Nikon D850: Announcement of an Announcement of Development

[Michael Erlewine]

If only Nikon had a trade in upgrade program!!!!!  Hard for me to pull the string on this one as I've only had my 810 for a couple of years.

I have so many shutter activations, I will just keep my D810.

[kers]

I have so many shutter activations, I will just keep my D810.

I am in the same position- 225.000 and counting....

The natural clarity of this image is breathtaking - good lenses can do so more than sensors and it shows.

[Michael Erlewine]

I am liking the new D850 the more I get used to it. For my work, it is about perfect.  Here are a few shots taken yesterday, two with the Nikkor CRT lens and one with the legendary Noct Nikkor. They are marked.

[Rory]

Turning off all sound in the camera as part of LiveView is way more wonderful than I would have imagined. Silence. Great for stacking photos and progress is as easy as watching the Live View screen visibly changing. I will use it ALL the time.

Not owning many AF lenses, the little focus-stacking option (which I think just produces JPGs!) is a non-starter for me. I like to roll my own stacks, thank you, and use the best lenses I have, many of which are not Nikkors. And without a raw option for this, I would never use this feature. But some I imagine will.

How do you get the stacking progress to show on the live view screen?  What is "the little focus-stacking option"?

[Michael Erlewine]

How do you get the stacking progress to show on the live view screen?  What is "the little focus-stacking option"?

I watch each shot appear on LiveView.

The new focus-stacking feature is in the manual.

[kers]

A bit hidden in the manual and not much published is the fact EFC now works with the quiet shuttermodes.
I think that is a great new feature. I will be using that a lot.

[HSakols]

Is anyone using their D850 with adobe lightroom?  Can the file be converted to DNG before going to lightroom?

[Rory]

I watch each shot appear on LiveView.

The new focus-stacking feature is in the manual.

I've been using the focus stacking on the D850 and I've read the manual.  What I cannot do is make each successive shot appear on the monitor and I do not see anything about this in the menu guide, so I was hoping you could help me get this working.  If I invoke focus stacking in live view it performs the stack but the monitor stays blank during the burst.  I do have D11 (Live View in continuous mode) set to ON.  Within the focus shift menu, if I set silent photography to ON then the monitor flashes during the burst but I do not see the image.  Setting the delay between shots in the burst to 1 or 2 seconds does not help.

Also, the shots are being saved in whatever format I have set: NEF, TIFF or JPG, so I was also wondering what you were referring to when you mentioned only producing JPG.

[Rory]

Is anyone using their D850 with adobe lightroom?  Can the file be converted to DNG before going to lightroom?

Right now you have to use the DNG converter.  Here is some info from an Adobe employee to use profiles other than adobe standard:

The DNG Converter and Camera Raw plugin installers install the Nikon D850 camera profiles in a central location on computers where the Camera Raw plugin looks for profiles.

Lightroom does not look for profiles in this location. As a workaround, you can use Camera Raw 9.12.1 instead of Lightroom for now.

Another workaround is to copy the Nikon D850 camera profiles into the user-level Camera Profiles directory. Both Lightroom and Camera Raw check this location. It is intended for custom, user-generated camera profiles.

Copy all the files with a .dcp extension and "Nikon D850" in their name from the central location to the user-level directory.

On Mac the profiles for the D850 are centrally installed at this path:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles/Camera

The user-level location is:
/Users/YOUR USER NAME HERE/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

Note that this path does not include the final "Camera" sub folder. By default the macOS Finder won't navigate to these folders, but you can access them by using the "Go" menu in Finder and typing in the path. For the user-level folder "~/Library" is an abbreviation for the Library folder inside your home directory (as opposed to /Library, the central location).

On Windows PCs the central location is:
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles\Camera

Assuming you have Windows installed on your "C:" drive. If not, adjust as necessary.

The user-level location is:

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

Unless you've customized Windows to keep your user directory on a different drive. Note there is not final "Camera" sub directory at the user-level location.

In the future after installing a new version of Lightroom with built-in D850 support, you will not need to keep the Nikon D850 .dcp files in the user-level location.

[Michael Erlewine]

I have a question:

I am using the D850 on LiveView. I have it set for EFC and silence. When I take a photo, I would like it to NOT show me the result, but bring me back to the LiveView screen. It was doing this, but I messed something up. Can anyone point out how to do this? Please and thank you.

[Miles]

Michael,
You may have switched "Image Review" to "On" in the "Playback Menu".  See pages 225 and 249 in the manual.  I hope this helps.
Miles

[Michael Erlewine]

Michael,
You may have switched "Image Review" to "On" in the "Playback Menu".  See pages 225 and 249 in the manual.  I hope this helps.
Miles

That's it. Thanks. Don't know what I was thinking. I probably wasn't!

[wallpaperviking]

Hi Michael,
                 
Glad to hear you are liking the new camera


Am thinking of getting one myself and was hoping you may answer a couple of questions for me? 

I have used the D810 previously and love the fact that it has a 5:4 aspect ratio (presented as a semi opaque mask in the OVF).  I see that they have also included this in the D850, as well as a 1:1 it seems.

Just wondering if this option presents you with the cropped 5:4 Raw image (as the D810) did, or presents you with the full sensor capture (3:2) and provides "crop lines" in post processing software? 

This is what my Fuji GFX does and it has come in handy a few times where there is something just outside the frame that I did not originally "visualise".

Would also love to hear your opinion if you think much more time is needed in terms of handholding the camera and getting "acceptable" results?  I assume the 1/focal length rule is well out but would be curious to know what you think in terms of handholding the D850?  The improved focus system is great but I assume the camera also needs to be handled somewhat with extra care when paired with a high Mpx sensor....

Thanks so much in advance, much appreciated

[Michael Erlewine]

Hi Michael,
                 
Glad to hear you are liking the new camera


Am thinking of getting one myself and was hoping you may answer a couple of questions for me? 

I have used the D810 previously and love the fact that it has a 5:4 aspect ratio (presented as a semi opaque mask in the OVF).  I see that they have also included this in the D850, as well as a 1:1 it seems.

Just wondering if this option presents you with the cropped 5:4 Raw image (as the D810) did, or presents you with the full sensor capture (3:2) and provides "crop lines" in post processing software? 

This is what my Fuji GFX does and it has come in handy a few times where there is something just outside the frame that I did not originally "visualise".

Would also love to hear your opinion if you think much more time is needed in terms of handholding the camera and getting "acceptable" results?  I assume the 1/focal length rule is well out but would be curious to know what you think in terms of handholding the D850?  The improved focus system is great but I assume the camera also needs to be handled somewhat with extra care when paired with a high Mpx sensor....

Thanks so much in advance, much appreciated

Sorry, but I only use the camera on a tripod and never experiment with cropped/masked images. I don't handhold it. I never use AF.

[Stephen Starkman]

Wallpaperviking: Regarding in-camera crop mode, the D850 behaves the same as the D810.
One thing to note, EFCS is available in Viewfinder shooting if you use the Quiet or Quiet continuous modes. You can also choose to add a .2 (or longer) delay when shooting this way. I haven't had an opportunity for a controlled test - lots of variables including VR on/off, shutter speed, etc. Hope this helps. Stephen

[Rory]

I find it annoying that focus peaking only works when the lens focus is set to manual.  Many nikon lenses allow both AF and manual focus.

[wallpaperviking]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated!

Will keep an eye out for further tests on what people think is possible to get sharp images from this camera handheld...

Thanks again..

[BernardLanguillier]

D850 + 70-200mm f2.8 E FL

The D850 colors may be its strongest point!

Cheers,
Bernard

[S@W]

Thanks for sharing Bernard.
Good news.

I've red that you like you're 70-200mm very much. But considering the quality of this body, aren't you tempted to use it more with a lens like the 105mm f1,4 to have the prime quality out of it?

I'm waiting for my D850 and do not own a single Nikon lens for the moment. As I'm using a medium format when max IQ is wanted, I'm undecided: buy zoom lenses only for the D850 or still add some excellent primes like the 28 & 105 f1,4.
As it would be redundant with my MF primes the Nikon zooms make more sense. But still, a D850 with a set of good primes is very attractive !
Advices welcomed 

[shadowblade]

Thanks for sharing Bernard.
Good news.

I've red that you like you're 70-200mm very much. But considering the quality of this body, aren't you tempted to use it more with a lens like the 105mm f1,4 to have the prime quality out of it?

I'm waiting for my D850 and do not own a single Nikon lens for the moment. As I'm using a medium format when max IQ is wanted, I'm undecided: buy zoom lenses only for the D850 or still add some excellent primes like the 28 & 105 f1,4.
As it would be redundant with my MF primes the Nikon zooms make more sense. But still, a D850 with a set of good primes is very attractive !
Advices welcomed 

A 105mm lens is useless if you need 100mm or 120mm, let alone 70mm or 200mm. You need a lens that fits the scene and angle of view you're shooting. If you have to go looking for a scene that fits your lens each time, you won't get very far and will miss a lot of shots.