Two boxes arrived yesterday from B&H, the D810 body in one box, a Lee 77mm filter mount, a B + W circular polarizer, and a bonus item that I snook in at the last minute. How could I possibly have a new full frame camera body and no lenses made specifically for it? My wife won’t be so impressed but I’ll worry about that when she realizes there’s a glamorous unscratched 17-35mm f/2.8 wide angle lens attached!
For sure, my first impression was the size of this thing compared to my D7000 – it has to be around 40% larger, and a chunk heavier too. It does sit nicely on my tripod though, and takes the same battery as my current camera. This has to be a first in new technology, where almost everything gets subtle changes- thankfully I didn’t purchase additional spare batteries. With a reshuffle the body and lens fit comfortably in my camera bag, another plus.
Buttons are almost the same, although a totally different layout, and the elimination of a mode dial – this is the first pro body I’ve purchased, and was a little surprised that the dial is no longer on the left side, replaced with WB, metering, ISO and Quality. The menu system is very similar, including what appears to be many small tweak settings, with the initial setup configuration all fairly obvious. The D7000 basic shooting settings have already been translated onto this new body, and an initial photo shoot is scheduled for sunrise tomorrow.