomenclature), I don't really won't to handle a library with huge files, apart from some special cases i don't like to do any post processing in general to my pictures (only a bit of contrast/saturation controls) but just the idea of the storage for those raw scares me...
of the 5d mark III i don't like mainly that canon didn't make any improvement in DR after 3 years of development on the "new" sensor, the missing of AF-linked-point spot metering and other small things... they've "simply" improved the AF from the mkII which was from the ice age and they even dare to price it $500 more than the D800 when it should probably be $500 less... also canon has this politics of not adding features to "lower-end" cameras to not cut the sales of higher models (e.g. the AF-linked spot metering in the 1DX), something that nikon doesn't have; the mk2 autofocus for instance was and still is a shame! now they finally have a decent autofocus and most canon users seems happy and they couldn't ask for anything more... well i don't settle down that easily.

I just feel that they don't care about photographers and they are just trying to steal as much money as they can from us (yes it's nothing more than a steal for me).

Said that... I have done a quick search on your lenses and:

- the 70-300 (VR version) that i've found seems really cheap compared to the canon one... haven't had a look at the MTF chart but i don't think it can compare with that price on image and build quality
- the 16-35 looks expensive... the 17-40 is about half the price!

the macro and the 50 1.4 seems about the same price range, I will do some search on IQ thanks.

I would love to get the 14-24 and 24-70 but they are so expensive... for now i'm just trying to understand which lenses i should get around the same price of the canons I already have (and that could give comparable IQ of course) so that i don't lose too much in the jump if i decide to go this way.

Thanks again and since i forgot to say it in the first post sorry in advance for my english for this and any future post, is not my first language :)

With regards to your first lens, maybe the AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR?

Welcome to the forum arioch82! I've been a Nikon shooter all my life but am still surprised to hear you are disappointed with the 5D mk3 specs. What is it that you feel it lacks? The D800 obviously does some things better but also from what I've read, looses out in some areas. Just interested to know from a Canon shooters view point. In answer to your question, I can help you with the last 3 as I own them, the first one some one else will need to pipe in.

AF-S NIKKOR 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G
AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f1.4 G
AF-S MICRO NIKKOR 105mm f2.8 G ED

I'm certain others will make different recommendations, but they seem to be the best options IMO.

Good luck!

Hi guys,

first time poster here.

I've been a canon user for few years now and i was waiting for the 5d MkIII to come out to jump to a fullframe sensor... well let's just say that I'm not happy with it and canon's politics and i don't think i'm going to get one so i'm thinking about jumping ships and come to the dark and golden side for a d800... (any idea on availability?)
I'm only an amateur and i do photography as an hobby (this is my flickr profile if anyone could be interested http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocangelo ), when i've bought my first cheap DSLR (the one that i still have... a 500d/t1i) i couldn't get to like Nikon handling and menu system so i went with canon knowing nothing about photography, just following "my hands", now that i'm a bit more experienced i guess i will have some issue at the beginning being used to canon but it shouldn't really be a big problem... i'm planning to rent a d800/"equivalent" nikon camera for few days and have a play with it anyway just to be 100%.

My main issue with the switch is that i have no idea of what kind of lenses Nikon has and how to replace my current collection so if you guys could tell me what's the equivalent of my current setup of lenses it would be just great, for the time being i'm trying to understand how much it will cost me to jump ship.
(I have no idea yet on where to sell them either so any suggestion on that would be highly appreciated too)

My current lenses are:

Canon 17-40mm f/4L
Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM
Canon 50mm 1.4
Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro

Any consideration about size/weight on the Nikon equivalents would be nice too.

Thanks in advance to everyone and happy shooting!

-Angelo