(RAW results to follow)

The image above right was taken with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III with the EF 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens set to 35mm and the aperture set to f8 in Aperture Priority mode. At its base sensitivity of 100 ISO, the Mark III metered an exposure of 1/320 for this composition. The D800 metered an identical exposure.

Okay, this is Clash of the Titans part one, with the two heavyweight full-frame DSLRs duking it out over resolution. Below you’re looking at the 22.3 Megapixels of the Mark III vs the 36 Megapixels of the D800 – does it make a significant difference in terms of real-life detail?

In short, yes. The D800 is capturing and recording visibly finer details than the Mark III, maybe not as much as you’d think given the 50% greater pixel-count, but still a significant improvement none the less.

Arguably as striking though is comparing the processing style of both cameras. As we’ve seen on the previous pages the Mark III applies fairly high sharpening and contrast, which might give large subjects a beneficial boost, but can often mar smaller subjects with artefacts such as the tiny building and foliage details on this test shot.

Alongside the Nikon D800 crops inevitably look a little softer, but so much more natural-looking to my eyes. They have a very pleasing quality that’s packed with detail, without any evidence of digital processing or over-cooking.

Styles of image processing are very personal, but I’d say with the default out-of-camera settings, the D800 is delivering superior-looking results to the Mark III. Indeed the D800’s images look more like those from a medium format body than a traditional DSLR, and that’s a comparison I’ll take further in my Nikon D800 vs Phase One medium format quality page. I should however note that to make the most of the D800’s resolution you should treat it like a medium format body and where possible, use a tripod and focus with Live View. My handheld shots, even at fast shutter speeds were rarely as detailed as the example you see here.

Once again though, this is just an out-of-camera JPEG comparison at 100 ISO using the defaults. I shot this scene in RAW+JPEG and once the RAW converters have been properly updated for the Mark III and D800, I’ll process the files and see if I can improve the output from all the cameras on test here.

Like all cameras, the D800 offers lower resolution recording options. I’d normally bypass these for my main quality tests, but given the ‘medium’ setting with FX coverage delivers a still considerable 20 Megapixels, I wondered how it compared against the Mark III’s 22.3 Megapixels. Find out by scrolling down.

Alternatively if you’re ready to see how the Mark III performs at higher sensitivities, check out my Canon 5D3 noise results. As always, I also have a selection of original files you can download in my Canon 5D3 sample images gallery.