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I finally gave in and picked up a D4. On Sunday I headed into the zoo to give it a run.
I'm very impressed by the image quality, ISO performance and speed.
I don't remember seeing a hands on review here previously, so here's a little summary as I see it.

These shots were done as raw and have had my normal processing, but I think the 100% clips show the ISO performance.

ISO 12800, 150mm 1/250s f/4.5 (Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro)

At 12k8 this is surprisingly good. I turned to B&W as a red heat lamp washed everything out. The noise is pretty controlled considering. At lot of contrast has been lost.


ISO 4000, 400mm 1/500s f/7.1 (Nikkor AF 80-400mm VR)

I was really surprised at the quality of 4k ISO. Some other areas of the shot show a little noise, but nothing obvious and it is easily hidden by any texture.


ISO 1400, 400mm 1/500s f/6.3 (Nikkor AF 80-400mm VR)

At 1k4 this shows a little patterning in the green background, but I think I prefer this to the same level in my D2Xs.


ISO 100, 150mm 1/400s f/4.5 (Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro)

The base ISO looks flawless to me. Anything is easily obscured by jpeg compression artefacts.


Things that stand out to me. (keep in mind I'm coming from a D2Xs, so have skipped a generation)

The Good

• Excellent ISO performance (good, because that is why I bought it).
• Auto-focus is very, very good. My slow lenses (80-400VR screwdrive) snapped to focus without any hunting or missed focus.
• The Auto-ISO feature is nice, as it adjusts shutter speed depending on focal length. (Although I mainly used Manual mode and let the ISO adjust)
• 10 FPS is really excessive, but nice.
• I might be crazy, but the images appear sharper. This could be due to the full frame resolution not working the glass as hard, but probably because I can now use the optimal shutter speed and aperture.
• Many more menu options.

The not so good

• Many more menu options.
• The lcd screen is polarised so that when in normal landscape orientation the screen is completely black. In portrait orientation the screen is crystal clear. This is going to be very annoying with polarised sunnies.
• Battery life does look reduced. I only took a few hundred shots and the first battery bar segment had gone down. The D2Xs wouldn't have moved for those few shots. Still wouldn't be a problem for a single day's shooting (for me).
• I think I expected too much from the 3D focus tracking. I need to play with it more to work out its limits.

Daniel

*drool*

DanielA wrote:The lcd screen is polarised so that when in normal landscape orientation the screen is completely black. In portrait orientation the screen is crystal clear. This is going to be very annoying with polarised sunnies.

like Wtf? that seems extremely daft!

DanielA wrote:I think I expected too much from the 3D focus tracking. I need to play with it more to work out its limits.

You may need to carefuly consider what autofocus settings you use it with. I find it works pretty well on my D3s and the D4 is probably better.

Congrats on the new camera!

biggerry wrote:

DanielA wrote:The lcd screen is polarised so that when in normal landscape orientation the screen is completely black.

like Wtf? that seems extremely daft!

I tried it again under artificial light and it's not as bad, but at only about 20 degrees CCW it's at it's darkest. I checked the D2Xs it doesn't go nearly as dark.
When I was first in the sun I thought I must have been pressing the wrong buttons because I didn't see anything.

Murray Foote wrote:

DanielA wrote:I think I expected too much from the 3D focus tracking. I need to play with it more to work out its limits.

You may need to carefuly consider what autofocus settings you use it with. I find it works pretty well on my D3s and the D4 is probably better.

The regular (9-, 21-, 51-points) AF-C look good. I haven't really used the 3D yet. I was just was expecting the focus point to move around the viewfinder a bit quicker. It probably is focusing tracking faster than it appears.

aim54x wrote:Congrats on the new camera!

Thanks. It's looking really good.

Daniel

Cratulations Daniel I hhave been shooting with mine almost a year and still try to push the limits of low light photography and at the max end it definitely is a matter of experimenting to get the
best results--jim

In fact, I prefer the parrot than others.