Why is the D800 late.

I stand corrected, thanks to a reader with useful information. Now people who can never constructively debate online, watch and learn: I will admit that I was wrong on the Internet. 

I first wrote that:

Great news to all of you who preordered a D800! 

The Nikon D900 will be out in 2015 ! Which means you can have it just before you receive your D800 for comparison. You can then sell your D800 to Le Louvre museum in Paris: 

"Look son, that is a D800! It was one of the most desired camera of all time, the 7 guys in the world who finally got one said it was actually good. Of course that remains a legend since no one was ever able to seen one in store."

Seriously Nikon, production chain ? Creating desire by lowering availability is one thing. And it's ok when the product is actually useless (hint: it start's with an "i" and finished by "pad"). But when you can 't fulfill more than 15% of the preorders at best (yes I have all the numbers for all shops in my town as well as the exact numbers delivered), this is called incompetence and bad supply chain management. It's even more serious when most of those people are pros waiting for their work tool.

I am mad, you're lucky you have no direct competition. 

Then I was redirected to a good article explaining why Nikon can't do it all. Basically, they have a maximum monthly production capacity and since the demand is only at a peak at launch, it is industrially irrelevant to make a much larger factory that would run 80% empty most of the time. Therefore, you gotta wait. 

Fact: well, it sucks but that's the way it is and it's not incompetence from Nikon.

Perception of the fact: Nikon should explain us why. Now that I know, well, I'm less mad.

And because you still gotta be mad at someone: rich amateurs who can't take a decent picture, stop preordering pro gear that pros actually need to make a living ! Damnit ! Most shot's I've seen from a D800  so far were just plain bad. I'm mad again ! (yeah back to normal). 

Thanks to "anonymous" for the comment.

D800 rating #1 at DxOmark

...what the hell is DxOmark?

DxOMark is "the trusted industry standard for camera and lens independent image quality measurements and ratings. "


In other words, if you wonder how your sensor performs against an other, and argue online based on your visual interpretation of  a 1:1 crop, give it up, check DxOmark, close the debate. Then you'll be able to stop counting pixels and do some actual photography :)


Now wait, if I despise pixel counting, why am I mentioning that ranking? Answering this question requires asking an other question: why do some people still shoot film? Well among the reasons, film has a much superior dynamic range than any digital sensor. That is simply an awesome property and one of the reasons I shoot mostly film no matter what. It means you can shoot a high contrast scene and both dark and bright zones will come out with a proper level of exposure. Beyond the technical talk, it just makes photographs way more subtle, refined, colors are nicer, and landscapes in particular looks a zillion times better. Digital photographer use filters, or HDR (high dynamic range) to simulate the better dynamic range of film. 


But now, look at this: 

At ISO100, 200 and 400, the D800 offers even better dynamic range than a D4. This + 36MP + built in HDR mode make it the best landscape SLR you can which for. Of course, any large format camera will destroy it, but for digital, it's good stuff. It overtakes the D700 all the way, and only the D4 ranks better from ISO 800 and above.


Every camera is best at something, for large prints plenty of light shots, or long exposures, the D800 is your friend. 


Oh and according to the ranking, the D800's sensor doesn't only overtake the D4, it also is ahead of the 50000$ Phase One IQ180MP best of the best digital medium format camera... So i'll say it: when I heard about the 36MP, I was like "yeah right...crap". I was wrong.