Nikon D4 In The House!

Got a Nikon D4 in for review. The battery is in the charger right now. Pretty excited about this one. I loved the Nikon D3s and the D4 has a bit more resolution (16-megapixel vs. 12-megapixel), better low light performance, full HD video, a built-in intervalometer, 10 FPS burst with continuous auto focus and 11 FPS with the focus locked. I'll also get to take it to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, the unofficial North American bike season opener. So I'll be able to shoot top-level mountain bike racing with it.

For those of you who don't know about the D4 or just want a refresher, here's my announcement article: Nikon D4 Flagship Digital SLR Announced | Camera News & Reviews

I don't think the D4 will be as hot as the D800 - it's more of an action camera and the $7000 price tag is going to rule it out for most photographers. But it's the pinacle of Nikon camera technology at the moment. Anyone here planning on getting one?

Too much camera for me. At the moment I'm doing mainly studio, fashion, weddings and thinking about getting back into landscapes.

I used to wonder who bought top-end cameras like the D3. All the people I knew - the noisy ones who participate in Internet forums like this one - seemed to have at most a D700 or a 5D or a Sony. Then I went to a couple of workshops and found myself surrounded by people with D3 or D3S - but they seem to keep things to themselves.

lol, the noisy ones.

The ones with the D3 have to work so much overtime to afford their gear, that they have no time to relax and make some noise. Perhaps that is why...

That, and I suspect that the $2k body owners probably outnumber the $7k body owners something like 15 or 20 to 1.

John - sounds like you'll be having plenty of fun with that rig. I look forward to seeing your break down of it.

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Originally Posted by Franglais

...the noisy ones...

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Let me rephrase that. The guys who come along with D3's or Canon 1D Mk3 are quiet, serious, respectable. They don't seem to be professional protographers or artists or computer project managers (my case).

My guess is that they are Engineers with a capital E. There are lots around here in the green belt working on the design of cars, aircraft, bridges, nuclear power stations, whatever. They buy the top level DSLR's because they recognise and like the quality of the design done by their brothers in Japan. Sounds credible.

Sports photographers, photojournalists and photo departments at newspapers and magazines buy Canon 1Ds and Nikon D3s and D4 cameras. I actually know plenty of photographers who use these cameras - because they need to burst rate, the build and the very best auto focus. You should see what some of my mountain bike photographer friends' EOS-1D and D3s camera bodies look like - they look like the use them to pound nails :-)

.Looking forward to your review John. My hope is that the D4 will prove so wildly popular that there will be a glut of D3s Nikons on the used market and I can gobble one up

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

.Looking forward to your review John. My hope is that the D4 will prove so wildly popular that there will be a glut of D3s Nikons on the used market and I can gobble one up

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You're not the only one. My friend Alan aka kafin8ed, is hoping to buy a D3s to compliment his D700, since he needs a fast camera and has no interest in 36-megapixel files :)

I think this is a worthy start for my D4 testing :D

It was shot at a family Easter get-together, in terrible light, using auto ISO. I haven't compared it to anything but to my eye, this looks really good for ISO 12,800. It's still hard for me to believe that ISO 12,800 is even a reasonable thing to discuss. Deep down, there's a part of me that still says, "Impossible!"

I've got a larger one I'll upload to my member gallery for anyone who wants to do some peeping.

I see you took this with the 28-300mm Nikkor. I hope you will do a review of it as well.

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

I see you took this with the 28-300mm Nikkor. I hope you will do a review of it as well.

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That's why I got it :)

So far, it appears to have some pretty wicked distortion. I don't think it's going to be a good architectural lens. My interest in for outdoor / action sports photography. We'll have to see if all the trees in my photos are curved. I hope not.

Here's an ISO 7200 image. I think this one looks really, really nice. And there's no issues with the 28-300mm distortion here, either :)

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

That's why I got it :)

So far, it appears to have some pretty wicked distortion. I don't think it's going to be a good architectural lens. My interest in for outdoor / action sports photography. We'll have to see if all the trees in my photos are curved. I hope not.

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I got this lens with the D7000 and have used it very sparingly. Did have what I thought were very good results at a daytime football game in November. Very interested to see how you evaluate it.

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

I got this lens with the D7000 and have used it very sparingly. Did have what I thought were very good results at a daytime football game in November. Very interested to see how you evaluate it.

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Looks like we both type too fast and don't check our work :)

Did you mean it *didn't* have good results? How was the continuous auto focus? That's one of my concerns. I may have to rent a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR for comparison.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Looks like we both type too fast and don't check our work :)

Did you mean it *didn't* have good results? How was the continuous auto focus? That's one of my concerns. I may have to rent a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR for comparison.

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John I was actually very pleased with the results, however I was using it mostly in the 75mm to 150mm range for sideline action that was cose to me.

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

John I was actually very pleased with the results, however I was using it mostly in the 75mm to 150mm range for sideline action that was cose to me.

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Ahh - good news! If I have time I may go shoot a weekly evening bicycle road race tonight. That will be my first *real* test of the camera and lens.

It will be interesting to see how the autofocus performs with the 28-300, particularly at the tele setting.

I have a feeling that this lens is going to have weak definition at the edges, but that probably doesn't matter too much for sports. Being able to follow an approaching bike from far away to just before it passes you should be really useful.