Nikon D850 announced-ish

[GrahamL]

I saw the camera yesterday, they had two on exclusive demo at Greys of Westminster.

It looks and feels very similar to the D810, a major difference is the ISO switching with the mode switch. It's now positioned on the right-hand side of the camera, similar to the placement on the new D5 and D500. Similarly the back has been re-jigged to include the joystick that comes with the new AF features, also seen with the D5/D500. The image size is a little larger, 8256 x 5504 compared to the D810's 7360 x 4912 pixels, but not enough to make a great difference resolution-wise. Note that as yet there is no Adobe update to process raw files is this new format, for demonstration use he was shooting fine jpegs only. The new battery grip comes with an exceptionally large lithium battery, because of this the screw locking rotator is not more to one-side and a little smaller than that on the D810 to make room for it. Sadly this makes it a little more awkward to put on the grip quickly. Both camera and grip are very well built, the camera said to be weather-proof.

Looks good, just a pity about the price. I was told all of the UK shipment has arrived, in place for the 7th September launch-date.

I came across an interesting review that included interviews with the Nikon development team in imaging resource, see: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-d850/nikon-d850A.HTM
In the interview Nikon revealed that they had designed the new sensor in the D850 entirely in-house, which is a marked departure. The company has previously used Sony sensors in most of its cameras, including the D850's predecessor, the D810. The D850 sensor manufacture was contracted out to an unnamed silicon foundry. They are saying that by doing this they have successfully increased the ISO sensitivity without increasing noise by about a full one stop - without compromising the excellent dynamic range seen with the D810's Sony sensor. The proof will be when the technical reviewers get their hands on it.

Cheers,

Graham

[Mike Farley]

Looks good, just a pity about the price.

Quite. It is not the only drawback, though, as that much resolution will require top quality lenses and any image shake will be more readily apparent.

Unless anyone needs to print very large, or is a heavy cropper, the D750 looks better value for most purposes. Assuming that it is possible to find one which has not been subject to the various recalls that model has experienced.

Anyone specifically wanting the D5 AF has the option of the D500 instead. The sensor has the advantage of a crop factor that benefits sports and nature subjects for which the AF is suited.

I came across an interesting review that included interviews with the Nikon development team in imaging resource, see: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-d850/nikon-d850A.HTM
In the interview Nikon revealed that they had designed the new sensor in the D850 entirely in-house, which is a marked departure. The company has previously used Sony sensors in most of its cameras, including the D850's predecessor, the D810. The D850 sensor manufacture was contracted out to an unnamed silicon foundry. They are saying that by doing this they have successfully increased the ISO sensitivity without increasing noise by about a full one stop - without compromising the excellent dynamic range seen with the D810's Sony sensor.

In the past, Nikon has claimed to have designed its own sensors and that they were different to Sony designs, although the latter manufactured them. I believe that this might not have happened with the 24 MP and 36 MP full frame sensors, which are shared Sony. As far as I can recall, this is the first time that Sony has not made the sensor which has gone into a Nikon DSLR.

[GrahamL]

Hi Mike,

Personally I'm very happy working with the D810 and it's additional resolution, never seen a significant problem lens-handling-wise and it's useful to have that additional resolution when you do want to crop, such as in macro work. While the larger file-size does slow up the processing/uploading a tad, and does take up more disk space, it's very livable with.

My first Nikon digital camera was a D7100, which unusually did come with a Toshiba sensor (see http://www.sensorgen.info/NikonD7100.html). Didn't stay that way of course, the D7200 sensor is made by Sony.

No idea if the D7100 was the sole exception to Nikon's previous reliance on Sony.

Cheers,

Graham