I’ve been shooting Weddings since May/June 2011 and have gone through a fair bit of gear within this short period of time. I cannot actually believe how much gear I’ve gone through considering how long I’ve been shooting.
Without boring you all with the extensive list of what I’ve bought and sold for my various silly and calculated reasons, I began shooting with a Nikon D7000, and 16months later, I’ve ended up with two Nikon D800’s :S
I won’t go into detail with why and how in such a short period of time I’ve ended up with two D800’s, but you may know that some of the reasons are justified, and the other reasons my logical side just blames GAS.
Since the release of the Nikon D800 in January, many people have discussed in forums, reviews, blogs etc. that the Nikon D800 for Weddings is just absurd! Very few that I have seen, have said that you could use a D800 for Weddings.
The people who say shooting a Wedding with a D800 is the wrong decision to make. I can put my hand on my heart and say… “I can see what you mean”. However, most of the people saying the D800 is bad for Weddings are people who are judging it via Paper specs.
There is only one reason why you wouldn’t want to shoot the D800 for Weddings/Events, and that is purely because of the file sizes. The 36.3mp RAW files come out at around 70Mb per RAW, 40Mb when using Lossless Compressed.
As a result of the large file sizes, and with the known issues of LR4 being a bit sluggish, my post-production has slowed WAY down. I’ve also had to buy more HDD’s to accommodate the files, back-up and storage, and I’m still in the midst of accumulating more Memory Cards.
Other than the large file sizes, the D800 is a brilliant camera choice for Weddings.
Not only can you resolve high detail images when you’re at low ISO’s, you can crank it up to high ISO’s and scale the image down to 16mp and have a file which is very comparable to the Nikon D4. The Nikon D4, based on UK prices, is 2.5x more expensive! Yes there are other benefits to the Nikon D4, but don’t forget that the D800 shares a lot of its parts with the D4 and offers basically the same features, excluding it’s speed and buffer. In some ways, the D800 offers more! With it having a Pop-Up Flash ;)
I know, I know... Professionals don’t use Pop-Up Flashes, but I was actually referring to the Pop-Up Flash as it has Nikon CLS ability, so you can control you other Nikon Flashes with this Pop-Up Flash.
The benefit also to the 36.3mp is the fact you have the ability to crop images. Again, I know of many Photographers out there who will make a point about “crop in camera”. Where I agree, if you can crop in camera, you should do it. There are many benefits to cropping the image correctly in-camera, however, allow me to paint you a picture…
You’re at a Wedding, you’re shooting the ceremony, standing on the grooms side, you look just behind the bride to see a Bridesmaid crying, you want to capture it, and there’s not enough time to switch camera bodies with a longer lens mounted, or switch lens, what do you do? With the D800, you could shoot it, then crop it for a tighter framing.
Now, to all those who say that this is cheating or still don’t agree with crop, I’ll accept your opinions provided you never suggest to someone to buy DX camera as it helps you get closer to the action. This is effectively the same thing.
I could go on and on about benefits and negatives to using the Nikon D800 for Weddings or Events, but the main point of the article is to emphasise, there are some benefits.
If you care about workflow and have the mentality “time is money”, then this camera may not be for you. If you are willing to put a little bit more work in, and spend a little more time, why not invest in this camera for Weddings?
