One of the greatest complaints of the F5 posed by photographers was it's "excessively heavy" weight. I put my F5 with a 36 exposure roll of film on a digital scale and it weighed 1069g (2.36 lbs). I then put the D850 with MB-D18 battery grip and EN-EL18 (the single D5 battery which weighs a lot less than 8 AA's) and it tops the scale at right at 1100g (2.43 lbs), slightly over an ounce heavier. You rarely hear anyone complain about the excessive weight of the D850. Neither one are like the "lightweight" D750, which with the MB-D16 and EN-EL15 weighs about 840g, but I do not find the weight objectionable, nor do I find it a detriment to hand holding. Perhaps it is just because I am used to using heavy cameras pretty much since I started doing photography back in 1972 (F2A with MD2/MB1, F3HP with the MD4/Mk1, F4E and the F5). I have never had a problem with the D700 with MB-D13, D850 with MB-D18 and the slightly lighter D500 with MB-D17/EN-EL18 (at about 980g).
I will be 64 next month and admittedly my gear (all my Nikkors are manual focus AIS and my 600mm f/4 ED IF AIS "beast" tips the scale at 14+ pounds) gets "heavier" with each passing year, but I am still not at the point where I would trade in any gear for anything lighter. I guess it is all what you are used to.
I will be 64 next month and admittedly my gear (all my Nikkors are manual focus AIS and my 600mm f/4 ED IF AIS "beast" tips the scale at 14+ pounds) gets "heavier" with each passing year, but I am still not at the point where I would trade in any gear for anything lighter. I guess it is all what you are used to.