Nikon Announces the D810 SLR, Update to the D800 and D800E

The New Nikon D810

This evening Nikon officially announced the D810, a model that provides a variety of updates and tweaks to the popular predecessors, the D800 and D800E. The differences may seem minor, but they add up to a camera that is significantly better than the originals.

To begin with, the D810 has a new sensor: a 36.3 megapixel CMOS without an optical low pass filter (OLPF). The D800e had an OLPF with the anti-aliasing properties removed, and the D800 had a standard AA filter. With the D810, the two camera lines have been combined and the option of an OLPF is gone completely. Nikon promises that the new design eliminated the need with better on-chip moire processing. The ISO range has also been expanded down to 64 at the low end, and up to 12800 at the high end (native).

And speaking of processing, the D810 has been given a processor upgrade to the Expeed 4, which is about 30% more powerful than the D800’s Expeed 3, making the overall performance of the camera faster. The camera can now shoot 5 frames per second rather than four, and it supports 60 fps video at 1080p rather than just 24/30 fps.

There’s nothing particularly amazing about the new camera, so if you’re curious about the details, I recommend that you check out the chart (PDF file) provided by Nikon that highlights the differences. They’re numerous, particularly if you shoot video, and one or two may just be a fix for an annoyance that’s been bugging you. You can download the chart here.

And the price? A little more expensive than the D800, but that’s to be expected. Expect pre-order prices to be around $3300, and it should start shipping in late July.. probably July 17th. It’s also being sold in a film maker’s kit, including 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm f/1.8 lenses, the Nikon ME-1 microphone, and the Atmos Ninja 2 external recorder.