Is Nikon the greatest?

[dibyendumajumdar]

Hi

Sharing some thoughts here ... apologies in advance as it is really me thinking aloud.

I bought the D4 in 2012 as I wanted to own the best. At the time I was also considering Canon's 5D Mark III - as it would have suited me better but the price was simply unjustifiable for what it was.

Re the D4 - I was happy generally but for following issues:
a) I could not get it to track my little dog running around the garden. I think it doesn't handle small subjects very well. With human subjects tracking appears to be better.
b) I hated the fact that after D4s came out Nikon just forgot about the D4 users, and did not issue any real firmware upgrades. For an expensive camera that is not good practice I think , especially from Nikon who were famed for long time support of their professional models in the days of film cameras.
c) A firmware upgrade caused the main board to fail, and Nikon service would only repair it for a charge despite camera being in warranty as apparently all firmware upgrades are at user risk.

So I have now put up my D4 for sale and am thinking about what to replace it with.

Logically something like Canon 5D Mark III fits me best (i.e. I don't want or need 36+ megapixels, but do want features / form factor from the pro-grade SLRs). But given that 5D Mark III is soon to be replaced it makes sense to wait for the next revision. Nikon's D5 is the easier option because of course of my investment in Nikon lenses etc. - most of my camera gear is Nikon. But I am not sure that Nikon is the best brand anymore. Nikon is likely to issue a D5s to fix issues in D5 rather than supporting the D5. Canon EOS 1DX Mark II is also an option - but then I will be left with no money to buy Canon lenses. I have also thought about getting a relatively cheaper Nikon full frame (like D750) to allow me to use my existing Nikon glass but gradually move to either Canon or Leica.

The logical and rational part of me says that actually I could just have continued to use D4 as it is a fine camera. But the irrational part of me wants the latest and greatest .... and life cannot be all rational and everyone is allowed one indulgence.

Do you think that Nikon is no longer the greatest camera / lens maker (if it ever was)? I'd be interested to know your views.

Regards
Dibyendu

[Bjørn Rørslett]

It doesn't work that way and nobody except yourself can provide the relevant answer. There are several big systems available.

Focusing issues can be tricky for the user and buying another camera or switching to another brand to solve them is rarely the  best option.

[richardHaw]

try the D750 

i am still using the D4. i want to sell it to fund my NOCT purchase 
it is still an amazing camera you just need to know how and when to use the focus tracking options. if 3D will not work than AF-C single point should be used. i rarely shoot dogs or animals with the D4. i use it for stage events under poor lighting and so far, the AF is OK. it only gets tricky when the subject is in front of a high contrast BG like a brick wall. you will have to change focusing modes for that 

like what was mentioned, shifting to canon might not solve your problem as canon will have it's own issues and quirks as well.

surprisingly, my D7200 tracks a bit better than my D4.

[Mongo]

Your question is too specific and narrow to a particular tool of Nikon to be able to fairly answer it in a "yes" or "no" fashion. It seems to Mongo that several brands each make (in one category or other), what Mongo calls "its Ferrari" which often outperforms other brands' equivalent of the same tool. For this reason, no one brand can claim to be "the best". Even the D4 you refer to is now already superseded in many respects by its successors.

Is Nikon as a brand "the best" ? - NO ......but then again, neither is any other.

Can it be the best ? - theoretically, Yes......but it would require a super human/corporation effort in every aspect of excellence associated with camera and lens manufacturing and all that goes with that including (just to name a tiny fraction) testing and development, warranty, customer service etc etc to the power of 4 at least. In Mongo's view, no company has what it takes to do that, including Nikon.

Having said that, just on probability alone, it will probably have the best available of something or other at any given time (for a period) as will other brands.

The goal posts to the answer to your question keep moving and evolving ....but that is the nature of it. Seemingly harsh but Mongo thinks, realistic.

[Andrea B.]

I bought the D4 in 2012 as I wanted to own the best.
---- Possibly your first mistake? There is no "best" camera system. There is only the camera which best meets your shooting needs. 


Any of the Nikon Big Ds will track small animals - cats, chipmunks, squirrels, birds. It requires lots and lots of practice to perfect your techniques. The camera won't track for you. You have to learn to track with the camera. This is also true of every Canon which I've tried. I don't know about Sony though. Maybe Sony has a magic camera which will track for you? 


I just recently wasted an afternoon tracking roadside signs from a car while passing by them at 70 mph. And to my amazement the Nikon D750 is capable of doing that after I figured out a couple of techniques. [No, of course I was not doing the driving -- I was being a passenger. Lol.] I did fill the D750 buffers way too soon however. Made me long to have a Big D again.
 

[Almass]

1- I would be curious to know what are the settings on your D4 when you were tracking your little dog in the garden? And was the dog running towards you or across?

99.99% of the time it is a combination of photographer error with his camera miss-setting and shooting routine.

2- Issuing a new firmware upgrade is not a sine qua non condition. If there is no need for one, then there is no need for one.

3- Failing of main board after upgrade?
I assume you followed the correct procedure for the D4 single firmware upgrade???
And was the fail at upgrade time or later after some usage?
Firmware upgrade do not toast cameras but failure to follow procedure incapacitates it.
You purchased the camera in 2012 and the D4 firmware upgrade was in 2014. How many years of warranty does your camera have?

If you cannot track with a Nikon D4 or any Nikon full frame, you will not be able to track with a Canon. Try to track with a Canon in low light and let me know how you get along.

[Tristin]

You need to worry less about spending lavishly on gear, and more on your technique and knowledge of your gear.  Photographers the world over have been using either Nikon or Canon cameras less advanced than the D4 to capture considerably more challenging images than pet pics for many years, and with great success.  No camera will ever compensate for a deficit in a user's mastery of his equipment, and no camera exists that will take long, high fps strings of perfectly focused images with a quickly moving, erratic subject without any missed frames.

[dibyendumajumdar]

Hi All,

Thank you for the replies. I have obviously thought of all the points you mention ... in reality I didn't need the D4. For years and years I could not afford to buy one of Nikon's big professional models, but I used to own a Nikon F that my Dad had bought for me. Once you start using these cameras, it is hard to go back to the lesser models - they just don't feel right. I started with D80, then moved to D300 before the D4. Now that I can afford it I want to buy the best model that fits my budget. And the best doesn't need to be the priciest - if the D800 had been a 20MP camera and did not have all the issues I would have bought it instead of the D4.

Anyway the real question I was asking was is Nikon the best brand? What makes a brand the best?

I feel that in recent years Nikon has lost a bit of its way. I don't really know what it stands for anymore. Earlier I used to expect Nikon to have great build quality and one of the best optics - that seemed to be where it was at, rather than being the most popular. But now, Canon is arguably better or same quality - there seems to be a lot admiration for how Canon puts together its cameras and lenses from sites such as lensrentals.com - and Canon's optics mostly perform better in all the tests.

Nikon's product development approach seems also a bit haphazard. Look at the the number of product lines it has launched in recent years and then just discarded ... they seem to give up too easily. I thought the Nikon 1 V1 was a cool camera - and yet following that each new V model seems to be an experiment ... and now with the DL line, they have killed the Nikon 1 line virtually. What about Coolpix A? Was that a one-off? And the camera with built-in projector?

Look at the Nikon Df. Why put D600 internals into a camera like Df? If it is a premium product then surely the internals must also be premium not just the shell and outward appearance?

Nikon's F3 model introduced high-eyepoint finders. Yet now Canon cameras have better viewfinder magnification and longer eyepoint - I am thinking of 1DX which has 76% magnification and 20mm eyepoint compared to 70% magnification and 18mm eyepoint in D4. The Df which is supposedly meant to be used with Nikon's older manual lenses has a magnification of 70% and eyepoint of 15mm. Eyepoint and viewfinder magnification matter a lot to someone like me who wears glasses.

The individual cases are not relevant here - I could quote a variety of other examples (e.g. why does the Otus have better coma correction than the supposedly 'Noct' Nikor 58mm f1.4?). My question really is - can one argue that Nikon is the best brand, by some definition of best?

Regards
Dibyendu

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Playing number games never answers the real questions. For example, the Df finder is much better than any Canon camera I have ever tried. Otus lenses are known to be very highly corrected. On such criteria they are masterpieces of optical design. They also project dull and lifeless images. Numbers can be misleading until seen, and used, in a proper context.

Besides, to what purpose should such answers be relevant? Either you, as the photographer, take the picture, or you fail. In nearly all cases of failure it is the operator not the gear that is to blame.

[dibyendumajumdar]

Re the D4 AF performance issues I mentioned - just to answer some of the questions:

I tried all possible options and combinations.
I tried various lenses and eventually the 24-70mm zoom thinking that maybe the AF of other lenses could not keep up.

The conclusion was that I got shots where the focus points were clearly on the subject but the subject was out of focus. In a sequence only some shots would be in focus.

When photographing human subjects like in a game I did not face this issue.

I also agree that Canon may be no better in this regard ... and maybe Nikon's group AF concept would help but the D4 did not have it.

Regards

[dibyendumajumdar]

Hi Bjørn,

I completely agree that the gear is immaterial for a great photographer; but still we do need to decide which brand to invest in thinking of the longer term for obvious reasons such as building up a system. I have invested in Nikon brand for over 20 years, but questioning whether to continue. But the investment makes it very difficult to move, and for the same argument that you mention - that really the gear doesn't matter.

Regards
Dibyendu

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Some people think 'switching' camera brands is similar to the change of clean shirts. The truth is that it takes time and resources to start over again in a new ecosystem, and you lose money every time. Besides, each system has its specialities scarcely found elsewhere. Are these critically important - perhaps to a few, not likely not the general audience. 

The basic problem that you cannot escape no matter what brand you end up with is that AF for the camera is not equavalent to 'sharpness' for humans. A camera cannot understand the concept of sharpness or the intention of the human operator. It can only maximise parameters of a model.

[PedroS]

Wildlife, animals running and the others that run fast are/will be always a trick issue between gear and photographer.
If I look back the percentage of in focus pictures that I could take comparative to today were much less. And indeed not gear fault...

We have to understand that AF is not a faultless feature of cameras. In fact it fails a lot. But bear in mind you could do better than expected.
The D4 is an extraordinary piece of gear AF related.

Please make attention to what's your priority assignment in the buttons. Often if focus is your priority you get much lower success, just because the camera will wait the subject to be in focus to shot, but then when she shots the object is no longer in focus. Change this setting to shooter priority and the reverse applies.
This very simple setting has done to me more than the increase in AF performance over the years.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

On a general  note, once AF operation is moved exclusively to the dedicated AF-ON button, you are more likely to achieve what you want. Or better understand who is the limiting factor.

[dibyendumajumdar]

@Almass

The firmware upgrade was done following correct procedure - with fully charged battery. The upgrade just hung midway and the camera then became unusable; had to send it to Nikon who replaced the main board.

It is of course impossible to prove that there was no human error; but the lesson was that firmware upgrades are at user risk.

Regards
Dibyendu