Nikon D800 & now D600

[DQE]

A question:

What would be required to use the MPE-65 lens with a Nikon 800E camera body?

Is there an adapter solution to provide automatic flash and aperture settings through the Nikon camera body?

I would anticipate using purely manual focus, aperture, and shutter speed settings, but would like to depend on the flash and camera body to set the flash exposure level automatically, through the lens, with the ability to manually adjust the flash output through an equivalent of Canon's "FEC" flash exposure compensation settings (a setting on my MT-24 twinflash control panel). I assume I would need to buy the Nikon TwinFlash system or simply fabricate something like Lord V's coke-can diffuser setup using a standard (Nikon) flash unit.

Just wondering if my techno-lust for the 800E's 36 megapixels and no anti-aliasing filter can be satisfied without discarding my beloved MPE-65 lens...
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-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

[TheLostVertex]

[DQE]

An interesting comparison of video features and performance in the Nikon D800 vs the Canon 5DIII is provided here:

http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2012/04/01/video-shootout-nikon-d800-vs-canon-5d-mkiii/
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-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

[Pau]

I'm not aware of any working adaptation of Canon EF lenses on Nikon bodies. The reason is simple: the flange focal distance is smaller in Canon and normal lenses wouldn't focus to infinite. Of course the Canon MP-E doesn't focus to infinite in any case but is a complex lens calculateted for Canon mount, not just like a fixed focus one on bellows, perhaps the image would degrade. The aperture is electric and would be difficult to control it without the camera, so maybe it would only be used wide open. ( the tric of stop it down with the preview button while dismounting it will need a Canon body just for this operation)
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Pau

[DQE]

FYI, dpreview.com has posted a 29-page review of the D800 camera. As I had expected, they were very favorably impressed with it, emphasizing its improved high-ISO performance in spite of having many more (smaller) pixels than other Nikon DSLRs.

Since it's cheaper than the new Canon 5DIII and has more pixels, I would think this camera will cause Canon a lot of stress in the marketplace. Canon seems to have mostly emphasized improvements in autofocusing, which seems likely to be especially beneficial by the action and bird photography crowds.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d800-d800e

It will be interesting to see if someone at this forum can show fine detail advantages of 36 megapixels vs about 20 megapixels, in high-quality macro and/or stacking work. Showing a significant benefit from having more pixels would require close attention to lens quality and many other factors. Said another way, it's awfully easy in most types of photography to be limited by other factors in the imaging chain.
_________________
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

[Harold Gough]

Nikon have put out a warning that the battery used in the D800, D800E and D7000 may overheat.

https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/52326

Harold
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Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[DQE]

The most thorough review and best stress-testing I've personally seen for the 800 vs the 800E, etc, is provided by a subscription-based camera, lens, etc review site that I belong to. I highly recommend the site if you want to see careful, thorough and experimentally competent photography equipment reviews. If you're seriously interested in the 800 or 800E, I highly recommend that you subscribe to this site and study his tests and comments. He is very aware of diffraction limits and this consideration (and Moire effects) are an integral part of his evaluations.

The bottom line from his (mostly non-macro) testing and comparative testing is that the 800 and 800E require very careful selection of lenses and close attention to one's technique to get much out of the extra pixels and to benefit from the extra sharpness provided by removing the anti-aliasing filter (800E). His tests and discussion make the extent of these considerations very clear in a nice amount of depth.

He also did a good, basic comparison of how far one can get by USM sharpness enhancement instead of or in addition to adding the extra pixels provided by the Nikon 800 cameras. I can't provide more information from his pages since he understandably asks that subscribers not post the details of his work for non-paying users. His style is very explicit and direct, which I personally enjoy since I usually agree with most of his assessments. Even when I suspect that he may have not performed a comparison exactly the way I would have done it (e.g., Canon 5DIII vs Nikon 800), I always respect his skills and that he always carefully presents the specific methods and basis for his work with cameras, lenses, etc. I also benefited from his photography tutorials.

You can see the DAP TOC for free, here:

http://diglloyd.com/index-dap.html

The Zeiss lens TOC is here:

http://diglloyd.com/index-zf.html

Other sections TOC are found via the menu tabs at the top of the above page(s).
-----------------------------------

Some sections of his web pages are free:

http://diglloyd.com/index.html

http://diglloyd.com/blog/index.html
--------------------------

Disclosure: I have subscribed to the "DAP (diglloyd advanced photography)" section, the "Making Sharp Images" for the past 2 years, but I didn't renew my Zeiss lenses review subscription since I just can't afford such specialized lenses. Also, for my general photography, I am unwilling to do without autofocus as required by the Zeiss lenses for my 5DII. The Zeiss lenses are very interesting, though! I find his Macintosh technical tests and evaluations, as well as the novel hardware he adds to his Mac Pro rig, to be interesting and helpful as a Windows PC user - since Apple now uses Intel-based hardware, most mods that help a Mac Pro can be used in my Win7 PC.
_________________
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

[Harold Gough]

Phil,

I have ended up at that website before.

One word of warning, the recommended step rings cost about ten times what I pay. If there is one item where high price gains you very little it is step rings and I use a lot of them.

Harold
_________________
Happiness is having the right adapter.

My manual flash setup for high magnification:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=117843#117843

[NikonUser]

I have been waiting so long for the D800 or D800E that I have now given up hope.
Vistek in Toronto, possibly the largest Canadian camera store, has never had the D800 in stock; today its web page says

WebCode: 261496 Mfr item: 33753
This item is no longer available

They have never even listed the D800E.

Rumors are that Nikon has a full frame D600 later this summer at a much lower price than the D800.
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NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

[DQE]

I checked a few of the larger volume online stores (bhphotovideo, amazon), and of course found that they don't have any in stock or any indication of dates. In reading through the reviews on amazon.com, most people seem to have been waiting for 4+ months, yet a few took delivery from some source within 2 weeks.

One conjecture is that the production volume for this sensor might be low for longer than Nikon anticipated. I suppose that demand might be far outstripping supply, in view of the highly favorable reviews the 800 and 800E have received.

But after 4 months of waiting, many customers may begin to become restless. I wonder if Canon can somehow create a competitive high-pixel-count DSLR to compete by the time Nikon gets its supply issues fixed? I don't have the impression that creating a new relatively high-end DSLR model is a rapid process.

In the meantime, the Canon 5DIII camera seems to have a lot of enthusiasts in the birding and action photography communities, due to its sophisticated autofocus systems. I can't justify trading in my 5DII for the new model, though since most of my photography is for macro where such automatic features mostly don't matter at all.

If it weren't for the "must have" nature of the MPE-65 lens and the cost of switching my lens collection to Nikon, I'd gladly switch to an 800E. Maybe in my next lifetime!
_________________
-Phil

"Diffraction never sleeps"

[NikonUser]

Just when the Canadian stores have stocks of D800 (never any mention of the D800E) the Nikon Rumors site has info. on an upcoming D600, also full frame but a lot cheaper than the D800 and with presumably less features than the discontinued D700.
_________________
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives