Nikon D850 - Owners Thread

I think I'm one of the latter! It took me years moving from Contax to Canon, but that involved the move from film to digital as well. I'm sure it will/would be quite difficult at first. I was thinking of taking the plunge with something like a d750 and a 24-120 zoom at first which wouldn't be too much of a loss financially if I had to sell them on again. I would keep thelens and the d750 as a second body if I moved to the d850.

Where would be a good source of 46Mb files?
Getting a D750 and 24-120mm might be a good idea in regards to financial loss, but there are a couple of reasons that you may want to rethink this idea. Firstly the controls of the D750 and the D850 aren't quite the same. I swapped from the D750 to the D850 and on the whole prefer the D850, however I prefer the metering button being on the right side of the camera like it is on the D750. With the D750 you can assign the record button to change ISO and this was better than having a dedicated ISO button for me as now the record button has no useful assignable feature for me (why they don't allow you to assign metering mode to this is beyond me). Also, the 24-120mm doesn't resolve the detail of the high res cameras as well as other lenses such as the 24-70mm f2.8. For example the 24-70mm and 24-120mm f4 score 17 and 14 Mpix sharpness respectively according to DXO. However on the D800E (unfortunately DXO haven't got around to testing on the D850 yet) the 24-70mm gains 4 Mpix in sharpness, rising to 21, whilst the 24-120mm only gains 1 Mpix rising to 15. Not the end of the world obviously, but just thought it was worth mentioning. I was happy with the 24-120mm f4 on my D750 but did swap it for the 24-70mm when I bought the D850 as I didn't want to spend all that money on a new camera with all that potential resolution and get no benefit from it.

This has some sample RAWs if you scroll down past the jpegs
https://www.photographyblog.com/previews/nikon_d850_photos/
 
Hmmmmm.....plenty of food for thought there. I'm aware that the 24-120 isn't the greatest lens on the planet but I'm so used to the canon 24-105 it would be so frustrating to lose the 70-105 range in a standard zoom. Thanks a lot for the info and opinions. I appreciate it.
Well if you think about it the D850 is 19mp in DX mode so the 24-70mm kind of becomes a 24-105mm f2.8 ;)
 
In my opinion, quite the opposite if you're referring to the 24-120/f4 lens. It's quite a stellar lens. I use it on my D750 all the time.
I was happy with mine on the D750 too. Not sure I'd say it's Stellar but I found it very good (y)
 
You'll have to explain that to me (although I notice the wink smiley.......")
Nikon's have a DX mode, which is a 1.5x crop mode. As the D850 has a whopping 45.7mp you can shoot in crop mode (DX mode) giving you 1.5x more effective reach yet still giving you a 19mp image. You can of course just crop in post to get the same result, but the end result is that if you shoot at 70mm in full res, you can crop to give you the same field of view as 105mm and still have a 19mp image, which is still more than enough for most applications. Basically with the D850 you get a full frame and crop body camera all in one (y)
 
I have to say, your bird shots are superb! Makes me realise how much more I have to learn.
 
So talk to me about memory cards....

What's the buffer actually like? Do I need 400mb/s XQD cards?
 
So talk to me about memory cards....

What's the buffer actually like? Do I need 400mb/s XQD cards?
Yes if you want to get close to Nikon’s claimed buffer of 50+. I have the Sony M series and Lexar one both of which are 150mb/s write speed and I get circa 22-25 14 bit lossless compressed before it slows. 12 bit lossless compressed I get circa 35 before the buffer fills. Mid 20’s is fine for me, and for that reason I can’t justify the cost of the Sony G series. Lexar cards have been delayed........... again :(
 
Yes if you want to get close to Nikon’s claimed buffer of 50+. I have the Sony M series and Lexar one both of which are 150mb/s write speed and I get circa 22-25 14 bit lossless compressed before it slows. 12 bit lossless compressed I get circa 35 before the buffer fills. Mid 20’s is fine for me, and for that reason I can’t justify the cost of the Sony G series. Lexar cards have been delayed........... again :(

So is that 35, full MP, but 12 bit lossless?

That's probably fine for me, for weddings I don't really notice the difference between 14bit and 12bit and the amount of processing I do tbh.
 
So is that 35, full MP, but 12 bit lossless?

That's probably fine for me, for weddings I don't really notice the difference between 14bit and 12bit and the amount of processing I do tbh.
Yeah, 45.7mp 12bit lossless compressed and getting circa 35 buffer. That’s with jpeg backup onto the SD card, if you shoot RAW plus RAW with a slow SD that will obviously reduce the buffer.

I can’t tell a difference between 12 and 14 bit either.
 
Yeah, 45.7mp 12bit lossless compressed and getting circa 35 buffer. That’s with jpeg backup onto the SD card, if you shoot RAW plus RAW with a slow SD that will obviously reduce the buffer.

I can’t tell a difference between 12 and 14 bit either.

Try with an xqd but no sd card and see what the difference is. I know you might want backup but humour me
 
Try with an xqd but no sd card and see what the difference is. I know you might want backup but humour me
Already have, doesn’t make a difference.
 
Yeah, 45.7mp 12bit lossless compressed and getting circa 35 buffer. That’s with jpeg backup onto the SD card, if you shoot RAW plus RAW with a slow SD that will obviously reduce the buffer.

I can’t tell a difference between 12 and 14 bit either.

Ah awesome, so I'd just need to budget for probably 128gb of XQD and matching UHS II SD cards :)
 
Ah awesome, so I'd just need to budget for probably 128gb of XQD and matching UHS II SD cards :)


I'm thinking of going down the d850 route too and am also wondering what the peripherals will cost on top of the body itself (and not to mention the lenses.....).

So could anyone advise me?

Does the body come with a memory card and will it be adequate for the job (or a cheapo stopgap)? I'd probably need quite a fast card for wildlife photography.

Does it use CF cards or just SD or XQD cards............? I guess the XQD cards are super expensive.

Spare battery? What are the options? Is there a recommended 3rd-party alternative to the Nikon battery?

Would be very grateful for some advice here.....
 
I'm thinking of going down the d850 route too and am also wondering what the peripherals will cost on top of the body itself (and not to mention the lenses.....).

So could anyone advise me?

Does the body come with a memory card and will it be adequate for the job (or a cheapo stopgap)? I'd probably need quite a fast card for wildlife photography.

Does it use CF cards or just SD or XQD cards............? I guess the XQD cards are super expensive.

Spare battery? What are the options? Is there a recommended 3rd-party alternative to the Nikon battery?

Would be very grateful for some advice here.....

It's QXD and SD. and to get the most out of it you'd want UHS-II speed SD cards.

A 64GB 150mb/s XQD is around £110, the faster version £160

A matching SD card is about £115
 
Ah awesome, so I'd just need to budget for probably 128gb of XQD and matching UHS II SD cards :)
I would assume so, but I don't have any SD cards faster than 95mb/s to know whether shooting RAW + RAW with a faster SD card still slows it or not.

I was thinking last night though, I think my figures were shooting at 9fps with the battery grip and shooting at 7fps you get more shots before the buffer fills. If I remember I'll test it tonight.

I'm thinking of going down the d850 route too and am also wondering what the peripherals will cost on top of the body itself (and not to mention the lenses.....).

So could anyone advise me?

Does the body come with a memory card and will it be adequate for the job (or a cheapo stopgap)? I'd probably need quite a fast card for wildlife photography.

Does it use CF cards or just SD or XQD cards............? I guess the XQD cards are super expensive.

Spare battery? What are the options? Is there a recommended 3rd-party alternative to the Nikon battery?

Would be very grateful for some advice here.....
Cards for newer cameras if you need the fast write speeds are just crazy expensive. 128gb 440/150mb/s XQD are going to cost you in the region of £150, whilst 440/400mb/s ones will set you back over £200 :eek: Likewise 128gb SD cards with 300/299mb/s are going to set you back over £200. It's definitely a factor you need to consider as cards alone can end up costing more than a decent camera :(
 
Unless you need mega speed and buffer you don't need the most expensive cards ... there are still the older XQD cards available at more reasonable (read still a rip-off) prices and the D850 works fine with SD UH-S1 cards.
I'm thinking of going down the d850 route too and am also wondering what the peripherals will cost on top of the body itself (and not to mention the lenses.....).

So could anyone advise me?

Does the body come with a memory card and will it be adequate for the job (or a cheapo stopgap)? I'd probably need quite a fast card for wildlife photography.

Does it use CF cards or just SD or XQD cards............? I guess the XQD cards are super expensive.

Spare battery? What are the options? Is there a recommended 3rd-party alternative to the Nikon battery?

Would be very grateful for some advice here.....

No memory card with the camera, it will work with XQD and/or SD.
A Battery grip is a good idea but it needs a BL-5 door and an EN-EL18 equivalent battery to give you the full 9 fps (Ex-Pro provide a good alternative battery that works).
 
I would assume so, but I don't have any SD cards faster than 95mb/s to know whether shooting RAW + RAW with a faster SD card still slows it or not.

I was thinking last night though, I think my figures were shooting at 9fps with the battery grip and shooting at 7fps you get more shots before the buffer fills. If I remember I'll test it tonight.


Cards for newer cameras if you need the fast write speeds are just crazy expensive. 128gb 440/150mb/s XQD are going to cost you in the region of £150, whilst 440/400mb/s ones will set you back over £200 :eek: Likewise 128gb SD cards with 300/299mb/s are going to set you back over £200. It's definitely a factor you need to consider as cards alone can end up costing more than a decent camera :(

Gulp! Shame it won't work with CF cards as I have a selection of those already.

It's QXD and SD. and to get the most out of it you'd want UHS-II speed SD cards.

A 64GB 150mb/s XQD is around £110, the faster version £160

A matching SD card is about £115

No memory card with the camera, it will work with XQD and/or SD.

Thanks for the examples.
 
Ah awesome, so I'd just need to budget for probably 128gb of XQD and matching UHS II SD cards :)

I was thinking last night though, I think my figures were shooting at 9fps with the battery grip and shooting at 7fps you get more shots before the buffer fills. If I remember I'll test it tonight.



So I've just checked, the figures I gave were correct for 7fps without grip. So confirmation when using a Sony M Series 440/150mb/s XQD card shooting to RAW only on the XQD card (no SD card) I get approx 24-25 shot buffer at 14 bit lossless compressed, and 32-35 shot buffer at 12 bit lossless compressed.
 

So I've just checked, the figures I gave were correct for 7fps without grip. So confirmation when using a Sony M Series 440/150mb/s XQD card shooting to RAW only on the XQD card (no SD card) I get approx 24-25 shot buffer at 14 bit lossless compressed, and 32-35 shot buffer at 12 bit lossless compressed.

Should be more enough for me :) Thanks!
 
Should be more enough for me :) Thanks!
Yep, more than enough for me too. It was rare that I hit the buffer on the D750, so getting 10 more shots is plenty, let alone 20 more if I shoot 12 bit. Hopefully prices may decrease on the faster cards at some point, especially if Lexar get their act together and finally start releasing again.
 
Well for what it’s worth here’s my initial impressions of the D850 compared to my Canons.

I prefer the location of the ON/OFF button. Makes it easier to see if you’ve left the camera on when it’s in the bag. Something that I’m in the habit of doing.

The larger buttons for accessing ISO, MODE etc I feel are an improvement on the Canon. I always struggle to find the ISO button on the Canon so move it to the centre of the rear dial.

Why did they get rid of the AE LOCK button and replace it with the small joystick. Why not have both. I’ve got it set up as another AF AREA + AF ON and find it quite easy to move the AF point instead of activating the AF. Bit more practice required perhaps.

It would be nice if you could have MY MENU to come up at the start when you press the MENU button. It seems to start with whatever you looked at last. I’ve put MY MENU on the Fn2 button.

I use different focus point in different camera orientations and have the Fn1 button set to switch to the PRE SET AF point. On the Canons one press moves the point to the pre set and another press moves it back again but on the Nikon you have to press the centre of the multi selecter to return it to the starting point.

Hate having to hold one button down while you rotate one of the dials to set something so have put the button timer on so I can just press and release and then rotate the dials.

INFO screen is good and having the settings come up on it when you press one of the buttons is a better way than canon do it I feel although I don’t use it much on the Canon.

Image quality seems excellent although I’ve just been messing around in the garden. It will be interesting to compare it with my 5D4 at the ISO Settings that I normally use.

Not delved into the Custom Shooting Banks yet but all in all I feel pretty positive about buying it.
 
Well for what it’s worth here’s my initial impressions of the D850 compared to my Canons.

I prefer the location of the ON/OFF button. Makes it easier to see if you’ve left the camera on when it’s in the bag. Something that I’m in the habit of doing.

The larger buttons for accessing ISO, MODE etc I feel are an improvement on the Canon. I always struggle to find the ISO button on the Canon so move it to the centre of the rear dial.

Why did they get rid of the AE LOCK button and replace it with the small joystick. Why not have both. I’ve got it set up as another AF AREA + AF ON and find it quite easy to move the AF point instead of activating the AF. Bit more practice required perhaps.

It would be nice if you could have MY MENU to come up at the start when you press the MENU button. It seems to start with whatever you looked at last. I’ve put MY MENU on the Fn2 button.

I use different focus point in different camera orientations and have the Fn1 button set to switch to the PRE SET AF point. On the Canons one press moves the point to the pre set and another press moves it back again but on the Nikon you have to press the centre of the multi selecter to return it to the starting point.

Hate having to hold one button down while you rotate one of the dials to set something so have put the button timer on so I can just press and release and then rotate the dials.

INFO screen is good and having the settings come up on it when you press one of the buttons is a better way than canon do it I feel although I don’t use it much on the Canon.

Image quality seems excellent although I’ve just been messing around in the garden. It will be interesting to compare it with my 5D4 at the ISO Settings that I normally use.

Not delved into the Custom Shooting Banks yet but all in all I feel pretty positive about buying it.
I don't know why they got rid of the AEL button either, but having it set to centre press of the joystick is no problem for me. I don't use the joystick for anything else as find moving the AF point with the D-Pad easier/more natural. You can assign my menu to a function button, that's what I've always done. I had it on the front Fn button on the D750 but now on the D850 is has an extra Fn button on the back so have that assigned to my menu. With Nikon you can set it so that the AF point changes with camera orientation (ie have it set so that when you turn it to portrait it's at the top for example, then in landscape it will revert back to whatever position you had it whilst in landscape orientation such as centre top) but it will just revert back to the last used position for each orientation and you can't assign a 'favourite position'. The pressing and holding whilst rotating a dial is just preference, I find it a bind with cameras that don't so this ;)

Have fun getting to know the camera (y) Don't expect it to be a high ISO king though, it's no D750 or Sony A73. After downsampling as you'll likely do the majority of the time it does look much cleaner though.
 
Last edited:
I'm in London today and I lugged in my D850 with my 70-200 f2.8 to try and get some pics of the RAF 100 fly pass. Sadly I dont have a 200-500 or 150-600mm lens. Whats my best option. Shoot FX and crop... or shoot DX and use the crop factor?
 
I'm in London today and I lugged in my D850 with my 70-200 f2.8 to try and get some pics of the RAF 100 fly pass. Sadly I dont have a 200-500 or 150-600mm lens. Whats my best option. Shoot FX and crop... or shoot DX and use the crop factor?
Either or, the result is the same. If you're nowhere near filling the frame you may as well use DX mode and then you have smaller file sizes to deal with.
 
Either or, the result is the same. If you're nowhere near filling the frame you may as well use DX mode and then you have smaller file sizes to deal with.


I somewhat agree but there always a outside chance of something happening that more than fills the DX area and for that reason alone I think I would leave it in FX mode, there nothing worse than something you not expecting to happen that suddenly fills the frame?
 
How easy is it to switch modes?
Very easy. There’s a few ways, but for me the easiest is via the i button on the back. I think (although not 100% sure) you can set it to an Fn button.
I somewhat agree but there always a outside chance of something happening that more than fills the DX area and for that reason alone I think I would leave it in FX mode, there nothing worse than something you not expecting to happen that suddenly fills the frame?
Very true, it’s very very rare I use DX mode tbh.
 
Very easy. There’s a few ways, but for me the easiest is via the i button on the back. I think (although not 100% sure) you can set it to an Fn button.
Very true, it’s very very rare I use DX mode tbh.

Youre right. You can set it fo an Fn or Pv button and turn a dial. You can disable all the options except for FX and DX so it’s just one click of the wheel.
 
Back
Top