D810 successor in the pipeline?

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Just downloaded the manual.  No tripod mount for WT-7.   

The WT-7 over 1200€ in Finland and now it appears to be only suitable for hand held use (okay, with a sufficiently large telephoto you can attach the lens to the tripod and this solves the problem). But it seems like a major oversight since remote cameras can also be used with wide angle lenses, e.g. inside hockey goals and other such locations. Perhaps Nikon didn't think the D500 as a DX camera would be used for wide angle in these applications, or it would be used without live view using WR-1/WR-T10/WR-R10 type remote triggering. But I would think it would be nice to be able to check and verify focus using a live view image.

I certainly hope Nikon does something different for the D810's successor, even if it is the expensive UT-1 + WT-6. I can't help but think that remote cameras should be of less expensive variety since they could potentially be damaged or even stolen if unattended. Sometimes you'd probably want to use the 10fps feature of the D500 in remote operation when photographing sports. Camranger is of moderate cost and should work with most cameras for remote control and live view, although I was put off by the delay in the live view image. I should probably get one since it's so much less expensive than Nikon's high end offerings and is not as device specific. Currently I can trigger remotely my cameras using WT-R10 and WT-A10, without LV. Since the WT-R10 works as a flash control unit as well for the D5/SB-5000, I felt it was worth the cost.

[Torgeir Jensen]

Well the D810 successor might be approaching the end of the pipe. According to rumours at Nikonrumours and Dpreview the D850 will be announced  soon. No specifications are available yet, so there might not be much meat on this bone, but it is said the the production of D810 has ended. If so, a successor could emerge in the coming weeks.

[Frank Fremerey]

Well the D810 successor might be approaching the end of the pipe. According to rumours at Nikonrumours and Dpreview the D850 will be announced  soon. No specifications are available yet, so there might not be much meat on this bone, but it is said the the production of D810 has ended. If so, a successor could emerge in the coming weeks.

I want ISO 25 to shoot @f/1.4 in bright sunlight without the fuzz of a ND filter

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Oh dear. A voluntary return to the headaches of Kodachrome II  or 25 with their glacially slow speeds??

I don't think so. An ND filter is the better answer.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Well, if the lower base ISO means a substantial improvement in dynamic range, there will be those who want it. It is a way for Nikon to compete with medium format.

Personally I use the ISO 64 quite often on the D810, and find it works great in combination with M-UP and EFCS on tripod. Also for sunlight summer event photography outdoors, it gives extra flexibility in dealing with high contrast lighting. However, I don't think ISO 25 is for me personally.  I shot a little Kodachrome 25 and Ektar 25 and felt those materials were impractical. But on a ISO 25 base ISO digital camera it is a different situation as one can adjust the ISO when needed and there is a large range of flexibility. Also it is easier to check if things are working or if there is vibration or other source of blur.

I personally think ISO 64 is a good practical compromise for base ISO, it gives the D810 an edge in certain applications. However, a lot of the time even in landscape photography I may need to increase the ISO to 200 or 400, e.g., when photographing floating ice sheets. With digital you don't have to be "locked in" at the base ISO setting.

What I really want to see in the D810's successor is Multi-CAM 20k from the D5. This AF system is excellent. I just shot an outdoor event with the 105/1.4 and even though it involved moving subjects and low light, I had an extremely low rate of out of focus shots, and excellent image quality. Now, I would like to see a low to medium ISO optimized camera with this autofocus system.

[Frank Fremerey]

All points checked for me too, Ilkka!

Bjørn: Auto ISO has become practical with the newer cameras because the higher ISO settings are much more than only an emergency setting today. A camera with a usable range of 25 to 25k is no science fiction at all and will allow for motion blur and wide open shooting even in bright sunlight AND on the other end shots at 25k with 1.4 aperture at the edge of light without much fuzz in post. The high ISO end has been wonderfully catered too with the D5, the extreme lower end shall have a counter part.

[Muyweard Eadbridge]

I have been stubbornly using the D800 in my landscape photography. It served me well (kind of) for my senior exhibit at school. However, I have become increasingly disenchanted with it (and Nikon). The shutter slap produces vibration even when the camera is anchored to a sturdy tripod. Since I have to produce large prints [5 ft. (150 cm) on long side] sharpness is important.

I had purposely avoided the D810 because of my increasing dislike of Nikon as a company and  developed a plan to acquire the Sony A7r2 and a smaller DX type camera as a “walk-around” companion.

I justified the Sony because of the large file size, light weight, ability to use my existing Nikon glass, and good reports from associates and a few top pros. With the smaller camera I vacillated between Sony, Fuji, and even the D7200 or its successor.

However (you know things are going to get complicated when a sentence starts with however),   Fuji threw a monkey-wrench (spanner) into my plans when they announced the GFX50s at Photokina. Dreams of medium format began floating through my head. Would this be a good camera? It is new to the market and this company!

My research began again. Seems the D810 was a pretty good camera after all. Then I came across this forum thread and have been following you people. There seems to be little anger at Nikon for poor Manufacturing QA, bad customer service, or stubborn secrecy. Rather, there is much anticipation of a great successor to the D810.

I will continue reading and learning as I decide what to do. Thanks to you all.

[MILLIREHM]

I am quite satisfied with my D800E. So I decided to wait for a more advanced upgrade than the D810 would be, maybe the D820.

[pluton]

I have been stubbornly using the D800 in my landscape photography. It served me well (kind of) for my senior exhibit at school. However, I have become increasingly disenchanted with it (and Nikon). The shutter slap produces vibration even when the camera is anchored to a sturdy tripod. Since I have to produce large prints [5 ft. (150 cm) on long side] sharpness is important.

The vibration from the D800 with long lenses is pronounced.  The D810 is said to be improved in this respect.
I have, this year, discovered that mirrorless, if you can live with it's various annoyances, largely solves the camera-generated vibration issues.
I like and use large Sachtler tripods/heads at work (TV), but for the small amount of long lens stills shooting I do, right now mirrorless is the better anti-vibration solution compared to purchasing $10,000 worth of tripod.
Oh, and welcome to Nikongear.net.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

The D810 has electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS) so almost all of the shutter vibration is absent when using this feature. It is mainly intended for tripod based operation and works in M-UP mode only (likely because Nikon wants to limit its use to carefully chosen situations (such as photography at slow shutter speeds) where it is likely to help and not cause problems such as uneven illumination or rolling shutter effects). I have been very happy with the D810; not at all a minor upgrade. I think of the D800 as a prototype and the D810 the finished product with a great deal of refinement. Today of course we are expecting it to be replaced with a new model as the D810 is approaching three years on the market by summer. I would expect the new model to catch buyers' interest as this camera family tends to do.

The D5 and D500 also have EFCS.

[John Koerner]

I have been stubbornly using the D800 in my landscape photography. It served me well (kind of) for my senior exhibit at school. However, I have become increasingly disenchanted with it (and Nikon). The shutter slap produces vibration even when the camera is anchored to a sturdy tripod. Since I have to produce large prints [5 ft. (150 cm) on long side] sharpness is important.

I had purposely avoided the D810 because of my increasing dislike of Nikon as a company and  developed a plan to acquire the Sony A7r2 and a smaller DX type camera as a “walk-around” companion.

Turn your anger and dislike at yourself, for not using a remote switch and mirror-lockup (LiveView). That is how people who are serious avoid camera shake

....

My research began again. Seems the D810 was a pretty good camera after all. Then I came across this forum thread and have been following you people. There seems to be little anger at Nikon for poor Manufacturing QA, bad customer service, or stubborn secrecy. Rather, there is much anticipation of a great successor to the D810.

The D810 is arguably one of the great(est) single cameras of our time ...

Also, its shutter is really smooth and quiet.

I will continue reading and learning as I decide what to do. Thanks to you all.

Again, use a remote switch on a tripod if you're concerned with camera shake.

As a macro shooter, who uses slow shutter, and natural light, I understand how the slightest vibration can ruin a shot ... esp when some of my subjects are the size of a pinhead ... any "vibration" is amplified a thousand times more than photographing a building or landscape

Shooting on a tripod, with LiveView and a remote, is the only way I would ever consider taking shots.

[bjornthun]

EFCS in M-Up and not in liveview? If so, they've limited it's usefulness severly.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

EFCS in M-Up and not in liveview? If so, they've limited it's usefulness severly.

It works in live view as well but you need to have the drive mode in M-UP. Since electronic shutter produces a rolling shutter effect and Nikon also mentioned uneven exposure with some lenses at fast shutter speeds, I can understand they wanted to play it safe and put it together with M-UP which is typically used for slow shutter speeds on tripod. This is where EFCS can also contribute the most to image sharpness.

 I understand that EFCS could also help with hand held operation but hand holding with arms extended to see the LCD doesn't seem like a very good application for EFCS since there will likely be a lot of shake from the extended arms. Personally I do hand held shots of living subjects (using the OVF) and use a tripod for static subjects so Nikon's configuration works fine for me and I'm not limited by the coupling of EFCS to M-UP.

[bjornthun]

With (long) tele lenses EFCS is very useful up to 1/250 sec. At faster speeds it's not necessary. At 1/30 it will radically improve the successrate with lenses like 300/4 and 400/5.6 on a tripod.

Handheld operation is simplified by EFCS on a mirrorless camera and you avoid double lines when you view at 100% zoom at shutter speeds about 1/60 and slower. You gain 0.5-1 stop due to less vibrations.

EFCS is thus helpful at the shutter speeds where there is no danger of provoking rolling shutter or uneven exposure. At 1/1000 sec EFCS has no real advantage over a mechanical shutter, since the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid the ill effects from shutter bounce anyway.

A fully electronic shutter will give a rolling shutter with current technology, EFCS will not under 1/2000 sec. I guess that tripod mounted live view is used mostly for slow paced subjects anyway.

With my Sony A7 II I use EFCS and IBIS and achieve much better results handheld than I did with a DSLR with mirror slap and shutter bounce and without IBIS.

[Ron Scubadiver]

Well the D810 successor might be approaching the end of the pipe. According to rumours at Nikonrumours and Dpreview the D850 will be announced  soon. No specifications are available yet, so there might not be much meat on this bone, but it is said the the production of D810 has ended. If so, a successor could emerge in the coming weeks.

I just saw that at NR.  My hunch is it will be an incremental improvement on the order of the move from 800 to 810.  We might see some variation of the Sony 42.4 MP sensor.  My D800 is getting beat up, this might be something I would like to buy.