D800 File Size

There is a big discussion going on about the D800 file size. A 36MP camera does produce HUGE files. Last weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot a few photos and upload them to my two Macs: a 13inch 2011 MacAir (i5, 4GB RAM) and a 2011 iMac (i5, 8GB RAM). I use Aperture as the main tool in my workflow. Here is what I have learned so far. I am comparing my experience with the old D300s:

Processing:

• The D800 file size is heavily influenced by the RAW settings in the camera. The difference between 14bit uncompressed and 12bit compressed is almost 40MB.
• Even the JPEGs are over 20MB at the highest resolution.
• I tried different settings over the weekend: 12bit compressed and 14bit uncompressed.
• The files transferred quite quickly from my SD card slot to both MAcs.
• The initial processing Aperture does after importing photos was a bit slower than usual. This did not bother me too much (I imported 50 photos)
• Opening photos in fullscreen mode is a few seconds slower. This was especially pronounced on the MacAir (surprise!)
• Standard adjustments were pretty fast – I hardly noticed any difference at all
• Retouching took a long time on the MacAir. The iMac was much better. Still slower than usual.
• The loupe on the MacAir is slow. Very slow sometimes, as a matter of fact.
• I did not notice any significant difference between 12 and 14bit. Speed seemed to be the same…I guess.
• I use the wonderful NIK plugins for Aperture a lot. Editing the images in NIK was super fast. Hardly any difference. But creating the TIFFs and saving them was extremely slow on the MacAir – we are talking around 60-90s for saving a single image. The iMac was fine. Maybe just a few seconds slower.
• You need to be careful when you share the photos. Exporting as JPEG at 100% creates huge files, obviously. I created a new preset for emailing photos to take care of that.

Verdict: Yes, the D800 file size does slow the processing workflow down. Not as bad as I had feared, though. Overall, I am happy that my workhorse MacAir is able to get the basics done. The iMac works pretty well. Investing in a new set of HDs is probably in order.

Just a final not about the difference between the 12bit compressed and 14bit uncompressed: I did not notice any difference on my calibrated monitor. But this is just an observation. I might do some tests later this week.

Up next: Uploading and processing RAWs on the iPad2 with Snapseed.