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Nikon D850 Filmmaker’s Kit includes Atomos Ninja Flame, three lenses and two microphones

20 Mar

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Nikon looks to be positioning its D850 as a serious video rig with today’s announcement of a D850 Filmmaker’s Kit. The kit includes the camera body, three AF-S Nikkor lenses (20mm F1.8G ED, 35mm F1.8G ED, 85mm F1.8G), an Atomos Ninja Flame external recorder, ME-1 shotgun and ME-W1 wireless mics and an extra EN-EL15A battery.

Purchased separately, these items cost nearly $ 6300, so the kit’s MSRP of $ 5499 is a nice discount. The Filmmaker’s Kit will be available for purchase in late March.

Press Release

For the U.S. market, Nikon Inc. is excited to announce the all-new Nikon D850 Filmmaker’s Kit, a custom bundle specifically designed for content creators and filmmakers looking to take full advantage of the D850’s extensive video capabilities and controls. The key component of the kit, the award winning Nikon D850 offers incredible features, including full-frame 4K UHD video capture at 24/30 fps, 8K and 4K time-lapse, focus peaking, zebra stripes, HDMI output and enhanced audio control.

The Nikon D850 Filmmaker’s Kit will include three prime NIKKOR lenses which are ideal for content creation, and exhibit the clarity and sharpness needed for 4K Ultra HD video; AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED, and the AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G. The kit will also contain an external 4K Atomos Ninja Flame recorder/monitor (with power kit, docking station and coiled HDMI cable).

The Nikon D850 Filmmaker’s Kit will be available in the U.S. for the suggested retail price (SRP) of $ 5,499.95 and will go on sale at the end of March 2018.

The Nikon D850 Filmmaker Kit includes the following:

Nikon D850 DSLR (with supplied accessories)
AF-S NIKKOR 20mm f/1.8G ED lens
AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G lens
AF-S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ED lens
Extra EN-EL15A battery
ME-1 Stereo Microphone
ME-W1 Wireless Microphone
Atomos Ninja Flame External Recorder (with supplied accessories)
Custom foam inserts (can be used in hard case for transporting, hard case sold separately)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Nikon’s ES-2 film digitizing adapter for the D850 will finally ship in March

04 Mar

The ES-2 film digitizing adapter that Nikon introduced alongside the D850 DSLR back in August will finally ship at the end of March. The ES-2 has been available for pre-order since it was first announced, but the product is marked as ‘backordered’ on the Nikon USA website, and the official ship date has been slipping backwards.

The Film Digitize Adapter ES-2 is designed to be used by those wanting to digitize their 35mm negatives and transparencies using their digital SLR, and works by holding your film the correct distance away from a macro lens.

Nikon recommends using the ES-2 with the NIKKOR AF-S Micro 60mm F2.8, having designed the adapter to work easily with the minimum focusing distance of that lens. And while the ES-2 is compatible with a range of Nikon DSLRs, the company suggests pairing it with the D850 because of the camera’s high resolution and the built-in film digitizing mode, which automatically inverts the image and saves a digitial positive as a JPEG.

The Nikon Film Digitize Adapter ES-2 kit—which includes a film strip holder for negatives and transparencies, a slide holder for mounted slides, and a pair of 62mm adapter rings for use with different macro lenses—is due to cost $ 150. However, if you’re looking for a cheaper option, the old ES-1 is still available for $ 60, and designed to be used with the 55mm F2.8 Micro-Nikkor and the PK-13 tube.

For more information, visit the Nikon website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Full-frame showdown: Nikon D850 vs Canon 5D IV vs Sony a7R III

31 Jan

Dan and Sally Watson over at Learning Cameras recently put together a really useful comparison video that pits the Sony, Canon, and Nikon fanboys against each other in a series of real-world tests. Shooting with the Sony a7R III, Canon 5D Mark IV, and Nikon D850, Dan and Sally ran the cameras through a variety of tests that cover everything from skin tones, to low light, to dynamic range, to autofocus tracking and more.

We’ll let you dive into the full 20-minute video if you want to see all of the comparisons for yourself, but one that we found particularly interesting—maybe because it confirmed our own tests—was the autofocus tracking comparison.

The Sony and Canon were shot in Auto AF area mode—Sony at 8 fps with live view, Canon and Nikon at 7 fps—and Dan and Sally found pretty much what we did. At 8 fps live view, the a7R III sometimes just goes out-of-focus then snaps back, Canon’s iTR can be very jumpy, and Nikon’s 3D tracking is more or less perfect. For what it’s worth (since Dan and Sally didn’t test this) in our tests, the Sony performed more consistently at 10fps without live view.

For the full breakdown, check out the video for yourself above—it gets the DPReview stamp of approval for being both entertaining and informative. And if you want to see more from Learning Cameras, you can follow the channel on YouTube, or catch Dan on Facebook and Instagram.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Review of the Nikon D850 DSLR

24 Jan

The latest addition to the Nikon line up has been a highly anticipated full frame camera. While many other cameras were being updated rumors started circulating 12 months ago that the D810 would be updated. Finally, the news came that the Nikon D850 was being released. It seemed like everyone in the photography industry was looking forward to it. So much speculation – what will it have, and how will it perform?

The Nikon D850 with the 14-24mm lens.

The Hype

There was similar hype around 5 years ago when Nikon released the D800. It was almost 12 months before I was able to get one, and when the talk started on this one I knew that I would be getting one. The D800 has been an amazing camera and by far the best I’ve ever owned. But it is showing its age and doing long exposures with it was becoming harder. The logical update was always going to be the replacement for the D810.

What I needed was a camera capable of taking long exposures without the problem of dead or hot pixels. I wanted a touchscreen as others I’ve used have been fantastic. I had hoped that with Live View it would be possible to see through ND Filters without having to remove them all the time. While it wasn’t necessary, being able to transfer photos from the camera to the phone would be handy as well.

Once the camera was released and I finally got my hands on one, there was nothing to be disappointed about. It lived up to my expectations, perhaps even more. It is a complicated camera, and the phrase being used, “A game changer” is true. It does a lot and it is going to take some time to learn all that my new camera can do.

An early morning image of the city with reflections.

First impressions of the D850

For most people, it will seem like a gigantic camera. However, those that have been using the D800 or D810 will not be surprised. It is slightly bigger, but not a lot. The weight is around the same as well. Overall it looks almost the same. As you start to study the D850 you can see how some functions have changed positions. I keep pressing the mode button now to change the ISO.

Doing a long exposure on the top of a cliff with the Nikon D850.

45.7 MP Sensor

The big thing to test was going to be the massive 45.7-megapixel sensor. In most of the other Nikon cameras Sony sensors have been used, however, Nikon has developed their own for the D850. It is said to be sharp and create very crisp images. That would appear to be true so far. There is a warning about using low-quality lenses on it, which can create a lot of chromatic aberration. So far, I have noticed that.

Touchscreen

Nikon has given the D850 a touch screen, and I am so happy. Touchscreens make navigating around the menu so much easier. You can flick through your photos very easily, or change a setting in the menu.

With the touchscreen activated, you can also focus the camera and take your photos, whether you are using a tripod or not. With the Bulb setting, you can now touch the screen to open the shutter, and then tap again to close it. This means that when you go out to take long exposures you don’t have to worry so much about a remote shutter release or intervalometer. It doesn’t have a timer or display how much time has elapsed, but there are always ways around that, like using your phone.

Capturing a single light trail from a bicycle along Southbank at night.

The LCD Screen can be manipulated

Like other models, you can now manipulate the screen so you can move it to help you take photos in Live Mode, or when using the playback function. If you like taking photos close to the ground you can do that now without having to get on the ground yourself or having to guess at the composition. I’m getting too old to get down on the ground, getting back up isn’t so easy, so this function is one that I’ve been eagerly awaiting.

The front of the D850, set up for a long exposure.

Using Live View for Long Exposures

One of the frustrating things about doing long exposures with the D800 was having to constantly remove the filters every time you wanted to recompose your image. They were too dark for the camera to see through. The Canon 5D Mark IV is capable of seeing through the filters in Live View, so I was really hoping the Nikon D850 would have that capability as well. I’m happy to report that it does.

It doesn’t quite work the same way, you do have to open the aperture up a bit, but you don’t have to remove the filters. If you can open it up to f/2.8 then it is like there are no filters there at all. It will also make it easier to use graduated filters and polarizers when doing long exposure photography.

The camera photographing the Dragon’s Head.

As someone who loves doing long exposures, this new feature is a very welcome addition to the camera. It is something that I will use a lot. My workflow when shooting has changed from never using Live View, to using it constantly.

One of the major advantages of shooting with Live View is that your mirror is up, so you don’t get those minute vibrations when you are taking an image.

ISO

One of the biggest problems with photography is low light. While in most situations you can use a tripod, there are some situations that mean it is just isn’t possible. With an ISO rating up to 25,600, you can take photos easily without a tripod.

Capturing Christmas windows using ISO 25600.

There will be noise in the images, that is one thing you can’t avoid. However, compared with what you got with the earlier models in the D800 series it’s a big improvement. You could comfortably go up to ISO 2000, perhaps even higher and get images that you would be happy with.

At the other end of the scale, you can go to ISO 64 when you want the best quality images in the right lighting conditions or when using your tripod. Most cameras only go to 100, so having that extra step means finer grain or almost no noise in your images.

Some of the controls are in different places

While the basic setup is very similar to all Nikon cameras, there are some things that have changed from previous models (for me, that is compared to the D800). The Mode button is on the left top buttons with the WB and QUAL. ISO is now over near the Shutter button. The Bracket feature is now set where the flash button used to be.

Overall, the camera is much the same. The menu system remains very similar to previous models and is easy to understand. It is one thing that has always been good with Nikon, you can go from one model to another and still be able to figure out how it works.

Late afternoon in the city of Melbourne.

No flash

One major change from the D800 and D810 is the removal of the built-in flash. For most users, it was not necessary and the flash popping up could create problems. You can still attach an external flash to it, so for most this isn’t going to be a problem as they would use that option anyway.

3 Different RAW sizes

One the main concerns with the camera was the 45.7-megapixel sensor. The more MPs it has the larger the images will be. Storage can become a problem, especially when shooting in RAW. The D850 now comes with three different sizes of RAW files. You can choose to shoot RAW images in Large, Medium or Small. The large will take images that are 8256 x 5504 pixels, while the small will take images that are 4128 x 2752 pixels, similar to a cropped sensor.

Having the choice of deciding how big your image will be is a good function to add. If you know you are going to take a photo for social media, with no intention of doing anything else, then using the small option makes sense. However, if you are going to be taking photos for a client or for printing on a big scale then the large size is the best choice.

Doing a long exposure of the Dragon’s Head on the Rye back beach.

Fast frames per second burst mode

I went from a Nikon D300s, that could shoot 6-7 frames per second to the D800 which was capable of only four. It was a shock and possibly one of the biggest disappointments with that camera. It always seemed clunky when you were taking several images at once, especially for bracketing.

It’s good to see they have sped up the frame rate in the D850. It will take around 6 images a second, so it is reasonably fast. When you are bracketing there is less chance of a mistake when taking a series of images. It is great to hear how fast it shoots the frames.

Using the Nikon D850 at the zoo to capture birds.

The XQD card

With the release of the Nikon D850, we also see that it has two memory card slots; one for an SD card, and the other for an XQD card. As the file sizes are large, and you can take many images per second, you also need a card that can keep up. The XQD cards are good for writing your images quickly so you shouldn’t have moments where you can’t shoot because the camera is saving your images onto the card.

These cards are quite expensive. Not many manufacturers are making them, the one I got was made by Sony. You also need to get a memory card reader for these as well. I purchased mine from B&H, it was 128GB and cost almost $ 200.

Capturing a waterfall with a long exposure.

Wifi and Snapbridge

Nikon cameras that have Snapbridge allow you to use your phone with the camera. You can download images to it, for easy loading to social media when you are out and about. There is also the option for your phone to capture GPS data for future reference.

When Snapbridge was first released there was a lot of negative publicity about it. People said it didn’t work properly, and if we are being honest, it wasn’t great. But it has improved a lot. It is now easier to connect your camera to your phone to look at photos. You can have it set up so it automatically transfers the images to your phone. They go into the cloud, so they don’t take up any room on your phone.

The only downside seems to be that to get your images to your phone you have to shoot in jpeg format. Considering the target market of who will be using the D850 (mostly pros), it is a bit disappointing. Most users will be taking their photos in RAW format and won’t be able to do that.

To overcome this, I decided to shoot in RAW and basic JPG. You don’t need high-quality JPGs to share, and basic is fine for social media. Once the files are all downloaded to my computer I select all the jpegs and delete them. It does mean that you will be using more memory on your cards, but I have 128GB cards, so it isn’t going to be an issue that often. I would also only use this selection if I knew that I wanted to capture an image to share, otherwise I would choose RAW only.

Snapbridge will keep the firmware on your camera up to date which is great, otherwise, it only happens if you get it serviced. One thing that is a definitely a plus for someone like me is that the app will also make sure the time and date are correct on your camera by syncing it with your phone. You don’t have to worry about daylight savings and changing the camera settings for it anymore (or when you travel and change time zones).

The D850 with the Lensbaby Velvet 56 photographing macro flowers.

Battery life

The experience of other cameras has shown that using Live View can drain your battery. Earlier this year I had an opportunity to try out the Canon 5D Mark IV and when using Live View for long exposures the battery did drain very quickly. You would get maybe three hours with it when using that mode. With the Nikon D850, using Live View it doesn’t drain the battery as quickly.

A fully charged battery for normal use will last a few days, with heavy use a day or so. The Nikon batteries are very good, and if you want spares, it is advisable to go for regular Nikon ones over third-party options.

An image taken at sunrise with the Nikon D850.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, those who described the Nikon D850 as a game changer were not lying. It’s one of the most sophisticated cameras on the market. While hailed as a great camera for landscape photographers, it is also suitable for many other genres of photography as well. One has to wonder what they will do to the next generation of the D5 to make it better than the D850.

For more information on the specifications, click here to go to Nikon. The camera retails on Amazon for $ 3,295.

I would give the camera a rating of 9.9 out of 10, maybe even a 10. I love the Nikon D850, it is the best camera I’ve ever used

The post Review of the Nikon D850 DSLR by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Nikon D850 firmware 1.01 fixes long exposure green cast and other minor bugs

18 Jan

Nikon has released the first firmware update for its 45.7 MP full-frame D850 DSLR. Firmware version 1.01 comes with fixes for the following issues:

Users exiting the Clean image sensor menu entry after adding it to and entering it via My Menu would be returned not to My Menu but to Setup Menu.
Photos taken with On selected for Long exposure noise reduction would sometimes have increased noise or shadows with a greenish cast.
Slight aperture reset lag would sometimes occur after shooting at shutter speeds under 1/10 s (type E and PC-E lenses excluded).

These all sound like minor issues, but it is reassuring to know Nikon is taking the continuous improvement of its products seriously. If you own a D850 and want to update to the new firmware, you can find all information and download links on the Nikon website. If you are considering the D850 as your next camera, check out our full review bellow:

Nikon D850 Full Review

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Nikon D850 vs Sony a7R III: Which is best?

05 Dec

Intro

2017 has seen the release of some interesting cameras, but the two that have generated the most buzz, the most traffic and the most questions are Nikon’s D850 and the Sony a7R III. They’re both rather exotic creatures, not quite as other-worldly as D5s and a9s, but hardly the sorts of cameras we’re all going to rush out and buy. So why the excitement?

Both high res models are among the fastest in
their line-ups

What’s interesting about both is just how much better they are than their predecessors, despite superficially looking like subtle re-shuffles of the specifications. The give-away of this leap forward is hidden in plain sight: they may both be updates of their makers’ high-res models, but both are also promoted to being among the fastest-shooting models in their respective line-ups.

That makes them much more appealing, well-rounded cameras than their predecessors, which is perhaps why they’ve generated so much interest. And why everybody wants to know which is best…

It’s not about the mirror (or lack of it)

We ended our D850 review by calling it “the best DSLR on the market today” and summed up the Sony by saying it was “the most well-rounded mirrorless camera on the market,” but you should take that to mean it’s simply a question of whether you prefer a mirror in your camera or not. Mainly because, when you use them, it really doesn’t make much difference.

Closer to a sports camera than anything with 46 megapixels has the right to feel

Long gone are the days when you could say ‘DSLRs are better at autofocus’ or ‘Mirrorless are smaller, and more convenient.’ No-one who’s held a Sony a7 series with a GM lens on is likely to find the words ‘small’ or ‘lightweight’ springing into their minds. Equally though, I doubt many people who’ve used an a7R III in a tight spot are going to think ‘I’d have got that shot with an SLR.’

Similarly though, the D850 is the kind of DSLR that could make mirrorless stalwarts consider changing their minds. It’s not quite D5-level good but the D850 feels closer to a sports camera than anything with 46 megapixels has the right to. All those ‘you have to imagine you’re shooting medium format’ reservations that we’ve had about previous high-res DSLRs start to evaporate. With a recent Nikon VR lens on the front, you can shoot the D850 without too much thought and it’ll simply get the job done.

Image Quality

It should go without saying that both cameras produce spectacular image quality. Their sensors both offer tremendous resolution and dynamic range. They’re among the best sensors we’ve ever shot with, putting them within the same realm as the Hasselblad X1D, Pentax 645Z and Fujifilm GFX 50S: company that suddenly makes both cameras seem unexpectedly good value.

Among the best sensors we’ve ever shot with

The Sony demands you shoot uncompressed Raw to get at its full capability, whereas the Nikon has some of the smartest Raw compression on the market (even its ‘lossy’ compression is essentially only throwing away spurious data), but that ends up being a question of storage and workflow, not of the photographic process itself. The pictures themselves are similarly good.

Anyone who’s shot them side-by-side won’t be at all surprised to find that DxO has given their sensors the same score: there’s virtually nothing to choose between them. Slight differences in dynamic range and high ISO performance are just that: slight. If anyone tells you that one camera is better than the other, for any particular activity based on image quality, you should laugh at them. In their face, if possible.

Verdict: no clear winner

Video

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the a7R III is the better video camera. Its video quality is higher, its range of features and supporting tools is wider and its video autofocus, while still frustratingly inconsistent with the behavior in stills mode, is actually useable for all but the most demanding of projects. Realistically, if video is one of your primary needs, the Sony is the clear choice, even before you consider its ability to accept, via adapter, just about every dedicated cinema lens you might chance across.

However, the D850 isn’t utterly left for dead. Its video quality isn’t half bad and, so long as you have some experience of focusing and exposing video, it’s pretty adept at quickly jumping back and forth between stills and video shooting. In fact, because it retains separate exposure settings for stills and video mode, it can actually be easier to switch between the two than it is on the Sony. To match this behavior, you need to configure one or more of the Sony’s Memory Recall modes, to ensure you don’t find yourself with a card full of stop-motion-like video clips shot at your ‘freeze the action’ shutter speed.

Verdict: Sony a7R III wins

Autofocus – Action

The D850 3D Tracking performance doesn’t quite match the D5, but it’s still capable of a very impressive performance. 3D Tracking will generally do a good job of recognizing the subject you initially point it at, then track it around the scene, using whichever AF point is closest to your subject’s current position. It’ll occasionally fall off the precise point you chose, and you’re limited to the camera’s comparatively small focus sensor region, but it’ll generally do a great job and offers enough configuration options to cope even with complex action.

The Sony does a great job of keeping things in focus if you can keep the AF point over them, but its subject tracking isn’t as surefooted as the D850’s. Worse still, unlike Nikon’s system, you can’t specify which part of the subject you wish to track: the camera tries to identify the subject and then tracks all of it. This usually means focusing on whatever element is closest. Depending on your subject, that may not be good enough.

Verdict: Nikon D850 wins

Autofocus – People

Wedding photographers and just about anyone needing to shoot pictures of people will find the a7R III’s Eye AF feature is a huge advantage. Sony wasn’t the first to offer an AF mode that detects the subject’s eyes but the implementation is pretty clever: in single AF mode Face Priority will focus on your subject’s eye, but the clever stuff happens in C-AF mode. Here, you hold down a configured button and the camera focuses on your subject’s eye, regardless of what AF area mode you were in.

This means that you can compose your image without having to perfectly position your AF, knowing that hammering down the Eye AF button will all-but ensure perfectly focused images on whichever eye is nearest your AF point.

Anyone needing to shoot pictures of people will find the a7R III’s Eye AF feature a huge advantage

The above shot was achieved while holding a video camera to the a7R III’s viewfinder, waving both devices around to show the degree to which Eye AF works, and where it fails. Despite all attention being on shooting this demonstration, rather than any photos, a handful of the resultant shots proved to be of a high enough standard to include in our samples galleries. Each of them pin sharp.

The D850 has no option to find eyes in the scene and its 3D Tracking, while good, can’t be relied on to follow the subject’s eye even if you point the camera to it. Beyond this, even when working with calibrated lenses, we simply wouldn’t expect an off-center DSLR AF point to match the focus precision that the Sony will effortlessly achieve.

Verdict: Sony a7R III wins

Configuration and operation

Perhaps because the a7R III has such an extensive video and stills feature set, it absolutely demands that you spend time learning and configuring the camera. It’s a complaint we’ve regularly leveled at Olympus, over the years, and it’s just as true here. The a7R III can do so much that you really need to decide how you want to shoot, which tools you want access to, then carefully consider how to set the camera up to give easiest access to all these things. But taking this time is worth it, since there are some very powerful customization options available.

Even simple things like having a physical AF/MF switch count in the Nikon’s favor. But, while its ability to change all key functions by holding a button and turning a dial is a highly efficient and effective way of working (once you’ve become familiar with it), it’s a system that, for now, works primarily for stills. Not having things like a Log profile, much less a mode to offer a corrected preview mean there are fewer functions the Nikon needs to give quick access to.

Verdict: no clear winner

Lenses

Both makers have spent the past few years going all-out to flesh-out their lens lineups. Nikon has an inherent advantage, of course, offering at least some degree of compatibility with a decades-deep back-catalog of lenses, the vast majority designed to be useful on full frame.

This advantage remains even if you limit yourself to the lenses Nikon says are well suited to the demands of 46MP, but Sony has an increasing number of the ‘essential’ bases covered. The new 24-105mm F4, for instance, seems great (though there’s a hefty price tag associated with this apparent excellence), and we’ve been impressed by the 85mm F1.8.

And, while we wouldn’t recommend buying an a7R III if you plan only to shoot with adapted lenses (tilt-shifts aside, perhaps), it’s true that the Sony can at least make use of just about any lens you care to mount on it. So while you significantly reduce the camera’s maximum shooting speed, you do at least retain functions like Eye AF.

Verdict: no clear winner

Operational speed

The D850 still has a slight edge in terms of operational speed over the a7R III. Sony has made great strides to remove the lags and delays from its menus and operation, but the D850 just feels like a more responsive camera. It could be a matter of perception, and I very much doubt the difference is within the realms of practical measurement, but what feels like the cumulative effect of fractions of a second here and there make me think of the D850’s operation being near-instantaneous in a way that I don’t get with the Sony.

Verdict: Nikon D850 (just)

The tiniest of margins

As we said earlier in this slideshow, you can no longer summarily decide which camera is going to be better for a given situation, based simply on whether it’s Mirrorless or a DSLR. But with these two cameras it’s near impossible to find any situation in which one definitively outshines the other.

You can no longer summarily decide which camera is going to be better for a given situation, based simply on whether it’s Mirrorless or a DSLR

Landscapes? the DR differences are small enough that it comes down to a question of whether the weight difference or the built-in intervalometer swings it for you. The Sony is better at video in several respects, but if video isn’t your primary concern, the D850 makes it so easy (out of the box) to jump from stills to video to stills that even that’s not going to be a decisive victory for those just shooting the odd clip.

What’s most striking about both cameras is how good they are across a range of subjects and shooting types, making them very hard to tease apart. The differences in video and in the areas of autofocus in which each excels (the Nikon for action, the Sony for pictures of people), apart there’s no clear winner. This isn’t fence-sitting on our part: they’re genuinely two of the best cameras the world has ever seen.

Overall verdict: No clear winner

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Sony a7R III ties Nikon D850: Best mirrorless full-frame camera DxOMark has ever tested

28 Nov

DxOMark has just published their review of the Sony a7RIII’s sensor, and no surprises here: it ties the Nikon D850 as the best full-frame camera they’ve ever tested with a score of 100. This also makes it the best mirrorless full-frame camera DxOMark has ever tested, besting the former king, the Sony a7R II, which scored a 98.

From the moment Sony debuted the a7R III, it became clear there was only one competitor for this mirrorless beast: The Nikon D850. And as DxO makes clear in their review headline, the D850 has now met “its mirrorless match.” In fact, it would be a stretch to call one of the cameras better overall than the other. Here’s how their scores break down:

As DxOMark makes clear in its conclusion, which camera you prefer (or should prefer) has to do with your own use case:

Comparing the A7R III sensor to the Nikon D850’s reveals the advantage that the Nikon camera’s lower minimum sensitivity (ISO) value brings. Photographers who predominantly shoot in bright light or capture motionless subjects with the camera on a tripod will record the most information, be it color, tone, or detail with the Nikon D850 set to ISO 32. However, if they require values above that, the Sony A7R III sensor produces marginally better images.

By now it should be obvious why the Sony a7RIII tied with the Nikon D850 for our best camera above $ 2,000: it’s next to impossible to pick one over the other unless you have a specific use case in mind. Check out DxOMark’s full review for a deeper dive on this particular camera sensor, and if you want even more you can read our full review as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Gear of the Year 2017 – Barney’s choice (Part 2): Nikon D850

26 Nov

In the first part of this article, I wrote about the camera I’ve used most in 2017 – the Leica M10. In Part 2, I want to write about a camera that I’ve used very little. In fact, aside from bringing it to my eye and playing around with the reviewable sample that came into our office earlier this year, I’ve barely even managed to get my hands on it.

That camera is the Nikon D850. Undeniably one of the most important products of 2017 (and in terms of traffic, definitely among the most popular on DPReview) the D850 is an impressive DSLR by any measure.

The Nikon D810 is one of our favorite DSLRs of the past several years

It used to be the case that if you wanted high-resolution stills, you had to make do with a relatively slow camera. And conversely, if you wanted high-speed capture and ultra-long battery life, you had to drop $ 5000-6000 on a pro-grade camera that didn’t have the pixel-count required for really demanding applications. The Nikon D810 is one of our favorite DSLRs of the past several years, but its excellent resolution and unrivaled dynamic range at ISO 64 came at the expense of relatively slow continuous shooting, and (somewhat mysteriously) poor low-light autofocus performance compared to the flagship D5.

The D850’s wide dynamic range at its low ISO sensitivity settings enables shots like these (taken at ISO 125) which contain detail and true color everywhere from the deepest shadows to the highlight areas. Shot from a moving vehicle (hence the slightly softness at very close examination), this image is a great illustration of the D850’s versatility.

Photo by Carey Rose

On paper, the D850 offers the best of both worlds, and in practice, it generally lives up to its potential. A pixel count of 47MP almost matches the Canon EOS 5DS/R for resolution, while a maximum frame-rate of 9fps with an accessory grip and D5 battery means that in terms of speed, it’s not far off Canon and Nikon’s flagship pro-grade DSLRs (albeit for an additional premium of $ 1000). The D850’s 153-point AF system is lifted from the D5, and while the D5 has the edge when it comes to tracking (possibly thanks to its greater on-board data processing power) the D850 generally performs well, and definitely outperforms its nearest competition. In low light, the contrast between the D850’s autofocus performance and that of its predecessor is pretty stark.

The D850’s large, bright finder is a beautiful thing

I’ve been shooting with a Nikon D810 for several years as my primary camera, and there isn’t a single area of its feature set which Nikon has not upgraded in the D850. Even the viewfinder experience has been improved; the D850’s large, bright finder is a beautiful thing. So why haven’t I spent more time with it?

Can you see this too? OK, good.

Photo by Carey Rose

The short, boring answer is that I’ve been kept busy with other projects (and other cameras) and unsurprisingly given its performance, the D850 is also in pretty high demand among our writers when it comes to weekend photography trips and events. But there’s another reason.

I’ve called the D810 and 24-120mm F4 combination ‘boringly capable’ in articles on DPReview in the past and I really meant it. While obviously there are things that a constant-aperture F4 zoom can’t do, that lens, attached to the D810, lets me do pretty much everything I need to – from quick grab shots on the street to architectural and landscape studies. When the 24-120mm can’t cut it (distortion can be an issue in some situations, for example, and it’s a bit limiting in poor light) I switch for my 35mm and 50mm primes.

I know that if I grab the D850 for a weekend I will probably end up wanting one

While the D850 is clearly greatly improved over the D810, I’ve never had a reason to curse its predecessor, or wish for much in the way of improvement. If I still shot live music regularly I might feel compelled to spend the extra money just for backlit controls and improved low-light AF, but I don’t, so I won’t.

At least for now, my D810 is as ‘boringly capable’ as it always was. In all honestly, I know that if I grab the D850 for a weekend and shoot a few hundred frames with it I will probably end up really wanting one – and not having $ 3000 burning a hole in my pocket, or a third kidney, I can’t afford to do that right now.

I don’t know who these people are, but they’ve spent more time in close proximity to the D850 than me.

Photo by Carey Rose

So I don’t own one (even though I’d like to), and I’ve barely used it. I didn’t take any of the pictures in this article, or in the gallery linked below. Then why on earth is the D850 one of my two picks for the best gear of 2017? Well, just look at it, for heaven’s sake. It’s such a good camera. I mean seriously, it’s hard to imagine how much more advanced a DSLR could be. For all of the improvements that have been made in mirrorless cameras over the past few years, the D850 still offers a combination of power, image quality, and luxurious handling (including that gorgeous viewfinder) which is hard to argue with.

I say ‘hard to argue with’ rather than impossible, because I’m sure that some people will still argue about it (feel free to jump to the comments), but this is my article and I can write what I want. In my opinion, for all of the doom and gloom spoken about the company in the past couple of years, the D850 proves one essential fact: Nikon knows how to make great cameras.

Nikon D850 Sample Gallery

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Top 10 sample galleries of the year #1: the Nikon D850

24 Nov

As 2017 winds down, we’re counting down our top 10 most popular sample galleries of the year. Finally, we’ve made it to the top spot. With images viewed nearly 3 million times and counting, by far our most popular gallery of the year belongs to the Nikon D850.

This is another gold award winning product and staff favorite. DPR staffer Carey Rose feels strongly that it ‘could be the only DSLR you’ll ever need,’ and a quick peek through our sample gallery should prove why. After all, it’s got 45.7MP of resolution, a capable autofocus system, fast burst shooting and offers great image quality under almost any situation.

That’s it for 2017, see our full list of top galleries below. And happy shooting!

Top 10 most popular sample galleries of 2017:

#10: Sigma 14mm F1.8 Art
#9: Fujifilm GFX 50S
#8: Nikon D7500
#7: Olympus Tough TG-5
#6: Sigma 85mm F1.4
#5: Fujifilm X-T20
#4: Leica M10
#3: Fujifilm X100F
#2: Sony Alpha a9
#1: Nikon D850

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Sony a7R III dynamic range improved, nearly matches chart-topping Nikon D850

01 Nov

Sony has claimed 15 EV dynamic range from its newest ILC iteration: the a7R III. Is it true, or is it like Sony’s odd claim that the a7S had 15 EV dynamic range? Turns out: Sony has some strong grounds for its claim here.

The Sony a7R III retains its dynamic range even in bursts. That’s a big deal for a Sony ILC

At the launch event in NYC, we were able to gather enough data to measure the ‘engineering dynamic range’ of the a7R III.* And boy is it impressive. Possibly even more important: for the first time the a7R III retains this dynamic range even in continuous drive. That’s a big deal for sports and action photographers. But how true is Sony’s claim?

The Sony a7R II already had impressive Raw dynamic range, with the ability to expose short enough to keep highlights from blowing, but with low enough sensor noise to lift shadows without too much noise. The a7R III improves on this.

Oh and think this image is too dark? Wait till you view it on a HDR display, which is another can of worms altogether the stills industry should be discussing.

Photo: Rishi Sanyal

Sony has found a way to reduce shadow (or ‘read’) noise in its files such that the final output has higher dynamic range, and cleaner shadows if you need them, than files from its predecessor. To summarize it in a number at base ISO: 13.6 EV at the pixel, or for a 42.4MP file. Or 14.8 EV if you like to compare to DXO numbers (and only generate 8MP images from your 42.4MP camera). Either way, that’s a nearly half-stop improvement over its predecessor. See our table below, which also compares the a7R III to the full-frame chart-topping Nikon D850, ranking based on highest performer:

	Pixel Dynamic Range	8MP ‘Print’ Dynamic Range
Nikon D850 (ISO 64)	13.78	15.03
Sony a7R III	13.63	14.84
Nikon D850 (ISO 100)	13.27	14.53
Sony a7R II	13.21	14.41

While the Nikon D850 is the top performer here, its important to note that this is only the case if you can give the D850 the extra ~2/3 EV light it needs at ISO 64 (which you often can if you’re shooting bright light or a landscape photographer on a tripod). At ISO 100, the a7R III dynamic range actually exceeds that of the D850, thanks to incredibly low read noise. That’s impressive for a camera constantly running its sensor in live view.

At ISO 100, the a7R III dynamic range actually exceeds that of the D850… impressive for a camera constantly running in live view

Keep in mind, though, that if you can give the D850 the extra exposure to take advantage of its ISO 64 dynamic range, all tones in your image benefit from the higher signal:noise ratio—even midtones and brighter tones will be more amenable to post-processing and sharpening thanks to being more ‘clean’ and less noisy to begin with. The D850 is able to tolerate as much total light as the medium format Fujifilm GFX 50S, as we showed here. That’s what allows one to get unbelievably crisp, ‘medium format-like’ like files from a Nikon D810 (just zoom in to 100% on that shot and tell me you’re not impressed).

But the Sony a7R III gets you nearly there. While in some circumstances the Nikon D810/D850, or medium format, may afford you slightly cleaner more malleable files, the a7R III takes a significant step at closing the gap. And that’s nothing short of impressive for a mirrorless ILC constantly running its sensor for a live feed (and all its benefits).

As for Sony’s marketing, it sounds like the claim of 15 EV is believable, but only technically if you consider how your images look when shrunk to 8MP files. To be fair, there’s some benefit to comparing dynamic range figures after resizing camera outputs to 8MP, since it’s a common basis for comparison that doesn’t penalize cameras for having higher resolution (and therefore smaller pixels).

In depth vs. a7R II

Let’s take a deeper dive. Here are our ‘engineering’ dynamic range measurements of the a7R III vs. the a7R II. ‘Engineering’ dynamic range means we are measuring the range of tones recorded between clipping and when the shadows reach an unacceptable noise threshold where signal is indistinguishable from noise (or when signal:noise ratio = 1). Have a look (blue: a7R III | red: a7R II):

The a7R III shows a 0.42 EV, or nearly a half a stop, improvement in base ISO dynamic range over the a7R II. That’s not insignificant: it will be visible in the deepest shadows of base ISO shots of high contrast scenes. How did Sony do this given the already low levels of read noise its known for? Possibly by going to better or higher native bit-depth ADCs, something Bill Claff had suggested based on our largely 12-bit findings of the Sony a9’s output. But let’s save that for the PST forums.

Suffice it to say the a7R III improves on low ISO dynamic range, without sacrificing anything on the high end

It’s worth noting our a7R II figures are higher than DXO’s published 12.69 EV (13.9 EV ‘Print’) figures, possibly because they tested an older unit prior to uncompressed Raw and improvements to Sony’s compression curve. We retested it literally today with the latest firmware, and get figures of 13.2 EV or 14.4 EV normalized for ‘Print’ (Bill measures 13.3 EV, which you can see by clicking the camera name in the legend). See our 8MP, or ‘Print’ normalized, dynamic range figures below. These are more comparable to what DXO might report, for the benefit of your own comparative efforts (blue: a7R III | red: a7R II):

You can see the Sony a7R III encroaching on the ~15 EV rating of the Nikon D850 at ISO 64, but achieved at ISO 100 on the Sony, thanks to lower read noise. Impressive, though keep in mind again that the overall image quality improvement of an ISO 64 file from a D850 is due to total captured light (and it’s all about total captured light, which you can read about here).

Independently, our friend Bill Claff has tested the a7R III and also shows a similar 0.3 EV improvement over the Mark II (you can see the dynamic range numbers by clicking on the relevant camera in the legend at the upper right). He also shows the slight advantage of the Nikon D850 over the a7R III, which comes in at 13.7 EV vs. the a7R III’s 13.6 EV at the pixel level.**

Sony: a job well done. And all this at no cost to high ISO performance (we have comparisons coming showing parity between high ISO a7R III and a9 performance). Now please offer us visually lossless compressed Raw so we don’t have to deal with >80MB files for no reason. 🙂

ISO-Invariance

A camera with such great dynamic range performance suggests it’s probably fairly ISO-invariant, but is it?

Well, yes and no. It’s ISO-invariant in exactly the way it should be, but not so in the ways it shouldn’t be. Confused? Read on.

The a7R III, like many Sony predecessors, has a second gain step at the pixel level that amplifies signal, at the cost of higher tones, to preserve higher signal, and less noise, in dark tones. But it does so at a higher ISO—640 to be exact. At this point, the camera has amplified its signal in the analog domain so much that any remaining noise barely affects it.

That’s why the camera shows no difference between amplifying that ISO 640-amplified signal digitally (in-post) or in the analog domain in-camera. While we’ll have a more rigorous and controlled ISO-invariance test coming soon, you can see even in our cursory test at the launch event below that comparing ISO 6400 vs ISO 640 shot at the same exposure but raised 3.3 EV in-post to maintain the same brightness as ISO 6400 shows no difference at all in noise performance.

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What’s the advantage to the latter? 3.3 EV of highlights you otherwise lose by amplifying to ISO 6400 levels in-camera, but that you don’t lose if you ask ACR to digitally brighten 3.3 EV in post (anything that gets blown from that 3.3 EV push can easily be recovered in ACR since it’s there in the Raw file).

Below ISO 640 there’s some extra noise to, say, shooting ISO 100 and boosting 6 EV in post as opposed to shooting ISO 640 and boosting 3.3 EV. But there’s simply no excuse to the camera’s traditional ISO 6400 method of shooting ISO 6400-appropriate exposure and then amplifying the analog signal 6 EV in post to get ISO 6400 levels of brightness; instead, 2.7 EV of that push could be done in the analog domain by switching dual gain to ISO 640 levels, but the remaining 3.3 EV push should be saved for Raw conversion in order to retain 3.3 EV (or more) of highlight detail. Indeed, this is easily seen in Bill Claff’s ‘Shadow Improvement’ graphs that show little to no benefit to analog amplification above ISO 640 on even the Sony a7R II (or ISO 400 on the Nikon D850). And only a highlight cost of stops, upon stops, upon stops, since tones get amplified above the clipping point of the ADC at higher ISOs.

I’m going to use this as an opportunity to ask manufacturers like Sony, Nikon and the like: please accept the digital revolution that even your video departments have accepted (in their ‘E.I.’ modes). Please stop throwing away highlight data for almost no shadow benefit to ostensibly stick to poor antiquated ‘film’ analogies, or to work around CCD/CMOS read noise limitations that no longer exist. We’ve been singing this tune since 2014 when we designed our ISO-invariance test, and it’s even more relevant today with dual-gain architectures. ACR understands digital ‘push’ tags and you can brighten the image preview (and JPEG) as necessary. This is not to single out Sony: Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic are just as easy to blame, if not Canon of late after having modernized its sensor architecture to catch up with the rest.

Footnotes:

* Sony’s claim that the a7S had 15 EV dynamic range was patently false, as even the a7R II which has been measured to have less than 15 EV dynamic range performs better. But since there’s no standard for dynamic range measurement, it’s hard to say whether or not anyone’s claim is right or wrong – manufacturers can claim whatever they wish.

** But again, that’s not the whole story until you consider the higher signal:noise ratio of all tones at ISO 64 on a D850 compared to ISO 100 on any other full-frame at ISO 100.

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