Purchasing Second Hand

[rellik666]

So I am looking at getting a D800 second hand. I am going to have a look at it tomorrow. I've been told that it has less than 20k on the shutter. Anything else other than the obvious I should look for? Is $1500 a good price?

[farmmax]

I've bought a couple of second hand cameras with great success. I love people who have plenty of money, race out to buy all the expensive equipment, then promptly become bored and a year later sell all their equipment.

I go for a low shutter count, BUT, look at how they used the camera. I'm not likely to buy one from a full time wedding photographer. If they took endless hours of video, the shutter count may not be a true record of the work the camera has done.

The general condition of the camera should indicate how careful the last owner has been with their equipment. If it is immaculate, then I think the camera has a good chance of being carefully treated.

I like it when all sorts of extras get thrown in with the camera. My last one came with brand new camera bag, two new batteries, lens pen and best of all two large, extremely fast, new compact flash cards which were a couple of hundred dollars worth :) The last owner became bored with her new hobby, before she even started taking photos :D

Don't forget to google and see if that particular model camera has any known faults to watch for.

Looking on Ebay, $1500 seems a mid range price for a used D800.

[rellik666]

Turns out the camera isn't the problem but my computer is too old to read the NEF files. So looks like I need to move my computer tech on first. Shame as it was owned by a pro that had a D3X and an D810 so the 800 didn't really get used.... Oh well I can't afford both and the cameras not much use if I can't read the files. [emoji22]

[MattNQ]

Turns out the camera isn't the problem but my computer is too old to read the NEF files. So looks like I need to move my computer tech on first. Shame as it was owned by a pro that had a D3X and an D810 so the 800 didn't really get used.... Oh well I can't afford both and the cameras not much use if I can't read the files. [emoji22]

Hi Roo,

I have a silly question...... when you say your computer can't read the NEF files, do you mean it can't see them at all, or sees them as files, but doesn't know they are image files?

My aging laptop doesn't have a clue what my NEF files are (or my ORF files either - Olympus RAW format) , but I just use a RAW editor (Corel After Shot Pro) to browse through for initial conversion to TIF/JPG etc.

There is a neat little program called IJFR (Instant JPEG from RAW) that does a bulk conversion to jpg from raw for quick browsing. If I have hundreds of RAW files to go through, I sometimes use it to find the most promising candidate for editing & I can open up just that RAW file for editing.
http://michaeltapesdesign.com/instant-jpeg-from-raw.html

However, one consideration is that if your computer is older and a bit slow, it may struggle to edit the rather sizeable RAW files from the D800.

[rellik666]

I have an old version of LR and Photoshop. I cannot get the new versions as my computer isn't up to them apparently when I try to download them. I cannot get the latest version of adobe camera raw either as the latest version doesn't work with Vista. If I upgrade from vista I'll loose my LR and I don't think my computer would cope either. [emoji23]

[ameerat42]

... ...

[farmmax]

There should be options to view and edit your NEF files on your present computer. Some may just involve an extra step or two.

They will need to be converted to a tiff, jpg or dng file to bring into photoshop. If you can load your camera's software (View NX2?) onto your computer, then it will probably be able to convert the NEF files into a photoshop friendly format.

Faststone (http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm) (free!) should be able to view NEF files, so at least you can look at the files. It is very light on computer resources, and is very good at batch renaming, resizing etc. It can also convert raw files, but when I last tried converting Canon CR2 raw files via Faststone, I wasn't impressed.

Adobe also provides a free converter (https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/adobe-dng-converter.html) for changing many different camera file types into the DNG format, which can then be used in Photoshop/Lightroom. It is the Adobe DNG Converter. I know it didn't support NEF files for a while, but hopefully it does now.

[Cage]

I had a D800, good for when you need the extra detail 35MP's provide, not so good when you need to push the ISO to ISO800 and above.

Personally I'd be looking at a D810 or a D750.

[arthurking83]

You're computer will be fine with D8xx NEF files.
It may be slow(PC specs will determine this(not the operating system).

If you get a D800-ish body, use ViewNX2, I think 2.10.3 may have been the final version.
I'll allow you to open the NEF files, and convert them to jpg or tiff and you can then play with those files in Adobe's software.

If you find a D810 or D750 as an alternative(I'd suggest that body model type, over the D800 too) .. you'd need to use .. dare I say it!!! .. Nikon's CaptureNX-D to open the NEF files from those two bodies.
(It's an issue of redundant software from Nikon)

ViewNX2 is much faster, CNX-D is glacial. CNX-D has some very good noise reduction ability(given it's target market that is). ViewNX2 doesn't tho.

As another option to work with:
Try out DxO's new PhotoLab software!
I had a play with it a while back(30 day trial).
It may take a bit of getting use too for a well manipulated Adobe manipulators :p ... and it's ability is more Lightroom than Photoshop in what it can do.
But it's handy ability is the old Nik control point editing tool.

I'm going to buy it one day soon.
I could never get used to a non control point image editing workflow(I guess I'm just a bit thick in that respect) .. so my comments are probably heavily biased in that respect.

Oh! and adding to Farmax's comments re Fastone's software. Brilliant at ALMOST everything it does, except raw file conversion(at least with NEFs .. dunno about other brand raw files).
By all means use FSViewer to view, sort and collate your images(NEFs or otherwise) .. it really is a great program for that.
But I'd suggest not to use it for actual raw file handling.

What that means is: be default it views raw files via the embedded jpg files, so it's operational speed is quite good, fast, responsive .. ie. works well.
But if you try to do anything to the actual raw file, it falls to pieces.
In it's settings, it allows you the option to view the actual raw data, which means it then becomes the raw converter. If you set it to run this way, you may encounter a similar viewing experience to watching grass grow.
And it's raw file rendering engine, isn't quite as polished as soem others(ie. default Nikon profiles, or DxO's default NEF profiles).

The reason it's important to understand this is, simple.(and happened to me)
If you leave FSV to run in it's default quick mode(ie. embedded jpg mode), it will display the NEF files on your screen as you saw them on the camera, and (if you use them) Nikon's software too.
So if you make an edit in Nikon's software, the embedded jpg is updated, and FSV will see that edited NEF in the same way.
But! .. where it gets confusing .. if you then use FSV to convert the NEF file, it doesn't use the embedded jpg file(that you see) .. it creates a totally new converted file based on what it thinks is a good rendering(and a not so good one at that).
So you convert a well rounded, nicely exposed NEF with the contrast as you like and the colour that looks good to you, convert it in FSV to a jpg(or tiff), and BAM!
You get a dull lifeless, colourless image that looks nothing like what you see in the image.

I think I wrote up a thread with pics to show the problem about 4.5 billion years ago .. but it may have got lost in the server upgrade years back.

I seriously recommend to check out the DxO software, and use it for a bit to get used to the control point editing system.
Images tend to look quite good by default, and can obviously be tweaked to look better if you have other preferences for defaults.
For a situation where you don't want to spend money(yet) go with the Nikon software ... except ViewNX-i

[rellik666]

Thanks so much Arthur!!! I'll have go [emoji106]

[rellik666]

Thanks so much Arthur!!! I'll have go [emoji106]

[J.davis]

Nikon D750 FS in Brissy. CameraGearSales.com.au (Nikon) Australia

[arthurking83]

Quite the massively over inflated price me thinks! $2200 for a S/H device, when a brand new model of the same type can be had for $1800! :confused013

I'm thinking the only explanation as to why such a situation could possibly exist is that people just seem to think that their waste doesn't smell, or must be made of gold ... or something. :confused013

[rellik666]

Quite the massively over inflated price me thinks! $2200 for a S/H device, when a brand new model of the same type can be had for $1800! :confused013

I'm thinking the only explanation as to why such a situation could possibly exist is that people just seem to think that their waste doesn't smell, or must be made of gold ... or something. :confused013

Haha.... Put so eloquently. [emoji12]

Agree wholeheartedly. But there is a lot of it about. I don't think people look at how much they are now before posting and just go on what they paid! [emoji17]

[J.davis]

If the remark for the $2200 is for the D750, it reads $1850 on FB.
CameraGearSales.com.au (Nikon) Australia

[torro]

Try European Camera Store, I buy gear there. I think $1500 is too much for the d800.