lone ranger Loc: Port Saint Lucie, Florida

is it possible, to make smaller files with the D800, by setting the camera to shoot jpegs, rather then shooting raw?
as I would like to upgrade to the Nikon D800, but I"m worried about filling my computer hard drive to rapidly with photo"s
does anyone have a answer to this question??.thanks!!

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Yes, you can shoot only jpgs - the lossless compressed 14bit raw files are around 45mb each. But you will also give away a good deal of image information in doing so. The D800 is capable of stunning image quality, 14 bit color depth, etc - why cripple it because you don't want to spend another $80 on an internal or external hard drive?

Joecosentino Loc: Whitesboro, New York

Sure the files are smaller but you loose some data, but a jpeg from a D800 looks really good. What are you shooting where you need the high pixel count the D800 offers?

lone ranger Loc: Port Saint Lucie, Florida

thanks, for the advice Joe, I was just wondering about computer hard drive space, but I think I"ll take your advice, and shoot, the large files, and just get a external hard drive, I shoot mainly nature and landscapes, and animals, and you"re correct, about loseing detail, as I"m ready to move up, from my Nikon D300

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

I save the raw and tif files on an external drive (I recently got a 4tb Seagate external drive for about $150; it will take me many years to fill this up!). But if you're okay with saving jpeg files then you could still shoot in raw and after you're finished with postprocessing just save the jpeg files and toss the raw and tif files - just a thought, which I and many others would not do.

Pine1 Loc: Midland & Lakeway

You might consider an external hard drive of 1 to 4 Terabytes. Good external hard drives are very inexpensive.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Actually, good external drives are still costly, compared to the inexpensive lower quality drives. The drives that make it into the inexpensive externals are usually the lowest quality hardware. An enterprise or enthusiast level drive is probably double the cost of the cheap stuff. Take Western Digital for example - they populate their inexpensive consumer externals with their Green drives - slow, and they use motors that use bearings at just one end of the motor shaft. Warranty is usually 2-3 years. Their Black series, the most robust "home desktop" drive they offer, has a 5 yr warranty, and is intended for a high rate of data transfer, which is a spec that is often hidden from the average consumer, but it will indicate how much data per year it is expected to transfer. It's motor, for instance has dual bearings, one at each end of the motor shaft. While this sounds a bit esoteric, what does matter to you is that the Black is intended for a greater duty cycle, or more constant use, than a green or blue drive. The best and most robust drives from any manufacturer are their "enterprise" class drives, which are intended for RAID arrays and other 24/7/365 applications.

These are usually twice the cost of the bargain drives.

The other issue is heat. Most of the My Book class of portable or external drives use passive ventilation. Heat is the enemy of hard drives.

I generally suggest purchasing a WD Black drive, or better yet, one of their RE drives, and putting them into a fan-cooled enclosure. It is no big deal to do this, and all you need is a philips screwdriver - everything is plug and play and it takes no longer than 2-3 minutes to insert the drive into the enclosure and power it up.

This might sound like overkill, and the low price of the consumer hardware might be tempting. But when the drive fails prematurely - and they do - it will be too late to rethink this.

I have been in the IT business since 1983, and I can tell you, the better drives will give you better service - I would recommend getting a pair. One as storage, and the other for back up, in two separate cases.

Rosewill makes an excellent fan-cooled enclosure - the $27 USB 2 version is this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042

and the $35 USB 3 version is this one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182245

Startech offers similar enclosures at comparable prices, but I have no experience with them.

I know this is a bit of a thread hijack, but I needed to provide some factual information on external hard drives.

You get what you pay for, and you never get what you don't pay for. It might seem like overkill, until you lose your data.

Bobbee

Yes, but then y buy a D800?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

exactly!

Nic42 Loc: Cardiff, Wales

:thumbup:

lone ranger Loc: Port Saint Lucie, Florida

your point is well taken..........

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

About external drive sizes...I use mostly 2TB WD's, Although I use 3 of them in my chain of backups (triple copies)...one big reason for not going to large a drive...is the bigger the drive the bigger the loss should one go...and they do go, trust me. I suggest 2 drives minimum (2nd one a copy of the 1st drive) and not much larger than 2tb. You can always add more drives as you need. JMO

lone ranger Loc: Port Saint Lucie, Florida

thank you, thats excellent advice, I will purchase external hard drives, once I get my Nikon D800

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

You won't regret getting a D800. It's an awesome camera. I found that my old lenses didn't cut it anymore and have been upgrading the glass ever since. Note that there is no "A (auto)" mode. There are the customary "priority" modes but I suggest putting in on "manual" and "raw" and then you're photography should take off - hope to see some of your work soon.

Bobbee

Although I never use it, I thought P Mode was auto. SO you have M, A, S and P. Yes, no? I do agree, very good camera. It was a nice step up from my backup, my D700.