D850 first impressions after handling for a couple of hours...

[Ann]

I have been revelling in being able to use ultra-high ISO and to be able to shoot just about anywhere, at any time, and under any conditions. I find it liberating and exciting to be able to photograph where I never could previously.

Colour rendering seem to hold-up remarkably well even at those settings and my approach is to ameliorate the Colour Noise but leave Luminance Noise alone.

To me the slight grittiness of Luminance Noise is of no concern but I really dislike the mushiness which results from using Luminance Noise Reduction.

[Les Olson]

The ES-2 is mounted on the lens using an adapter, right? So the critical parameter is the working distance (i.e. distance between front of the lens and subject) and not the distance between the sensor and the subject, right?

Correct.  The only helpful information I have seen is on the Nikon USA site in the form of Nikon's answers in the Product Forum for the ES-2 (http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/miscellaneous/es-2-film-digitizing-adapter-set.html#tab-ProductDetail-ProductTabs-Forum).  That does not include physical specifications, but assuming it is true that the ES-2 mounts on the 40 DX without an adapter it itself must be about 16cm long, closest focus for the 40 DX.  The Apo Rodagon 75mm is said to have a working distance of 11.8 cm at 1:1 (http://coinimaging.com/aporod75-4var.html) so you won't get 1:1 with the ES-2 unless you take a slice out of it and re-join the ends.

Another issue would be the filter threads, which are 62mm on all three of Nikon's designated lenses, so presumably the ES-2 is also 62mm.  Adding step-up rings would add length.   

If you don't get 1:1, all that means is wasted pixels, which in the case of the D850 is not likely to be a major problem.  You might lose some of the speed advantage getting accurate focus.  Of course, the accuracy of focus with the ES-2 depends on how well made Nikon's holders are and how well they fit the slot in the ES-2, which we don't yet know.

Nikon's price for a plastic tube with a threaded end is outrageous, so I am going to wait for the $5 copies to appear.   With a bit of luck an enterprising person might even make one to digitise medium format negatives.   

[Frode]

I'm very hyped about the D850, hopefully I'll be able to get a copy by mid-October 

The DR is slightly better than the D810 and slightly worse than the a7r2, but base 64 ISO! Oh, and ISO 12800 delivers clean images as well. This is simply stunning. I was going to get a D500, but why should I? I'll have the D850 paired with a used D7200 rather than D810+D500. It's a bit more expensive, but I only paid $1000ish AUD for my D810 so why not. 

Nikon is on the right track in my opinion. Recently Canon released 3 new tilt-shift lenses, 50mm, 90mm and 135mm. Nikon's 24, 45, and 85 needs an update to allow tilt and shift on the same axis.
If Nikon doesn't goof this one with another D750 ploy, and if Nikon can give us an adequately spec'd mirrorless FX, Nikon shooters are on a roll! I personally don't care much about mirrored or mirrorless, but economically, it makes sense for Nikon to ride the wave as the market is maturing soon.

According to Nikon the D850 has the SAME dynamic range AS the D810.

https://m.dpreview.com/news/6772782345/exclusive-nikon-answers-20-popular-questions-about-the-nikon-d850

[richardHaw]

http://richardhaw.com/2017/09/12/nikon-d850-negative-digitizer-mode/

a video of the negative digitizer in action...sort of...

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Nikon's price for a plastic tube with a threaded end is outrageous, so I am going to wait for the $5 copies to appear.   With a bit of luck an enterprising person might even make one to digitise medium format negatives.   

Making thin threads into a plastic tube is quite difficult.

Medium format digitized with one frame of a 35mm format camera would be seen a bit of a downgrade IMO. I didn't shoot 6x7 cm film in order to copy it with a 35mm camera.

One way to digitize medium format is by stitching, but then you need a way to get the pieces to match perfectly. Low distortion in the lens should help.

Problem with film is that for optimal quality you need to use a microscope lens and those cover only small pieces of the film at a time ... so it gets quickly complicated and one may have to decide on a "good enough" technique never getting the true details on the film in the digital realm.

If the plan is to display film based images on the computer, put them on a web site or print small, the finest details should not be a problem and I would hope the D850 can do the trick. Scanners had techniques to reduce the impact of grain and dust (GEM and ICE) and I felt both worked very well on color negative film. I would guess this problem would show up when using the D850 in place of a scanner: not all the software options are available. Of course there is noise reduction software available but are the algorithms in current noise reduction optimized for the noise structure of film?  I would think they are not. Years ago I felt NeatImage to give an excessively polished look to scanned images and actually preferred GEM in the Nikon Scan software (which is no longer supported) for color negatives for a natural look.

[Ann]

I have not tried to camera-copy color film; I prefer to use a scanner with specialised software for that purpose.

The Nikon Bellows units have film holders and  second-hand ones can often been found on the Internet.

NikonScan (Mac) will only run on old (pre-Intel) Macs but SilverFast has excellent software and a current driver for the Nikon scanners although I believe that NikonScan 4 still runs on Windows computers.

[Frank Fremerey]

I tried the ES-1 with color slides on my D600 and was very satisfied with the results. I sure cannot see more details on a large wall projection. I expect the D850 to outperform my color shots. I did use 400 ASA film most of the time and I am quite positive that I did not use the best hand holding technique and because I did often shoot in low light, manual focus most of the time and Aperture between f/1.4 and f/2 I am quite sure that critical focus for super high frequency information was not recorded. If the D600 can resolve the grain in all its beauty, the D850 will "only" add bezter color fidelity.

Yes the Nikon Scanners are very nice and time is not so much of an issue if you run batches of 50 slides in auto mode....    BUT: for the casual scan to sell for even large prints the DSLR quality is more than good enough!

I can upload a full size D600 scan and even a D850 scan of the best shot I can find spontaneously if it helps. I also have the PB4 bellows here with slide copier attachment.