What is the D850 like for BIF?

Bear Dale

Senior Member
What is the D850 like for BIF?

Would it be your first choice If not what body would you choose?

What is the D850 like as a general shooter, an all rounder so to speak?

I like landscapes, the odd BIF, a LOT of stationary bird shots, grandchildren, dogs, model steam engines in natural light of a spare room and metal lathe operations and workshop shots.

(Total Nikon newbie here, any advice greatly appreciated)
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Welcome aboard Quintrex.

The questions you ask are a bit tricky. First, the D850 has only been out for a few weeks and I don't know how many forum members have bought it. So maybe you should ask yourself if the D850 would be a good choice for you. Could another model be better for you? Would the D500 or the D810 be better for you? Only you can answer all these questions. Most recent cameras are going to give outstanding results for the right person behind it. Camera companies rely on people's wants more than their needs to sell newer models every such and such year, but the results these cameras give is only as good as the person behind the lens. Now the lens, this is another story where people should spend more than on the camera itself. A good lens will outlast many cameras and is a better investment than the top of the line body with an average lens.

It all comes down to How much money are you ready to spend. And I can assure you that you can spend too much and would not notice the difference in the end results. If you have room for 24"x36" prints and is the average size of your prints, then you need more MPs. but for general use up to 16"x20", a D600, D700, D750, D800, D810 are going to give you plenty of cropping room.

Now if you want to pixel peep and read all the reviews and get really confused, it's all up to you. Otherwise, I suggest you get to a camera store (a real one where you can actually hold the camera in your own hands and shoot a few shots on your memory card) and try a few, take your memory card home and then make your choice. Anyone suggesting this or this other model is only adding to your confusion since it is not them who will be handling the camera for a few years.

So be wise, get a good body and the best lenses you can afford and then just forget about getting better and better camera. A camera is like a piano. If a person keeps shopping to get the best sounding piano there is, all the shopping time is practice time lost. And a pianist that practices more (even on a weaker piano) will sound better than the one that just shops around and don't practice enough.

Good luck with YOUR decision.
 

Bear Dale

Senior Member
Thank you Marcel for your wise post, you make good counsel with your words and thank you for the warm welcome.

From another post that I did yesterday (Yes, I am full of questions) My Canon gear - 5DMKII and a large array of L glass was stolen around 3 months ago and I have been given a cheque from the insurance company. I have an opportunity to buy whatever brand/model I want and I have never shot Nikon - I'm an enthusiastic amateur, with no lofty expectations over ever being anything else but enjoying photography for the love of it.

Along with a 5DMKII and a 50D a 16-35,24-70, 70-200 (all 2.8) a 100-400, 1.4x extender and a 100mm macro were taken. The culprit was caught by the police 4 days later but he had sold all my gear for peanuts for drugs.

Again, I am only a enthusiastic hobbyist and my knowledge of Nikon is very limited. The Nikon lens lineup looks much more confusing than does Canon's as there seems to be many duplicates, though by the $$$ amount the more expensive must have something more than the lesser costing lens.
 

lokatz

Senior Member
Last Sunday, I returned from a photo trip to Nepal that included lots of street life and lots of wildlife, including plenty of birding. First time for me to take my D500 on a wildlife trip. The experience reaffirmed what I learned over many years of shooting: as Marcel hinted, the lens is far more important than the camera when it comes to birds. If BIF is your thing, consider your lens choice at least as carefully as your choice of a body.

Where I have a different viewpoint is that when it comes to birding, I, like many others, view Nikon's 153-point AF system as superior to everything else out there because of its speed and accuracy, to the point where the only camera bodies I would even consider are those that have it: D500, D850 and D5. The D810 is a great camera, but not my choice for BIF.

This statement applies ONLY to BIF, not to general shooting: there is not much to be gained by using a D850 over the D500 when shooting BIF. You're very likely to shoot in DX mode anyway, where both bodies have about the same resolution and effective sensor area used, and while more real-life tests are still needed for the D850, the specs don't hint at much that would create a notable difference here.

As far as your other point goes: yes, all of the evidence points to the D850 being a great all-around camera that handles almost every shooting situation very well. It combines outstanding AF with high resolution, high dynamic range, and very versatile features overall. I myself am tempted to replace my D7100 with a D850 for that reason - but my longest lens would stay on the D500 since I prefer carrying two bodies.

One last thought: high resolution in a body is great, but for most non-professionals, that is for a different reason than you may think. As I am writing this, I am looking at a shot I printed in 24x36" format years ago. It shows fine resolution and detail but was taken with a 12 megapixel D90. With today's 20-24 megapixel cameras, you're not going to see a print quality difference unless you go to extremely large print sizes, which few of us ever do. What high resolution gives you that often matters more is the ability to crop and still retain a great shot with decent resolution. I know (and respect) some purists who want their pictures to be "just right" in-camera. I'm not one of them. I often end up cropping shots, either because I was too far away to get full-frame, or because I had the wrong lens on the body but the shot couldn't wait, or for a number of other reasons. That's where the D850 really excels: it gives you more flexibility than anything else Nikon offers at this time.
 
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