D850: questions and answers

[Frank Fremerey]

Hi all, I just received a message by one of our members that I should post more insights on the D850.

Yet I feel I already posted most of my insights.

She is what I wanted and does as expected for the price I was ready to pay. In the end a camera is just a piece of hardware. Do not expect wonders from a tool, expect wonders from a craftsman.

Most of the pictures I posted to the forum are D850 or D500 just because these are the cameras I use for daily work and play.

I have no emotional relationship to my tools other than I am angry when a tool does not do as expected. The D850 delivers. Good tool. She doesn't stand in my way and does not add anything I do not want. She is reliable and she is better than the cameras she replaced for me, the D600 and D3.

Only thing I hate is the focussing screen, so I use her to AF and the AF works well.

If you have any more questions, please ask and I will happily answer.

PS I do not video, so I cannot talk about that

PPS I did not try stacking, did not ask for the feature either

PPPS I found myself in the DXO test. Like I said one month earlier the most amazing thing is color differentiation at base ISO. It is immediately visible, I do not need fancy tools to measure "color depth"

PPPPS A 100% crop from my most recent "roll"

[Jack Dahlgren]

Any idea how it compares with the Df/D4 in low light (3200, 6400 ...) and in dynamic range? I like that I can almost always salvage an image even in bad light. My only other firsthand comparison, the Canon 5DS R, seems to require either perfect light or low ISO.

[charlie]

I have no emotional relationship to my tools other than I am angry when a tool does not do as expected. The D850 delivers. Good tool. She doesn't stand in my way and does not add anything I do not want. She is reliable and she is better than the cameras she replaced for me, the D600 and D3.

I don't know, Frank. You've assigned a gender to your hardware, there must be some emotional relationship there 

[Frank Fremerey]

I don't know, Frank. You've assigned a gender to your hardware, there must be some emotional relationship there 

I do not believe in gender. ;-)

[Frank Fremerey]

Any idea how it compares with the Df/D4 in low light (3200, 6400 ...) and in dynamic range? I like that I can almost always salvage an image even in bad light. My only other firsthand comparison, the Canon 5DS R, seems to require either perfect light or low ISO.

For technical questions refer to: https://www.dxomark.com/nikon-d850-sensor-review-first-dslr-hit-100-points

I have neither the tools not the knowledge to measure these and I do not have or want a Df/D4 to compare. I also think that a 46 Megapixel Camera and a 16 Megapixel Camera can only be sensibly compared using same size large prints.

I already told you my subjective impression, that the D500 requires less high ISO chrominance noise filtering than the D850, that the noise character of the D500 is more luminance, less chrominance than the D850. But this is just my daily work and your milage may vary. I do thus not consider the D850 sensor a huge step forward from the D500 sensor when it comes to ISO performance.

It is much better in the low ISO color rendition and the spatial resolution over the whole frame (I capture more information in 46 Megapixels than in 21).

The view finder is for my practical puposes a tad worse than the D500 VF and I use them side by side every day.

[Michael Erlewine]

As for focus stacking, the D850 is great. In fact, I only use LiveView and I set it to silent and Electronic Front Curtain. There is no mirror slap and the layers for stacking very fast and quiet. I just watch the LiveView screen be updated as a way of knowing each frame has been taken. Never been easier. Here is a stacked image with the APO El Nikkor 105mm mounted on the Cambo Actus.

[chambeshi]

As for focus stacking, the D850 is great. In fact, I only use LiveView and I set it to silent and Electronic Front Curtain. There is no mirror slap and the layers for stacking very fast and quiet. I just watch the LiveView screen be updated as a way of knowing each frame has been taken. Never been easier. Here is a stacked image with the APO El Nikkor 105mm mounted on the Cambo Actus.

Beautiful, just beautiful!

[Michael Erlewine]

Here is another: Nikon D850, APO El Nikkor 105mm on the Cambo Actus.

[Frank Fremerey]

I guess the focus stacking question is concerning the AF-S-Auto-focus-shift?

[Michael Erlewine]

I guess the focus stacking question is concerning the AF-S-Auto-focus-shift?

Not for me. No interest in this since all of the best lenses don't work on it.

[Arne Hvaring]

Hi Frank, thank you for providing info on the D850. I wonder if you, or anybody else here, have tried/used the in-camera conversion of negative film? I'm still waiting for the camera, but I am curious about how this actually works, particularly since I have a large shelf with negative albums. Any insights would be welcome.

[Frank Fremerey]

I have ordered the battery compartment as well as the ES2 I will test negative conversion as soon as the ES2 arrives.

[Eddie Draaisma]

The wait over here is for an l-plate. Lloyd Chambers (www.diglloyd.com) fully endorses the 2-piece RRS BD850-L (even before he had a camera available to test it, go figure).  However it requires the left strap triangle-shaped wire with plastic insert to be removed, making it a useless pita for people like me who do remove the plate on longer missions without a tripod.

Apparently  RRS has listened to the many complaints about this, and has announced a single piece D850 l-plate called BD850-UL that doesn't require the strap to be removed. Much better and on order.

As expected, the Foolography BT dongle with D800 modification fits well into the 10-pin connector; together with a BT GPS mouse a GPS tagging solution that actually works, something that cannot be said about SnapBridge. Nikon BTW needs to be pressed to implement direct BT support for BT GPS mice.
I bought a Bad Elf GPS Pro+ GPS mouse; it allows to be simultaneously connected to more than one camera. it also has a GPS tracking mode making it possible to merge GPS data to files of my (GPS-less) Fuji's after ingesting. It also has the possibility to remotely trigger the Nikon through the BT connection, also a handy feature.

[pluton]

Maybe RRS could finally eliminate the idiotic requirement to have a hex key in order to attach and remove their various plates while they're improving that L-plate? Too much to ask, probably...?

[Eddie Draaisma]

Maybe RRS could finally eliminate the idiotic requirement to have a hex key in order to attach and remove their various plates while they're improving that L-plate? Too much to ask, probably...?

+1

A simple slot for a coin or a small collapsible lever is all that is needed.