Nikon D850

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Should the Nikon D850 Be Your Next Camera?

The Nikon D850 is a beast of a camera, packing a lot of specs into one package. A lot of people were waiting to see what Nikon announced and many believe the Nikon D850 raises the bar for the competition.

Can you handle the Nikon D850? More importantly, should you bother with it?

While I think this is an outstanding camera, you need to look on the other side of the specs to understand what it may cost you to own a D850. Let’s start with a look at the features.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Key Specifications:

  • 45.7MP BSI CMOS sensor
  • 7 fps continuous shooting with AE/AF (9 with battery grip and EN-EL18b battery)
  • 153-point AF system linked to 180,000-pixel metering system
  • UHD 4K video capture at up to 30p from full sensor width
  • 1080 video at up to 120p, recorded as roughly 1/4 or 1/5th speed slow-mo
  • 4:2:2 8-bit UHD uncompressed output while recording to card
  • 1 XQD slot and 1 UHS II-compliant SD slot
  • Battery life rated at 1840 shots
  • 3.2″ tilting touchscreen with 2.36M-dot (1024×768 pixel) LCD
  • Illuminated controls
  • 19.4MP DX crop (or 8.6MP at 30fps for up to 3 sec)
  • SnapBridge full-time Bluetooth LE connection system with Wi-Fi
  • Advanced time-lapse options (including in-camera 4K video creation)

Here’s how I translate the other side of some of these features.

45.7MP BSI CMOS sensor

My main camera now is the Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera body D800 D800 with a 36 megapixel camera. That’s the model I picked after shooting with the Nikon D700 with a 12 megapixel sensor. As you can guess, three times the megapixels means larger files.

That means fewer photos on your memory card, and more space consumed on your hard drive. If you upload to an online service, it takes a bit longer to transmit. It also fills up the buffer in your camera faster than small files would.

More megapixels means more…well, everything that handles megapixels.

There is semi-good news. Apparently you can choose to save your RAW files in a smaller megapixel size. Cool. Now who’s going to buy a 46 megapixel camera just to shoot it like a 24 megapixel camera? You may as well get a Nikon D750 FX-format Digital SLR Camera Body if that’s what you need.

7 fps continuous shooting with AE/AF (9 with battery grip and EN-EL18b battery)

Seven frames per second continuous shooting speed is very impressive for a 46 megapixel camera. Add the battery grip to get nine frames per second and some folks think this may be a good camera for sports photographers.

The Nikon D700 shoots at 5 FPS, up to 8 FPS with the batter grip, and it’s only a 12 MP camera. Shooting at 9 FPS is really nice, until you compare it with the Nikon D5 DSLR 20.8 MP Point & Shoot Digital Camera, Dual XQD Slots - Black at 12 FPS. The Canon 1Dx Mari IV shoots even faster at 14 FPS.

Now those are the cameras you use to shoot sports. They cost more than double, but sports photography is not a cheap endeavor.

Let’s say that you decide this is the right camera for your sports photography. Do you need 46 megapixels for those shots? Good thing you can shoot at a lower resolution.

My photography is primarily portrait and travel. These speeds mean nothing to me. During a portrait session, I turn off continuous mode.

When I take travel photos, it’s common for me to use bracketing. I’m never really in a hurry, though. The subjects I’m photographing aren’t running away from me. It’s not like I see a pretty landscape and think that I need to hurry up and get more frames per second or I’ll lose the shot.

On the other hand, this could be quite useful for street shooters or concert photographers.

153-point AF system linked to 180,000-pixel metering system

This is outstanding! It’s the same auto-focus system that ships in the flagship Nikon D5. More auto-focus points, better low light performance so you can lock onto your subject when it gets dark. Who wouldn’t want that benefit?

Those concert photographers I mentioned above could really benefit from this AF system. Actually, so could sports photographers.

The Nikon D5 auto-focus system has universal praise as one of the best systems to identify, lock and track your subjects. It’s a great professional benefit to include in something geared for the Prosumer market.

UHD 4K video capture at up to 30p from full sensor width

While there are photographers who may not need this camera for their still shots, it’s a whole new world for Nikon video. This is the first true 4K system in a Nikon DSLR.

Other Nikon DSLRs placed limitations on 4K video. It’s heavily cropped, limited to 3 minutes. At $6500, its 4K video gets outclassed by much cheaper, and somewhat older, Panasonic camera.

The Nikon D850 doesn’t crop the sensor and shoot H.264 for smaller files than its Canon 5D Mark IV counterpart.

Is it the perfect 4K camera for cinematography? Maybe so, maybe no. However, it’s nice to have this to use with your Nikon lenses instead of investing in a Canon, Sony or other system. I think this will appeal most to existing Nikon shooters, but time will tell if others decide to move camp from one brand to another.

1 XQD slot and 1 UHS II-compliant SD slot

If you’re shooting most Nikon full frame cameras, you’re likely using Compact Flash (CF) cards. I know I have a wallet full of them. None of which will fit inside the new Nikon D850.

Be prepared to purchase a new wallet full of cards, or at least a few. Also, be prepared to spend some money per card.

Looking at a 128GB card size, the average cost for an XQD card is about $160. It’s roughly $90 for the UHS II SD cards.

Why did Nikon make the change?

Because XQD is much faster than the aging CF card specs. With larger images to save, the Nikon D850 needs a way to reduce the time to write files from the buffer to the card.

Micron, who owns the Lexar brand, recently decided to exit the market for camera cards. That leaves Sony as the sole manufacturer of XQD cards now. Other brands haven’t jumped onto XQD in the same way as Nikon, so I have some concerns about its long term viability.

Another problem comes from the lack of competition. Sony doesn’t have much incentive to lower prices.

Battery life rated at 1840 shots

Do you know how many shots you can take with your camera on a single battery charge? Neither do I.

This number presumably increases with the battery grip.

3.2″ tilting touchscreen with 2.36M-dot (1024×768 pixel) LCD

Woohoo! Finally, a common feature of much less expensive cameras makes its way to a Nikon full frame DSLR. Why haven’t we had this feature for a few years now?

Navigating menus on Nikon cameras is a tedious process. Now with a touch screen, it’s about to get a speed bump. Better than that, you can pinch to zoom on your screen while reviewing photos. Much more better than that silly magnifying glass button.

Don’t even get me started about the tilt screen. That’s going to save me from lying on my belly to get some low angle shots. Better than that, it means I can also put the camera over my head and get shots based upon the live screen view.

Now it just needs to shoot around corners.

Illuminated controls

This is another incredibly beneficial feature. I do a lot of night photography. While I typically remember most buttons that I need, I don’t remember the location of all of them. It’s nice to have a simple feature to make them visible in the darkness without using a flashlight, cell phone, or other light source.

SnapBridge full-time Bluetooth LE connection system with Wi-Fi

In a modern age, we expect connectivity. Using SnapBridge, you can immediately transfer your photos – those big 46 megapixel photos – over to your iOS or Android device.

Not only does that give you a wireless tether system, but it also uses the GPS information from your phone to geotag your photos. That’s cool.

You can up your Instagram game by sharing DSLR photo instead of smart phone photos, too.

Advanced time-lapse options (including in-camera 4K video creation)

I have a passing interest in time-lapse photography. There are some very cool videos on YouTube with time-lapse, but you have to hang out in one spot for a while to get those shots. Seems tedious to me, which is likely why I don’t do time-lapse.

Now you can do it in 4K with the Nikon D850. For those who have the patience, I think this is an outstanding feature. Not that you couldn’t do 4K time-lapse before. My GoPro HERO5 Black — Waterproof Digital Action Camera for Travel with Touch Screen 4K HD Video 12MP Photos does 4K time-lapse.

However, the GoPro doesn’t have access to my wonderful collection of Nikon/Nikkor lenses. Now that adds some potential creativity to your time-lapse.

The Nikon D850 Costs More Than it Costs

If you think this is the right camera for you, then you can order the Nikon D850 FX-Format Digital SLR Camera Body on Amazon. It’s just under $3400.

That really isn’t the end of the line, though.

Let’s assume you’re already a Nikon full frame photographer and you have the lenses that you need. There are still some things that will add to your cost when you buy this camera.

The Nikon MB-D18 Battery Grip

I always want, and always recommend getting, a battery grip. Not only does it add more power and a few more frames per second, but it makes portrait orientation photography much more comfortable. You don’t have to twist your hand to hit the shutter button on top of the camera. The grip comes with a shutter button right where you need it in portrait orientation.

The Nikon MB-D18 Battery Grip is a new model just for the Nikon D850. Unlike the Powerextra MB-D10 Battery Grip + Infrared Remote Control for Nikon D300 D300S D700 Digital SLR Camera Work with one pc EN-EL3e Battery or 6 pcs AA-Size Batteries for my D700 and the Nikon MB-D12 Multi Battery Power Pack for my D800, this one foregoes the AA battery frame and uses a custom battery.

The new MB-D18 comes in just under $400, compared to about $370 for the MB-D12 on my Nikon D800. That pushes your cost up to about $3800, but I wouldn’t get the D850 without a grip.

New Memory Cards

I mentioned earlier that the Nikon D850 doesn’t use the same memory cards as previous Nikon DSLRs (except for the Nikon D5). Instead, you need to get XQD or UHS II SD cards.

One is never enough.

Let’s say you get two of each type. That adds $180 for a pair of SD cards and $320 for a pair of XQD cards, all at 128 GB.

Yes, you can buy less expensive SD cards. They’ll be slower. Much slower when you start cramming 46 MP files down their throat. Also, you can buy lower capacity cards. However, you don’t save that much money going down from 128 GB to 64 GB. Maybe $30 per card.

Don’t forget, you have more megapixels, so getting lower capacity cards with slower writing speeds isn’t going to make for a great experience when using this camera.

That adds at least $500 to the $3800 I mentioned above…plus tax.

Have You Noticed Something That is Not There to be Noticed?

If you take a close look, you may notice that the Nikon D850 does not have a pop-up flash. For many photographers, this is no big deal.

Those of us who shoot using the Nikon CLS system for small flash often rely upon the pop-up flash on previous models. Without it, that means we have to buy another flash or a commander unit to trigger our flashes.

I’m told Nikon had to forego this feature in order to make the new viewfinder with focus peaking. Nice feature, unless you need to trigger a flash.

Is the Nikon D850 Your Next Camera?

There are people lining up to buy this camera as soon as it’s available. Personally, I’m waiting a while longer. If I can rent it first, I may do that before I buy.

My current photography needs are met by the Nikon D800. While this camera has some nice benefits, I’m not ready to plunk down $4500, give or take with tax, just to have the latest thing. I can do more for my photography by traveling to an exotic location or working with some great models.

Yes, I’d love to have SnapBridge, a tilt screen and the other benefits. It just isn’t financially feasible yet. I’ll move up when it makes sense and then my D800 will become my backup camera.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Transcript

 

THE PHOTO FLUNKY SHOW:  Episode 91

 

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You can find links to this episode and all of the other ones at photoflunky.com and of course if you’d like to subscribe, we would love that.  Go to at williambeem.com/itunes or williambeem.com/googleplay or williambeem.com/stitcher or even williambeem.com/blubrry

 

William:   Thank you very much for joining us on the  Photo Flunky Show, Episode 91.

 

In today’s topic we are going to get a little bit technical. We are going to talk about the new Nikon D850.  Is it going to be your next camera?

 

Hi, my name is William Beem.

 

Lee:         Hi, my name is Lee Beem.

 

William:   Before we get to that, I just want to let you know that show notes are going to be available at williambeem.com/episode91  And you can get a transcript of the show there for free.  Also, I’ve got a free ebook for you.  It is called Creative Portraits and you can find it williambeem.com/freebook and it’s about the emotional and creative side of portrait photography, rather than the technical side. So hopefully it will give you some ideas. There are plenty of photos and examples in there to show you what kind of things you are looking for when you compose your photos, when you are thinking about how you are going to set them up and it’s gotten some nice feedback so far.  We hope you like it. It’s free. You can share it with a friend and … you got anything else to say?

 

Lee:         No, share it with a friend. That’s why it’s there. Enjoy.

 

William:   I didn’t end that off very well, did I?

 

Lee:         Spread the love.

 

William:   Also, when you sign up for this you are also subscribing to my email list. We’ve got a free library for you as well.  Got a few resources out there, some lightroom brushes, some presets and a number of other things that I think, hopefully, you will find enjoyable and those are there for anybody who subscribes to us, so please, go ahead. Get the free ebook and then you’ll have access to more when you get inside.

 

Lee:         You won’t be spammed. What do you send out? One email a week?

 

William:   I’m sending out one email a week. I’ve got some emails that rarely go out, but there are a couple of them.  Like here is how you can do this, here is how you can do that. Some extra content that doesn’t show up on the blog. And I’ve also got some new ideas of what I’m going to want to be able to provide to people and I might start sending out some one-question surveys to say: are you interested in training, are you interested in portrait photography, travel photography? Basically things that let me know what you would like and help me try to provide something that is useful for you.

 

So not a whole lot of emails and definitely never shared with people who would spam you.

 

Lee:         Yeah, that’s just not allowed.

 

William;   No that’s not allowed. We don’t like that stuff so we don’t do that stuff.

 

OK, the Nikon D850. I’ve been looking at this for a long time.  It is considered the upgrade from the D810. I’ve been shooting with a D800 for quite a while. I’ve had a D810 from Nikon that they gave me a loaner for a while, which is a nice camera. But for me, the jump from the D800 to the D810 wasn’t big enough that it was worth replacing.

 

Now the D850 has come out and I’m looking at the specifications. We’ll go over some of those. It has got a long list of really wonderful and amazing things, but is it really worth your money to upgrade?  Does it do the things that you need to do?

 

And we will talk a little bit about, is it worth switching brands?  Every time something comes out people think they’re going to switch from this brand to that brand and I think, man that’s a big jump.

 

Lee:         It is and it’s more expensive than just the cost of the camera.

 

William:   It is and what we want to do is figure out if this is really right for you.  And the first thing that people talk about is the fact that this is nearly a 46 megapixel camera.  That is a lot of data that you are going to be storing.  Most cameras … my D700 was a 12 megapixel camera; the D750 that is out now is a 24 megapixel camera.  Those are more than enough if you are going to be making a print that is reasonably sized like maybe 24×36 or even well beyond what you need to do to share on Facebook or social media.

 

So what do you do with that much data and that much resolution behind your photos?   Basically that’s going to be really large prints. This is almost medium format quality and they were saying that about the 36 megapixels on the D800. Now you’re getting up to just under 46 megapixels. When you consider your storage requirements, that is going to take up more storage. It’s going to take up more RAM when you’re processing. Basically it will slow things down.

 

 

Also if you are shooting with your buffer in your camera it’s got to store more data in RAM and write to disk before it can move onto the next photo.

 

Lee:         It’s going to slow things down. Here’s the other thing. You might have to upgrade your computer system to be able to work on these files.

 

William:   Now here is the reason why I might consider that I want it. And I don’t necessarily need it. This is a want.

 

I am going out and taking photos of backgrounds and textures that I’ll use. Some will go in the free library. Some I will end up selling. Larger images I have for other photographers that they want to use to do their compositing work. That works out because if you’ve taken these things that are too small and then have to stretch them out to put photos on it doesn’t work very well. But that is kind of a very limited scenario for me. And it’s not something I am jumping at right now because of the cost of the camera and the accessories that go with it. So right off the bat I don’t really know beyond some commercial applications who really needs that size file or even wants a file that big. Like you said it’s going to eat a lot of space and slow things down.

 

Lee:         Yeah. And it’s going to incur other costs to be able to work and to make them usable when you are working on them.

 

William:   One of the other things I look for in some of these Nikon cameras is a battery grip.  This camera, out of the box with no battery grip, shoots seven frames per second, which is not bad. Especially for the file size that big. They have done a good job to get that. And then you add on the battery grip and it will shoot at nine frames per second.

 

I know I read a few people talking about it being good for sports photography. Well no. The sports photographers like the Canon high end one – it shoots like 14 frames per second and I don’t know why sports photographers need 46 megapixels.

 

Lee:         That’s just beyond me. But you can probably go and set the quality of your image within the camera.

 

William:   You can and you can kind of rank it down a little bit. I think it’s good that you’ve got the capability to have high quality images and the sensor in here is not a Sony sensor. It’s one that I think Nikon is having someone else build. They talk about having background lighting that’s going to be better for high ISO photos and great quality. We’ll see when it comes out, but I think for most photographers these are nits.

 

Lee:         I mean if you’re paying extra to get all this extra resolution quality and then you have to reduce it to make it workable for you….?  There is no point.

 

William:   You might as well save some money and buy a lower end camera.

 

Now the next few things that are on this list of specifications are actually pretty good reasons why someone may want it. One is the 153 point auto focus system.  And this is the same system that is in the Nikon D5.  The high end camera which is roughly $6500. That’s what sports photographers are using if they are not using the Canon.  That is by all accounts a really wonderful autofocus system. If you are shooting action you need something that does a great job with focus points or 3D focusing.  That I get.  But I still don’t think this is the camera with 46 megapixels that you’re really going to want to take out shooting basketball or football or what have you. So I really do love the idea of the 153 point auto focus system. I love anything that improves autofocus.

 

One of the things that the D800 and D810 really weren’t very good at were getting focus in low light and this autofocus system is supposed to do a much better job of that.  So if you are a street photographer and you are walking around at night and you are in low light environments, I think this is actually something that will help you out.

 

The biggest thing that I heard people talking about is not getting this for photography but getting it for video. For the first time it’s actually a true 4K camera from Nikon.  They had 4K in previous cameras but they  kind of had limitations to them.  This one is capable of doing the whole thing so you don’t necessarily have to go look to Canon for your videography needs anymore.

 

Lee:         I don’t shoot video with my DSLR

 

William:   No and quite honestly we do some local travel video, but we don’t want to lug around a big DSLR for travel videos. We have got a Canon G7X. It’s a little point and shoot camera. We put it on the end of a hand-held tripod and it shoots 4K and does wonderful stuff for us right there.  This however if you are going to try get into something a bit more cinematic, I get it.

 

And finally it has got all the features you want there. You can have your slow motion with 1080p up to 120 fps and it works that way and it will do true 4K. So if you are a Nikon shooter that wants to do some true 4K and you are willing to invest in lugging this thing around for it, you’ve finally got an option that is not Canon.

 

There is one other thing that really grabbed me. Most of my Nikon cameras, the DSLR’s, were using compact flash for storage. This one doesn’t. It has got two cards. One is a UHS II compliant SD slot. SD cards are all over the place so that’s easy to find. The other one is an XQD slot and this is something that only Sony makes.  It used to be that Lexar and Sony would make them. I don’t know of another brand of camera that is really using these things so I don’t think they are going to be that ubiquitous to find.

 

Lee:         I am clueless.

 

William:   They are not going to be that cheap either. A 128 GB card for XQD is going to run roughly $160. That’s something to think about. I have a ton of CF cards in my little wallet and I can carry those around. None of those will do me any good at all with this camera.

 

Lee:         I complain about $30 for an SD card!  So yeah this is not for me!

 

William:   No and even the UHS II SD cards for 128G – and I like going for the high end – are $90.

 

Lee:         You’re going to need high end. You are going to need a high class. You’ll need a fast write speed for these size files.

 

William:   And that is what the XQD provides. It is a very fast card. CF cards are old technology. They are outdated. I understand why Nikon went to it but if you are going to go to this camera, you are going to have to invest in a lot of things that you don’t have.

 

Battery life says it’s rated at 1840 shots. To me that is pretty good. I don’t know how many times I’m going to go and take that many shots.

 

Lee:         You know I have never actually worked out or wondered how many shots I get with my battery life. I just know that when I go out if I’m shooting all day, this is how much I need.

 

William:   I have never had that problem either so that is good for us, I guess, but you know what, if you are out for a full day, maybe you are doing sports photography and you’re just blazing away at things. Again I still don’t think this is truly a sports camera, but hey, you never know.

 

One of the things I do like about it is the back screen is now tiltable and it’s a touch screen.  The thing with Nikon is they got this little joy stick. It’s like a little button inside of a circle. It’s kind of a pain to move your menu back and forth.  Canon has got a nice little dial that moves things rather quickly. But now you can just touch the screen and move and pick what you want to do it’s much easier to operate.

 

Lee:       That’s pretty cool.  My brother had it on one of the Nikons. One of the entry level ones when he started, with a tilting screen. And when he upgraded ironically he didn’t get that. And he missed it to the point that he considered downgrading again.  He used it a lot because he did a lot of low level shots where he maybe had the camera on the ground. And being able to tilt the screen is really helpful.

 

William:   It really is and that’s something the higher end cameras typically don’t have. It’s considered a consumer feature.  I’m thinking, man, this is really useful.  Even in a portrait shot I may want to get down on the ground and take a shot but trying to get down all the way, lie flat, tilt my head so I can look through the viewfinder and get that shot right on the ground is annoying.

 

Lee:         When I’ve done stuff like that I’ve usually had some security or somebody come up to me and ask if I’m OK.  Thinking that I’ve died or something is going on.  Do you need medical? No, I’m taking a photo. Maybe I do need medical.

 

William:   One of the other things that I do like about this is it’s got Snapbridge. Which is a Nikon thing that has got built in Bluetooth and it has a little wifi so you can be out there taking your photos and then wirelessly transfer them. This is probably for two things. People that need to transfer to a larger screen so they can see what they are doing wirelessly. I’ve got like the tether cable stuff and that’s a really nice thing so I can see it on a laptop.

 

Lee:         Does that affect the battery life? This would be quite a drain, wouldn’t it?

 

William:   You would think it would. Probably. They don’t say that. They don’t tell you how it’s going to affect your battery life. I don’t know if you would leave it on the whole time. But the other thing is you might be out shooting and traveling and say this is a nice shot. I want to put that on Instagram or Facebook and then you can transfer it over to a mobile device and post it.

 

Lee:         I would not remember to turn it off.

 

William:   One of the other things that it has is advanced timelapse options. So basically you can do in camera 4K video timelapse. I don’t do a lot of timelapse. I am kind of curious about it. I would like to try it but it’s not the forefront of what I do.

 

Lee:         I’ve never looked at it. I think if you do it then this would probably be worth looking at.

 

William:   Anyway, those are the specs. We are kind of looking at this as an interesting thing. It’s got a lot of technology built into it, but is it really right and worth an upgrade or a switch over?

 

Let me give you some prices to go with it.  The price that’s out here right now – I looked on amazon – the price for the body only is $3296.95.

 

That gives you the base camera, the battery that goes in it. No lenses. Nothing else.

 

Oh there is one other thing that I forgot. Because they have changed the viewfinder, it’s got something called focus peaking in it now so basically you can look and see what the background is going to look like before you actually click the shutter, but they had to change that so it no longer has a pop up flash on it.  That doesn’t sound like a big deal because nobody wants to take a pop up flash photo for a portrait.  But it is useful as a controller for Nikon’s flash system.  They use CLS which is basically an optical thing so your pop up flash means that you can trigger your speed lights that are off camera and do something interesting with that.  You don’t have that anymore so that is going to be an extra cost if you use CLS.  You’ve got to buy another little controller to put up there or another flash to put up there to control the other lights.

 

Lee:         The price you see is not the price you pay.

 

William:   No, and that’s why I wanted to bring that up because we’re talking about prices and I think that this is another thing that’s going to drive your price up for using this camera if you fall in that category of using CLS.

 

So the battery grip: I love battery grips; I always want them. This one is an MBD18. It is $396.95.  That’s like double the price of the battery grip I bought for my D700 and D800. Those were a couple of hundred bucks each. And the price keeps going up.

 

The XQD cards we mentioned are $160 roughly for 128 card. The reader for that is going to be $20-45, depending on what you get. If you want to go for the SD cards that are UHS II compatible that is $90 and that is going to drive your price of this thing. Assuming you go with more cards and the battery grip you are going to be up to about $4000 or so for this camera.

 

Lee:         They were very sneaky. They made you think the price was lower than you expected and then if you start reading the fine print you realize that maybe after you’ve bought it, if you didn’t do your homework, that to use the darn camera you actually need to invest a whole lot more money on it.

 

William:   It’s like going on Spirit airlines.  They will sell you a seat but if you want to bring luggage you’re going to pay more for that, if you want to put luggage in your overhead, you might pay more for that. You want snacks? That’s going to cost you something too.

 

Lee:         You won’t find me flying with them. I just took one look at the gate and thought I’m not flying with them.

 

William:   No.  I think it’s an interesting camera. I think it’s going to be a very high end enthusiast or professional great camera just under their flagship D5.  Is it right for you or not? Who knows.  I am curious about it. I can tell you that I will not be one of the first kids on the block to buy this camera.

 

Lee:         I’m not interested at all. But you know me. I’m the real flunky in the Photo Flunky and I’m quite proud of it actually because my stuff works for me.

 

William:   It does work for you and we’ve got cameras that are working find for the needs that we have today. I’d say my D700 is getting a little long in the tooth. If I want to make sure that I have two modern cameras, the D800 and this one might be nice. But it’s not something I’ve got to rush out and worry about. And also Nikon has had some problems with the D750 having some issues that they had … I don’t know if it was quite a recall, but they had some problems that had to come back around twice. You never know if the first thing out of the block is going to be working properly.  My thought is they will be selling this for a few years to come. I can wait.

 

Lee:         Yeah.

 

William:   You don’t sound excited at all by this.

 

Lee:         Look, this is not my thing. I’m not into the technology. I’m into the art. I don’t care what I need to create it. If I can create it with an  iPhone, with a $6000 camera or whatever it is, it has just got to work for me and for my needs? I don’t need this. I am a hard sell.

 

William:   Oh absolutely.

 

Lee         I want to know what can this do for me?

 

William:   Well that’s one of the things that I wanted to go over because the specs are techno nerd kind of talk. But the question is, what does this do for you that maybe helps someone as an artist? And what you’re saying is for you, what you’ve got is fine. You don’t necessarily need anything here. None of the features that are on here are going to help you improve your art.

 

Lee:         They are not.  See I am not swayed by what everybody else has and I think that’s the thing. It’s not that…. I think it’s a great camera, but it’s not the camera for me.  There are times when I want something really good and I don’t have a problem dropping several thousands of dollars on something. But it’s got to work for me. I don’t bow to peer pressure.

 

William:   No. That’s true.

 

I look at this and I think it’s nice, but it’s not pushing me over the edge. It’s the kind of thing that when it’s time for having another replacement, this is the one I would probably look at. But it is not that there is anything wrong with the gear that I’ve got right now that I’ve got to jump out and get this. I also realize that there is going to be more of an expense getting into this camera than my previous cameras so what does it buy me in return?

 

I am not shooting sports or anything where I need to have nine frames per second. The 46 megapixels are not really a need yet. I have got 36 megapixels so what are ten more megapixels really going to do for me?

 

Even for the things I want to create that I want to share and sell with other photographers, 36 megapixels does everything I need and probably excessively so.  And low light? I’ve got a tripod. I’m not trying to do action in low light photography and I think maybe if you are a concert photographer, this might be something that is really great for you.  But I don’t have the need for portrait photography. I certainly don’t need it. I’ve got lights and speed lights and studio strobes.

 

Lee:         It depends what you do and it depends how you need to use your photos.

 

William:   Yes, so when we ask: is this camera right for you? Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t, but for right now I think we are going to just watch it and not really jump out for it. It’s not something that is a driving need for us. Particularly when you look at the expense of getting new accessories to go with it.

 

Thank you for listening to the Photo Flunky Show.  We really appreciate you.  Show notes are going to be available at  williambeem.com/episode91 and  you can get a transcript of the show there for free. You will also find links to subscribe to the show iTunes, Google Play Music and Blubrry and others.

 

If you’ve been following this camera, let us know what you think.  Leave a comment for us and let us know: are you planning on getting this or not? Tell us why.

 

Thank you so much.  We’ll see you again next week.

 

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