Advice on D800-Concerned About File Size

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Roger3006

Senior Member
Good Morning Everyone (depending on were you are),

I sell firearms online. Many of the guns I sell are quiet valuable and are considered functional art. I still must balance speed with quality. I shoot tethered in a studio. Lighting consist of Speed-O-Tron strobes with a variety of Chimera softboxes plus many other things I cannot describe that I rig up.

I was one of the last people to go from film to digital. I used pro equipment in film and am using semi-pro with digital. I have never been sorry that I bought high end and/or professional equipment regardless of what I am doing. I started with a D300 using a D90 for backup. My D90 finally died and I switched to a D7100 as my primary camera and use my D300 for backup. I am a strong believer in prime lenses and good glass.

I shoot tethered straight into Lightroom 5.3. The D7100 did speed me up by allowing me to shoot a little looser and crop more aggressively. Many of my shots never see Photoshop CC; however, some do. Often, it is faster to fix lighting issues in Photoshop rather than spending forever getting my lighting perfect. A firearm has a lot of curves and materials that vary drastically. To say the least, achieving correct exposure, over the entire gun, and eliminating hot shots is more than trying.

I did notice raw files (I shoot everything in RAW) from my D7100 took a little longer to load in Lightroom than my D300. It is still acceptable. My three thousand dollar question is how much longer will it take files from a D800 to load than with my D7100 assuming both are shot in an uncompressed RAW format. Also, relatively speaking, how much longer will it take to open a file in Photoshop CC from Lightroom? In short, is file size problematic with a D800.

I very much appreciate any and all input.

Thank you and y'all (yes I am a Southerner) have a great day,

Roger
 
Scott Murray

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Really all depends on a matter of things, cards used (CF & SD and their transfer speed), PC transfer speed (USB 3.0 or 2.0) age of PC.
 
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wornish

Senior Member
You don't say what computer you are using so its hard to give guidance.
I shoot D800 and don't have an issue with the file sizes. I have tethered it to my iMac which has a fusion drive and 16Gb Memory and imported Raw direct into Lightroom 5.3 without any real issues. Photoshop handle them without any issues.

As a guide the D800 has a 36 Mpix sensor and a typical file size is around 42MB. The D7100 has a 24 Mpix sensor so I am guessing its raw file size is around 28MB so it will take a little longer to load a D800 file but not a big delay.

Hope this helps
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Roger3006 said:
My three thousand dollar question is how much longer will it take files from a D800 to load than with my D7100 assuming both are shot in an uncompressed RAW format. Also, relatively speaking, how much longer will it take to open a file in Photoshop CC from Lightroom? In short, is file size problematic with a D800.

I very much appreciate any and all input.

Thank you and y'all (yes I am a Southerner) have a great day,

Roger
Click to expand...

The answer depends on a couple things. Assuming you are shooting in FX mode, the 36MP file should be 50% larger than the 24MP file you get from the D7100, so all things being equal you should be about 50% longer on the LR upload.

That said, the D800 uses a USB 3.0 tether cable (you need a high quality or very short cable here - I went through 4 different USB 3.0 cables over 3 ft. in length, none of which worked, before I finally sprung for a $56 TetherPro cable), so your upload speeds should be faster, negating some of that 50% increase. Also, should you choose to shoot in DX mode you can get even faster since you'll be pumping a 16MP file - though this may be counter to your reasons for moving up to a D800.

As for opening them in Photoshop, once they're on your computer assume that 50% bump over your D7100 files. I have no issues opening them with my 16GB Macbook Pro, but even this thing can slow down and choke if I am doing panoramas or 9 frame HDR's, so make sure you have the juice behind it if you're merging images. Otherwise, one at a time should be fine.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Truth be told, if your computer shows any signs of struggling with files created by a D7100, you really should consider upgrading your computer (faster chip and 16 gb memory) if you're serious about using a D800. I use a windows 8.1 machine with a i7-3770 chip, a mid-range Raytheon GPU and 16 gb memory and have no issues constructing a 15 exposure panorama or a 9 exposure HDR.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
The $2,800 + question here is what do you expect to gain by moving from the D7100 to the D800? If this is for online use the image is limited by many factors like load speed for you customers. To big a file and the load time can become unbearable and they go somewhere else.

If you could give us the link to your web site so we could see some of your photos that might help us. Also we have a lot of shooters here on the site including me. My family has been in the South since the early 1700s.
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Don Kuykendall said:
The $2,800 + question here is what do you expect to gain by moving from the D7100 to the D800? If this is for online use the image is limited by many factors like load speed for you customers. To big a file and the load time can become unbearable and they go somewhere else.
Click to expand...

I think comparing FX to DX makes for an unfair comparison, IMO, since the two senors have very different architecture. For instance, the D800/E holds the spot for the highest score ever recorded by DxO for its sensor @ 96(D800E) and 95(D800), compared to the highest ranking DX sensor at @ 84 (D5200). So while 36 mb images may be the first thing that pops into most people's head when they think of a D800/E, it has a lot more going for it besides just its high resolution images.

Here's a link to DxO's list of cameras sorted by rank - Camera Sensor Ratings by DxOMark - DxOMark
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Roger, if your output is online catalog, I don't see what benefit you'd get from a D800. You should try and get your hands on a D700 just to try. I'm 100% certain that you'd save computer time and you'd get all the quality you need for online display of your products.

But again, just my humble opinion.
 
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gqtuazon

Gear Head
Dave_W said:
This is one of the reasons I convert all my NEF files into DNG files. It's shaves off about 20% off the size and incorporates the EXIF data into the file itself, unlike the NEF file system.
Click to expand...

Dave - do you have to convert them on raw file at a time or can you select all then convert to DNG?
 
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wornish

Senior Member
LensWork said:
D800, 14-bit, uncompressed NEF files are ~74.2 MB.
Click to expand...

You can set the camera to use RAW lossless compressed which are "only" 42MB and there is is no loss in the quality.
I don't know why anyone would use the uncompressed accept perhaps if they have some old raw converter software all modern converters accept this.
 
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gqtuazon

Gear Head
BackdoorHippie said:
I'm not Dave, but I convert all my NEF files to DNG on import into Lightroom.
Click to expand...

Dave_W said:
Lightroom gives you the option to convert as it pulls them off of the SD (or CF) card. So it's pretty much a seamless conversion.
Click to expand...

I have lightroom but I have not explored it since I have been used to using CS5. Someday I'll start using it once I stop being lazy to learn new stuff. :(


For those who are interested in playing with my D800E RAW files, I've uploaded a couple of images that you can download, play with and see how your computer handles the 40 something mb files.Let me know if you were able to download it. Enjoy!

http://www.gqtuazon.com/img/g896499...=mgEw__GMfMUJQ6mVn65Sf6nSPtDL9JCZzcViFV83RnM=


http://www.gqtuazon.com/img/g100755...=SRHZQS5_MH_cFN-pOE-01xSfyIayqzhzxlrJuVaa7sg=
 
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theregsy

Senior Member
I have a D700 and a D800 there is a massive difference in file size between the two but my Laptop, i7, 16Gb RAM opens either quickly and efficiently. Quality of the 800 is mind blowing.
 
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Roger3006

Senior Member
Thank you all for your input. To answer one question, I rarely photograph Class II or Class III weapons. A suppressor (Silencer) is Class II and a machine gun would be Class III. Most of the guns I shoot, pardon the pun, are called C&R's or over fifty years old. I do a lot of higher end and and older stuff. I broker about anything; however, what is mentioned above is what shows up. Many of my clients are older and are thinning down or selling their collections. To be honest, I am also a C&R plus 10. I do have a good working knowledge of suppressors and some of the older machine guns.

I solved the 3K question and bought a D800 and I will never look back. I have an i5 processor with 16GB of ram. For some reason my D800 files load faster than my D7100 files. Both are fast from the camera to the computer, around a second. It takes about 8 seconds for Lightroom to render the file which is slightly longer than it takes my Speed-O-Tron power pack to charge. I have not looked, but I thing I had the RAW setting in my D7100 set to lossless compression. My D800 is set to non-compressed. I will verify that and report back.

My images were good with my D300, better with my D7100 and better yet with the D800. I liked the controls and lack of automation on the D300. That may be one of the reasons I like the D800 so much. I will have to admit, all my film equipment was pro and I guess I am to old to change.

I will provide a link when I get my website back up. Mid-South Gunslinger » Maintenance Mode

Yall have a great evening.

Roger
 
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