Nikon D800 Questions as answered by Nikon Australia

[DavidTrap (David)]

I had the opportunity to attend an evening at which a D800 preproduction models were available to fiddle with.

I had a couple of questions for the reps to answer, which were forwarded to Nikon Australia. Here are the answers:

How often is moire likely to appear with the D800E in candid shooting of people (obviously on their clothing)?
We would only expect to get moiré on fine clothing with patterns such as Gingham.

Do they see the D800E as being useful for anyone other than studio photographers who would otherwise be using a medium format camera?
The D800E will be beneficial to landscape and architectural photographers as well as anyone that needs the absolute best image quality that are unlikely to shoot subjects likely to display moiré.


Does the removal of the AA filter have any effect on the sensitivity of the chip (ie QE), especially towards the red end of the spectrum- I am interested in whether it may improve the sensitivity of the camera during astrophotography (ask them if they know anything about the Canon 20Da).
There has NOT been a removal of a layer in the sensor itself, the anti-aliasing layer has been modified to alter the path of wavelengths prior to reaching the sensor itself. As this alteration occurs at a minute level we do not expect that there will be any effect on the colour sensitivity of the sensor. We will need to do further testing to confirm this as it is not a question we have received before.

Regards,

Robert Lindsay
National Manager
Nikon Professional Services (NPS)
Nikon Australia


The answers about moire are consistent with what I was told by reps on the night - ie. moire could appear on everyday clothing, especially if there are fine, repeating patterns. (Gingham is a fine checkerboard pattern, think "tablecloth")

I guess the real answer as to the likelihood of moire occurring will only be forthcoming once the cameras are in the field. I have been waiting a long time for this camera and want it in time for a workshop in May, so I'll be sticking with the non-E model.

DT

[Adelastro1 (Wayne England)]

Thanks for the info David. This is the person I received an email from a couple of weeks and he pretty said the same about the moire. I really want to get into landscapes and wildlife more (plus astro) and blow them up large and cropping so will be sticking with the 800E I ordered. I never take portraits so I think I'll be right 99% of the time.

[gregbradley]

The other question about moire which seems to have had conflicting posts on the net is whether it will be a problem when videoing.

There seems to be no data about that. This factor caused me to change my order to the 800 from an 800E. Too much uncertainty.

Greg.