New Nikon D850!

One of the Nikons I have owned (click to enlarge)

From 1975 until last year, I was primarily a Nikon guy.  Yes, I've owned and used Canons, Leicas, Minoltas, Mamiyas, Pentaxes and other cameras, but I always had a Nikon somewhere around.  I always had an affinity for them as they were "the" camera to have in the 1960s-80s or so.  Maybe even longer.  The last digital one I owned was the wonderful D810 with the great 36mp sensor and over 14 stops of dynamic range. Sweet camera by any measure.  Now, It seems Nikon may introduce a new full frame professional level camera this week. 

A few weeks ago, Nikon celebrated their 100th anniversary and announced that they had the D850 in development. They said some interesting things about the camera such as it will "exceed expectations" and will be "high speed" but didn't give any specifications or tell when it would be officially announced.  It appears from some of the press conferences being scheduled in some countries around the world, that this may be the week it is announced.

Still speculative, but leaks have gotten through about the new camera's specifications. Here are some of the specs that the You Tube Channel, Theoria Apophasis (AKA The Angry Photographer), is presenting from reportedly Chinese language leaked Nikon presentation slides as well as from NikonRumors.com.  Of course, I can't vouch for the accuracy of either site, but both have tended to be pretty accurate in the past.  In any case, the camera should be a superb tool for photographers.

45.75MP full frame CMOS sensor

Tiltable LCD (3.2", 2.36 million dots)

Fully functional touchscreen: supports touch AF, touch shutter and touch menu

Memory card slots: one SD and one XQD

AF system from the D5 (153 points, 130% frame coverage compared to the D810, all AF points @ -3EV,  middle/center crosshair sensor @-4EV)

New smaller AF points

Back illuminated buttons

Joystick selector

Built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

8K time-lapse video capabilities

4k UHD video in FX format (with no crop)

Slo-mo full HD 120fps video

The SD slot will support UHS-II

Improved LiveView split-screen display

Improved silent shooting mode: fully-silent, no-sound electronic shutter in live view (6 fps silent shooting, no mechanical movement, can shoot up to 30fps @ 8MP with the electronic shutter)

Improved battery life

Native ISO range: 64-25,600

ISO 64 extendable down to ISO 32 (Lo1 = 32, Hi 2 = 108,400)

7fps without grip, 9fps with grip (MB-D18a battery grip)

51 images raw buffer at 14-bit RAW

0.75x optical viewfinder (largest ever on a Nikon FX cameras)

180k RGB meter

No AA filter

Built-in focus stacking: up to 300 pictures with up to 10 levels of focusing steps (still need external software)

RAW sizes: small, medium, large

New 1:1 mode

New natural light AWB

This is quite a list.  If all or even most of this is true, the D850 will be one heck of a camera that could serve many different types of photography extraordinarily well.  

If it were a few years ago, I would be making plans to order this camera as soon as it is introduced.  But you know what?  For the first time, since I lusted for a Nikon F2A in the 1970s, I really don't have a desire for this camera.  None at all.  Why?  I really love the gear I have.  What else could I want or even ask for?  

I have a terrific Fujifilm X-T2 with (too) many excellent lenses that cover everything from 15mm (35mm equivalent) to 840mm (35mm equivalent)!  Zooms and primes both.  All sharp, contrasty and with fast and accurate focus.  Add to that my Olympus E-M1 Mark II with several equally excellent lenses covering 24mm (35mm equivalent) to 420mm (35mm equivalent) and I don't need the Nikon.  As I said, for the first time, I don't even want it.

My my.  How things change.  But I'm now much happier with my current gear because I have smaller, lighter, less expensive but equally well constructed gear that gives me better image quality than I will need for personal or professional use.  As I said, what more could I ask for?  No complaints from me.  No lust. No desire for new, larger sensored gear.  Nope.  For the first time in four decades, I'm totally happy with what I have.

Congratulations to Nikon.  I hope the D850 exceeds their sales expectations.  I just won't be one of their customers this time.  I WILL NOT be giving up my mirrorless cameras with their "life-like" electronic viewfinders which give me a preview of exactly how my image will appear before I even press the shutter button.  I won't be giving that up for full frame and more pixels.

P.S.  I still do own an old Nikon FE2 with a few old manual focus lenses just in case I get some sort of idea that I want to pull a roll of film out of my freezer and photograph with it.  But I don't anticipate that happening...

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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