Hey Sarge, I emailed you your slices.

Baking bread shares some things with photography. Its a blend of art and science and requires attention to detail as well as a sense of what "goes together." I've had some successes and many not so good results. Like learning tho.

BTW, the rye bread was my first effort and has had very good reviews.

I see your point, but the smell of that fresh bread and the Christmas lights just set the entire mood (at the time.) Maybe I'm trying to get too many thoughts into one picture.

As you can see I tilted the bread board up a little on the kitchen island. I turned the lights over the island all the way up. Left the lights on the fireplace fairly dim.

I tried with lower light, but I needed a little more depth of field than wide open -- ended up using F2.8 to try to get most of the bread in focus but not much else.

Like I said, I handheld but my hands are pretty shaky so I see a tripod and monopod in my future, lol.

Baking bread and rekindling my photography fire I've had off and on for 40 years.
Right now I'm practicing hearth breads inspired by the book "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day." Clockwise from top left: Light Rye, Half-sesame baguette and the small one is supposed to be Ciabatta.

This is the first pic I've posted taken with my new D800, hand held available light. Hopefully, Santa will bring a tripod. Discarded 50% due to movement. Was intentionally going for the bokeh of the Christmas lights. Is it distracting?

It seems like food photography is almost more about the setup and arrangement vs. photography skills. For example, I really would have preferred a solid red cloth behind the loaves, but had to work with what I had.

Anyway, Merry Christmas all,
Greg

The winner is.......LouEllen. Have one on the way. I've seen so many reviews, I couldn't remember which one said what, but Nikon's own website cautions you will need to use better technique than for lesser cameras. But, if you think about it, blur caused by smaller pixels is seldom mentioned for the D7000 and they are crowded even closer than the 800.
I'm not worried about file sizes. Hard drives get cheaper every day and I tend to keep up with my business computer power also.

Oh, and Jerry, not to be flip but I never mentioned economy. Smiles

What shutter speed and lens combos do you shoot handheld? I know I will need a tripod eventually but am hoping to put that off a little while. In fact, we have an Alaska trip planned for summer 2013 and I plan to buy a monopod for hiking/wildlife photos.

So are you using more live view to eliminate mirror vibrations? Due to my bifocals, I think I can get better framing and a better view of what I'm doing with the viewfinder. But, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for all the replies. Makes me more comfortable with my decision. Now I just need to get it and learn by doing.

I assume you owned other cameras before the D800. Do you do anything different technique-wise with it?

Maybe I should rephrase my question then: Does the perfection of the D800 show up every flaw.

By handicapped, I meant that if you can't shoot above F8 due to diffraction and you have to shoot at 1/1000th, isn't the camera handicapping itself?

In researching a possible D800 purchase, I read all these problems with image sharpness.

Some of what I've read:
Due to mirror slap vibration, you should shoot handheld shots at 1/1000 or faster. If you want to shoot slower speeds you need a tripod and/or live view.

Due to the 36mb high res. sensor, it shows vibration/movement worse. So again, handheld shots are really limited.

Since it shows so much detail, you'll get diffraction with any f-stop higher than about F8.

Are all these comments true? Is it a really specialized camera meant mainly for tripod work?

Even though I'm serious about obtaining image quality, I am still just a part-time amateur (with older trembling hands and a lack of desire to lug a tripod everywhere.) My main use will be for travel, landscape, wildlife and family photography. Will this camera frustrate me?

I have to decide soon. My D600 with sensor dirt issues is on it's way back to B and H. Need suggestions on whether I should upgrade to the D800.

Thanks so much. I have been an avid reader here for some time and I respect the knowledge of so many posters here.

Ps. One of the main reasons I'm looking at the D800 is the ability to crop wildlife photos, essentially using it as a digital zoom. So I would put the extra pixels to good use.