Ryan Douthit
May 16th, 2015, 02:15 PM
I spent the last two weeks around Los Angeles filming a variety of projects with the Nikon D810. Really impressed with this camera. Sure, it's not as video-friendly as my A7S, but there's something I really like about the image it creates. Also, great to be able to shoot at 1080/60p without having to worry about aliasing or rolling shutter (even the A7S suffers aliasing at 60p and rolling shutter... yeah, that's it's major weakness). The D810s body is also fantastically solid. I feel very secure traveling with it.
I'm now considering getting another D810 so I have dual bodies on the road. (And a single lens set.) Since this is my dual-purpose travel kit (photo and video), I'm picking up mostly small and relatively light F/4s for Zooms (16-35 and 70-200 sofa) and getting faster primes (50mm 1.4g is my first.)
Speaking of lenses that is the one downside. Nikkor glass produces excellent images, but the manual focus rings are too snug, so it's really hard to initiate focus as smoothly as I'd like. The Tamron's on my Sony are much better in this regard.
Of course I still have the A7S, rigged out to a 9 lbs behemoth. When I can financially swing it, I'll be looking to replace that with something more video-specific out of the gate. Not a FS7... but maybe something similar for "big" projects and then go with the Nikons for smaller ones. The Nikon is especially good for rigging to vehicles. (Though a field monitor is a must-have accessory.)
I'm now considering getting another D810 so I have dual bodies on the road. (And a single lens set.) Since this is my dual-purpose travel kit (photo and video), I'm picking up mostly small and relatively light F/4s for Zooms (16-35 and 70-200 sofa) and getting faster primes (50mm 1.4g is my first.)
Speaking of lenses that is the one downside. Nikkor glass produces excellent images, but the manual focus rings are too snug, so it's really hard to initiate focus as smoothly as I'd like. The Tamron's on my Sony are much better in this regard.
Of course I still have the A7S, rigged out to a 9 lbs behemoth. When I can financially swing it, I'll be looking to replace that with something more video-specific out of the gate. Not a FS7... but maybe something similar for "big" projects and then go with the Nikons for smaller ones. The Nikon is especially good for rigging to vehicles. (Though a field monitor is a must-have accessory.)