Nikon D800 vs. D800E & The Search for Moire

Nikon D800 vs. D800E

In our review of the Nikon D800, we said that "it would be no exaggeration to call the Nikon D800 a quantum leap forward." The 36MP DSLR camera delivered high resolution images full of detail, easily surpassing any other DSLR today in terms of richness and clarity. Which is why we were really interested to see what its nearly identical twin, the D800E, could do.

The D800 and D800E are almost the same camera, with one important difference. Like almost every other digital camera today, the D800 has an optical low-pass filter (also known as an 'anti-aliasing' or AA filter) which helps reduce the appearance of moiré artifacts appearing in the images taken. Unfortunately, the cost of having this low-pass filter is that small details are smudged, reducing the overall fidelity of the photograph. 

Here's where the D800E comes in. The camera comes with a different physical filter than the low-pass filter found in the D800 and allows light to pass straight through to the D800E's sensor to capture even greater resolution. The flip-side is, you guessed it, moiré patterns can sometimes be seen in subjects with repeating patterns. So when we had the opportunity to have both the D800 and D800E for a weekend, we set out to find the answers to two questions: How much more detailed are the D800E's images compared to the D800, and how much of a problem is moiré likely to be?

D800 vs. D800E Image Comparisons

One quick note: This isn't meant to be an in-depth comparison, but a quick look at how the two cameras measure up to each other. We used the same Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens on both cameras, and images on this page were taken using a tripod. Aperture and ISO speeds were set similarly, as were focal points. There's a little bit of tripod shift in-between shots, due entirely to the carelessness of this reviewer. Images were shot in RAW and exported through Lightroom 4 with no post-processing or sharpening applied. 100% crops were applied on the RAW files using Photoshop CS5 and saved to maximum quality JPEGs with no post-processing (only the 100% crop of the tree had its exposure brightened for a clearer comparison). Because of the images' large file sizes, we are unable to offer downloads of the original files.

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When looking at the 100% crops, the D800E's images make the D800's look almost blurry in comparison. That's amazing when you consider how full of detail the D800's photographs already are. At the same time, you can hardly see the difference when looking at the uncropped and down-sized images. This brings up an important point; while the D800E can capture more detail than the D800, whether you can see that extra detail or not depends on how the photograph finally ends up.

When we were first shown the D800 and D800E in Tokyo, we were also shown prints of similar subjects taken with both the D800 and D800E. We could clearly see the difference in detail in the A3-sized prints, but only when standing fairly close (about an arm's length away). We doubt we'd be able to discern the difference as easily if the prints had been A4-sized and smaller. The D800 is a boon for any photographer who needs to print large, and it looks like the D800E is an even bigger asset, but for one weakness - the risk of having moiré artifacts appear in images, which is what we're going to take a closer look on the next page.

The Search for Moiré

While the lack of an optical low-pass filter means the D800E can capture more fine detail, it also opens the camera up to the risk of moiré artifacts appearing in its images. We should make clear that this isn't a camera fault, it's just the way the technology works, and Nikon openly warns photographers on its D800E site of the inherent pros and cons of the camera: "Slight increase in sharpness and resolution with increased occurrence of false color and moiré." There are even sample images to show just what moiré looks like.

The D800E is also not the first digital camera without an optical low-pass filter. The Leica M9 and S2 cameras, the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and medium format cameras eschew the filter in favor of higher resolution. We were curious as to how bad moiré would be with the D800E, so we took it out for a day of shooting as many fine, repeating patterns as we could find. What we found was surprising, in about 200 shots we saw about three with visible moiré patterns, when we thought there would be more. In some subjects we were certain that moiré would appear, only to find the shots perfectly clean.

You'd notice that there appears to be moiré patterns in more than just one of the images shown. But we don't call them out because they don't exist in the original files when viewed at 100% - it's just a combination of re-sizing the image and the limitations of display technology which causes this effect to appear. We had the same experience when looking at some images on the D800E's LCD - some of them look like they have moiré but once we zoom into the image they disappear - it was the LCD, not the image, which was creating the artifact. The only way to really check is to look at the photograph zoomed up to 100%, or to print the photograph out.

Our Initial Thoughts of the Nikon D800E

It's quite clear that the D800E provides a higher level of fine detail than the D800, but there's a risk involved of having moiré show up and ruining your shots. But there were far less moiré patterns showing up than we thought we would encounter, especially when we were specifically out shooting for it. Still, whether or not you will benefit from the D800E's higher resolution depends on your own output needs. At lower display resolutions, it's quite doubtful that anyone can tell the difference between a same image shot with the D800 and the D800E.

If you're worried about the appearance of moiré, then you can save yourself some money getting the D800 which costs S$4488 and already gives you a lot of resolution, instead of the D800E which costs S$4988. But if you shoot for large prints, and shoot subjects with low chances of moiré, then perhaps the extra S$500 is worth it for the clear-seeing D800E.

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