D800 without tripod

Am planning to upgrade from D90 to full frame and narrowed it down to D800. I use camera mostly without tripods and for walk around photography.
And I read a bit about tripod being more or less mandatory for using D800. Is it true?

I borrowed and used the camera for a day and did not find such a issue but wanted to know experiences if such has become a challenge to anyone on forum.
This will help me decide easier.



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krscrest said:

Am planning to upgrade from D90 to full frame and narrowed it down to D800. I use camera mostly without tripods and for walk around photography.
And I read a bit about tripod being more or less mandatory for using D800. Is it true?

I borrowed and used the camera for a day and did not find such a issue but wanted to know experiences if such has become a challenge to anyone on forum.
This will help me decide easier.

Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

It all depends on how steady is your grip. Not everyone has a steady handgrip. It is very do-able without a tripod but I tend to use mine more with a tripod since I get better results especially when shooting macro photography. Your mileage may vary.

krscrest said:

Am planning to upgrade from D90 to full frame and narrowed it down to D800. I use camera mostly without tripods and for walk around photography.
And I read a bit about tripod being more or less mandatory for using D800. Is it true?

I borrowed and used the camera for a day and did not find such a issue but wanted to know experiences if such has become a challenge to anyone on forum.
This will help me decide easier.



Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I did a 21 image handheld macro focus stack with the D800E if i can do that then anyone can take a photo.

With that many pixels, a tripod is an advantage as you will tend to get sharper pictures. That said if your hands are steady and you cannot use a tripod then hand held it is.

If you view a full size image at 100% you will see errors that aren't visible on lower resolution bodies but at normal sizes it's no worse than any other camera. I use mine a lot handheld and just keep the shutter speed up.

Like any camera, when you use a tripod you get the rewards.


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The "tripod" thing has to do with pixel density and the idea that minor movement is more of an issue on densely packed sensors. If that's the case then all the current DX cameras with 24MP sensors are more of a problem than the D800 since they are more densely packed (the DX portion of the D800 only has 16MP's, so a camera like the D7100 should be 50% worse in terms of minor movement issues).

I shoot handheld 99% of the time with my D800 and D600. As long as you keep your shutter speed above your focal length you'll be fine.

I shoot 99% handheld using the auto ISO to keep my min shutter speed 2X max focal length and it seems to work just fine.

The more I use my monopod, the more I like it and, at this point, it pretty much goes everywhere with me. Soooo much faster and easier than a full-blown tripod.

....

I think one of the guys in here shoots perfectly sharp images handheld at 1/60. I try to use 1/125 or above. For everything under that, if I want A3 print quality, I'd use a tripod.

This thing with the tripod came up I think because Nikon recommends it, and it has to do with the D800 resolving such fine detail, that indeed if your hand is not steady, that super-fine detail may become blurred. I do, however, think that even if some of that super-fine detail is blurred, the image overall can still look sharp.

So personally, I think for all normal everyday photographic purposes, a tripod is not needed. If I want to create something special, I think a tripod can be useful for me if I have to use shutter speeds slower than 1/125.

I discovered after getting D3300 that my hands shake and the only method of getting rid of the motion blur is to use VR lense or a flash to strobe the shot at high speed. Both these methods give sharp images and should work for the D800, which incidentally has a lower pixel density.

One thing about a tripod is that it should be super steady. Though it is not a problem with D800, the D3300 is a very light camera and coupled with the fact that there is no mirror up provision resulting in a slight shake due to mirror slap. The cure is to either tie a sand bag with 5kg of sand or steady the camera with hand.

If you're being really picky, the mirror slap on the D800 will cause blur when you zoom in, even on a tripod. Therefore mirror lock up is useful when striving for perfection. When used side by side my D7100 did not exhibit much of an issue in this respect, probably due to the smaller mirror.


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With a little practice you can take very slow images while hand holding your camera. Be sure to have your elbows tucked in to give added support and like shooting a rifle, take a deep breath and slowly let it out as you gently squeeze the shutter release.

This image below was shot at 1/30 sec and was hand held.

I think everyone here is giving you the same message you don't need to use a tripod if you have steady hands if you keep the shutter speed high enough for your particular circumstances.
I have shaky hands and get best results when on a tripod or my shutter speed is over 1/300th sec.
This week I tried using a monopod for the first time and was very pleased with the results.

Yesterday during a photo shoot using my D800E and strobes, some of my images are slightly burry due to camera shake. I brought my tripod with me since I know I can eliminate this flaw if I use my tripod. However, since I was shooting portraits of middle school students, it was a lot more faster to adjust my framing since I was taking mostly group shots. my settings were: M mode, 1/160, f5.6, ISO 100 using a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8. You would have thought that with this shutter speed, there is no way I can get any blurry images but not so much with me. I have a horrible camera grip that's for sure. I'll post some sample images later on tonight to show what I am seeing with the images at 100% view. Not so evident at reduced web view.