Megapixels: More or less?

[Capturingtheunseen.com]

Clear words, thanks a lot !
That was exactly what I wanted to know and it's even better that you tried a D750 yourself. If you still prefer your D4 that's the confirmation I was looking for. I have my hands on a camera regularly, but not the right one to find out myself . The only person with a D4S who might hand it over for a day or two is my friend in the North, but he lives about 700km away and the alternative would be go up there or buy one straight away. But after what you told me I am sure I will give it a go make me a nice Xmas present. Sometimes with this kind of decision it is like going to the doctor:
You just need a bit more input from differetn sides to feel comfortable with what you do.

I am usually quite happy the D750 in dim light compared with what I had before, but still I have run in situations where it just wasn't enough when it started to get exciting. And if there is no way being able to afford anything of the new pro stuff, the D4(S) is the thing to watch out for.

Whai like to do is buy a camera from someone who has a no-questions asked return policy. That if it's not what I expect, it just costs return shipping.

 

[Woodpecker]

Hi @VStammer

I just saw your comment and the answer from @Oztours.
Until recently I have been shooting 14bit RAW lossless compressed with a D750 giving me RAW files with about 30MB.
After looking at some tests from another photographer I decided to change my default to 12bit lossless compressed and have the option to quickly change bit depth backward and forward via a "My Menu" entry just in case I run into a situation where I expect to need the extra dynamic range (which didn't really happen until now).
This gives files between about 21 and 24 MB.

My post machine was at 32GB of RAM all the time. What I realized was that the RAW file size didn't matter at all. What matters is your RAM, yes, but also very much the software you use.

I started working with RAWs on the Nikon software available at that date (View NX / Capture NX2) and processing was really slow, especially if you used particularly CPU-heavy functions like noise reduction). Switching to Capture NX-D after NX2 didn't support my newer cameras was a mixed bag. Some things worked almost 50% faster and other things became even slower than before. The bottleneck was was that the Nikon programs used the memory in a quite sluggish and inefficient way which was one of the main reasons for the programs to crash regularly, which I know was especially an issue on machines with small amount of RAM.
Currently I started testing Capture One for Nikon and I thought I have accidently bought a different computer . Where you had to wait with the old programs you now see the effect of moving a slider almost in realtime in a full screen preview on 27" (which needs quite a bit of CPU). I also ran batches with 20 to 30 RAWs and that worked pretty well, while with that I could make my old software crash.

8GB for sure is not very much if it comes to post-processing, but if - for some reason - you can't extend it without getting a new machine it is probably worthwhile thinking about the efficiency with which the software is using these 8GB.

 

[Woodpecker]

Whai like to do is buy a camera from someone who has a no-questions asked return policy. That if it's not what I expect, it just costs return shipping.

Yes, that's what I have done once for a lense which I gought new from big A. However, I think it makes a difference if you try that with second hand gear, where you normally have a majority of private sellers. But I will check some of the knowm second hand retailers here to find one. Actually the Nikon service point somtimes sells refurbished machines including limited warranty. I'll know it as soon as I have got one.

P.S. A bit of a problem is that on Monday I lost an order worth about 6 months of engineering work just by a phone call as a consequence of th Covid chaos. So I need to be a bit careful now with "joy focused investments" ...

 

[Oztours]

@Woodpecker. Have you got a camera shop nearby that rents the D4s? Lot cheaper than going the 700 k's to your friends place, but not as enjoyable. I love my travel. and a lot cheaper than buying one outright and finding it doesn't do what you need.

 

[VStammer]

I had a D750, it was pretty good in lowlight conditions too. The difference is in how they handle noise. My D4 was good up to 12,800 ISO. I run my D5 auto ISO to top out at 20,000. Forget the specs and get your hands on a camera body. The Nikon pro bodies are amazing. They get an AF lock in near darkness.

Great Scotts....now you've gone and done it! You've got me talked into a single digit DSLR body!