Introduced in February, the Nikon D800 is the world’s highest resolution full-frame camera, and sees Nikon firmly targeting studio and medium format photographers.

Speaking to our sister website TechRadar, Paul Genge from Sony UK said, “[It] sounds like a good idea to me, the user of that type of camera only ever seeks higher resolution for stills.

“I think when it comes to the market and when people are using it, people will be impressed by the increased resolution, of course on a full-frame sensor you’ve got room to provide for it so, all credit to them, they’ve chosen to keep pushing the boundaries.”

Of course, it is widely believed that it is Sony that produces the sensors for the D800, Nikon confirmed to us that it was working in partnership with another manufacturer for the sensor.

“It’s a good thing,” Genge continued, “36 megapixels will be improved upon in years to come still. We were the world’s highest with 24 megapixels until this point, and we’ve held on to that since 2009.

“I think Nikon will do quite well with it, certainly their customer base can adopt it, use it and get the best of it, but we’ll have to see when it comes to market what their customer truly thinks of it.”

Genge added that the camera doesn’t compete with any of Sony’s products. “Alpha 900 is a very different camera altogether, it’s very conservative in its offering, it doesn’t have Live View and it doesn’t do video. It’s a different proposition altogether.”

In this guide to the best D-SLRs on the market, Ali Jennings from Digital Camera takes a look at the Sony Alpha 850, the full-frame DSLR to rival the Canon 5D Mark II and the Nikon D700. What is the image quality like? How good is the handling and build of the camera and what is the usability like? Watch this video and see Ali’s test shots to find out!