Nikon D850 initial few weeks review

[goodguy]

I would like to share my initial feelings about my new toy.
I shot 2 weddings, 2 bar mitzvahs and 2 engagement shoots plus few shorts park walks.
I think I learned a bit about it enough to give you my thought so far and compare it to my D750.

Images are no surprise in low ISO cleaner and amount of resolution is mind blowing.
but that wouldn't surprise any one.
Camera feels great in the hand, deep grip like the D750, in the beginning I liked the D750 feel in the hand better but now after few weeks of use I found actually the D850 beefier body is better, the D850 is bigger and heavier then the D750 and after a day of use if I pick up and hold the D750 suddenly it feels so small and light its funny, never the less considering this is no tiny MFT mirrorless camera this camera is very comfortable to hold and feels great coupled with a big lens like my Tamron 70-200mm 2.8 VC

So I will tell you what I like about it and what I don't....................................

Con

Low light performance-its pretty good and when considering its a 46MP sensor camera its actually more then you would expect but when compared to the D750 its just not as good, the D750 feels like its about 1/3 to 1/2 stop better above 1600ISO, I always knew my D750 is very good at low light and it really is.
Weight-its just a big camera, not everybody will like to schlep around such a big camera but for me considering its mainly a professional tool I couldn't complain at all.

Pro

First and this I a BIG one, biggest for me is the 153 AF point with 99 cross type, this AF system is frick'n AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
I mainly bought this camera for its AF, when the D500 came out I said when an FX camera with its AF (except the D5) will come out I will get it and I did.
Since I use it only ONCE it hunted for a quick second before locking focus and shooting, all the points in the OVF are cross type with -3EV when the centre point is -4EV, I mean this is a marvel of Japanese engineering and I tip my hat with respect, its everything I expect only slightly better, the AF points is spread so much wider then compared to my D750, it makes for a much easier work, considerably less recomposing and all the AF points are (except for the centre one which is stronger) are as strong and effecting as my D750 centre point which I mostly use.
From time to time (not a lot) my D750 will miss the shot even if I lock focus exactly where I want, the D850 so far has been producing perfectly sharp images.
So yes I am happy about this main feature in the camera which is most important for me

4K, this means I future proof it for video work if needed

Touch tilting screen, I touch the screen where I want it to focus and take a shot and I get the shot, very helpful in high or low shots and I found it to be 100% reliable with tack sharp results.
The touch screen is very easy to work with and is sensitive so it feels just like working on my cell phone and the moment I touch the screen it takes the shot, almost instantly, so much faster compared to any other Nikon I used when focusing with screen and not OVF

More
Few more thoughts about the camera and that's not to reflect about the D850 but more about me and my style of shooting
The joystick-don't use it, I am too used for the pad like in my D750 and I keep using it both for menu use and AF use, its perfect for me and I see no need to start getting use to the joystick, tried it few times and it just felt unnatural so I stopped.
Big 75% OVF-not really a big deal for me, I cant see the difference between my D3300, D750 or D850, all the same for me and frankly I would be much happier with an EVF, I think this was a huge miss on Nikon's part and they should have made it a hybrid system
D850 comes with tons of features but alas they are wasted on me like focus stacking, 7 or 9 fps and so much more which I don't remember.
I am mainly an event photographer and not doing any macro, or product or other stuff, will take the camera with me on travel but there also I will not use most of its features.
Stupid XQD cards are very expensive and for now only Sony is making them so prices will not go down any time soon till more makers give Sony competition.

Conclusion

So for now and emphasis is for NOW!!! as I have lots more to learn on this complex camera!
Am I happy with the camera ? yes totally and whole heartily, for me it was mainly about the AF and it delivers and more!!!
Image quality is just as good as they say but to be honest the D750 is really good too so to see the difference I need to pixel peep but without a doubt its great.
Extra resolution is actually more helpful when I take it for my travels as in weddings I don't crop much, amount of crop I can do on it and still retain good high quality pictures is simply shaming the D750.
So I am very happy with it.
If you need a low light beast the D750 is still the option but in pretty much everything else the D850 is just on a different league especially in AF department, I mean the D750 has a wonderful AF system but its no match to the D850 AF

 

[goodguy]

Conducted a test today, trying to answer a rather interesting question that was on my mind, does lowering the resolution on my D850 from "L" (46MP) to "M" (25MP) to "S" (12MP) will change the noise levels, well the answer is resounding NO according to my test, noise level seems about same, image sharpness also seemed close between the "L" and "M" files but the "S" files were totally bad, very soft and unusable. Tried test at 3200ISO and 6400ISO, same aperture and shutter speed.

 

[jaomul]

I would not expect the noise levels to drop with a lower Res selected, but I would think that if you took an iso 6400 shot with the 750 and 850 and processed similar and output say a 15 X 10 inch jpeg at 300ppi, the difference between the noise would likely be negligible

 

[benhasajeep]

I would not expect the noise levels to drop with a lower Res selected, but I would think that if you took an iso 6400 shot with the 750 and 850 and processed similar and output say a 15 X 10 inch jpeg at 300ppi, the difference between the noise would likely be negligible

I also would not expect noise to go down with lower res. As a pixel will have the same atributes no matter how many the camera selected to use for output. According to Nikon the D850 was suppose to be the same if not a little better than the D810 performance wise. But what your saying about noise does match what DXO tested / listed for ISO performance.