Nikon D800E 36.3 MP CMOS FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) (OLD MODEL)

I cannot say enough about the merits of this machine! In the late 80's and 90's I owned several Nikon bodies and kit-level lenses. My film photos at the time were decent and frankly maybe about 1 in 3 photos I considered good, and perhaps 1 in a couple hundred (landscape pics) was truly exceptional. What I am getting to here is that with that type of success rate, my interest in photography was bound to decline; and it did. So aside from taking pics of family on special occasions and some vacation shots, my gear stayed on the shelf.Since I have always had an attraction to Nikon cameras and wanted to try the FX format, I sold an old Rolex watch that had been sitting in a drawer for over 15 years and used the proceeds to buy an 800E and a 24-70 2.8 lens as I wanted glass commensurate to accompany this much acclaimed camera.I simply don't have the ability to tell you just how much I love this camera and lens combination! From the moment I picked it up (heavy) and took the first few shots, I knew I had latched onto something special. The camera is solid, precise, and just exudes craftsmanship, intelligence and professional capability. I suppose it imparts the feeling that with the right lens and some basic knowledge about light and composition, you can do anything!That sense of capability and pride in just holding the damn thing was the reason I titled this review as I did. The sensor capability and dynamic range of this camera puts to shame anything I ever took on film years ago, and it has opened my eyes again to seeing pictures in most everything I do, and once again to enjoy the magic of capturing slivers of time and vision. This past Christmas and just after getting the camera/lens combo, my wife asked me to do some obligatory photos of family and friends around the tree. In the past I have used either an Olympus point and shoot or my D90. Anyway, I broke out the D800E and the 24-70 and did my best to please her. (I am not one who usually enjoys taking photos of a bunch of staged smiles--you know what I mean.) I framed up a shot of our daughter and 4 friends near the tree and bounced flash from an SB-700. The playback photo looked good in terms of person capture and lighting, so I didn't think more about it. Later, upon looking at the pic in LR4, and even when I took the shot to a silly degree of magnification, my daughter's face among that head-to-toe group shot of 5 persons, was still useable and printable at 8.5" X 11". Just crazy, crazy sharp; so sharp that I framed that head shot and have received repeated compliments of its technical quality and much praise from my very picky wife. Little do people know that that pic was only about 5% of the original frame!!So if you have ever held a love for finely crafted and capable technology, buy this camera. Yes it eats up a battery charge faster than expected, so be sure to get at least a second battery. For sure it will re-ignite your artistic vision and you'll find yourself watching a little less TV and more time daydreaming about what you can do rather than what you have already done. The only downside for me is that I rarely pick up my D90--a shame.Thank You Nikon for such a great camera and this new inner smile.

As advertised

I'm an advanced amateur photog. Had a D7000 for a bit over a year before getting my pre-ordered D800e. As you can guess I waited over 4 month to receive my pre-order. I take comfort in the fact that I placed my pre-order during Amazon's 5% off lightning deal.There are a lot of reviews claiming that D800/D800e are not for beginners/amateurs but I don't see how a D7000 is good for beginners and a D800e isn't while they have almost identical pixel size and require exactly the same shooting technique in order to achieve best results. What will those reviewers say about the 24mp crop sensor in the D3200? Does one have to be a seasoned professional to shoot with such tiny pixels? I guess not because D3200 is an entry level model.I have been shooting strictly with primes since I got into photography, this helps take advantage of the high resolution/pixel-density sensors such as the ones in D800e and D7000. Even though the pixel size is almost the same as D7000 I find the images from D800e overall to be sharper than the ones from D7000 when viewed @ pixel level, probably due to the lack/cancellation of the AA filter.I do not have any problems with the left-most focus point.So far I have seen only one shot with moire among the hundreds of shots I took with the D800e. It appeared on a synthetic fabric with a rather coarse pattern, on the other had I have well over a hundred captures with all kinds of fabrics in them and no moire.I also think this might be one of the last full-frame pro bodies to employ an SLR mechanism. Because at such high resolution when combined with low shutter speeds of slower than 1/100, the mirror-slap does affect image sharpness. There are ways to avoid mirror-slap like using live-view mode, using MUP mode or shooting faster than 1/100 while using the viewfinder, etc. This makes me believe that companies are going to stop utilizing the SLR mechanism in full-frame bodies pretty soon (Sony already did) especially when EVF's and live-view displays are getting better every year, there's also SLT which solves this issue. In the D7000 mirror-slap was less significant because the mirror is smaller in a crop body.Had to upgrade to LR4 in order to process the RAW (NEF) files, which are pretty big. Raided SSD drives sure help when processing such large amounts of data.The AF is fast and accurate. Dynamic range is awesome as the dxomark's score indicates. The grip is the best I have had the pleasure of holding on a digital Nikon body which obviously is a personal preference. ISO performance is excellent at ISO 50-400, very good up to 3200 with 6400 still usable IMHO. Overall I am very happy with this camera.