Nikon D850 previews, commentary - first reviews

[Frank Fremerey]

Yes, my MB-D18 also fits like a custom made glove. For Four hundred forty Euros I expect no less. But: my gripped D500 is still my favourite when it comes to ergonomics. The gripped D850 is just too big for my taste. This might also be due to the current pain in my joints...

She is also extremely heavy with lenses like the 1.4/105G it is pain.

[David H. Hartman]

Do you need 9 fps with a 105/1.4? I'd think the battery grip would be most useful with a large and heavy super telephoto that's tripod mounted.

When I think of heavy I think of a Linhof Technika IV or V, also a Nikon F2As with MD-2 and MB-1.

Dave

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Why not? I find that action looks more dramatic and 3D from a close distance. Also for indoor sports you may find f/1.4 useful.

[David H. Hartman]

Why not? I find that action looks more dramatic and 3D from a close distance. Also for indoor sports you may find f/1.4 useful.

Good point...

In that case exercise and build up endurance so a D850 with power grip and 105/1.4 doesn't feel that heavy.

I'm sure it can be done.

Dave 

---

I don't own a D850, grip and 105/1.4 but I do own an F5 and 180/2.8 ED AIS. The 105/1.4 weighs 985g v. 180/2.8 ED weighs 800g. That's 185g, that's not going to break your back or even your wrist. I'll have to check the weight of the D850 w/ grip and battery (1065g) and the F5 (1210g). I still need to find the weight of 8x Energizer L91 batteries.

[Frank Fremerey]

The D850 with 1.4/105 ist great for Indoor Sports, esp horses

The weight of the combo with grip and D5-Battery is roughly 2200 gramm

The joint pain has nothing to do with training. It is a biochemical reaction towards medication I had to take for a while

[David H. Hartman]

The joint pain has nothing to do with training. It is a biochemical reaction towards medication I had to take for a while

I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope the problem will reverse and soon. I hope healing will be complete.

Dave

[Kenneth Rich]

" The gripped D850 is just too big for my taste," he said.  Frank, go back to your Df, or go out and buy one, and use it until your hands are healed.

[Frank Fremerey]

I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope the problem will reverse and soon. I hope healing will be complete.

Dave

Yea. I am off the medication, but some of the side effects only gradually wear off over time. For a while the pain was so bad that I could only walk, not run, not jog. Even the walking was painful. I do my strict diet and take some additives to heal. A long way

[Tejpor]

To the experienced D850 shooters... has anybody tried the silent liveview mode? Is it indeed possible to do hour-long, gapless interval exposures similar to the specialized D810A?

I'm asking beacuse almost all earlier bodies need some time between exposures e.g. beacuse of some processing and possibly mirror movement: 30s exposures need ~33s.

This new feature would be most welcome for startrails...

[chambeshi]

To the experienced D850 shooters... has anybody tried the silent liveview mode? Is it indeed possible to do hour-long, gapless interval exposures similar to the specialized D810A?

I'm asking beacuse almost all earlier bodies need some time between exposures e.g. beacuse of some processing and possibly mirror movement: 30s exposures need ~33s.

This new feature would be most welcome for startrails...

I have only used silent mode for up to a ~15sec on landscapes with MirrorUP, so no long exposures. But I have read that the D850 shutter will remain open indefinitely, and see the info on Multiple Exposures in the Menu Guide (pdf). Works fine once one learns by trial and error which combination of buttons (Info, OK etc) set these functions including the dynamic histogram. IME the D850 on a solid tripod performs flawlessly for shake-prone exposures using silent shutter with touchscreen enabled - trigger the camera with a v gentle finger touch.

This recent comparative review with current FX Nikons for astrophotography mentions "Thirty-minute exposures at native ISO without enabling LENR were clean as a whistle. Native ISO 64 exposures yielded truly extraordinary image quality in both natural and artificial light, but higher ISO images were inconsistent."
https://petapixel.com/2018/01/26/nikon-night-photography-showdown-d850-vs-d750-d810-d5/

[MILLIREHM]

I haven't been able to gain any experience because D850 simply are not available in numbers here in Austria (and probably not only here). My dealer told me there are a lot of complaints and a long waiting list and a few samples he got eventually. Not a great leap forward for Nikon for offering a camera of that potential but not being able to distribute D850 bodies in numbers meeting the demand. Now it is months after it had been announced.

[Frank Fremerey]

Wolfgang: I preordered it and got it. If you cannot get it in Austria you can get it somewhere in Europe by mail order if you really want it.

[Frank Fremerey]

To the experienced D850 shooters... has anybody tried the silent liveview mode?

I use it all the time but only for series of max 10 Pictures

[chambeshi]

To the experienced D850 shooters... has anybody tried the silent liveview mode? Is it indeed possible to do hour-long, gapless interval exposures similar to the specialized D810A?

I'm asking beacuse almost all earlier bodies need some time between exposures e.g. beacuse of some processing and possibly mirror movement: 30s exposures need ~33s.

This new feature would be most welcome for startrails...

have you seen this review? https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-d850/2

"7) Exposures Longer than 30 Seconds
Unfortunately, Nikon did not add all the custom exposure times that are available on the Nikon D810A, so we still have exactly the same limitations as the Nikon D810. While you don’t need a remote shutter release to do longer than 30 seconds of exposure time (since you can still use the Time “–” (double dash) setting in Manual Mode in order to capture long exposures), if you do not want to touch the camera during long exposures, you have no other option other than connecting a remote shutter release. Fortunately, when doing very long exposures, touching the camera to stop the exposure is not that big of a deal and it won’t mess up your shot due to camera shake. For this reason, I rarely ever take a remote camera shutter release with me now when shooting with the D810 and the same applies to the D850. However, I still wish Nikon added the same long exposure mode options to the D850, or let the user customize the length of exposure via the camera menu. Seems like an easy feature to implement, something Nikon could do through a firmware update. Sadly, given the history of Nikon, I seriously doubt that the company will add any new features to the camera via such firmware updates."

[Tejpor]

Thank you all for the replies! Lot of useful info. This is getting closer, but let me further clarify my issue: say I would like to take a series of 30sec shots. In previous Nikons, because of mirror movement and other processing, there is a small delay between each 30s shot (2-3 sec).

When photographing startrails or cityscapes during night, this shows up: there are ugly gaps every 30 seconds.

I'm asking, whether the new D850 with its all-electronic shutter is there a straightforward way to set up the shooting of such timed sequences: e.g. 30 sec exposures - but every exposure begins where the previous ended, with no blackout.

EDIT: of course, these timed shots only make sense if this sequence can be kept up for hours...
EDIT 2: the smaller exposures cannot be substituted with one, lengthy exposure: 100x30s is not the same as 1x3000s. Reasons are "astronomical"