D850 - The Superb; the Good & OK; the Ugly

[chambeshi]

"....This review will cover my favorite things about the D850… and there are A LOT of them. It’s an incredible camera. Please don’t lose sight of that. This machine is next level hardware. We are in the midst of a full conversion to them. However, this review will also feature some of the things that I think Nikon got (or continues to get) wrong. I think that a few small changes would take this camera from an incredible machine to a beloved tool for those of us that shoot almost every day. The good news is that these changes are mostly possible… even now. The bad news is, I’m not sure Nikon will ever listen..."

https://hofferphotography.com/2017/09/19/nikon-d850-review-the-best-camera-nikon-has-ever-made-but/

Another +ve review albeit with interesting criticism of where Nikon persists in falling short. Software Interfaces.  "the areas where it lacks are very easy software and firmware fixes"..... Personally, I manage the worst of the clunky, hidden settings, and thus usually get along fine with the OS of the Nikon DSLRs (Df, D750, D500, D3). But since the early 1980s i'm used to Command-Line and other interfaces that many contemporary software aficionados condemn as arcane :-)

kind regards

Woody

[Frank Fremerey]

My shortlist, the rest seems to be very very fine:

Since the D3 Nikon made the cameras to supress chrominance noise and make luminance noise look like fine grain. The D850 has some significant chrominance noise that becomes visible at high ISO and at recovering shadows. I am talking about RAWs here, that are precooked in image recorders, processors and firmware. Attached the best I could get in very difficult lighting at base ISO with a double HDR process after RAW conversion.

Manual Focus Capability, highly probable that it is the focussing screen that should be replaced (no firmware fix for that

[Ethan]

"....This review will cover my favorite things about the D850… and there are A LOT of them. It’s an incredible camera. Please don’t lose sight of that. This machine is next level hardware. We are in the midst of a full conversion to them. However, this review will also feature some of the things that I think Nikon got (or continues to get) wrong. I think that a few small changes would take this camera from an incredible machine to a beloved tool for those of us that shoot almost every day. The good news is that these changes are mostly possible… even now. The bad news is, I’m not sure Nikon will ever listen..."

https://hofferphotography.com/2017/09/19/nikon-d850-review-the-best-camera-nikon-has-ever-made-but/

Another +ve review albeit with interesting criticism of where Nikon persists in falling short. Software Interfaces.  "the areas where it lacks are very easy software and firmware fixes"..... Personally, I manage the worst of the clunky, hidden settings, and thus usually get along fine with the OS of the Nikon DSLRs (Df, D750, D500, D3). But since the early 1980s i'm used to Command-Line and other interfaces that many contemporary software aficionados condemn as arcane :-)

kind regards

Woody

This guy review is a load of tosh.

[Ethan]

My shortlist, the rest seems to be very very fine:

Since the D3 Nikon made the cameras to supress chrominance noise and make luminance noise look like fine grain. The D850 has some significant chrominance noise that becomes visible at high ISO and at recovering shadows. I am talking about RAWs here, that are precooked in image recorders, processors and firmware. Attached the best I could get in very difficult lighting at base ISO with a double HDR process after RAW conversion.

Manual Focus Capability, highly probable that it is the focussing screen that should be replaced (no firmware fix for that

Your focus is on the first white hair guy

In which case the B/G should have either a shallower DoP or a deeper one.
It does not work as shot.

[Frank Fremerey]

I love your positive attitude towards life, people and this forum, jay eim ...

[Ethan]

I love your positive attitude towards life, people and this forum, jay eim ...

Thank you for your wishes. It does not make any difference. It still is not properly shot and I understand your embarrassment.

Enjoy this in the mean time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQP7kiw5Fk

[Frank Fremerey]

Thank you for your wishes. It does not make any difference. It still is not properly shot and I understand your embarrassment.

Enjoy this in the mean time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJQP7kiw5Fk

Your opinion was recorded and duly noted

[chambeshi]

This guy review is a load of tosh.

Well, as with art critique, each to their own. I am not alone in finding it useful, especially in not being yet another 'super-technical' review

[armando_m]

Thanks for the link

The review certainly complements the examples and opinions we have seen here and in other web sites

I like it is an opinion of a wedding photographer, they do use the cameras intensively and care about some things I do not but still is an informed opinion - IMO 

[Matthew Currie]

Since I doubt I'll be buying one soon, I may be missing some of the purported tosh in that review, but it seems mostly to be the opinion of someone who has actually used the camera.  However, I do wonder about the complaint that the silent shutter requires Live View.  How else would an SLR with an optical viewfinder have a silent shutter? 

Though I am reminded of an early Nikon F, probably seen here, in which the rangefinder window was retained.  Maybe someone should design a silent-shutter SLR with a little digital viewfinder that can be seen with the mirror up.  Assuming decent auto focus and the like, it would not have to be super high resolution, just good enough to aim.

[MFloyd]

Your opinion was recorded and duly noted

.... and reported, I bet .... 

I trust that picture under reply #1 was only to illustrate your point, and not for being an example of good composition.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I don't find any difficulty with the menu system of mid and upper level Nikon DSLRs. I am wondering why the author of the review was so frustrated with the D850's.

I have to say that saying that 1500-2000 shots on a small battery is "just ok", is odd. The author says the D750 gives as many shots on a single battery charge but the D850 reads, processes and saves almost twice as large files, so power consumption per shot is expected to increase.  Furthermore the AF system is much more powerful and runs on a separate processor which again should consume additional battery power. Finally the 7 and 9 fps capability again are potential sources for increased power consumption. That Nikon manage the D850 to get as many shots as a D750 on one charge in the same kind of use is an achievement.

The CIPA ratings are misleading because the D810 has a built in flash which reduces its number of shots per charge compared to the D850 which doesn't use a built in flash. But still this should take nothing away from Nikon keeping the power consumption under control. I remember I was getting far fewer shots on a charge in earlier Nikon DSLRs.

[David H. Hartman]

Though I am reminded of an early Nikon F, probably seen here, in which the rangefinder window was retained.

That wasn't a rangefinder window but rather a photocell for non-TTL light metering.

Dave

[David H. Hartman]

One thing is lacking in my D800's menu system: that's a U1, U2, U3 and U4 that encompasses both the shooting and the custom settings menus along with exposure mode, focus mode and exposure compensation and accessed as a menu selection perhaps by double pressing the info button and not a dial on top of the camera. This would be similar to resetting the camera to the manufacture's defaults but rather to the user's defaults.

Dave Hartman

[David H. Hartman]

A silent non-live view exposure dSLR is about a plausible today as the Dick Tracy wrist TV was back in the 50's or 60's. The wrist TV was Sci Fi then and fact now. All it took was a bunch of inventions, the color LCD being chief among them.

Dave