Difference Between Nikon D800 and D800E

Nikon D800 vs D800E

The Nikon D800 is a mid-size DSLR camera that offers a massive 36 megapixel sensor. It comes in two variants, the D800 and the D800E. The main difference between the Nikon D800 and the Nikon D800E is the presence of an anti-aliasing filter. The D800 is equipped with an anti-aliasing filter while the D800E is not.

An anti-aliasing filter is a set of materials that the light entering your lens need to go through before hitting the actual sensor. The purpose of this filter is to produce a slight blurring in the image. Blurring in a camera is not really desirable as you lose detail in the image but it is a necessary compromise in order to avoid moiré. Moiré is an effect that occurs when attempting to photograph repetitive details like lines and other patterns that exceed the resolution of the sensor. This typically results in colorful wavy patterns that may look like the sheen oil makes on water. The slight blurring introduced by the anti-aliasing filter in the D800 eliminates moiré while having very little effect on the quality of the image.

Moiré is a very common occurrence when photographing everyday objects, but doesn’t really appear when you are dealing with landscape and even in macro photography. For these settings, the anti-aliasing filter doesn’t really do any good and does some harm to the image due to the loss of detail and sharpness in the image. This is where the Nikon D800E comes in. The lack of an anti-aliasing filter means that the images come out as sharp and as detailed as they could possibly be.

Clearly, the D800E is aimed towards people who shoot landscapes majority of the time while the D800 is the more all-around camera. Despite this distinction, some people still choose to use the D800E even if moiré will affect many of their usual photographs. This can be dealt with in post-processing but not as good as when you employ the filter. The D800E is not meant for everyone as it can lead to more laborious processing of photos afterwards. But if you do have the cash for it, you can still use get the D800E as a secondary camera for landscape shots while using another camera like the D800 for everything else.

Summary:

1. The D800 has an anti-aliasing filter while the D800E does not
2. The D800E is meant for landscape photography while the D800 is for everything else

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