Interview: Nikon bets on D4 and D800 to grab the lead
Nikon was the first camera manufacturer to introduce HD-video recording capabilities in a digital SLR four years ago, with the D90. But, weeks later Canon introduced the EOS 5D Mark II, gaining unprecedented and unexpected attention from the filmmaking industry. Now, Nikon is fighting back with its D4 and D800 cameras, even though, Nikon UK's marketing manager Jeremy Gilbert admits, it still has a lot to learn to stay in front.
Author: Olivier Laurent
07 Mar 2012 Tags: NikonNikon d4Nikon d800Nikon d800e
Ever since the launch of Canon's EOS 5D Mark II, Nikon has been trying to catch up in the videography world. A few months after it released in 2008, the camera gained iconic status in the filmmaking industry when directors such as George Lucas expressed a strong interest for Canon's digital SLR. Suddenly, the camera was used across television and film sets, with an entire episode of the hit US show House filmed with the 5D.
Now, Nikon is fighting back with the release of its D4 and D800 cameras, with features, such as a clean and uncompressed HDMI video feed, that have been requested for the past four years by filmmakers looking to benefit from the aesthetics that a HDSLR can offer.
But, says Jeremy Gilbert in an interview with BJP, Nikon has still a lot of learning to do. "We are now in a position where we can learn as a brand," says the group marketing manager for Nikon UK. "We need to learn and understand more on who is going to be buying and using these products."
Back in 2008, when Nikon first introduced a high-definition video recording option in its D90, the intended target was very different. "The original brief when we launched the D90 was to offer video capabilities for newspaper and print journalists," says Gilbert. "They wanted to be able to record news and events and put it on their websites. For that, the brief was for simple video - not too high quality, no big files. But what happened was that, actually, newspapers didn't really need that. They were still relying a lot on print. Of course, their online presences were growing, but they were getting their videos from other organisations that have proper video-gathering capabilities."
What did happen, however, was that these HDSLRs, as they are now called, received a lot of interest from "videographers and people that are doing shorts, movies, advertising," Gilbert tells BJP. "If you look at all great movies, they have their directors of photography, and of course, their background comes from still photography. These people understood the range of lenses that we have and what they could achieve visually with them. From the D90 to the D3s, and now with the D800 and D4, we've just been trying to listen to as much input as possible."
Gilbert admits that Canon built "a great deal of respect" with the EOS 5D, he says. "We had to look at that and listen to what people were asking for, and also we had to cater to different markets - how someone in the US shoots his movies? What standards do they use? What are the differences between Europe and Asia? We needed to get all that feedback in and try to create a product that is right for photographers - because ultimately, we make cameras for photographers - but also for videographers because this sector is growing and the two are merging."
Nikon believes it has achieved this goal with its most recent launches, and especially with its D800. But, Gilbert is quick to point out, "being in the lead now may be a temporary position, so what we do and what we learn when we're in that position, who we talk to, is important. For me, we need to get a group of leading users, whether they are photographers or videographers, and work closely with them, monitor their usage and making it work for them. It's about staying in front."
What Gilbert is sure about is that the D4 and D800 will open new doors for the brand. "I think that's the important thing," he tells BJP. "People are interested in us as a brand now, and, actually, what's happened is that people are now contacting us with ideas and requests. They would have perhaps traditionally gone somewhere else - they are now knocking on our door, and we'll be working with as many people as we can to try to establish content to show what can be done with the D4 and D800."
He adds: "I think it's a fantastic time for us to learn because it's not our traditional marketplace. We are trying to cater to all areas of the market. We're building up a new relationship with new clients and customers," while continuing to focus on the still photography side, Gilbert tells BJP.
So far, the reaction to the D4 and D800 has been "unprecedented. It's the best word I can use," he says. "The last three to six months have been very interesting for the business - right from the launch of the Nikon 1 to the D4 and D800. Pre-orders for the D4 have been impressive, and for the D800 it has been absolutely manic."
Comments
We are pre-ordering and pre-paying BLIND- there are no RAW fil;es from Nikon to download and check for quality. Well, there are no RAW files available at all, although Nikon could have easily posted access to them with the JPEG samples.
So nobody knows what they will be getting- not nice Nikon. Not nice at all.The claims he makes here about photographers being consulted in the design process are unreal. If photographers were consulted these machines would be radically different from what they are.
Ergonomically the Canon wheel arrangement is just better, and you can have a wheel that has a toggle in the middle equally easily accessible in both horizontal and vertical dimensions.
There would already exist an IS 24-70mm F2.8 lens. The strap lugs would be designed for fabric straps, noiseless, and not metal rings that mark the machine, get your hair caught in them and record as sound on video.
Video format would only be RAW, and jpegs for stills would be lossless. They would have ALWAYS been lossless. None are. DNG would be a RAW option too.
The release for lenses would be lockable, AIWA!!! How many Nikkors have dropped off lately because of where the prominant release is -right where your thumbs rests supporting the lens?
I mean, come on guys, no photographer was involved in the making of this camera!!
Many of us are pre-ordering a machine without any supplied RAW file samples from Nikon to play around with at all.
The video on their website is very impressive, but I believe basic ergonomics on both machines could be radically improved were at least one photographer able to get to the designers to stop the constant patching up of a design that could be easier and more comfortable to use.
In practice the toggles would be better at the centre of a Canon-like wheel for focus point adjustment, and both easily accessible in either vertical or horizontal format. Why two toggles otherwise. The metal strap lugs require metal, noisy chafing rings whose sound and vibration will still record on video with the in-camera microphone.
All cameras, not just Nikons should have lens release catches that are lockable and located, where they cannot be accidentally released. Ask any photographer.... yes, please do that!!
" We are now in a position where we can learn as a brand "
Does anyone know what on earth that means ? Sounds like a typical piece of Marketing drivel to me.
Taking my cue from Jenny Amery, let's try to
actually help Nikon learn as a brand.
Post RAW files from the D800 of average subjects online now, because why should anyone pay £2400 unless you, Nikon can show that money is not wasted?
How many purchasers will you be deceiving otherwise, and how many will return their D800s for refund if unsatisfied with the image quality?
We will, of course be entitled for a refund of that money if the photographs at normally used ISOs with Nikon lenses-including F4 and F5.6 zooms are noisy as the ISO has had to be raised to make the photograph.
This applies to landscape equally- the wind blows and things move, often violently.
I had to return a Canon 5D MkII as no samples could have shown me that the firmware smooths over low-contrast fine detail.
I had to return a D300 because there was no way of knowing in advance that there was visible noise destroying detail at low isos, AND that in-camera noise reduction did not start until 800iso.
I did not WANT to return these pre-ordered purchases, but I had to, because as image-making machines in normal use, detail was lost one way or another.
I expect that in 2012 the D800 sensor will surpass the D7000 sensor in all areas, but without RAW files posted online by anyone who has had the use of one (loads have and results are NOTABLY absent), you Nikon are doing yourself no favours at all, and dealers will obviously not like the hassles involved, IF they are to be allowed to sell them.!
I heard from Jessops that D4 sales are not available in my local branch, because Nikon, not Jessops, have limited the number of Jessops stores being allowed to stock professional equipment-lenses as well now.
2 year warranty should be the minimum as standard EU warranties for electrical goods have to be.
5 year warranties would be as good as certain cars costing the same as a D4.
The D800 should also have a minimum 2year warranty as standard.
Learning as a brand has begun. Next teacher please!
On a Leica M the lens release button is where you never put your fingers anyway. A D4 or D800 should have made this change. Or, better, put the lens release buttonat the apex of the lens mount safely tucked away under the prism overhang. Additionally the mode dial on the top of the body can have all the focus options added to it- it would be faster and easier than the front dial rear dial and press at the front on both bodies.
When you hold a camera and steady it you naturally brace you left focussing and zooming hand against the body, and this fouls the lens release button. You can twist the lens off, and you can also alter it to manual or autofocus accidentally, both happen frequently.
This is such excellent practical advice that I surely now merit a free D% with my redesigned suggestions implemented, Nikon, please!
At last, Enfin mes amis, D800 RAW and Jpeg sample files are available for Download from Imaging Resource. I wouldn't go above 800 iso if I didn't have to , as expected, but the files are gorgeous, the best shadow detail and definition I have seen in a DSLR so far, and ideal for PJ (PJ Harrap, that's me) work. I think View NX2 opens the RAWS, not sure.....
Now , all I need is that Gilbert wallah to give me lenses and a D4 as back-up and I'll forgive his not replying to my email Whoah!!
Come on people - when is the last time Nikon repeased a pro-spec body that disappointed? I have a D800 on order and am fully confident that it will not just meet, but *exceed* the expectations of everybody. If you don't believe that, then keep your money and continue to shoot with what you have now. For me, the D800 has so many advantages over my D700 that upgrading is a no-brainer. And I'm not even thinking about resolution.
Seems harrap is a frustated photographer with a personal grudge against a brand. Likely his name is more like Hu then Harrap
When you actually bought and paid for THREE Nikon D200 bodies new, only to get THE BANDING.... When you Actually bought and paid for, was three D300 only to find that none were made with less noise at low isos than a D2X has anyway, a little caution is advised.
I also bought and paid for a Canon 5D MkII, kit,only to discover the firmware as written for that machine, destroys all fine detail at all ISOs in low-contrast areas- as ratified later by Ken Rockwell, I discovered.
These all incur much emotion, loads ahassle and the ire-banning in one case, by retailers who themselves are supposed to sell stuff that just doesn't cut it- like buying a car with faulty gears, or a washing machine that cant clean clothes.
Laws apply to such equipment and it is high time they did to cameras and lenses-many of which are duds.
If the D800 actually does what it should , well, so it should. Opening those RAW files from Imaging resource in View NX2 however and applying any correction brings back all the noise that IR got rid of, so the files are not exactly pukkah! Hu knows??
Well, in Lightroom 4 the D800 files are really very impressive. Detail is retained even at 1600 with noise reduction and sharpening. Maybe the D800E will be even better, as then no sharpening is necessary at all. But it is still wrong for users to have either buy NX2 or Lightroom to be able to apply noise reduction, which View NX2 does not do at all, which is a shame, as if it did as well as LR4 you would not need another program at all.
I still feel that Capture NX2 should be bundled free with a D800 body, as it is with the D800E, and that Nikon should indeed have posted RAW samples online, as then my other posts would not have occurred.
If you can stand the sound of the shutter, which is loud with a nasal aftertwang, this is certainly where "the smart money" goes from here on in. The results are excellent, noise is low,( no sign of banding yet), and its ergonomics, though not to my taste, perfectly OK for stills.(No twist and flip or add-on screen for video - as with their microphone) With a good lens, detail resolution is just out of this world, and it captures and reproduces the nature of light itself in a way that not even the best large format film cameras manage at all. Yummy!
THe D800 under and overexposure dials reverse the way other nikons do it. Normally you go left to go under and clockwise to go over. I have been getting bad exposures because I forget this. Possibly they can be reversed (tell me!) but that is how it comes out of the bos.
Second: the high resolution claims Nikon make for the D800E MAY be true, but experience here on perfectly exposed files has shown me that even a noise reduction setting of ONE (the lowest) reduces resolution of the largest files to below my 1Ds MkII level at 400 ISO.
You can watch the detail vanish on the screen at 100 as you apply one unit of noise reduction in Capture NX, regardless of the fact that there was no noise reduction set in-camera that was added to.
Capture One haven't yet dealt with D800 RAW -so you cannot use it yet for the files, but it is upsetting to have to state that already at this point in time, noise reduction softens the D800's RAW files. Sharpening afterward does not recover the lost resolution so you had better have robotically perfect technique and overexpose-or else!!
Thus the D800E wont improve anything at all if you use the lowest noise reduction settings IF it acts the same way. Well, does it? Has anyone tried?
What bothers me is that we should not need to ask as Nikon themselves should support their new product perfectly allowing users optimum control of quality, but they do nothing ..
Well, with all the limitations, as long as your lenses match the sensor in resolution there is no doubt at all that this machine is the best DSLR ever made.
Not only is image quality at low isos quite stunning- far better than Nikon's own commissioned samples show online, but the cropping and viewing options available mean that we are now able to compose accurately using brightline viewfinder frames for APS-C, 30x20mm, and 5:4 crops.
This is a radical improvement upon the blinkered tunnel vision other SLRS demand, in which you are constantly looking at a composition already chosen for you, and which to alter you must zoom in or out or move to change.
The reason for the Leica's sucess since the introduction of the M3 now exists in a Nikon DSLR body, if you are prepared to lose the extra pixels that standard tunnel vision allows- great for studio and macro use, but of no benefit in the human environment we move and live and record in everyday, and the bonus is, as with the Canon 1D series, that you get those corners with no resolution left in them cropped off, whilst having a 25MP machine with a vast range of lenses to use dating back to the AI series, and their default setting is centre-weighted metering.
You can see what is going into and coming out of the frame, just Leica real camera......
Mine has had to go back because it cannot focus accurately half the time. It focusses before and behind subjects and can manage to focus in front of a line of trees at 50metres with the sun behind me lighting them perfectly.
Of course, I was so reliant on Nikon's excellent reputation for autofocus accuracy that I did not even bother to check the files for days.
Elsewhere too on forums there are already hundreds of complaints about this.
But, and it is a big but, this may not actually be faulty manufacture at all, or the oft-quoted "Quality Control".
It might just be the way these bodies are packaged and transported. The camera body lies in a thin-walled cardboard box with the body seperated from the concrete it could fall on between Japan and here, by another sheet of cardboard poised just a quarter of an inch above the outer wall of the box.
There is NO styrofoam cladding, no Post Office regulation 10cm gap between the machine and the harsh outer world, filled with effective padding,nothing.
It's like somebody developed an Apollo rocket, and then launched it , forgetting to shut the hatch doors....
So I like hundreds of others now must await a new replacement. What do you think are its chances of being OK?
Well, this is a great machine, working as it should. Wheras there was a lack of information in D700 files due to their being only 12MP, the D800 files are able to reveal , in visual terms that we can see, between 2-3 times the information of the same scene, IF the lens in use has the ability to record it.
The made for video compromised new VR zooms are unable. Not across the image, and whilst "legacy" lenses of the fixed prime variety are very good, their resolution limits the results to being merely larger versions of smaller files, and better seen at 50% or less, but this is unavoidable.
This machine is probably going to be the benchmark for the next decade, as was the Nikon F years ago, and we can only hope than a series of lenses can be designed and manufactured by Nikon to match its possibilities fully.
As far as the issue of noise is concerned, in Lightroom LR4 RC at the moment you will discover that moving the black slider 100% to the right gets rid of all the black in the image, much of which is luminance noise. Yes the image looks flat -until you select the moderate contrast over the linear, but, when you do this the results are very natural, and you may, if you have used auto first of all, find yourself zeroing everything else, which usually gives me what I want- an unexaggerated hi-Def original, without any true blacks at all
It is a very good sensor. I mean, just amazing!!
The face recognition works very well too in auto-AF, and the buffer clears quicker than I thought possible , with a fast card, resulting in a very useable reportage machine indeed.
I imagine those with big fast zooms and privileged access to Olympic events here should be producing some pretty stonking pictures with D800s, as it's essential response time is as fast as a D3 or D4.
Deus ex Machina!
Nikon are alienating OLD customers
I don't know what planet Jeremy Gilbert lives on, but he enthuses about the D800 and winning new customers - I've been a Nikon user for 30+ years and I've had a deposit on a D800 for months and can I even get a delivery date from Nikon/Calumet? - nope - they are treating their customers shabbily, no apologetic updates on delivery, nothing, they just hang onto your money and no cameras.
The problem when you have your D800 is to get a good copy of the standard 24-70mm f2.8 zoom, as I have discovered, having already had to return two copies due to field curvature and fringing, together with crescent and L-bracket shaped highlights radiating from shiny surfaces, even in the shade. As this is the only lens I bought the D800 to actually be able to use, and as I need it for film as well, one is well worried. Has Quality Control slackened with demand?
I have not ever seen such a mess of a lens as the two I have had to return this last week, so perhaps having to wait for a D800 body is OK?
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