Nikon D850 Hands-on Review | Sample Images

The Nikon D850 is easily the best DSLR on the markethttps://youtu.be/foxvRAw3fI0Highlights of the Nikon D850

• This camera feels wonderful in the hand and offers a control layout that just works really well - except auto ISO dial, it's a little awkward to switch that on and off- but bracketing, focus modes, the excellent and dedicated focus nub all make for an extremely pleasing operation.

• Lighted buttons, something they started with the D500 and standing under the stars a few nights ago in Acadia NP - all the other photographers on the trip were quite jealous of my softly illuminated buttons that make low light and night photography a dream

• Beautiful big bright viewfinder AND a vibrant and gorgeous screen that is fully touch-enabled the menus work, touch to focus works even with heavy ND filters on AND it is articulated - though like Sony only tilting.

• Additional features - like intervalometer that makes possible an 8k time lapse - you can drop to 4k and have the video created in camera. The 8k just produces stills that you need to use software to turn into a video. Focus peaking through frustratingly it doesn’t work when shooting 4k, only at 1080p, focus shift for stacking and creating images with huge depth of field which can be useful in some situations.

• Awesome image quality- excellent image quality with lots of room to brighten the shadows before you see noise and great higher ISO performance AND a 45mp sensor. Zooming on these images is lovely - so much detail, so much room to crop.

• 4k video, that isn't cropped AND this is all packaged in a capable and versatile camera.

• Impressive AF system,

• Access to all of Nikon lenses

• Greatly improved live view experience vs past Nikon cameras

Negatives of the Nikon D850

• Focus during video is terrible, extremely distracting slow, hunting- you can use an AF-P lens and it gets a little smoother but still nothing like the dual pixel AF of Canon or Sony’s smooth AF system.

• Shooting video without a viewfinder is difficult in brighter conditions and the focus peaking that Nikon nicely added doesn’t work during 4k filming

• DSLR focusing systems often need AF adjustments to work their best and while Nikon provides an in-camera system for adjusting focus - it is limiting and I have images that are out of focus due to alignment or shutter shock or mirror slap.

• Disappointing battery life if you find yourself using the screen often

• Customizable buttons are limited in what you can assign

• It’s a BIG camera. Sure for some of you that’s a check mark in the pro column but after using a variety of mirrorless cameras over the last year I appreciate a smaller, lighter camera and yes, if using a full frame Sony as you start to add lenses the weight savings start to disappear but you at least have the option of traveling much lighter at times with lightweight lenses.

Nikon D850 vs D500

The D500 is a little lighter (155g lighter) a little faster (10 fps vs 7fps, though you can bump that up with the battery grip for the Nikon D850) and you get more reach with the D500 crop sensor and can use lighter, smaller crop lenses BUT the D850 has a crop mode that will give you that same extra reach and provides excellent edge to edge AF coverage. The D850 also does much better in low light with that full frame sensor.Buy the D500 if you are dedicated wildlife or sports/action photographer and spend the savings on a nice telephoto lens.Everyone else should buy the D850 for it's excellent all-around image quality and low light performance.Should you upgrade from the Nikon D750. Honestly, the D750 is still one of the best values in DSLRs on the market and continues to perform well. Only upgrade if you have been frustrated with low light performance or AF system.

D850

D850

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Sigma 24-105

Sigma 24-105

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D500

D500

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Sample Nikon D850 Photos

All in all, I would be very happy to use this camera for landscapes where I can use the screen and know that focus is really dialed in. Throw the very sharp sigma 24-105 f/4 on and you have a killer combination. But these days I do appreciate a lighter camera and will often choose a Sony over the Nikon. Especially the new Sony a7R III Use the link squarespace.com/photorectv to save 10% off your purchase of a site or domain name and find the link below for a more helpful guide.

Canon 5D Mark IV Tips and Tricks- Custom Button Setup

https://youtu.be/Ej9uDCALaFM

Recommendations for custom buttons with the Canon 5D Mark IV

Shutter Button: Metering start (more about back button focus)AF-On: Metering and AF start (default)AE Lock Button: One Shot - ServoDOF preview button: Depth of Field preview (default)Lens: AF-Off (default)M-fn: FEL (default)SET: MagnifyMain Dial: TV shutter speed (default) - this is the front dialQuick Control Dial: AV aperture (default) - this is the rear dialMulti-controller: Direct AF point selectionAF area selection button: Selected AFpt - Cent/Reg AFpt  - I personally want to call this button the nub.(default means I haven't changed it from camera's default setting)   

Canon 5D Mark IV

https://youtu.be/7WI8rMGT4eg

Strengths of the Canon 5D Mark IV:

Fast and reliable performer with excellent ergonomics and the new touchscreen makes the already smartly organized menu even more accessible.   Dual Pixel AF (not to be confused with the dual pixel RAW) makes live view focusing fast and competent for most situations.Canon's lens selection and reliable track record as a company further highlight the 5D Mark IV as solid choice for serious photographers.I do love that they finally added the intervalometer and time lapse movie modes30MP is a nice resolution, not too large that your system will get bogged down but still allows for decent cropping when needed.

Weakness of the Canon 5D Mark IV:

The Sensor - although this camera and sensor are capable of making beautiful photos it doesn't beat the competition - Nikon D810 and Sony a7R2, and those cameras are a year old or more.Video features - This may not matter to you but those looking for an upgrade from the 5D Mark III as a video shooter or those needing a strong hybrid camera should look elsewhere - The codec is inefficient, the 4K is cropped to 1.74x and you do not have 4K video OUT.

Toss Up:

The CF and SD Cards - My wallet loves the fact that I don't need to buy any new cards but putting technology that it is nearing the end of its life cycle in a camera that won't be replaced for 4 years - feels less forward looking than I want Canon to be.Dual Pixel Raw - this allows you to make very small adjustments to focus after you take a photo using Canon's software.  I have trouble seeing any real differences in my tests and file size doubles.Support this site- Order the Canon 5D Mark IV using the links below.

• B&H Photo: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-105mm f/4L II Lens $4599.00
• B&H Photo: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-70mm f/4L Lens $4,399.00
• B&H Photo: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera (Body Only) $3,499.00
• Amazon

Canon 5D Mark IV Custom Button Setup

Canon 5D Mark IV vs Sony A7R2

Sony vs Canon

Camera	Canon	Sony
MP	30 (Dimensions - 6720 x 4480)	42 (Dimensions - 7952 x 5304)
FPS	7.0	5.0
Video	4K with 1.7x crop / JPEG Codec	4K Full Frame / XAVC Codec
Storage	Dual Card - SD and CF	Single SD Card
LCD	Fixed 3.2" Touch enabled	Tilting 3.0"
Viewfinder;	Optical 100% Coverage	Electronic 100% Coverage
FPS	7.0	5.0
Battery Life	900 Shots	290 Shots
Weight	890 g (1.96 lbs)	625 g (1.38 lb)
Body Only Price	$3500 (buy from B&H Photo | Amazon )	$3200 (buy from B&H Photo | Amazon )
24-70 Lens Weight	805 g (1.77 lb)	866 g (1.95 lb)
24-70 Lens Cost	$1750 (buy from B&H Photo| Amazon )	$2198 (buy from B&H Photo| Amazon)
TOTAL COST & WEIGHT	1695 g 3.74 lbs | $5250	1491 g 3.33 lbs | $5398

 Which one would you pick? Go Vote!

Canon Rep Responds to Criticism over 5D Mark 4 Release

A video from Korey Rowe at the Canon Experience Center in Costa Mesa, California getting hands on with the 5d Mark 4. The Canon Experience Center, built in 2014, while acting as a service center it also includes a product showroom and theater experience for customers to view products. This is an official Canon promotional event for the new EOS 5D Mark 4 (iv) and 16-35mm L (iii). He asked some hard questions to the cinema rep at the event. Covering the reasons for the SD and CF cards, cropped 4k Video, and large files sizes of the h.264 codec found in the camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Iyu_kT84U

Canon 5D Mark IV - Official

Click for My Full Review of the Canon 5D Mark IV

Below is my earlier video based on specs.The Canon 5D Mark IV has been announced and after all the leaks the most surprising bit of info is how soon it will actually be released - in just two short weeks. Preorder NOW if you want this camera in the first few months as it will likely sell out.

Order from B&H Photo 

• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-105mm f/4L II Lens $4599.00
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-70mm f/4L Lens $4,399.00
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera (Body Only) $3,499.00
• Preorder from Amazon

Canon 5D Mark IV Specs

• 30.4MP Full-Frame CMOS Sensor
• DIGIC 6+ Image Processor
• 3.2" 1.62m-Dot Touchscreen LCD Monitor
• DCI 4K Video at 30 fps; 8.8MP Still Grab
• 61-Point High Density Reticular AF
• Native ISO 32000, Expanded to ISO 102400
• Dual Pixel RAW; AF Area Select Button
• Dual Pixel CMOS AF and Movie Servo AF
• 7 fps Shooting; CF & SD Card Slots
• Built-In GPS and Wi-Fi with NFC

Canon 5D Mark IV - What you need to know

One of the most anticipated and recently leaked cameras has been officially announced.  The 5D Mark IV follows the widely popular Canon 5D Mark III and looks to offer decent, evolutionary upgrades from its predecessor.

• 30MP is a good balanced file size that provides plenty of resolution while still offering a responsive 7 frames a second.
• High ISO of 32,000 with a mention of improved dynamic range - While the 80D, Canon's most recent camera, does offer dynamic range improvements they still appear to be behind the competitors, especially at the higher ISOs - I don't expect to be blown away by the improvements.
• The LCD is now a touchscreen, this combined with the dual pixel AF will make for very easy video focus and the dual pixel AF is fast enough for use in still shots.  Additionally Movie Servo AF looks to track moving subjects smoothly and capably.  No other DSLR provides such easy and smooth live view focusing.  The LCD is not articulating or even tilting.
• 4k with a catch - the 5D Mark IV will offer 4k but only at 1.74 crop factor. This means your 24-105 lens becomes a 42mm - 182mm lens, you lose the wide angle.  To be fair the very popular Panasonic GH4, which has been my go to camera for 4K for the last 18 months, offers 4k ONLY at a 2x crop factor BUT and here is the BUT- panasonic offers loads of lenses that make sense at that crop factor, Canon does not.  Also Sony's a7SII and A7RII around the same price point offer full frame 4K (no crop) with additional features the 5D Mark IV is missing (More about that in the Canon 5D Mark IV vs Sony A7R2 / A7S2 post)
• The photo AF system borrows from the top of the line Canon 1DX Mark II which offers fantastic, mind blowingly fast focus and accuracy.   This is all good.
• WIF and NFC- Finally. There was some worry that you would need a secondary device but they have included connectivity and remote control (hopefully as good as the 80D - you can focus, switch to MF and start and stop video) AND GPS is included too.  Time to finally sell my GP-E2
• Dual Pixel RAW - I can't yet tell if this is going to be a gimmick or actually useful- When this feature is enabled you can shift focus slightly using Canon provided software Think of this like an after the fact micro focus adjustment.  as it currently will only work with the DPP software this might be more gimmick but I could certainly see fixing minor focus errors on critical pictures - a few other caveats  - your file size doubles and your frame rate and buffer will slow.
• Still uses CF and SD card slots - great if you didn't want to buy new expensive cards like CFast or XQD but one of the major complaints about the 5D Mark III was the bottleneck provided by the SD card slot, even with the fastest card in there the write speed to the SD card slot is slow enough to slow the whole camera down - this looks to be true with the 5D Mark IV too.
• Body styling and button placement is identical to the 5D Mark III with a slight change to the joystick.

Bottom line - the Canon 5D Mark IV offers some noticeable improvements over the 5D Mark III and will represent a decent upgrade for many still photographers and those hybrid shooters who are desperate for easy 4k video should be happy.   It is, however, a crowded market and Sony's year old A7RII may still be a better buy for those that want more serious 4K features - S-Log, focus peaking and better dynamic range. Preorder links - I do think this camera will sell well early on and be difficult to get in the first few weeks, maybe months if you do not preorder now.

• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-105mm f/4L II Lens $4599.00
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera with 24-70mm f/4L Lens $4,399.00
• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera (Body Only) $3,499.00

Canon 5D Mark IV Leaks, Announcements for Photokina

With Photokina in a month we’re starting to hear about the LONG awaited 5d Mark IV. A lot of features we’ve expected after the release of the 1DX Mark II. Going along with previous news there' the "DSLR first" rumors that were floating around supported by the dual pixel raw file spec.Specifications via Digicame-info, Canon Rumors, and Nokishita. 

• 30.4MP
• 7 fps
• 150,000 actuation rating for shutter
• DIGIC 6+
• 100% viewfinder
• Magnification: 0.71
  • LCD tone adjustment (warm / standard / cool1 / cool2)LCD: 3.2 inches 1.62 million dot touch panel
• Dual Pixel AF
• Dual Pixel RAW File: Records one normal and one dual pixel file for post processing
  • Image Micro Adjustment to increase sharpness and resolution
  • Bokeh Shift to change position of foreground bokeh
  • Ghosting Reduction to reduce ghost and flare
• Updated noise reduction
• 61 Point AF, with 41 crosstype points
• 150,000 pixel RGB + IR Sensor
• EOS iSA system
• EOS iTR system
• Anti-flickr
• ISO 100-102400
• 24/30 fps video at 4K, while 60 fps at 1080p, and 120 fps at 720p
• 8MP still images from 4K video
• Full HD: ALL-I (For editing / I-only), IPB (Standard), IPB (Light)
• HD: ALL-I (I-only)
• Raw file sizes
  • Raw: 6270 x 4480, 36.8MB
  • DPRAW: 6270 x 4480, 66.9MB
  • M-RAW: 5040 x 3360, 27.7MB
  • S-RAW: 3360 x 2240, 18.9MB
• Touchscreen LCD
• New Picture Style “Fine Detail”
• Dust and weather sealed
• Mirror vibration control system (MVCS)
• Time-lapse movie mode
• Built-in interval timer and valve timer
• Electronic Level, 2 axis
• Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, and NFC
• FTP · FTPS can be transferred wirelessly also only in the body
• SD, SDHC, SDXC and CompactFlash (not Cfast 2.0)
• USB 3.0, HDMI, and microphone
• Battery: LP-E6N / LP-E6
• Estimated 900 shot battery life
• Dimensions: 116.4mm x 150.7mm x 75.9mm and Weight 890g (1.96lbs)

 [gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="12066,12067,12068,12069,12070"]With the leak there's the unofficial Canon announcements for Photokina from Digicame-info. We’ll have Scott in Germany next month for the show so expect to hear more soon. We’ve still got rumors of that 24MP full-frame mirrorless from Canon but it’s still missing at this point. Coming with the new 5d is a refresh of the 24-105mm and 16-35mm lenses possibly with the new nano USM design.

• EOS 5D Mark IV body
• EOS 5D Mark IV + 24-70 lens kit
• EOS 5D Mark IV + 24-105 lens kit
• Battery grip Canon E20 BG
• Wi-Fi adapter Canon W-E1
• 7D Mark II with 18-135 USM lens kit
• 7D Mark II with W-E1
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS II USM lens
• Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM lens

Canon 5D Mark IV Rumors

Northlight Images has received some updated info on the replacement for the Canon 5D Mark III, for those waiting patiently it isn't the best news -

• 5D Mark IV won't be along until later in the year, not until the 5Ds/R is shipping in reasonable numbers.
• Timing depends on just how well it sells and to whom - 5D3 sales in Europe have been holding up well, which might push the 5D4 back beyond the update of the 1D X.
• This may or may not fit in with info from the far east, that the 5D4 is due in August/September
• Current rumored specs - 28MP, 9fps and with 4k video. With a 'significant' advance in Canon's flash control capabilities. This would also include adapters/controllers and firmware updates for recent models to make more use of the functionality.

It is clear to me that we will certainly not see a 5D Mark IV replacement before August and maybe even later in the year or next! The gap between the 5D Mark II and III was a similar amount of time - 5D Mark II was announced Sept 2008 and the 5D Mark III was announced March 2012.A few weeks back we shared some specs that might be the 5D Mark IV (see below) At the time I did not expect those to be true, maybe a new camera but not the 5D Mark IV.  The specs above do seem likely but the reality is, this far from launch we just don't know and are guessing.  The one item I am still not convinced will happen is 4k in this camera. Canon has said and backed-up with recent releases that they are very focused on creating cameras targeted to more narrow markets- the 5Ds/R are clearly for photographers, very little video there. The 7D Mark II is clearly for sports and wildlife. Will the 5D Mark IV continue to be this all around machine that that the Mark III offers or will they want videographers to move toward their cinema line?Mentioned in February as possible 5D Mark IV specs and I went on record saying - no way. This may be a future camera from Canon but it will not be the 5D Mark IV.A camera currently being tested specifications

• 18mp Full Frame CMOS
• ISO 100-204,800
• 61 AF Points (all crosstype)
• 12fps
• Dual CFast
• 4K Video Capture

With the recent Canon Price drops - I do know it is a great time to buy a 5D Mark III or used 5D Mark II