another D800E vs S2 report

[Paratom]

I found this an interesting read: An unfair fight? 35mm vs Medium Format: Nikon D800E and the Leica S2-P

[tashley]

He is an excellent reviewer and photographer and I think his take on the comparative merits of the two systems is perfectly judged. I have used both fairly extensively too, and I have only two tiny areas of disagreement with Ming.

One related to his comments that the PCE lenses are a safe bet... The 85 clearly is but from my experience, detailed in another thread here, the 24mm is certainly not, even, I wold bet, a good copy.

The second related to DR: the D800/E party trick is shadow detail when the sliders are bumped up. I have had a look at some of my old S2 files and whilst I can't do an exact comparison, I would bet that the Nikon is the clear winner here.

But the main truth is that they are within a gnat's chuff of each other and that the main differences, aside from personal preferences of ergonomics, and price, are the lenses you use. In that respect the S2 is a very clear winner. Even the best Zeiss glass has shot-spoiling LoCas at wide apertures on the 800s.

[D&A]

Thanks for the link to a very interesting test and excellent write up regarding the comparison of these two fine cameras.

One fact (among many) that caught my eye, was his finding that some lenses that had a somewhat particually low(er) performance level on the D700, actually seemd to have improved performance on the D800. Although no practical explanantion or hypothesis was offered, it may give credance as to why a lens like the 24-120 f4 Vr, which some had found to be a so-so performer on the D700, actually seems quite good on the D800. Something which was mentioned and discussed in the "Lenses for the D800" thread here on getdpi and I believe in other postings.

Dave (D&A)

[darr]

Thank you for posting this. A good read and image comparisons.

[glenerrolrd]

Wow that is the most complete and relevant discussion of the D800E and the S2 I found. Having both camera systems the results correlate well with my less perfect testing.

One detail that may not be obvious is that in LR4(Adobe Raw) the sharpen presets for both the D800E and S2 are very close (unlike the D800 which requires greater deconvolution sharpening to be compatible ). I use 50,0.7,70,20 as my starting point for the S2 shots at ISO160. So the tests shots are both identical and near ideal.

I don t know the Nikon 85PC but I ve used the 28/2 Zeiss a lot on my D3X . Understand why he used it get compatible FOV but its what I call “a click “ off the best . Not close to the Zeiss 21/2.8 ZF.2 but of course that creates different FOV .

I really liked his observation ..the S2 being basically a MF camera system thats approaches handling like a DSLR and the D800E is a DSLR with IQ that approaches MF . Both great but both different .

[Paratom]

I also liked that he doesnt say one is better than the other but pointed out the different approaches and the pluses and minuses of each system.

[Paratom]

I also liked that he doesnt say one is better than the other but pointed out the different approaches and the pluses and minuses of each system. Well, both systems seem to have mostly positives.