Nikon D850 Camera Full Review
I have now had the camera for a few days and wanted to give my initial thoughts on the D850. I am upgrading from the D810 and will give the review from this perspective.
The overall feel is very similar with a few small changes. The grip feels thinner but deeper and most people find it more pleasant. For some reason. The D850 grip sort of has a square feeling in my hand.
The button layout is a little different and overall I would say better. I prefer the ISO button on the right so you can make all major adjustments with the same hand. The joystick is a lot better for changing focus points. This could get annoying with the trackpad when you had to make larger focus point adjustments. The joystick makes this a quick process.
I love the tilt screen and what it allows me to do. I shoot a lot of landscape and I will no longer have to bend or lay down to get a shot. It also allows overhead shots that can really change perspective.
The illuminated buttons are a welcomed addition. I shoot at night and it's a nice option to have.
Image quality is amazing. It's not a huge jump but noticeable. I also think that ISO 64 is cleaner on the D850 camera. When raising shadows the colours are truer and the detail is not lost.
Some peoples reported over a 1 stop gain in HIGH ISO. I don't believe this is true but I do think the D850 has cleaner High ISO shots.
I do a lot of nightscapes and the D850 is definitely cleaner at ISO 32hundred- 64hundred. There is still noise to deal with but it is better. The D850 has greatly improved in this area. There is a few but it is much improved.
I haven't had a lot of chances to test the Autofocus system but I fully expect it to be tons better than the D810. I can say that the camera does a ton better focusing in low light. I have now to try and focus on something with the D850 and had it hunt for focus.
Some other features I really enjoy
The focus stack feature has tons of potential. I have played with it a little and it really makes focus stacking a lot easier.
I love the focus peaking feature for stills. I use manual focus lenses and it really does change the success rate with fast manual lenses. I am so happy this feature has been added to D850. The viewfinder is larger and looks nice but don't expect a huge difference. It's a small improvement.
The silent mode will come in handy but it takes getting used to. I would stand there wondering if I just took a shot because it's completely silent. This is mostly awkward when doing long exposures because you end up touching the camera to check while it's still taking the photo.
Overall the D850 is a definite winner and I think almost all buyers will be thrilled with it. If you plan to take advantage of the 7-9FPS I suggest investing in the XQD card. I do wish Nikon would make the custom buttons even more customizable. There is still a lot of restrictions that seem so easy to correct.
