D800 Memory Card Issues

I ran across a potential problem with my pre-ordered D800. I've been reading about a compatibility issue with Kingston 16Gig 600X CF memory cards. Reportedly only Sandisk & Lexar cards have been approved by Nikon. D800 users are reporting other brands, especially Kingston CF cards don't work, give an error message & won't format. Since I bought a 16Gig Kingston 600X card for my awaited D800 I called Kingston Technical Support number 1-800-435-0640 and spoke with their technical staff. They were completely caught by surprise. The technician then called their engineering staff and was told they don't have a D800 but will now escalate acquiring one to deal with the issue. I still haven't received my D800 but have Kingston's attention and a case number to refer to should my card not work. They were grateful for my call. More to follow as I await their findings and my camera.

I had read about this problem and it seems to effect the new Nikon D4 also. But from what I've read it would seem to happen with different cards and can't be pinned down to any specific make or model of card, so looks like it may be some kind of firmware issue.

Hopefully, by reporting the issue to Kingston, their engineers can work on a fix, either on Nikon's end with a possible firmware update or with Kingston memory card updates. I hope to wind up with a functioning D800 camera using Kingston CF cards.

Its a shame if you rely on a particular make of memory card, then find it has problems with certain cameras. I prefer Sandisk cards they have never let me down, even my top class 10 32gig SDHC cards have worked perfectly

Bazza

This is the first camera I've ever purchased that uses Compact Flash cards. U bought the Kingston card in advance of my camera's arrival. We'll just have to wait for its arrival and see how all this pans out. Maybe Kingston will exchange the one I bought for a new and improved version that will work in the D800. Time will tell.

As I said earlier, I think this has more to do with Nikon than the memory card manufacturers, from what I have read it is very sporadic and doesn't seem to be one make of memory card that causes it to happen.

Hopefully a firmware update from Nikon will fix the issue, if this is the case Bob, then the late arrival of your D800 could be a blessing, as it would have the latest firmware in place.

I hope you're right Ken. From what I understand Nikon is doing their annual inventory and will start up production and shipping shortly. I hope I get my D800 before May but I'm not banking on it. Just as bad is the lack of certain lenses such as the 28-300 F/3.5-5.6 VRII FX. It's the cheapest of the quality FX lenses and can be found nowhere. I've hunted the internet and called dozens of camera shops.

Can you tell me the effective focal range of an 18-200mm DX lens on an FX body like the D800?

Hi Bob, the effective FL is 18-200mm on a FF camera, it would be have an effective FL different to that on a DX body of 1.5x I think, so at present your 18-200 gives you 27-300mm on your D7000.

Or are you saying that Nikon already rate the lens FL at its cropped FL (18-200)? If so, it would be 12-133mm on a FF body.

Also have you checked that you can safely use a lens designed for a cropped body, on a FF body. I know with Canon's EF-S series lenses (for cropped bodies) the lens goes deeper into the body of the camera and so will hit the mirror as it swings up, on the FF camera body.

All Nikon AF-S lenses are interchangeable between DX & FX bodies. The new D800 has a setting for a DX crop factor. I'm also using my new 24-70mm FX on my DX D7000 with no issues. I also have a 50mm F/1.4D that is listed as an FX lens.

It sounds as though you will be fine with your present DX lenses, although you may find the DX versions may give poor outer edge quality or vignetting on your FX body, due to their design.