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Dear Nikon wildlife fellows,
I am looking for 2nd body to supplement my D500 for macro, landscape and (close) wildlife.
Currently I am thinking a D800e would be a good choice (price and amout of camera with similar layout) or is the D810 with the
extra money ( over 500€ used) ?
Which FX companion for a D500 would you pick?
Suggestion are welcome
Thanks in advance
Isseu

I use a D800 for the exact same purpose and have no complaints. I'm sure the technoids will have a multitude of reasons why you should spend more money on the newer models.

If megapixel size is not an issue, a d800e or the even older and less costly d700.

Joe

For macros, a smaller size sensor is preferable because of greater DOF.

Thanks for your suggestions

isseu wrote:Dear Nikon wildlife fellows,
I am looking for 2nd body to supplement my D500 for macro, landscape and (close) wildlife.
Currently I am thinking a D800e would be a good choice (price and amout of camera with similar layout) or is the D810 with the
extra money ( over 500€ used) ?
Which FX companion for a D500 would you pick?
Suggestion are welcome
Thanks in advance
Isseu

I too use the D500 DX  for a majority of my wildlife photography, and I back up that camera with a D3S FX body. I find the D3S to be a perfect full frame camera, even though it's "only" 12 MP. It has fantastic high ISO capabilities (much better than the D500) which, for low light wildlife, can't be equaled. Roughly, with no scientific tests, I feel that the D3S files shot at ISO 12,800 are about equal to the D500's ISO 1,000 . It is even a tad bit better at higher ISO's than the D4 or D5, although less megapixels. For my low light situations (very early morning or late evening) it is my "go to" camera body. With it's built in grip it has a 9 frames per second in FX format and a 11 frames per second in the DX format - very close to the D500's 10 FPS. I make large canvases up to 36"x48" using the D3S with fantastic results that easily meets my sharpness needs. I'll bet you could pick up a good used D3S in the $2,800 - $3,200 USD range because of the newer models coming out over the years. I think when this body was originally released it was way ahead of it's time. Give it a peek!  

Mark Picard wrote:

isseu wrote:Dear Nikon wildlife fellows,
I am looking for 2nd body to supplement my D500 for macro, landscape and (close) wildlife.
Currently I am thinking a D800e would be a good choice (price and amout of camera with similar layout) or is the D810 with the
extra money ( over 500€ used) ?
Which FX companion for a D500 would you pick?
Suggestion are welcome
Thanks in advance
Isseu

I too use the D500 DX  for a majority of my wildlife photography, and I back up that camera with a D3S FX body. I find the D3S to be a perfect full frame camera, even though it's "only" 12 MP. It has fantastic high ISO capabilities (much better than the D500) which, for low light wildlife, can't be equaled. Roughly, with no scientific tests, I feel that the D3S files shot at ISO 12,800 are about equal to the D500's ISO 1,000 . It is even a tad bit better at higher ISO's than the D4 or D5, although less megapixels. For my low light situations (very early morning or late evening) it is my "go to" camera body. With it's built in grip it has a 9 frames per second in FX format and a 11 frames per second in the DX format - very close to the D500's 10 FPS. I make large canvases up to 36"x48" using the D3S with fantastic results that easily meets my sharpness needs. I'll bet you could pick up a good used D3S in the $2,800 - $3,200 USD range because of the newer models coming out over the years. I think when this body was originally released it was way ahead of it's time. Give it a peek!  

Great points !
Unfortunately most wildlife in Europe is very shy and I fear that the 12 mp would not be enough if I can't frame through picture "in camera" and cropping would not be an option (no big moose around here only small rabbits so I ha e to be much closer "to fill the frame" but your pictures are great). I understand your point with the limitations for high iso of the d500. I'm amazed about the difference to the d3s you have mentioned. So it looks like I have to choose between framerate (d3s)vs resolution (d800) and high iso???
Many thanks

isseu wrote:

Mark Picard wrote:

isseu wrote:Dear Nikon wildlife fellows,
I am looking for 2nd body to supplement my D500 for macro, landscape and (close) wildlife.
Currently I am thinking a D800e would be a good choice (price and amout of camera with similar layout) or is the D810 with the
extra money ( over 500€ used) ?
Which FX companion for a D500 would you pick?
Suggestion are welcome
Thanks in advance
Isseu

Great points !
Unfortunately most wildlife in Europe is very shy and I fear that the 12 mp would not be enough if I can't frame through picture "in camera" and cropping would not be an option (no big moose around here only small rabbits so I ha e to be much closer "to fill the frame" but your pictures are great). I understand your point with the limitations for high iso of the d500. I'm amazed about the difference to the d3s you have mentioned. So it looks like I have to choose between framerate (d3s)vs resolution (d800) and high iso???
Many thanks

Yup, the D810 will definitely crop tighter than the D3S by a lot! But the D810 can't hold a candle to the D3S for high ISOs. It would be comparable somewhere around what the D500 is for noise (give or take). If you shoot mostly in low light (like I do) the D3S is superior. I shot other things besides moose (small subjects like birds, small mammals, etc.) and although I would also like to have the APC crop, most of the time I can get by with the D3S. If I have really good light, I would obviously switch back to the D500 (more pixels on the subject), and probably would switch back to the D810 too for the FX format when possible. You're not going to match the IQ of the 810, either with the D500 or the D3S under those circumstances. I would love to have a D810 for my landscape images - of course most of the time I would use an ISO of 100 most of the time for that, so the differences in  high ISOs between the cameras don't come into play as much.

[font=Verdana, sans-serif]okay, sounds like both are "required" . I am thinking towards better resolution + FX to complement the D500 as "multi-purpose"[/font] back-up. I agree that the D3s would be better for low-light and frame rate, but I the D8X0 have an edge on resolution and matching batteries and are lighter (good for traveling). Thanks for pointing me to the questions of high ISO, so I have to see how far I can stretch the D500 for my taste and how often I plan/shot in low light vs “landscape mode”
[font=Verdana, sans-serif]great help ![/font]

I use my D500 for wildlife photography and my D800 for everything else from landscapes, wildlflowers, macro etc. For my it has been a great combination! Each camera I use as a back-up for the other category! 

Well for shy wildlife you already have the D500 so worrying about cropping should not be a big issue. I do not think if I were a Nikon shooter I would hesitate to buy the D810, it is an astonishingly good camera with great IQ and no AA filter (your landscapes will thank you). Shooting high ISO should be no problem either, you have 36MP to re-sample from, and having tried this with the 5Ds RAW files on DPR, resized down to the 18MP of a 1Dx, you have very comparable images noise wise when shooting up to ISO6400. (I am told I should be upresing the 1Dx files for a fair comparison, but in real life I would never upres a 1Dx file to 50MP).

I would certainly suggest trying to download some NEF's from DPR from a range of cameras and looking at how they compare when re-sampled to a similar size if you are worried about shooting higher ISO. The bonus with this is that you get all those MP's when shooting lower ISOs and the ability to crop or down res if need be).

good suggestion to take sample files and scale them to check for high ISO out-put