Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a review of a true production D850, not the pre-production versions. Executive Summary: simply fantastic! And now to the details: I am not a big fan of digital photography; I’m an old fashioned film guy that still shoots with a Hasselblad and 4X5. I somewhat reluctantly bought a Nikon Df as my first “good” digital camera only because of its retro styling. It resembled my F3HP’s. But having said that, the D850 has won me over. This camera offers the resolution that rivals film and an amazing ISO range. Combine that with high speed operation and the convenience of digital capture and I’ve probably shot my last roll of 35mm film. I’m still going to keep my medium and large format cameras, but holly cow, the images from this camera are simply superb! I’m a landscape, nature and environmental portrait photographer, so this review should be viewed in that context. I don’t shoot sports, weddings nor do product photography so the specific needs of those photographers are foreign to me. The features that I discuss are important to me, but there may be some missing that are important to you. Some of my favorite things, in no particular order: 1. The aforementioned resolution is simply fantastic! The capture of details is truly amazing. It’s not 4X5 quality, but it certainly approaches that. And think of all the images one can capture with this camera as opposed to the shots missed with medium and large format gear due to the hassles of lugging it around. 2. The viewfinder is extraordinarily bright. Brilliant! 3. Terrific ability to recover underexposed and shadow areas with very little noise. Far better than I’ve ever seen with other digital capture cameras. 4. Autofocus works extremely well even in low contrast scenes. 5. ISO range is entirely usable. Noise certainly increases at the higher ISO settings, but it is not objectionable. My only criticism of the camera is that it is big and heavy. It has to be, I suppose, to squeeze in all that technology; nonetheless, it would be nice if it were a bit smaller. With respect to size, I did get a chance to shoot it side by side with my friends D810. The D850 did sit better in the hand than the D810. The D850 felt a bit heavier, but more comfortable to hold. I believe that was because the D850 is a bit thinner with a deeper hand grip area. At least that’s the way it felt. I won’t do a comparison between the D810 and the D850 because I don’t have any depth of experience with the D810. All I’ll say is that when we compared images side by side in Lightroom, the D850 images were superior in all cases. Not hugely so, mind you, but even my friend agreed the D850 was the undisputed winner. With only a few days logged with the camera, those are my initial observations. You’ll notice I said nothing about the D850’s video capabilities and that’s because what I don’t know about shooting video would fill an encyclopedia (remember those?). I’ll leave that to those that know what they’re talking about. But, as a still photographer for some 45+ years now, I couldn’t be happier with the D850. The image quality is stunning. And if that’s all it offered, it would be worth the price of admission. But it also has a host of other features — of which I’m sure you’ve already read — that make this a true standout. I’m so glad I acquired one. I’ll keep my Df because I like the size and the retro styling and I’ll keep my medium and large format cameras just because, but the D850 is going to be my go to camera. And from a film die hard, that’s quite a statement.