Today for our Slanted Lens product review, I am reviewing the new Nikon D810 and will do a side-by-side comparison with the Canon Mark III. Upon first impression, this newest addition to the Nikon family has a lot to offer and eclipses the Mark III in a lot of ways. Canon and Nikon have been going back and forth for a while trying to stay ahead of one another.
Nikon has a full frame sensor and has a great ISO, but sometimes you get a jell-o look to the footage. The reality is that if I have invested a lot of time and money into Canon equipment, I am not going to jump over to Nikon just because of this camera. Canon will probably have something else that beats the D810 soon. However, if I already have a lot of Nikon cameras and lenses, or for a newer photographer just starting out, this is a really good camera, and it is worth looking at.
I put Spencer in a fire suit, added some smoke and shot with both cameras in three scenarios on a 70-200mm lens. Take a look at the footage and judge for yourself.
Scene 1: Outdoors
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100
White Balance: Daylight
Scene 2: Indoors
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1250
White Balance: Tungsten
Scene 3: Low Light
Shutter Speed: 1/50
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 6400
White Balance: Tungsten
Thanks for watching. Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’!
Video Transcription
Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan. Today for our Slanted Lens product review, we got a couple of cases from LensProToGo. We’re going to take a look at the new Nikon D810. Pretty exciting for me because this camera really is the competitor to the Mark III. It eclipses the Mark III in several different ways. So, let’s take a look at some of the things it does. The reality with this camera for me is, I mean, obviously Canon and Nikon are kinda going back and forth, bouncing back and forth, trying to stay ahead of one another. You got the 800 that came out. That was a great camera. This is not revolutionary as much as just kind of an evolution to their next sense of moving up. But they’ve done some great things to this camera to be able to make it really match the video industry and the video world. So the footage I’ve seen thus far, as you look at these two next to each other, as far as the Mark III versus the Canon 810. This camera, it’s a higher megapixel camera, so it’s got an incredible CMOS chip, full-frame chip in it. 36 megapixels I believe, where I think the Mark III has 22. So it’s a much higher megapixel camera. It has a great ISO and as far as the quality, it’s very high ISO for high levels. You do get a lot of that jello-y thing because of that. You kind of lose some things. They took one of the filters off from the CMOS chip, and it gives you a little bit more of that jello sense. But all of that aside, it kinda boils down to two thoughts from me. If I’d invested my life into the equipment and the lenses, I’m not going to switch to Nikon just because they jumped ahead of Canon right now. Canon’s gonna catch up. But if I’m in Nikon, I’ve got nothing to lose with this camera. You really don’t. It’s a great piece of equipment, and the images look excellent. So that’s what we’re going to go to. I wanna look at the images. If I shoot video with this versus I shoot video with the Mark III, let’s put those side by side.
We’re going to put Spencer in a fire suit, a little bit of smoke, blue sky background, shoot a little video with both of those. And just see how they both look with flesh tones, smoke and blue sky. And just see how that compares with the 810 versus the Mark III.
Here’s our Nikon D810. We’re gonna shoot at 100 ISO in daylight. We’re gonna take a look at just how it holds holds up. You know, there’s a lot of detail. This chip has a tremendous amount of detail, it’s just a gorgeous look, there. It’s a little on the green side, whereas you see with the Mark III, it’s a little more on the orange side, a little more magenta. But the D810 has nice contrast, has an incredible amount of detail even though you can’t see a thing when the smoke’s covering the guy up. But it really has great detail. I think it’s beating out the Mark III a little bit when it comes to detail.
Now, let’s go to a higher ISO, a little more of a low light situation. We’re at 1250 ISO with a Tungsten light balance. You just see the sweat dripping off from my assistant’s face as he’s in that little costume, there. Again, you have the same scenarios, there. You have a little nicer detail in the D810. You have a little bit on the green side. The Mark III is a little more on the magenta side. But just does not quite have the detail that that D810 has in the image. I think the image on the Nikon D810 really wins out. It looks very good.
All right. We’re gonna really push our ISO up, now. We’re gonna go to 6400 ISO. We’re still in that white balance of Tungsten. But boy, this chip is alive. There’s a lot of dancing going around in all of the dark areas. Now, when we go to the Mark III, I’m not seeing near as much noise in those shadow areas. I mean, take a look at that. That chip, for the Nikon D810 is just alive. It’s a lot of noise at 6400. The Mark III is holding up a lot better, a lot better. You get a very nice contrast, you get a lot of great detail in the D810, but the noise level is just a little, it’s too much in my sense, in comparison. The Mark III definitely wins out on this level.
Who’s that knucklehead that got into the picture there?