Anti Nikon 8800 Faq

I am sorry that some folk feel that the 8800 is not up to much, my
personal experience is from the perspective of someone who recently
had one stolen and went straight out and bought the D70 as a
replacement.

I have had astoundingly good results with the D70 as I did with the
8800.

What I cannot do with the the d70, as I regularly did with the 8800,
is place it, almost out of reach, on a museum display cabinet and,
using the swivel capability of the display, check the framing of a 2"
square ivory carving or a gold coin and then get a razor sharp image
every time. The flexibility of the view finder cannot, of course,
ever be available to me on any DSLR, but the macro capability of the
kit lense on the D70 is comparatively, extremely poor.

Similarly, the same viewfinder gave me excellent results above the
heads of 'a crowd' at an event or over a fence in a wildlife
sanctuary, without having to hope and pray holding the DSLR over my
head. I cannot use the 8800's built in time lapse facility to crease
a video of a bud opening or a butterly emerging from it's crysalis. I
cannot use the high quality TIF output afforded me by the 8800 to
produced near raw images that do not need my photoshop or Nikon's own
software to open them.

On to picture quality, clearly, with a much smaller sensor and larger
number of pixels, the 8800 will have problems with certain ISO
settings under certain conditions but, keeping the ISO fixed down as
low as possible and using a tripod with shutter speeds of 1/2 sec or
therabouts I have some 18" x 15" night photographs which I have taken
in and around Liverpool, England which have surprised many 'experts'
by their lack of noise.

One thing that I have not picked up anyone mentioning in this thread,
is the problem that most DSLR's have with Dust on the sensor, I live
in mortal fear when changing lenses, should some evil particle settle
on my CCD and I will have to lock up my mirror and with 'kid gloves'
perform some surgical cleaning process, there is none of this with the
8800.

I hope no-one thinks that I am knocking the D70 here, it is a stunning
performer but it is very much 'horses for courses' the D70 being a
completely different animal, and, with a similar range of lenses,
price to the 8800.

Finally, if and when the insurance pay out on my loss, I shall go
straight out and buy another 8800, which will complement the D70
wonderfuly and greatly widen my choice of subjects once more.

To all of you, enjoy your photography......

Having just bought an 8800 and used it for a few days after months of
agonizing over the decision, I think your post puts it extremely well.
There is no question that a dslr can do things and give some aspects of
performance that this camera is incapable of, but it has features that
no dslr has that are extremely valuable to me.

Its"faults" are features that other cameras are much better at, and some
are quite annoying, but its good points are truly wonderful. Yesterday
I took my dog for a walk in the woods and got some excellent pictures
under difficult lighting situations, both close-ups, and distance shots.
The dog found something exciting in a bush and started excitedly nosing
around, so I switch to movie mode and got a very nice clip of him in his
element. I have found that just leaving the ISO on auto has yielded very
low noise pictures. The few cases where the pictures were taken with 200
ISO were just fine for what I wanted. If I wanted low noise, I could
have set the ISO to a lower value and taken a longer exposure. Above
all, the lens is capable of producing stunning pictures. Some day, when
I find I must have the things that a dslr can provide, I will get one.
The important thing is that I knew what I was I was getting into with
the 8800. I knew it isn't perfect, but I knew it has great strengths.
Finally, with a cost delivered to my house (including rebate) of $615, I
felt it was a great bargain. To buy an 8 mp dslr with VR lenses that
cover the zoom range of the 8800, important items for me, would have
cost more than twice this and would have meant a lens that alone likely
would have weighed as much as the 8800.

Joe



In article ,
(John Worsfold) wrote:

I am sorry that some folk feel that the 8800 is not up to much, my
personal experience is from the perspective of someone who recently
had one stolen and went straight out and bought the D70 as a
replacement.

I have had astoundingly good results with the D70 as I did with the
8800.

What I cannot do with the the d70, as I regularly did with the 8800,
is place it, almost out of reach, on a museum display cabinet and,
using the swivel capability of the display, check the framing of a 2"
square ivory carving or a gold coin and then get a razor sharp image
every time. The flexibility of the view finder cannot, of course,
ever be available to me on any DSLR, but the macro capability of the
kit lense on the D70 is comparatively, extremely poor.

Similarly, the same viewfinder gave me excellent results above the
heads of 'a crowd' at an event or over a fence in a wildlife
sanctuary, without having to hope and pray holding the DSLR over my
head. I cannot use the 8800's built in time lapse facility to crease
a video of a bud opening or a butterly emerging from it's crysalis. I
cannot use the high quality TIF output afforded me by the 8800 to
produced near raw images that do not need my photoshop or Nikon's own
software to open them.

On to picture quality, clearly, with a much smaller sensor and larger
number of pixels, the 8800 will have problems with certain ISO
settings under certain conditions but, keeping the ISO fixed down as
low as possible and using a tripod with shutter speeds of 1/2 sec or
therabouts I have some 18" x 15" night photographs which I have taken
in and around Liverpool, England which have surprised many 'experts'
by their lack of noise.

One thing that I have not picked up anyone mentioning in this thread,
is the problem that most DSLR's have with Dust on the sensor, I live
in mortal fear when changing lenses, should some evil particle settle
on my CCD and I will have to lock up my mirror and with 'kid gloves'
perform some surgical cleaning process, there is none of this with the
8800.

I hope no-one thinks that I am knocking the D70 here, it is a stunning
performer but it is very much 'horses for courses' the D70 being a
completely different animal, and, with a similar range of lenses,
price to the 8800.

Finally, if and when the insurance pay out on my loss, I shall go
straight out and buy another 8800, which will complement the D70
wonderfuly and greatly widen my choice of subjects once more.

To all of you, enjoy your photography......

(John Worsfold) wrote:

What I cannot do with the the d70, as I regularly did with the 8800,
is place it, almost out of reach, on a museum display cabinet and,
using the swivel capability of the display, check the framing of a 2"
square ivory carving or a gold coin and then get a razor sharp image
every time. The flexibility of the view finder cannot, of course,
ever be available to me on any DSLR, but the macro capability of the
kit lense on the D70 is comparatively, extremely poor.

I've still got my 8700 and like it for this kind of stuff too. I
gravitate between loving it and hating it. Love it because it does
this kind of stuff nicely and hate it for the terrible shutter lag
that's probably cost me 5 good pictures for every one I've actually
gotten.

This is a case where you'd be much better off with a second lens for
interior use. I have used 35mm f2, 50mm 1.4 and the 60mm 2.8 macro on
the D70 inside museums. Less bulk, less noise, and the brighter image
makes it easier to use.

Scott Peterson

--
Experience is something you don't
get until just after you need it.

180/611

Scott Peterson wrote in message ...
..
This is a case where you'd be much better off with a second lens for
interior use. I have used 35mm f2, 50mm 1.4 and the 60mm 2.8 macro on
the D70 inside museums. Less bulk, less noise, and the brighter image
makes it easier to use.

I take your point on the different lens Scott, but arms length
pictures across a display cabinet mean lots of trial shots and look
see without the 8800's swivel viewfinder .

And BTW this last weekend I have taken lots of shots ranging from
buildings close-up and wildlife at a distance and while swapping
lenses on the D70 I really missed the versatility of the 8800's
optics. .

I have had astoundingly good results with the D70 as I did with the
8800.


We are using a D70 and are thinking about buying a 8800, too.

What I am wondering is how to compare the "speed" of the system.

The D70 does ISO 200..1600 (200..400 for quite noise-free pictures). We
use it with a Nikon zoom lens 80..200 (full frame equivalent 120..300)
that has an aperture of 2.8,

The 880 offers ISO 50..400 (50..100 for quite noise-free pictures).
The 8800 lens has a zoom of full frame equivalent 150..350) with an
aperture of just 4.8 when set to 350.

A simple calculation of the difference between the cameras would give an
ISO factor of 1:4 and a lens speed factor (for Zoom equivalent of 300)
of about 1:1.5). This would sum up for a total of 1:6.

Does that mean that I need 6 times as much light (more than 2.5 "steps")
as with the D70 to get similar pictures with the same shutter speed or 6
times the shutter time for the same scene ?

Now the size of the sensors and the count of pixels is different. So the
simple calculation might be erroneous.

Any comments ?

-Michael

I have had astoundingly good results with the D70 as I did with the
8800.


We are using a D70 and are thinking about buying a 8800, too.

What I am wondering is how to compare the "speed" of the system.

The D70 does ISO 200..1600 (200..400 for quite noise-free pictures). We
use it with a Nikon zoom lens 80..200 (full frame equivalent 120..300)
that has an aperture of 2.8,

The 880 offers ISO 50..400 (50..100 for quite noise-free pictures).
The 8800 lens has a zoom of full frame equivalent 150..350) with an
aperture of just 4.8 when set to 350.

A simple calculation of the difference between the cameras would give an
ISO factor of 1:4 and a lens speed factor (for Zoom equivalent of 300)
of about 1:1.5). This would sum up for a total of 1:6.

Does that mean that I need 6 times as much light (more than 2.5 "steps")
as with the D70 to get similar pictures with the same shutter speed or 6
times the shutter time for the same scene ?

Now the size of the sensors and the count of pixels is different. So the
simple calculation might be erroneous.

Any comments ?

-Michael

I am not well enough qualified to give you a technical answer on this
Michael, but, as I have taken dozens of night city and waterscape
photographs with the 8800 with the ASA locked down and relying
sometimes on the nightscape fundction and sometime just setting the
speed myself, I got no discernable noise even at enlargement sizes of
18 x 12 and above.

Michael Schnell wrote in message ...

We are using a D70 and are thinking about buying a 8800, too.

What I am wondering is how to compare the "speed" of the system.

The D70 does ISO 200..1600 (200..400 for quite noise-free pictures). We
use it with a Nikon zoom lens 80..200 (full frame equivalent 120..300)
that has an aperture of 2.8,

The 880 offers ISO 50..400 (50..100 for quite noise-free pictures).
The 8800 lens has a zoom of full frame equivalent 150..350) with an
aperture of just 4.8 when set to 350.

A simple calculation of the difference between the cameras would give an
ISO factor of 1:4 and a lens speed factor (for Zoom equivalent of 300)
of about 1:1.5). This would sum up for a total of 1:6.

Does that mean that I need 6 times as much light (more than 2.5 "steps")
as with the D70 to get similar pictures with the same shutter speed or 6
times the shutter time for the same scene ?

Now the size of the sensors and the count of pixels is different. So the
simple calculation might be erroneous.

Any comments ?

-Michael