The Nikon D800 is officially 10 years old, and it's still a great camera, even today

(Image credit: Nikon)

The Nikon D800 is now officially 10 years old – wow! I remember being one of the first batch of Nikon owners waiting to get this revolutionary camera in my hands and out in the field in 2012.

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Nikon D800 on day of launch — (Image credit: Sebastian Oakley)

I remember the day well, heading off to the Calumet store in Manchester, England and picking up two Nikon D800s with battery grips, extra batteries and a rather low bank account afterwards. But as we celebrate its long life, is the D800 still a good camera? Well, 10 years on I am still using my two D800s and after picking up a few battle scars and knocks here and there from their use within the equestrian sports industry, I can say that they still perform as well as they did back in March 2012.

The D800 was revolutionary at the time, as Nikon implemented a full-frame 36.3 megapixel sensor into a compact weather-sealed body that could produce images at 4 frames per second or 5 if you selected the 1.2/DX crop modes. In today's market of 40MP+ cameras doing 20-30fps, just 4 frames per second continuous shooting seems rather poor form, but believe me, back in 2012 a lot of Nikon shooters took note of this high performance powerhouse.

What was even more remarkable at the time was its ISO range of 100-6,400. Yes, you read that right and it could even extend to ISO 25,600 – again, we are talking about a 10 year old piece of technology, but when it was launched this was a marvel of its day and it still produces remarkable images of excellent image quality and tonality, along with its ability to produce full HD 1080p video at 24p.

But, this is a 10 year old camera and to modern standards it is “obsolete”. It is a clunky DSLR with only 51-point autofocus, 1080p video at only 24p and with a 3D color matrix metering that has been around for as long as Nikon DSLRs themselves. It takes ancient CF cards and slightly newer SD cards and has a "low res" screen to modern day alternatives. The D800 is an aged tank in the pro DSLR world, but still works in my world it is still amazing as ever and in all honesty, I hope it lasts another 10 years.

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For nearly two decades Sebastian's work has been published internationally. Originally specializing in Equestrianism, his visuals have been used by the leading names in the equestrian industry such as The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), The Jockey Club, Horse & Hound, and many more for various advertising campaigns, books, and pre/post-event highlights.

He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, holds a Foundation Degree in Equitation Science, and is a Master of Arts in Publishing. He is a member of Nikon NPS and has been a Nikon user since the film days using a Nikon F5 and saw the digital transition with Nikon's D series cameras and is still to this day the youngest member to be elected into BEWA, The British Equestrian Writers' Association.

He is familiar with and shows great interest in street, medium, and large format photography with products by Leica, Phase One, Hasselblad, Alpa, and Sinar. Sebastian has also used many cinema cameras from the likes of Sony, RED, ARRI, and everything in between. He now spends his spare time using his trusted Leica M-E or Leica M2 shooting Street photography or general life as he sees it, usually in Black and White.

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