The highly anticipated Canon EOS 5D Mark III was officially announced today and along with the Nikon D800, the major DSLR players have set the stage for the next generation of full frame enthusiast DSLR. The Mark II brings many improvements to the popular 5D Mark II, including expanded sensitivity up to 102,4000 ISO, 6 fps continuous shooting, 61-pt autofocus, and 63-area metering and 100% viewfinder. Its resolution improvement is only modest, raising to 22.3MP from 21.1MP. The list price is $3,499 and will be available at the end of March 2012.

• Compare the Nikon D800 vs the Canon 5D Mark III.
• Pre-order Canon 5D Mark III
• Pre-order Nikon D800 & D800E

The Nikon D800 Digitutor provides a brief overview of the features and functions of the D800. Even if you can’t get your hands on the real thing right now, the tour provides a hands-on look at the most important features and will get you up and running when the D800 arrives.

The D800 Digitutor integrates video and text, although the speed of narration and background music may not help keep you awake for the entire tour.

If you want to get the Nikon D800 and don’t have it on on order yet, check out the D800 pre-order information to find how to get it.

• Go to the Nikon Digitutor

The Nikon D800 is the result of extensive development and design aimed to raise DSLR image quality to a new level. An interview with Nikon product designers Shinya Hara, Hiroshi Murakami, Eiji Yoshimatsu provides insight to the design process behind the D800. They share their perspectives on photography and how the D800 fits the specific needs of landscape and studio photographers.

“Our goal was image quality a step above – far superior to any existing D-SLR camera – compressed into a compact camera body,” designer Shinya Hara reveals. The D800 was designed from the beginning to beat their best camera at the time, the 24-megapixel D3X. Hara describes their concept was to build “a camera with image quality, tone reproduction, and sharpness that were a match for high-resolution medium-format cameras.” The task was to put outstanding image quality beyond the D3X into a camera the size of the D700.

Image quality is more than pixel count. Murakami explains they acheived such high resolution by “increasing the precision of the image sensor, improving the performance of the optical low-pass filter to match that of a 36.3 megapixel sensor, and developing the high-speed processing technology.” Hara added these advances required “considerably more time on development than we have for other models.” Such improvements include increasing the memory buffer to deal with the enormous amount of data the 36-megapixel sensor provides, and using the technology of the D4 advanced autofocus and 91,000 pixel RGB metering sensor.

Eiji Yoshimatsu says the D800 will appeal to photographers wishing for medium format quality in a more managable size and weight. To that end, the D800 is both lighter and smaller than previous Nikon full-frame cameras. The 100% viewfinder and 3.2-inch LCD viewfinder provide unmatched visualation to take full advantage of the camera’s 36-megapixel resolution.

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The Nikon D800 is due out in just 4 weeks. Retailers in the US, Europe and Japan estimate they will have the new 36MP full-frame camera as soon as March 22, 2012. The specialized D800E will follow on April 12.

In the US, B&H Photo posted an estimated availability dates of March 22 for the D800 and April 16 for the D800E. B&H has been accepting pre-orders since the D800 was announced on February 7. Amazon has given an estimated delivery date of March 21 for pre-orders with overnight delivery. Amazon posted the D800 pre-order late at night on February 6 and closed the pre-order the following day due to overwhelming demand. Amazon’s D800 product page allows customers to enter their email address to be notified when the item is in stock.

In Europe several retailers are also expecting late March availability. United Kingdom’s Grays of Westminster quotes the March 22 date, while Amazon.co.uk posted the D800 with a March 26, 2012 release date on their web site. Thomas Maquaire, product manager for Nikon France stated the D800 would be available March 22 and D800E on April 12th in an interview. In Japan, web retailer Amazon.co.jp has given dates of March 22, 2012 for the D800 and April 12, 2012 for the D800E.

It is very likely that initial shipments to retailers will be accounted for by pre-orders and will not be “in stock” for immediate order for several months. Nikon revealed a maximum production capability of 30,000 units of D800 per month at their Sendai, Japan factory. Worldwide interest from both professional and amateur photographers will easily consume that amount. Some photographers seek the D800 as they move to full-frame for the first time, while others will seek the DSLR’s segment-leading 36 megapixel resolution. The camera’s primary appeal will be landscape and studio photographers, but its outstanding video capabilities should attract videographers as well. Its broad appeal combined with pent-up demand from those waiting for a successor to the 4-year old D700 will make the D800 a hot commodity for a long time into the future.

The best way to get get the Nikon D800 is to pre-order it through an Authorized Nikon Dealer. See the Nikon D800 Preorder Information page for details and a list of retailers where you can place an order online.

Michael Zawadzki from UniquePhoto.com interviewed Steve Heiner at the WPPI Wedding Photographer Trade Show. Heiner is a Senior Technical Manager at Nikon. He provides some insight into the new 91,000 pixel metering sensor and its improvements over the D700. Also discussed are some of the features that will be of interest to those shooting HD video on the D800. One of the issues mentioned is how the D800E will handle video since it lacks the traditional anti-aliasing filter. The answer given is that the D800E should have no problem with moire when shooting video because the downsampling involved in going from full resolution to 1080 resolution will take care of interference patterns.