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Posts Tagged ‘D850’

The D850 is Nikon’s best video camera yet, but it’s not ideal for beginners

23 Oct

What’s it like to use D850 as a video camera?

Despite there being a mirror between the sensor and the thing you’re trying to film, the D850 is a pretty capable video camera

SLRs weren’t really designed for video but, thanks to the pioneering work of the Canon 5D Mark II, it’s increasingly expected to be a feature they offer. Nikon has struggled more than its big rival in this respect, not helped by a reliance on contrast detect AF and a lens mount designed around the assumption that you’d never need to change aperture while taking a shot. It’s also been somewhat held back by not having a camcorder or broadcast equipment division to lean on during the development process.

Despite all these hurdles, the D850 is the company’s most capable video camera yet, with 4K capture taken from the full width of the sensor. But how videographer-friendly is accessing this capability? And, just as importantly for this do-everything super camera, what’s it like to use for stills shooters, such as wedding photographers and photojournalists who’re increasingly being asked to capture clips as well as stills?

Features

Beyond the headline specs: 4K UHD capture from the full sensor width or 1.5x crop and slow mo 1080 from 120 fps capture, Nikon has added a host of features to make video capture easier.

The most obvious of these features is the addition of focus peaking to help indicate the plane of focus as you shoot. As is fairly common, there are three settings for peaking intensity and a choice of four colors. In addition, there’s a zebra-style highlight warning for setting exposure. But, as we’ll see, having a feature and having it well implemented are not always the same thing.

Having a feature and having it well implemented are not always the same thing

Other features include a Flat Picture Control color profile, which uses a low-contrast tone curve to avoid clipping to black as aggressively as the standard stills profiles do. Some users have tried to create Log or psuedo-Log profiles using Nikon’s Picture Control Utility software, but we’ve not had a chance to test any of these yet, and we’ve not heard of any attempts to build LUTs to simplify the grading process.

There are some other nice touches, too. The camera records its starting aperture and ISO setting along with other shooting metadata such as Picture Style and D-Lighting setting with each clip. This is something you take for granted as a stills shooter, but without any widely-adopted equivalent of the EXIF standard, it’s still pretty rare for the kinds of hybrid stills/video cameras we usually encounter.

The experience

The experience doesn’t always live up to the promise that this list of video-friendly features might imply. Sadly, it’s the headline features that fail first.

The D850 has focus peaking but it can’t be used when you’re shooting 4K. Or when you’re using electronic stabilization. Or Slo-Mo mode. Or when you’ve got highlight warnings engaged. Or in combination with Active D-Lighting. Which, in my experience, isn’t that different from not having focus peaking at all.

The highlight warnings are a lot better. They’re easily engaged* via the touchscreen and persist across the different view modes (grid view, histogram, audio meters, virtual horizon) as you cycle through them. They’re fairly simplistic, though, only indicating areas brighter than the threshold, so they can’t be set to indicate regions that are roughly 75% for Caucasian skin tones, for instance. Also, this threshold is specified in 8-bit brightness values, not IRE %, as is more common.

Then, of course, there’s video autofocus, which is every bit as bad as you’d expect of a system designed around contrast detection using lenses that weren’t. It’s jumpy and indecisive, even when asked to pull focus between two stationary objects.

However, the touchscreen access to many key settings is very good, allowing you to adjust the audio capture on-the-fly without the need for any noise or vibration-creating button presses.

Better still is the option to use the two buttons on the camera’s front plate to adjust either exposure compensation (if you’re using Auto ISO to maintain brightness in manual exposure mode) or Power Aperture, the smooth, motor-driven aperture control mode. These buttons are easily accessible as you shoot, without causing too much camera shake.

What does this end up meaning?

For experienced videographers, none of these are issues you can’t work around to one degree or another. Planning shots to minimize the need to refocus or ‘blocking’ a shot so that any movement is predictable are pretty basic techniques. When working this way, using magnified live view or tap-to-focus single AF to set initial focus then using the lens distance scale to judge movement may be enough.

Alternatively, adding on an external recorder will often bring much more powerful versions of Zebra and Peaking tools where the D850 fumbles, as well as features such as waveforms and false color that are vanishingly rare on hybrid cameras anyway.

Videographers are likely to appreciate the features gained from Nikon’s well-polished stills interface

The camera’s HDMI output is limited to an 8-bit 4:2:2 stream, so there won’t be a big hike in quality, but the videographer willing to experiment with homebrew Log-like profiles will no doubt find it a very capable camera. Ultimately, the D850’s video quality is easily good enough to make these sorts of workarounds worthwhile.

Videographers are also likely to appreciate the degree to which the video side of the camera has gained from Nikon’s well-polished stills interface. Hold the ISO button and the rear dial changes ISO while the front toggles Auto ISO, hold the WB button down when one of the camera’s 6 (!) Custom WB values is selected and you can set a new custom value at the tap of the rear controller. It’s pretty slick when you’re out and shooting.

For stills shooters

For the less experienced video shooter the D850 is likely to be quite a handful, though. Without usable autofocus, you’ll need to learn how to manual focus and minimize the need to, to work around the camera’s shortcomings. This makes it challenging for anyone who can’t control or choreograph the action, which is likely to include exactly the sort of wedding photographers and photojournalists who might be attracted to the D850.

However, you won’t need to learn too much about video exposure in order to make use of highlight warnings and the simple aperture control on the camera, beyond basics such as the 180 degree shutter ‘rule.’

This is helped by at least one feature we’ve been requesting for many years: the camera retains two banks of shooting settings, one for stills, one for video. This means you can specify a custom white balance and color profile and choose exposure settings (including ISO behavior) for video, then jump back to your stills settings at a moment’s notice.

In a clever piece of design, you can even define a button let you check your stills settings, while you’re shooting movies, so you need never be caught out. But this two-setting design is perfect for wedding shooters, who can hit the shutter button to shoot a grabbed still, fractions of a second after capturing some video footage, without the risk of everything looking, well, a bit Flat.

It’s also worth noting that the “e-stabilizer” mode that’s available when shooting 1080 footage is very impressive, making on-the-go handheld shooting a realistic proposition. Better still, its resolution is near indistinguishable from the unstabilized variety, so you can shoot both and intercut at will.

Overall, then, there’s a lot to like about the D850 and Nikon deserves recognition for putting a lot of thought and effort into making its video capture better. However, it does little to make video any easier to shoot for video novices in a way that Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system does. For now, at least, you still need to build up plenty of videography experience to work your way around the D850’s wobbly AF and occasional quirks.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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More Nikon D850 samples images added

22 Oct

Our review process is based both on studio testing and real-world shooting. We make sure every camera goes through the hands of several photographers and is shot in a variety of circumstances, to give a broad representation of how the camera will perform.

All those images and experiences are considered as we draw our conclusions about a camera. So, even if you’ve looked through the D850 gallery before, you may well find there are shots you’ve not seen before. Take a look, and be sure to check out the full review if you haven’t already.

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Nikon D850 Review

16 Oct

Nikon D850 Review

The Nikon D850 is Nikon’s latest high resolution full-frame DSLR, boasting a 46MP backside-illuminated CMOS sensor. But, in a fairly radical departure for the series, it is also one of the company’s fastest-shooting DSLRs. This combination of properties should significantly widen the camera’s appeal to high-end enthusiasts as well as a broad range of professional photographers.

Key Specifications:

  • 45.7MP BSI CMOS sensor
  • 7 fps continuous shooting with AE/AF (9 with battery grip and EN-EL18b battery)
  • 153-point AF system linked to 180,000-pixel metering system
  • UHD 4K video capture at up to 30p from full sensor width
  • 1080 video at up to 120p, recorded as roughly 1/4 or 1/5th speed slow-mo
  • 4:2:2 8-bit UHD uncompressed output while recording to card
  • 1 XQD slot and 1 UHS II-compliant SD slot
  • Battery life rated at 1840 shots
  • 3.2″ tilting touchscreen with 2.36M-dot (1024×768 pixel) LCD
  • Illuminated controls
  • 19.4MP DX crop (or 8.6MP at 30fps for up to 3 sec)
  • SnapBridge full-time Bluetooth LE connection system with Wi-Fi
  • Advanced time-lapse options (including in-camera 4K video creation)

High resolution

The use of a backside illuminated (BSI) sensor means that the light collecting elements of the sensor are closer to the surface of the chip. This should not only increase the efficiency of the sensor (improving low light performance) but should also be expected to make the pixels near the edges of the sensor better able to accept light approaching with high angles of incidence, improving peripheral image quality.

Like the D810 before it, the D850 continues to offer an ISO 64 mode, that allows it to tolerate more light in bright conditions. We will be testing whether this gives the D850 the same dynamic range advantage as the D810, as soon as a production version arrives but our initial quick looks suggests it does, meaning it should be able to compete with the medium format sensors used in the likes of the Fujifilm GFX 50S and Pentax 645Z.

A BSI sensor with ISO 64 setting should be able to match the D810’s low ISO DR while also offering improved performance in at high ISOs.

The D850 has gained a more usable electronic front curtain shutter option (EFCS), which can now be used quiet shutter modes, as well as live view and Mirror-Up mode. To get the full benefit, though, you need to turn on exposure delay (which has had two sub-second delay settings added). However, exposure delay persists across all shooting modes. Thankfully, and presumably thanks to a redesigned shutter and mirror mechanism, our quick check with a pre-production model suggests that mirror/shutter shock may not be much of an issue, even without engaging it EFCS.

The D850 has no anti-aliasing filter, which should allow for slightly finer detail capture but with added risk of moiré, if any of your lenses are sharp enough to out-resolve a 45.7MP full-frame sensor. There’s still no sign of the clever design Nikon patented so, unlike the Pentax K-1 or Sony RX1R II, you can’t engage an anti-aliasing effect if you do find false color appearing in densely patterned areas.

High Speed

In addition to the increased speed, the D850 also gains the full AF capabilities of the company’s flagship sports camera: the D5. This includes all the hardware: AF module, metering sensor and dedicated AF processor, as well as the full range of AF modes and configuration options, which should translate to comparable focus performance combined with high resolution.

Given the D5 possessed one of the best AF systems we’ve ever seen and could continue to offer that performance in a wide range of conditions and shooting scenarios with minimal need for configuration, this is an exciting prospect.

As part of this system, the D850 gains the automated system for setting an AF Fine Tune value. It only calibrates the lens based on the central AF point and for a single distance, but it’s a simple way to ensure you’re getting closer to your lenses’ full capabilities, which is handy given you’ll now be able to scrutinize their performance with 46MP of detail.

Add the optional MB-D18 battery grip and an EN-EL18b battery, and the D850 will shoot at 9 frames per second.

Impressively, the D850 can shoot at nine frames per second if you add the optional MB-D18 battery grip and buy an EN-EL18b battery, as used in the D5. As well as increasing the camera’s burst rate, this combination also ups the battery life to a staggering 5140 shots per charge. You don’t get this same boost in speed or endurance if you use a second EN-EL15a in the grip, though.

An MB-D18 plus an EN-EL18b is likely to set you back over $ 580 over and above the cost of the camera body ($ 399 for the grip, around $ 149 for the battery, $ 30 for the BL-6 battery chamber cover plus the cost of a charger).

The D850 also includes a sufficiently deep buffer to allow fifty-one 14-bit losslessly compressed Raw files, meaning the majority of photographers are unlikely to hit its limits.

Video capabilities

In terms of video the D850 becomes the first Nikon DSLR to capture 4K video from the full width of its sensor. The camera can shoot at 30, 25 or 24p, at a bitrate of around 144 Mbps. It can simultaneously output uncompressed 4:2:2 8-bit UHD to an external recorder while recording to the card. Our initial impression is that the video is pixel-binned, rather than being resolved then downsampled (oversampling), but we’ll be checking on this as part of the review process. This risks lowering the level of detail capture and increases the risk of moiré, though it’s a better solution than line-skipping. There also seemed to be a fair amount of rolling shutter, but again these are only first impressions from a camera running non-final firmware.

At 1080 resolution, the camera can shoot at up to 60p, with a slow-mo mode that can capture at 120 frames per second before outputting at either 25 or 24p. The 1080 mode also offers focus peaking and digital stabilization, neither of which are available for 4K shooting.

The D850’s tilting rear screen will make video shooting easier, though we doubt many will use its contrast-detection tap-to-focus system when they do.

The D850 doesn’t have any Log gamma options for high-end videographers, but it does have the ‘Flat’ Picture Profile to squeeze a little extra dynamic range into its footage, without adding too much to the complexity of grading. It also offers full Auto ISO with exposure compensation when shooting in manual exposure mode, meaning you can set your aperture value and shutter speed, and let the camera try to maintain that brightness by varying the sensitivity.

As you’d expect from a camera at this level, the D850 also includes the Power Aperture feature that allows the camera to open and close the lens iris smoothly when in live view mode. There’s also an ‘Attenuator’ mode for the camera’s audio capture, that rolls-off any loud noises to avoid unpleasant clipping sounds.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon D850 in-depth autofocus test

13 Oct

We’ve spent some serious time assessing the autofocus system on the D850; from portraits to bicyclists, we’ve found out just how precise this camera’s focus is, and how well its subject tracking will keep up. Check it out for yourself in our updated First Impressions review.

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Nikon releases official D850 lens recommendation list

12 Oct

Nikon has published a list of lens recommendations for D850 owners, highlighting a total of eleven lenses that are suitable for use with its newly-launched, high-res, high-speed DSLR. The list covers prime, zoom, and speciality lenses, all of which are Nikon products (duh).

Here they are for your perusing pleasure below, just in case you want to make sure your glass is up to snuff with your fancy new camera:

Prime Lenses

  • 20mm f/1.8G – $ 796.95
  • 28mm f/1.4E – $ 1,996.95
  • 105mm f/1.4E – $ 2,196.95
  • 200mm f/2G – $ 5,696.95
  • 400mm f/2.8E – $ 11,196.95

Zoom Lenses

  • 14-24mm f/2.8G – $ 1,896.95
  • 24-70mm f/2.8E – $ 2,396.95
  • 70-200mm f/2.8E – $ 2,796.95
  • 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G – $ 2,296.95

Specialty Lenses

  • 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E – $ 1,246.95
  • 19mm f/4E PC – $ 3,396.95

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Nikon D850 is the best camera DxOMark has ever tested, first to hit score of 100

07 Oct

Forget all of those DxOMark Mobile scores, it’s time to talk about “real” cameras again. DxOMark just completed their review of the Nikon D850 and, not entirely surprising, it is officially the best camera DxOMark has ever tested. In fact, it’s the first camera ever to reach a score of 100, pushing the Sony a7R II into second place with its score of 98.

As it stands now, the camera rankings put the Nikon D850 and its predecessor, the D810, in the number 1 and 3 spots.

While the D850 isn’t the best camera DxO has tested across the board, it nevertheless put in top notch performance in every category. “The D850’s key strengths are its outstanding color and dynamic range at base ISO, where it again ranks as the number one among all commercially available cameras we’ve tested for these attributes,” explains DxOMark. If it falls even slightly short in any regard, it’s in the low-light ISO category where its higher resolution starts to sting.

That said, you can’t help but go wide-eyed reading DxOMark’s conclusion. As they say, this camera is “in a class of its own for image quality.”:

The introduction of the first BSI sensor in a full-frame Nikon DSLR with a super-high 45.7Mp resolution puts the Nikon D850’s image quality on par with, and often better than, medium-format cameras. The first DSLR to hit 100 points — rather apt for Nikon’s hundredth anniversary year — puts the Nikon D850 in a class of its own for image quality. At base ISO, it’s unrivaled for color in the DSLR class, and its headline dynamic range score is outstanding, too.

To read the full conclusion—the full review, for that matter—and see how the D850 compares to the competition from Sony and Canon, head over to DxOMark.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Not quite as good? Nikon D850 versus Nikon D5 subject tracking

01 Oct

Video: D850 versus D5 subject tracking

Photographer Matt Granger’s YouTube channel is chock-full of videos that run the gamut from fairly technical testing to fun challenges and prize giveaways. But we took particular notice when, last weekend, he pitted his new Nikon D850 against his Nikon D5 in terms of autofocus tracking. (What can we say; we’re nerds.)

But why even bother? After all, the D850 and D5 purportedly have the exact same autofocus hardware—performance should be virtually identical. In fact, in our conversations with Nikon, we were told that the D850 includes an additional processor to handle autofocus calculations, just like the D5; they also claimed this processor was omitted from the D500.

More importantly, we were told flat out to expect ‘D5 levels of performance’ from the D850.

So why is it that, during an early shoot with the D850, Granger said, “I felt like I was getting more [images] well-tracked with the D5 than I did with the D850.” Cue the tests in the video below:

Granger performed both low-light and daylight tests. In the former, his subject moved primarily in the X axis (read: across the frame); in the latter, his subject moved in all three dimensions. Both cameras were set to shoot at 7fps (the D850’s max), and shared all other settings as well.

In both instances, Granger concludes that the D850 is simply not as good at tracking moving subjects as the D5.

In the first low-light test, he notes some hesitation: the AF point occasionally lagged behind the subject before catching up (though at 3:00, where he says the D5 does not exhibit this behavior, it looks like the D5 also hesitates a bit, but perhaps not as severely).

We’ve been told to expect ‘D5 levels of performance’ from the D850’s autofocus system.

In the second test, the D850 really struggled to track the subject as she moved between shade and direct sun, seemingly performing better if the subject was initially acquired in bright light.

Of course, Granger concludes that this disparity isn’t really a reason to ignore the D850 or cancel that pre-order. In fact, there have been similar claims across the interwebz of autofocus performance disparities between previous Nikon cameras that are supposed to share the same AF system (the D810 and D4S for example—although we haven’t dug into those). But it’s definitely something worth testing further.

So, given our recent coverage and in-progress full-review, what does the DPReview staff make of all this?

Our experience so far

For white water kayaking, we found the D850’s 3D Tracking to perform very well indeed.

We’ve been shooting a lot with the Nikon D850 over the past couple of weeks, and as with just about any recent high-end Nikon camera, we find subject tracking to work very well. Even though the D850 comes with that excellent AF selection joystick, sometimes we find it preferable to let the camera do some of the work for us.

Confused about subject tracking?
Find out more

In particular, when shooting white water kayaking in Oregon, 3D Tracking performed admirably. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, though, considering these are fairly distinct subjects, particularly in terms of color, when compared with their surroundings.

As with Matt Granger, though, we’ve been surprised by some of our own experiences while shooting with the D850. With both the D5 and even the D500, we’ve become accustomed to being able to initiate 3D Tracking on a subject’s eye for a tight headshot, and have the camera track it remarkably well as either the camera or subject moves.

This sort of candid kid shot is a situation in which accurate 3D Tracking or Sony’s Eye AF both come in very handy.

With the D850 though, we’ve noticed it is more apt to be ‘jumpy,’ in that it will jump from our subject’s eye to another portion of their face. Further complicating our assessment of this sort of behavior is that it seems to be inconsistent—sometimes the D850 will track perfectly, other times it gets distracted by something else in the scene.

We also noticed some inconsistency in a situation where we’ve historically been able to rely solely on 3D Tracking, namely: motocross. With the D850, we were able to get a ton of keepers using 3D Tracking, but sometimes, when we looked through our bursts and found that one perfect moment, it would be slightly out of focus because the AF point had jumped from one part of the rider or motorcycle to another.

When we switched to a type of zone focusing called D25, we came away with a better hit rate, so long as we kept the zone over our subject (Note: you would expect this result from just about any camera with advanced autofocus).
3D Tracking on the left nailed focus in this instance, but D25 on the right nailed focus more reliably, more often.

So what’s next?

More photos. Lots more photos.

We’ll be doing our standard autofocus treatment on the D850, including our bicycle tests and our close-range, low-light autofocus evaluation. We’ll also be seeking out sporting events in the Seattle area to see if we can draw some parallels between our usual evaluations and real-world shooting situation performance.

We should also note that, in both Granger’s testing and our own experience, we haven’t yet been able to use Nikon’s new battery grip for the D850. For it to be as even a comparison as possible, we’ll be looking to add the grip and the much more powerful EN-EL18a battery if at all possible.

Only more time and more testing will tell if the D850 can truly stand up to the D5’s autofocus performance, though we should reinforce that D5-level subject tracking is an awfully lofty benchmark to reach for. In our experience, it’s a benchmark that has remained out of reach of any camera to date, and whether or not the D850 measures up will be revealed in our full review.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon D850 added to studio scene comparison

29 Sep

We’ve had some time to get to know the Nikon D850 and so far it’s safe to say we’ve been really impressed. Its low ISO dynamic range is class-leading, and it has proven so far to be a versatile tool for shooting everything from wedding receptions to white water rapid kayaking. We’ve also had a chance to put it in front of our standard studio test scene for your viewing pleasure – see how its 46 megapixels look side-by-side with its peers.

See the Nikon D850 in our studio scene comparison tool

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The Nikon D850 could be the only DSLR you’ll ever need

26 Sep

Introduction

Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 70-200mm F2.8E @ 70mm | ISO 125 | 1/2500 sec | F4

Perched on a rock jutting out over Class IV+ rapids on the Deschutes River, I become fully aware that were I to slip and fall, the frothy white waves would toss me around like a cork, I’d probably hit my head on a submerged volcanic rock, fall unconscious and die.

One of the best things about photography (or one of the worst, I suppose, depending on your perspective) is access. Even if you’re not covering the industry, knowing your way around a camera and having a decent portfolio will often afford you opportunities to get up-close and personal with people you’ve never met before, who are doing things you’ve never seen before, in a place you’ve never been before.

The D850 might just be the most well-rounded camera Nikon’s ever made.

In this particular instance, the access came courtesy of Nikon USA. They wanted us to use the D850 so much that they flew me down to Bend, Oregon with a collection of other photographers and journalists, and stuck us all in a variety of disparate scenarios to get a feel for the camera.

From sports to portraits, the D850 seems almost universally capable. Out-of-camera JPEG, cropped slightly to taste.
Nikon 24-120mm F4 @ 50mm | ISO 2200 | F4 | 1/125 sec

And, not being one to back down from a challenge (or maybe I’m just terrible at scheduling), I was booked to photograph a friend’s wedding immediately upon returning to Seattle. I was eager to use the camera outside of the realm of a press trip, especially since its specs seem to indicate that the D850 might just be the most well-rounded camera Nikon’s ever made.

Actually, it might be the most well-rounded stills camera that anyone has ever made.

This thing is way too fast to be shooting 46 megapixels

This kayaker didn’t seem particularly worried about the Class IV+ rapids, which I was later told verged on Class V. Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 70-200mm F2.8E @ 70mm | ISO 64 | 1/800 sec | F2.8

Perhaps the highest praise I can offer for the D850 is that, in more ways than one, it reminds me of Nikon’s flagship D5 with one of the grips lopped off.

The camera feels incredibly solid. The AF joystick is fantastic. Shutter lag is nonexistent. Autofocus is instant. As with the D5, I repeatedly got the sense that the camera was waiting for me, not the other way around. It offers a ‘transparent’ experience by just getting out of the way and letting me focus on what’s happening in front of me so I don’t miss a photo.

In more ways than one, the D850 reminds me of the flagship D5.

And that’s exactly what I needed as the first kayaker came around the bend. I initiated autofocus and let the camera’s 3D Tracking do its thing as I constantly zoomed and adjusted my composition, with the kayaker moving unpredictably through the scene in front of me and the camera motoring away at seven frames per second.

Want to know what brand the kayak is? Just zoom in to 100%. Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 70-200mm F2.8E @ 70mm | ISO 125 | 1/2500 sec | F4

The fact that the D850 behaves this way, in that it is capable of churning out accurately focused 46MP files of fast-moving subjects, makes it unique. It’s true that Sony’s a99 Mark II shoots 42MP files at a speedier 12fps, but that camera wasn’t our best autofocus performer, and the user interface and SD-only recording media make it a slower camera than the D850 in most other respects.

So in the D850, you basically have a sports camera that you could turn around and make wall-sized gallery prints with in a heartbeat. If that doesn’t meet your definition of ‘well-rounded,’ I don’t know what will.

This man seems comfortable with his life choices. Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 70-200mm F2.8E @ 70mm | ISO 125 | 1/2500 sec | F4

Good at every ISO

As I was heading to the airport outside of Bend, I was looking forward to my evening. I had a short flight back to Seattle, and enough time to get from Seatac Airport to a friend’s wedding ceremony on the shores of Puget Sound. Then I checked in, and saw my flight was delayed by 45 minutes.

Heavy sigh. Heavy stress.

By the time I hopped out of my cab in West Seattle minutes before the ceremony was set to start, the sun had already dropped low in the sky. I hastily introduced myself to the family members I hadn’t yet met, apologized profusely for my tardiness and gave the happy couple a couple of hugs. Time to start taking pictures.

Image processed to taste in Adobe Camera Raw, exposed for the highlights with shadows lifted. With a Nikon D5, Canon EOS-1D X Mark II or Sony a9, this processing would result in a much noisier image.
Nikon 24-120mm F4 @ 24mm | ISO 64 | 1/160 sec | F8

In many ways, peak action and wedding photography place similar demands on both photographer and camera. You’re constantly on the lookout for fleeting moments, and the camera has to be able to respond when you do.

But dedicated sports cameras often come with compromises, such as lower resolution and lower dynamic range. It’s not uncommon to see wedding shooters with one ‘speed’ body and one ‘resolution’ body. With the D850, I’m not sure that’s going to be necessary anymore.

Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 24-120mm F4 @ 46mm | ISO 900 | 1/200 sec | F4

Even without a boost from the battery grip, the burst rate is more than sufficient. As when shooting white water kayaking, I never once found myself waiting for the camera during the ceremony. I knew that images at lower ISO values would have lots of editing latitude, but I was also pleasantly surprised at the quality of higher ISO shots when the sun set behind the clouds.

You can dramatically change an image’s composition while still maintaining a good amount of resolution.

The biggest downside for using the D850 for weddings, so far as I can see it, is just that the average client might not need 46MP for every single image. It burdens the photographer in terms of storage space, and honestly burdens the clients if they’re not going to be printing anything bigger than an 11×14. (Even high-quality JPEG files out of the camera weigh in at 20-30MB).

The camera’s smaller Raw file options might help this somewhat, but we’re still testing to see if there will be any dynamic range or other image quality penalty involved. But on the flip side, there’s no avoiding the freedom you’ll feel when cropping tightly on such a high-res image. You can dramatically change an image’s composition while still maintaining a good amount of amount of resolution, which is pretty powerful.

In the wild. Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 24-120mm F4 @ 110mm | ISO 1400 | 1/500 sec | F4

Should I buy it?

No camera is perfect.

I’m not a big video shooter for freelance work, but I love a tilting screen to get some unique angles for stills, and while Nikon’s live view autofocus is accurate, it certainly isn’t fast. Forget about shooting moving subjects if you’re not in a position to have your eye to the finder.

Commitment.
Nikon 35mm F1.8G | ISO 400 | 1/160 sec | F4

Beyond that, Snapbridge (Nikon’s term for a suite of features including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for downloading images) has improved, but still isn’t exactly refined. The initial connection process was quick and easy, but I couldn’t reconnect again until after I had both my phone and the camera ‘forget’ each other, and start all over again.

For the last year or so, I’ve been wrestling with the issue of whether or not to upgrade. For what I shoot, which is mostly weddings and events, the D850 certainly has a lot to offer. The files are awfully big, but downsizing them will just make for very sharp lower megapixel options.

Nikon seems to have thrown just about everything they’ve got into the D850, and it sits at a very reasonable price point for all that it is capable of. At first glance, it may not be the most exciting camera for the average consumer; it certainly isn’t flashy, nor is it petite.

Out-of-camera JPEG.
Nikon 35mm F1.8G | ISO 3200 | 1/320 sec | F1.8

But for seasoned photographers shooting a variety of subjects, the D850 is a formidable option.

For landscape shooters, you have the current low ISO benchmark at ISO 64, meaning the D850 should be able to match some medium format digital cameras in terms of dynamic range. For wedding and event shooters, you have all the speed you need, but with tons more resolution than may be used to – this could be a blessing or a curse, depending on your style. For those that love manual focus lenses, you get Nikon’s biggest-ever viewfinder on a DSLR. And for wildlife enthusiasts, you get the benefits of the latest sensor tech with plenty of resolution for cropping, as well as excellent autofocus tracking and coverage, even with low light levels.

In all, the D850 offers excellent autofocus performance, incredible resolution, expansive dynamic range and a capable burst speed. Unless you find yourself shooting run-and-gun video on the regular, the D850 is worth a look.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Nikon Asia accused of sexism over D850 promotion that featured 32 men and 0 women

15 Sep
32 photographers featured… all of the men.

Nikon Asia is taking some serious heat today after a Nikon D850 promotion featuring 32 photographers caught the eye of the blog Fstoppers. The issue with this so-called “awe-inspiring” promotion? It featured 32 men, and 0 women, a realization that has led to wide-spread criticism of the promotion and of Nikon as a whole.

The original article didn’t hold back, claiming that “Nikon thinks [the D850] is too much for women to handle,” since the company didn’t select a single woman photographer for this particular promotion. Responses online were equally harsh, with some users asking Nikon when the female version of the D850 would come out… and if it would be pink:

Others implied they would be taking their business elsewhere:

The controversy has gotten so much attention online, in fact, that CNN Money picked up the story.

For its part Nikon Asia did respond on Twitter, thanking users for “challenging us to do more” to support its female photographers. According to that statement, Nikon Asia did invite women to be part of the promotion (no word on how many) but none were able to participate. Here is the full statement:

All in all, it’s been a very bad 24 hours for Nikon. But inflammatory as the original story is and obviously unacceptable as this all-male promotion was, it’s worth pointing out that this doesn’t seem to reflect Nikon’s philosophy as a brand, and particularly not Nikon USA.

The D850 has been promoted like mad, and one of the main photographers spreading the word around the United States is Dixie Dixon. When we reached out to Nikon for comment on this story, the company was adamant about its support for all photographers, sending us the following statement just a few minutes ago:

At Nikon, we champion all passionate photographers. Women are an integral part of the photography community and we are dedicated to celebrating any talented storyteller and their work. We appreciate you raising this concern and we will continue to support the immense creative talent of female photographers in the US and globally.

Nikon—and more specifically Nikon Asia—certainly made a big mistake with this promotion. And given the attention this story has gotten (and will continue to get) it’s safe to say they’ll never host an all-male event or promotion again, nor should they. But to say “Nikon thinks [the D850] is too much for women to handle” is a stomach-churning extrapolation to make… albeit a very click-y one.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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