Nikon D810

Previously, we had discussed "flat picture control" and how it's supposed to control blown-out highlights and dropped shadow detail.
Obviously, this pic below isn't of a coin--I'm still getting to that--but its normally easy to blow out polished metal in bright sunlight.
This is set to "flat picture control", straight from the camera--no processing in software. I predict it will do really well with coins.

This is just one example of "flat picture control". I took other shots, and the results were similar in terms of highlight/shadow control. At least I bothered to post an example.
One is looking for a different tonal range on a coin, with probably less of a highlight. But straight from the camera, this is excellent.
I should clarify the above file was RAW 12 lossless, opened in ACR, then into Photoshop (but I didn't apply any curves) and saved as a jpg sRGB.

It's similar, but ACR applies some of its own settings before it goes into Photoshop. Regarding baselines, well sure "flat" has a curve applied too. After all, any data coming from the sensor begins as a linear file, then is processed and written to the card. I've worked in photoshop for 20 years, know a lot of boring details, but I prefer to focus on the results.

One more picture from today, testing the limits of image sharpness at 100% when shooting hand-held. For this test, I focused on George Washington's eye from the $1 bill. I take a lot of macros in the field, where hand-held is often advantageous, so I've finessed my technique over the years.
I used a Nikkor 105mm micro VR at 1:1.1 magnification.
I did not sharpen or do any post-processing other than adjust levels to make each easier to compare. Each capture from 1/80s to 1/640s was the best of three shots. There's been talk on dSLR forums how the D810's massive 36mp resolution amplifies any camera shake and therefore requires higher shutter speeds. However, in my case I think I've nailed focus at 1/250s.
If you blow up to full-size, you can see how above ISO 800 the image starts to degrade from noise. Click to see full-size at 100% resolution.

The only one I might attribute to Chromatic Aberration is the 1/80 since I can see a fringing affect going from cool to warm. However, I think this is due to camera shake affecting sharpness too. As for the other color shifts between pictures, when the contrast was equalized between shots, it also has the effect of ramping up slight color differences due to varying lighting of the scene--and varying amounts of WB I used. CA is otherwise very low on my 105.

I also think it's important here to distinguish between a soft photo due to camera shake and a simply unsharpened 'raw' file at 100%--that changes significantly upon a moderate amount of sharpen in PS. Admittedly, I "pixel-peep" my macros a lot, and know how to recognize the displacement/blur due to shake.


Not much @ ISO 800 (high ISO NR was set to normal), but it's getting obvious @ 1250, especially once the photo gets any sharpening applied--just my prediction.


Well, anyway...I feel I contributed a lot of research on the D810 in this thread which I would otherwise keep to myself. I don't expect others to come to the same conclusions as I did, that really only matters to my own work.

DVo what's the pricing difference on the 3 cameras listed above?

It should be pretty easy to determine EFSC operation. Reason is that EFSC eliminates the shutter cycling at beginning of the exposure. To induce long exposures, just put the lens cap on so shutter is open for multiple seconds. If you are in Live View, and the shutter is operating normally (non-EFSC), you'll hear it close and then open at beginning of exposure, then close and open again at the end. The mirror may also cycle at the end. If EFSC is active, you will hear nothing at the beginning button press. The first sound you hear will be the shutter closing and then opening at end of exposure.

Since you can turn EFSC on/off in Live View mode, it should be simple to tell the difference by just listening to the camera operation.

Ahh, it sounds like you are independently confirming what was said over on the PM forum. The mechanical sound at the beginning and end of exposure is the shutter. In Live View, the shutter is open until the shot is taken. It then must close to "extinguish" the sensor pixel photo sites, then open again for the actual exposure, then close at end of exposure, then open again to restart Live View. So you should get two sets of nearly identical sounds. If the mirror also cycles at the end then you'd hear a loud mirror slap sound as well.

For EFSC in Live View, when you press the shutter button, the sensor sites are extinguished electronically, electronically restarted for the exposure, and then the shutter closes to end exposure and re-opens to restart Live View just like non-EFSC.

This seems like a firmware bug but it may be intentional, or perhaps a different sequence to get around Canon or Sony IP in this area.