Review: The Nikon D4 after more than a year of usage

I've been using the D4 for over a year now, so it is high time I evaluated it and gave it a practical review (as compared to my earlier, more theoretical, review based on pre-production models).

When the D4 was introduced, I was happy about many of its improvements. But there was also slight disappointment; not all I would have wanted to see in the new camera was done. And when I compared the new specs to Canon's 1Dx, I was almost tempted to switch (not really, but it goes to show how much I appreciated the improvements Canon put in their flagship camera). No wonder it took me 8 months to decide to finally buy the D4 as my primary camera, making the D3 a good second body for added flexibility (and backup). Great e.g., when shooting wildlife when having different focal lengths at the ready can be very helpful.

In the past year I have been using the D4 (and D3) in a wide range of shoots, from interior and architecture to wildlife. Both in good an (very) bad light. So how did the D4 hold up?

Noise

Hazel Grouse (Tetrastes bonasia)
Shot at ISO 6400, click to see crop at 100%

Though the D3 was no slouch at low light/high ISO photography, I had higher expectations of the D4 (certainly as the D3s already showed there was room for improvement here). I was not disappointed: with the D4 I am happily shooting up to ISO 6400 without bothering about noise, where with the D3 I was reluctant to go beyond ISO 3200. Sure there is visible noise at pixel level, but not only can you get rid of that by applying some mild noise reduction, it won't really show up in print anyway. I am picky by the way, and strive for optimal quality and resolution. If you're not too fussed about losing a bit of resolution, you can apply some more noise reduction and have adequate shots up to ISO 12800 for sure! Not bad.

An interesting note here is that from more than one Nikon / Canon switcher I have heard the story that they find their 1Dx to best the Nikon in the noise department. To be honest, I don't think this to be true though; it is a well known fact that where Nikon takes a very mild approach to in-camera processing, Canon is much more aggressive. I find it therefore very likely that Canon's results have had much more noise reduction applied than Nikon's and if you would apply the same noise reduction to both, Nikon's results should look at least as good. In this respect I trust the purely technical and objective measurements as done by DxO labs.

Verdict: Positive

Video

With the D4 I now finally have a camera capable of video. I'm not much of a videographer (yet?), but I have shot a couple of video's with it and all I can say is that I'm quite happy. Especially the 2.7x crop mode where 1 video pixel is exactly one sensor pixel is very nice as it allows you to massively zoom in to your subject. Below video was shot in Denmark with a 600mm/f4 lens using the 2.7x crop mode, making it effectively a 1620mm lens, quite impressive…



Verdict: Positive

Handling

Here I can basically repeat what I wrote in my earlier report: I've always liked the handling of Nikon cameras, the new D4 has improved this even more. Especially the minor changes to the layout of the D4 as compared to the D3/D3s are very nice. Buttons are even better positioned and, the D4 held vertically now handles (almost) exactly as when held horizontally. The extra knob for changing the focus point took a bit of getting used to, but now I can no longer envision working without it! It's position and the fact that one is present in both horizontal and vertical orientation of the camera make this a really great addition.

On the handling side of things, the D4 now is finally capable of taking a series of bracketed shots in one go when using the self timer. Something Canon has had implemented for a long time already. Coupled with the exposure delay mode (minimising blur due to mirror-slap), you basically don't need to use a cable release any longer when taking bracketed shots for e.g., HDR photography. Nice.

Verdict: Positive

Memory Cards and Speed

Ok, it took an extra investment of a couple of new XQD cards and a card reader, but man, these new cards really fly! Shooting at ten frames a second for 7.5 seconds before your buffer runs out is really something. So much better than the just two seconds I had with the D3 (sure I could have invested in the buffer upgrade, but I thought €500 a bit much for it). The fast (and big) cards are also a boon for videographers. It is therefore surprising to see no other camera is yet using the new XQD format. Ah well, at least we now have a choice in cards from either Sony or Lexar which has brought down prices slightly.

Verdict: Neutral to Positive

Batteries

Due to regulation changes in Japan, Nikon was forced to downgrade their very high capacity batteries to lower capacities. This has led to much aggravation amongst photographers as you ended up with yet another charger and set of spare batteries to buy (and they are not cheap!). The stupid thing was that even though the form factor stayed the same, there was no way to charge your old (e.g., D3) batteries with the new D4 charger. A big mistake. Interestingly there now seems to be an accessory available from Nikon to allow this, trouble is this BT-A10 adapter only works with a new MH-26a charger, not with the original D4 charger (MH-26). Sigh.

Verdict: Negative

Auto Focus

The specifications promised us better autofocus. And in one respect they certainly did deliver: I can use the autofocus under much worse lighting conditions than I could before. In this respect, the new AF system is definitely, and welcome so, improved.

What matters for me most though is the ability to follow a moving subject and keeping that in focus. Nikon was always well respected in this area, especially compared to Canon who were struggling here a bit sometimes. My hopes where therefore quite high.

I can't say I'm overwhelmed though. In fact, I have the feeling the D4 might actually be slightly worse than the D3 in this respect. The D4 does seem to focus faster, but it doesn't seem to follow as well as the D3. This is just a feeling though and I haven't done any scientific testing here. It is probably also the case that I am pushing my gear a bit more than before, but still. It kinda makes me jealous of the Canon 1Dx which I hear really shines in this area…

Verdict: Negative to Neutral

Conclusion

I do like the D4, and it certainly was a great upgrade to my D3, but I still think Nikon could (should) have done better in a lot of respects.

End verdict: Neutral to positive

Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of remarks/findings:

Positive

• Two axis virtual horizon – no more need for a separate bubble level
• Self timer multi shot – mostly gets rid of the requirement of a cable release
• Buffer size – being able to shoot for 7.5 seconds at 10fps is awesome
• Video – Full HD and a very versatile 2.7x crop mode
• Noise – The ability to shoot up to ISO 6400 without too much noise is awesome
• Auto ISO – Very easy to switch between auto and non-auto ISO
• Ergonomics – Improved over the D3 (which was already good), the extra button for changing the focus point is also welcome

Neutral

• Megapixels – 16 is adequate, would have liked around 20 better though
• Frame rate – 10fps is nice
• Battery life – even though the battery is of lower capacity, I still get about the same number of shots as with my D3
• Memory cards – XQD is really nice and fast but its a new format and only one slot is XQD, the other is still CF

Negative

• Auto focus – doesn't seem to be as good as hoped
• Saving settings – the use of memory banks for saving common settings is still a mess (luckily you don't really need them much as all frequently changed settings are at the press of a button anyway)
• Battery – while I can sort of live with the fact that Nikon had to introduce a new battery, I can not live with the fact that you can't charge your old batteries in the new charger
• Auto ISO – Why oh why do they still not allow you to configure you auto ISO settings from the “my menu”?

Wishes

• Fix all the negative points (some should even be doable in a firmware update, I think)
• More megapixels so DX crop is still usable
• A separate shooting menu for video and photography (so you can have e.g., different white balance settings, colour space, picture control, etc. for video an photo)

Review: Photo Mechanic v5.0

Even when you only shoot a limited number of images a year, there will be a time when you need some sort of tool to help you manage your images and streamline the whole digital workflow process. From loading the images onto your computer, adding image information (meta date), editing, and exporting them to e.g., your website.

Many solutions exist to cover one or more of the digital workflow tasks. Common options include Adobe Bridge (included with Adobe Photoshop), Adobe Lightroom, and Phase One's Media Pro. Nikon shooters may be familiar with a combination of Nikon Transfer and Nikon View (both free programs). Although I have tried out many of the more common solution, I found none of them suited my particular workflow very well. My search for a viable solution brought me to Photo Mechanic, an application developed by Camera Bits, and which I have been using happily for many years now.

Camera Bits just released a public beta for its oncoming version 5.0 of the software and this version will be the basis for this review. As a member of a select group of private beta testers, I have already been able to work with the new software for a while now and in fact contributed to some of the new/improved features.

What is Photo Mechanic?

Photo Mechanic (PM for short) is a standalone application supporting all steps in the digital workflow. It has an extremely fast (perhaps even the fastest on the market?) image browser with very nicely integrated features to support and/or automate your digitial workflow. IPTC and Exif meta data are fully supported and can be applied quickly and easily either on individual images or in batch. Code replacements (e.g., short abbreviations of commonly used terms like player's names) and the use of “variables” make Photo Mechanic a very flexible and powerful tool for Photographers and others participating in the digital workflow process.

I will discuss the various features of the program following the basic steps in the digital workflow, below.

Note: this review does not try to cover each and every detail of the program. I will, however, try to cover the, in my opinion, more important aspects. Also, because this review is based on a beta version of PM5.0, features and implementation details may change in the final product (rest assured, however, no functionality will be removed from the final release of PM 5.0, only enhanced/added!)

Review: Eckla Beach-Rolly

Photographers, and especially wildlife and sports photographers with their long lenses, have a lot of gear to carry. When you have to carry it a long way, or for a long time, this can become very tiresome. So with a trip to the Bavarian Forest planned (where I really wanted to take both my 200-400mm and 600mm lenses), it was about time I had a look at some of the available carrying options.

Options

I could think of the following options for taking all my gear with me:

• Limit the amount of gear to take, take only what I really needed.
  Great, but for this trip I was really going need my all long tele lenses, tripods, and bodies.
• Prevent having to walk far/long with the gear. Take everything in the car and have it close.
  Nice, but this isn't always practical/allowed, and certainly wouldn't work “in the wild.”
• Ask an assistant, partner, or friend to carry some of the stuff.
  Great option, but I don't always go everywhere with an assistant/partner/friend. Plus, this won't work if he/she is already carrying (heavy) gear of their own.
• Use a cart to carry the gear.
  Hmm, interesting option, perhaps this would work!

To be any help, to the burdened photographer, a “cart” should be a) lightweight, b) easy to transport to and from location in e.g., a car, c) sturdy and rugged, d) low maintenance, e) suitable for almost any terrain, ranging from paved roads to uneven and difficult terrain like loose sand, forest floors, and mountains, f) able to carry all my gear, g) flexible in use (e.g., easy to access, stow, and use the gear), and, finally, h) not too expensive.

On an earlier photography trip I had already seen a so-called Beach-Rolly in action and that cart with its big wheels really seemed to fit the bill. I googled a bit for alternatives, but in the end found the Eckla Beach-Rolly to be the only one really suitable for my purpose. The fact that it was widely used by other photographers couldn't be for nothing either…

So I went to the websites of my favourite camera stores to see whether or not they had it in stock, and for what price. At ±€100, the Beach-Rolly is actually quite affordable and having looked at the available options, I decided to go for the Blue/Green version without a sunroof (I didn't expect to use this ever and if I really missed it, I could always buy one later). I also ordered the tripod holder and cargo net accessories as I deemed these very handy.

The next day, I received my order (it was in stock) and I immediately put the Rolly together. As it turned out, this was a breeze, with only a couple of things to put together this was a quick and easy thing to do. So now on to using the thing!

Using the Beach-Rolly

Loaded Beach-Rolly

As it was still a while before my actual trip to the Bavarian Forest, I first tested the Beach-Rolly locally. Loaded with my camera backpack, 600mm (I didn't foresee the use of my 200-400), and tripod, I set out to photograph some local wildlife. The Beach-Rolly behaved very well under these relatively easy circumstances with (mostly) paved roads, giving me high hopes for the real test in the Bavarian Forest.

I was not disappointed! Even loaded with two tripods, a full camera backpack, and both the 200-400mm and 600mm lenses, the Beach-Rolly proved a very good companion and had no problems with the sometimes quite uneven terrain. Sure, lugging 20+ kg of gear up a steep hill is still no breeze, but infinitely better to handle than carrying everything by hand/on your back.

In other words: I'm Very happy with the Beach-Rolly!

How good is it really?

The Beach-Rolly really met the requirements I had set:
a) Weight – Weighing only about 4kg, it is indeed a pretty lightweight solution.
b) Transport – For transportation you simply fold the “seat”, flattening the whole thing to ±125x75cm with just the wheels sticking out. If you want it smaller, you can fold the handlebar as well, reducing the size to ±80x75cm. And if that still isn't small enough for you, you can also easily remove the wheels, leaving the two wheels and a flat package of only a couple of centimetres thick. This should allow it to fit into the boot of even a very small car.
Efficient as I always strive to be, I actually simply fold the seat of the Rolly and put it behind the front seats of my (none too big) car. This allows me super quick loading and unloading. So, full score on this requirement!

Super easy to use linchpin for the wheel

c) Quality – The Beach-Rolly is well made, with a built quality we come to expect from Germans. I only found its creaks a bit when you pull it forward. Not a real issue I'd say.
d) Terrain – I had no trouble pulling the cart and keeping it stable on the sometimes quite uneven terrain of the Bavarian Forest. And while I haven't yet tried it on loose sand myself, I've seen it works very well there too. Again full score here.
e) Capacity – As mentioned, the Beach-Rolly easily held my two heavy tele-lenses as well as a full camera backpack.
f) Maintenance – With little moving parts and a simple design, I can't see much requirement for general maintenance, other than keeping it clean. The wheels are sturdy, but even if they wear out a replacement wheel can be obtained and fitted easily.
g) Ease of Use – The Beach-Rolly allowed me to have a camera mounted on the lenses, ready to be used. Excellent!
h) Price – Costing just below €100 in the Netherlands, the Beach-Rolly is not overly cheap, but certainly not very expensive either.

Some other thoughts and remarks

Together with the Beach-Rolly I also ordered the cargo net and tripod holder. Both I can recommend wholeheartedly. The cargo net is very easy to use and keeps your gear safe, and on the cart. It's usefulness (read: necessity) proven already: The one time I forgot to fasten the net over my gear I walked for only a couple of meters before I heard a noise and found my 200-400 + camera lying on the floor. Luckily they didn't fall very hard and suffered no damage. So in my opinion, the cargo net is a must have. Sure you can fasten your gear with other means too, but this is just so easy to use.

Tripod holder in action

At first I didn't really like the tripod holder (officially called the Multi-Holder), but after finding the best way to use it, I can now recommend it too. The trick is that you need to extend the legs of your tripod so that they fully reach the position of the holder on the bar. That way the tripod fits snugly and can be easily secured.

Another thing I didn't like about the holder bar is the fact that you can still turn it round, no matter how fast you tighten the screws on the side. This just didn't feel right and sturdy. Being able to turn the bar, has one advantage though, and that is that when you want to transport the Beach-Rolly, you can turn the bar so it doesn't stick out any longer. So, the flexibility is actually quite useful…

Besides the cargo net and tripod holder, you can also fit the Beach-Rolly with a sunroof, neck rest (you can also use the Beach-Rolly's loading area as a chair), bottle holder, or additional loading bar to extend the loading platform. If this all isn't enough versatility, Eckla also offers the Multi-Rolly, basically a Beach-Rolly without the side skirts, but with an additional chair at the back of the cart.

Conclusion

The Beach-Rolly is a great solution for photographers carrying heavy equipment over difficult terrain. It is no wonder that almost all the photographers with bigger lenses that I met in Bavaria used a Beach-Rolly for transportation!

I give the Beach-Rolly a score of 95 out of 100 and value it a “must have!”

Nikon D4, D800 & D800E hands-on

Being a Nikon Professional has its advantages, besides shooting with great equipment (Nikon), you sometimes get to see products before they are available on the market.

Today I was at Nikon NL to preview the new Nikon flagships, the D4, D800, and D800E. Together with a presentation listing the highlights of these new cameras and their underlying technique, I was able to actually play with them. Very exiting and quite unique as these previews are only available to a select group of Nikon professionals. What makes the event even more unique is the fact that I was holding the only D4, D800 and D800E cameras in the Netherlands!

Note that even though I was able to play and take pictures, I was not allowed to take any of the pictures home for further analysis. This is the restriction you have to live with if you get to see pre-production cameras (because that's what they were). Nikon is still tweaking things till the last moment and they simply do not want people to base conclusions regarding e.g., image quality and high ISO behaviour on things that are still changing. So I am sadly only able to show you pictures of, not taken with the new cameras…

As the specs of the new cameras are freely available on the internet (e.g., on the official Nikon D4 and D800/D800E pages), I will not bore you with repeating those here. Instead I will mention some of the things I found particularly interesting or think you'd like to know.

Noise
First of all (as everyone seems obsessed with this), noise, especially noise at high ISO. How do the new cameras hold up in that department?

Based on some of the leaked stuff on the internet as well as my own experience today with the (albeit pre-production) cameras themselves, I think it is safe to say that you can easily use the new D800/D800E up to ISO 3200 or ISO 6400 without any real problematic (colour) noise in your pictures. Considering that you have 36 megapixels (3 times the current high ISO champion, the D3s) to play with and can downsample quite a lot, the usable ISO range extends even further to probably even 12800 or higher, whilst still leaving you with a great looking image. Even at large print sizes. In this sense it is probably on par with the current benchmark, the D3s (but now with many more pixels). For the D4 a similar story holds true and ISO 12800 definitely seems usable without any issue, making it about a stop better than the D3s in that respect (but now with 16 instead of 12 megapixels). Heck, even the ridiculously high ISO HI4 (ISO 204800 equivalent) is usable (for newspaper prints that is).

All in all, Nikon hasn't let us down here at all, and they have now set themselves up as the true high ISO/low noise champions. Trumping the old champion, Canon, for a couple of years in a row now.

Video
Though I don't yet shoot video myself (none of my current cameras are capable of shooting video), I have really been in anticipation of the video capabilities of these new Nikons. While Nikon was the first to introduce video in a DSLR with the D90, they soon lost the (professional) market to Canon's 5D as none of their cameras supported full HD (the D7000 was the first model capable of full HD, but that is more a camera geared toward the consumer than the professional).

The new D4 and D800/D800E are about to change that, I think. Not only do they offer full HD at up to 30fps progressive (60fps is possible at 1280x720), they also offer this stream as uncompressed video at 180Mbps (!) from the HDMI port. To make things even more useful, they have made it possible to have it completely free of the visual clutter (e.g., informational icons, settings, etc.) that is normally included in the HDMI output. This really is a boon to professional videographers who can now shoot full & uncompressed HD, something that previously was only possible with the much more expensive dedicated professional video cameras. To help post production/editing, it is now also possible to set up to 20 markers in the video stream. Audio has also been professionalised, not only can you hook up a stereo mike and headphones, the new vu meters allow you to fine tine their recording level. Oh, and if you want you can (of course?) make use of a separate PCM audio recording stream as well. Great features for the (professional) videographer!

Funny thing: Note that video recording on memory cards is restricted to just below half an hour, this is not a restriction of the hardware (recording from the HDMI stream doesn't suffer from this restriction), but purely driven by import regulations; equipment capable of recording video for more than 30 minutes are import-taxed much more heavily, thus making them much more expensive than equipment that doesn't.

Handling
I've always liked the handling of my Nikon cameras, but these new cameras have improved this even more. Especially the minor changes to the layout of the D4 as compared to the D3/D3s are very nice. Buttons are even better positioned and, the D4 held vertically now handles (almost) exactly as when held horizontally. Both the D4 and the D800/D800E are slightly (±100 grams) lighter than their “predecessors”, the D3s and D700 (though strictly speaking the D800 is no successor to the D700).

Memory Cards and Speed
Both cameras now have two card slots, but contrary to the D3, they are of different formats. The D800 and D800E have room for an SD (up to UHS-I) and a Compact Flash (UDMA) card. In the D4 on the other hand you have room for one Compact Flash and one XQD card. This latter format is the new card form factor developed by a.o., Sony. Though current XQD cards are roughly the same speed (or only slightly faster) as the very fastest CF cards, the specs allow for much faster and bigger (up to 1 TB) cards in the (near) future.

With the D4 the only camera to support XQD cards and Sony as the only company that makes them, Nikon has taken a gamble. However, CF is nearing the spec limits, XQD on the other hand still has lots of room for growth, Nikon's gamble may yet prove to be a visionary one.

Fast and big cards are a must for video, but also action and wildlife photographers will benefit from fast cards; the faster the card, the faster and longer you can shoot consecutively. Note that the buffer of the D4 is already big enough to hold up to 98 NEFs and 200 JPGs. Even with a slow card this allows you to shoot about 10 seconds at 10fps before slowing down due to a full buffer. Wow, that is five times better than a D3 (more even when using faster cards)!

Though I don't really like the different memory card formats in the new cameras (if you have both a D800 and a D4, you end up supporting 3 different card types), I can understand why they did so. The D800 now nicely bridges the consumer (SD)/professional (CF) gap (and according to Nikon they simply didn't have room in the D800 for another CF slot), and the D4 simply couldn't only support QXD cards as that would force everyone to buy new (and not yet readily available) memory cards.

Batteries
My memory card gripes, however, are nothing compared to the worst thing about both the D4 and the D800 cameras: new batteries. This way you end up with another two new chargers in your bag if you carry both the new cameras and your old gear. Plus, you investment in the “old” batteries (which aren't cheap by the way) is now down the drain; you won't be able to use them in your new bodies, forcing you to buy new and extra spares. These new batteries are also lower in capacity than the old ones. Bad, bad, bad.

However, Nikon had no choice: three years ago Japan introduced new regulation regarding (the safety of) Li-ion batteries, basically forcing everyone to lower their battery capacities. As Nikon was able to reduce the power consumption of their new cameras quite a bit too, though, you can expect (nearly) the same number of shots from the new batteries.

So yes, I'm very unhappy about the new batteries and chargers, but there wasn't really much that Nikon could have done here.

Auto Focus
They've gone and improved an already great autofocus system even more!

Auto focus now works reliable still under even darker conditions (1 stop darker than before). Plus instead of working reliably with up to f/5.6 lenses, 11 of the 51 focus points now work reliably with up to f/8 lenses. Great news as that means you can now reliably use a 2.0 teleconverter on e.g., a 600 f/4 lens and still have the full power of the AF system. Sure, you could do so previously too, and it would work, but not reliably and with lots of focus “hunting.”

Canon really has some catching up to do here; only recently did their AF start to come close to match Nikon's. But now with Nikon's new AF system they've fallen behind a lot again. Note that this is not at all saying that Canon's AF is bad (ok, let's not talk about a certain 1D series), just that there is still room for improvement. Hey, and a little bit of competition between the two major brands is a really good thing. Look what it got us so far: super low noise sensors (thank you Canon for besting Nikon here for years), video (thank you Nikon for introducing it, thank you Canon for taking it further and professionalising it), great new (zoom) lenses, lots of great features, etc.

D800 versus D800E
This is probably going to be one of the most asked questions regarding the new D800 camera. Which one and why?

First let me explain the difference between the two. The D800 has an Anti Aliasing (AA) filter in front of the sensor, the D800E does not. Why does this matter? Well, the AA filter takes care (ok, reduces the likelihood) of two problems caused by digitisation: moiré and colour artifacts. The AA filter basically blurs the image a bit before it hits the sensor. This is also why you always have to perform some kind of sharpening on your images to counteract this. A camera without an AA filter inherently takes sharper images with more detail (the blurring removes detail you can't get back with sharpening). But as I said, at the expense of potential moiré and other artifacts.

So, what to choose? The D800 with AA filter, or the D800E without? Here are a couple of things to consider:

• The higher the resolution of the camera, the less likely moiré will be a problem. With 36 megapixels, chances of moiré are very slim. None of the super high resolution digital backs for medium format cameras have an AA filter (and neither does the “only” 18 megapixel Leica M9 by the way).
• Moiré becomes an issue only with regular patterns. Nature doesn't have those, so if you shoot landscape, the D800E may be your best option as this offers you (even) more detail. If on the other hand you shoot fabrics (fashion), and perhaps architecture, a lot, the D800 may be best.
• Distance matters, so changing the distance or position of the camera only slightly can already get rid of moiré (the change may introduce moiré somewhere else though). Of course, the problem here is that you must have noticed the problem at time of shooting before you can do something about it so this is not always an option.
• Most moiré can be dealt with in post processing but as this is not really an option with video, video shooters may want to opt for the D800.
• Because there's no AA filter to slightly blur the image, the D800E is capable of capturing slightly more detail and contrast than the D800 (only a minute difference though).
• The D800E will be about $300/€300 more expensive (you get Capture NX2 worth ±$150/€150 with it too though, but this doesn't really help if you already own NX2…)

Conclusion
With the new D4 and D800 cameras, Nikon sure has put forward some great and very capable cameras. Real dream cameras and cameras I really would like to own as soon as possible myself!

Does that mean there is nothing I'd like to see differently? Sure, as I already mentioned there's the issue with the new batteries as well as the different card types, but these are explained and I can live with them.

There's other things I'd liked to have seen differently too though. For the D4 I would really have loved to have had even higher frames per second. 10fps is only one more than the 9 I now have, and that definitely isn't always fast enough, so likely 10 isn't fast enough either. I had hoped for 12 (like the latest Canon 1Dx). The 12 megapixels I now have in my D3 is enough for most circumstances, but it's good to have more as that allows for more (cropping) freedom. 16 megapixels on the D4 is getting there. The 36 megapixels as on the D800 is really great (especially since they have made it perform very well at high ISO), but the D800 is way too slow for me; only 4fps at full resolution (up to 6fps when cropped). Definitely not enough for my wildlife shooting. I like the body of the D4 with its built in vertical grip) more too (yeah, you can add a grip to the D800 too, but then the buttons will not be as conveniently placed as with the D4).

So I guess what I was basically hoping for was a hybrid between the D4 and D800. To be honest, however, this is probably technically not feasible at this moment. Ah, well, there's always something to wish for. For now I guess I need to find the funds and get both cameras.

More views and (technical) info on these sites:

• Official Nikon D4 and Nikon D800/D800E product pages, and D800 micro site (has lots of sample pictures).
• The previously mentioned D800/D800E technical guide.
• Tom Hogan on the Nikon D4 and on the Nikon D800.
• …and many others.

Update 14/03/2012 – Nikon releases IPTC Preset Manager software for the D4

Welcome to Hayo Baan's Photography Blog!

There's a new blog in town!

Hayo Baan's Photography blog will be dedicated to bringing you the latest photography news and reviews as well as tips and tricks on hardware, software, post processing, digital workflow and colour management.

Look on the blog for information on:

• Important photography news
• Camera, lens, and accessory news & reviews
• Computer hardware and software news & reviews
• Post processing tips & tricks for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Nikon Capture NX2
• Digital Workflow and Colour Management tips & tricks