WORKING WITH THE NEW NIKON D850 I invested in the Nikon D850 recently and I thought I’d give you my brief thoughts. Its not a review more of a report on actually working with the camera. I have now completed my kit which now comprises Nikon 16-35, 24-70, 70-200 and Sigma 35, 50, 85 Art, tele and tubes with D810 as backup camera.
Firstly, the good things: Its lovely to work with and there are no problems. Its a joy in the hands and its the kind of camera I really want to go out and work with! Ive traded down from the Hasselblad H4D50 which was painful but I dont regret it. I’ve also moved up from the D810 which is still a fantastic camera but is now in retirement as back-up. The D850 has more tonal values, the files seem more solid and have better colour, even though I shoot almost exclusively in camera Neutral. I’m still getting used to the look and I dont quite think I’ve got the measure of it fully in my post production. Having AF tuned all my lenses twice it mostly shoots in focus. I shot a studio food shoot for a long standing client the other week and the files matched and looked just the same as my Hasselblad files I’ve shot for them in the past. At 64asa they are amazing. Live view is very good on screen and on the rear of the camera (at the same time!) and tethering to the horrible Nikon camera control and View NX has been solid and quite a good experience, the new LR update allows for tethering at last so I will be going back there. I do a huge amount of post production and its great to work on such large files.These Sigma lenses when they are in focus are fabulous with a ‘magical’ effect!
Secondly the bad things: You really do have to AF tune your lenses and I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. The 16-35 f4 is a pig and the Sigma 85 needs more AF tuning. Unlike the Hasselblad its the lenses that let this camera down, so many pixels really show how crap 35mm lenses are! Now, because I shoot in difficult places and sometimes I confess my exposure technique could be better I do see noise above 640asa. Its quite nice grainy noise nicer than the D810 but it is NOT a noise free camera! I like lifting the shadows, dialling back the blues using a little split tone and sometimes lifting the background by a whole stop and this is really tough on the files. Nothing that LR noise reduction can’t handle and of course it can be painted in. The settings system for Nikon is still stupid and it can be so hard to change things that I’ve just set it up and I’m frightened to change it! Oh and silent live view can suffer from banding caused by LED lights but I’ve not really used it much.
So would I recommend this camera? Yes with reservations and if you were strapped for cash, there are lots of good D810s around.
So those are my thoughts and do please ask questions. And here are a few low res images above.