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Back in 2007 (yes, that really was 10 years ago), the D3 made quite a splash in the digital camera world. It was Nikon’s first ever full-frame DSLR, and while it couldn’t compete with Canon’s EOS-1Ds Mark III in terms of resolution, it did come with some of the best low-light performance around.
Less than one year later, Nikon blew everyone away by offering a ‘baby D3’ in the D700. With remarkably few significant disadvantages – shooting speed, a single card slot and the 95% coverage viewfinder being the significant ones – the D700 looked a bargain, getting you D3 image quality for $ 1700 less. Not bad, Nikon, not bad.
There have been ‘compact’, full-frame followups over the years, but it didn’t look as though Nikon was really interested in offering a clear successor to the D700. The D800 had tons of resolution but gave up some speed, the D610 had an unimpressive autofocus system, and the D750 made some shutter mechanism and build quality compromises, despite its all-around capability.
With the D850, can we concretely say that Nikon has finally created the spiritual successor to the D700? We’re not sure we’d go that far, but what the D850 does represent is a return to Nikon throwing almost everything it can into a pro-grade camera body with very competitive pricing. As with the D700 versus the D3, the D850 makes a compelling argument to ignore the D5 unless the extra frames per second and the built-in grip really matter to you. In many ways, it will be a better camera for many photographers than a D5.
So as you soak up the specs of Nikon’s newest full-frame offering, we invite you to take a trip down memory lane and revisit our original 32-page review of the Nikon D700 to see just what made that camera so special (and see how it got a whopping 25 ‘pros’ to only 3 ‘cons’).
Read our original Nikon D700 review
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
