Some of these "reports" probably are the result of user errors of early adopters, but there might be some, or even several units in the market who really need calibration by a Nikon service.
I had two D7000 bodies myself who backfocused severely after controlled testing, and I had to adjust with several lenses upto -17 with AF tuning.
Later on I went to Nikon service and after calibration my D7000 was focusing perfect, without any AF tuning value to apply.
Back to D800...
From the first shots I took on March 23rd I am convinced that my D800 has no AF issues at all and that the Nikon D800 has an astonishing AF module, but nevertheless and because of this topic I did a simple test anyhow.
- I downloaded a simple AF focus chart from Jeffrey Friedl's Blog (http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart)
- I glued the chart to a plain wall.
Took my D800 with -for this occasion- my 105AF-S VR mounted and set to F3.0 and iso 3200. - Took a picture (handhold) from the right side with the outer right AF point
- Checked...
- Took a picture (handhold) from the left side with the outer right AF point
- Checked...
As expected, everything is working fine with my D800.
Kindest regards,
Stany