REVIEW: Nikon D850 with 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR & SIGMA 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art

Nikon D850 Camera Body

I'm no stranger to the Nikon D850 after having spent a fair amount of time reviewing the D800 and D810, but neither model impressed me enough to give it a highly recommend rating. Would this be the one to change my mind?

Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR

To make this camera look its best, I decided to pair it with two fantastic lenses - the Nikon Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR and the hot new SIGMA 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art. Both are razor sharp and have their strengths to make the most of what this 45.7MP sensor has to offer!

SIGMA 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art

In my Nikon D810 review, the Zeiss Otus 55mm & SIGMA 50mm Art Series went head to head and the SIGMA came out victorious thanks to its AF advantage. Would the 135mm Art series be just as impressive?

Introduction

While the D800 & D800E failed to impress me, I did take a liking to the D810 thanks to the great lenses I was able to test with it. With that said, I wasn't really motivated to get one because the additional shutter speed required to get a sharp shot. This coupled with the unimpressive high ISO performance made it unpractical for most scenarios. As a result,  so best images required a tripod or studio lights which made it impractical for my needs.

Since I did my D810 review, I've had the pleasure of using the incredible Sony a7R II, the Canon 5Ds and 5Ds R, and the impressive but lesser megapixel a9 which many believe to be a preview of what is to come in the highly anticipated a7R III.

With a lot more reference products to demonstrate that the technology definitely exists to improve upon the D810, would the third time finally be a charm? Would this be the Sony a7R II killer that some were predicting it would be? Is it really worthy of DxO's #1 sensor ranking?

Body Thoughts

Ergonomics-wise, this is typical Nikon which is a good thing since there's plenty of buttons with many of them being programmable. The body design is far superior than what you get on a Canon or Sony, so even though there's no meaningful changes beyond the removal of the the built-in flash for the sake of better weather sealing, and a handy tilt screen which will make macro photographers happy.

Yes, there's improvements like the trick Focus Shift feature which makes collecting shots to use with your focus stacking software much easier, but it offers no in-camera magic. There's also the highly useful built-in intervalometer which makes Time Lapse photography much easier. In fact, Nikon even went the extra mile to let you make a 8k video out of these captured images which is pretty slick.

That said, there's not much else to say. Nikon has been making one of the most useful camera bodies for years, and this is a very easy and enjoyable to use camera body - nuff said.

Studio Shots

These first two shots were taken under my Elinchrom studio lights with a clamshell setup. I use a Lastolite Triflector with gold and silver stripe panels that caused a warm tone when used with the Auto0 Auto White Balance setting of the D850.

The photos shown are 100% unedited from the in-color camera JPEG, but if you click the links under and view them in Google Chrome browser you'll see color corrected versions made from the NEF file in Lightroom CC Classic using the new Version 4 Camera Standard profile with lens corrections. White balance was achieved in the NEF converted versions using the far left portrait Creative Enhancement Target of the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Photo. 

Sigma 135mm Art at f/9 for 1/200 sec at ISO 100
(Full Size Color Corrected from NEF - ProPhoto RGB JPEG Version)

100% zoom of camera right eye from Sigma shot above

100% zoom of camera right eye from Nikon shot below

Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR - f/9 @ 70mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 100
(Full Size Color Corrected from NEF - ProPhoto RGB JPEG Version)

These are two great lenses, so I was surprised at how well the 24-70 faired against the Sigma, but to my eyes the Sigma still has the clear advantage in terms of sharpness and detail resolution.

Outtake shot of Kai using the Sigma 135mm - f/8 @ for 1/250 sec at ISO 100
100% crop - click for full size shot

For fun I also included this unedited Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR outtake shot done under the same studio lighting and the Auto2 white balance:

f/9 @ 70mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 100

For those who haven't used a camera with a resolution this high, you will have to make changes in the way you have historically worked in the studio. Depth of field is a challenge just like medium format cameras as even f/8 and f/9 exhibit shallow depth of field challenges between the iris and eye brow, especially visible above for subjects with deep inset eyes. The net result is that it is not possible to get both in sharp focus like you can with lower megapixel cameras, unless you stop down your aperture to a larger f-stop number. With that said, a clear advantage of the extra megapixels is a significant reduction of specular highlights on the nose and forehead compared to those found with lower resolution cameras.

In the studio, I love the D850 - especially with a great lens like the Sigma 135mm Art.

Real World Shots

The following are 100% unedited shots that link to the original in-camera JPEG. All of the shots featured were taken handheld using either Aperture Priority with the Faster ISO sensitivity setting for Auto ISO or in Manual with Auto ISO.  All camera settings were set to their default including the picture control (Auto) and the white balance was set to personal taste (typically Auto2 or Shade):

f/2 @ 135mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 900
Camera shake is a huge challenge with this camera, but if you can keep the camera rock solid as I did here by having my elbow on the table, you can get a sharp shot without having to do 3x+ the reciprocal of the focal length (e.g., 1/400+ in this case)

f/2.8 @ 70mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 2500
Despite the distraction of the fingers, the auto 3D Face Tracking AF did a good job of finding Kai's eye and doing what I wanted the camera to do

f/2.8 @ 70mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 560
With the 24-70, I got an interesting and colorful shot...

f/2.8 @ 135mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 320
but I enjoyed having the 135mm where even at f/2.8 I could get in closer to my subject and bask in the buttery smooth bokeh I get from this excellent lens

f/5 @ 135mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 400
Zoom in and you'll see how this many megapixels helps to you resolve flaws on the car and details on the leaves. I used 1/200 sec as a shutter speed to try to limit motion blur in the leaves

f/13 @ 135mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 100 (tripod)
This shot was impressive because of the tonal range on the boat and sky even with the in-camera JPEG. By using the RAW, you can do some really cool processing on this shot.

f/2.8 @ 135mm for 1/2000 sec at ISO 72
I pulled over on the side o the road and took a quick snap of these paragliders just to see how the camera would resolve the detail on them. It's impressive to see how much you can seem when you really zoom in! Click the image and see for yourself!

f/2.8 @ 135mm for 1/320 sec at ISO 500
The 135 was just so fun to shoot with and the dynamic range of this camera helped to get the specular highlights at bay despite Sierra's unpowered skin

f/4 @ 50mm for 1/800 sec at ISO 100
I'm used to good in-camera JPEG from Sony, Fujifilm and Canon cameras, but this is a great example of why Nikon shooters should always keep their NEF RAW files around
Notice how bad the pumpkin looks and how overblown Kai's face is with the in-camera JPEG

f/4 @ 50mm for 1/800 sec at ISO 100
Thankfully with just some tone adjustments, it's easy to recover from the NEF file to get a much more usable image, so the in-camera JPEG's leave you wanting for more with orange tones on this camera compared to other brands I've tested - including the iPhone 7!

Without In-Camera HDR
To address the above problem you could turn to in-camera HDR which is useful for shots like this

With In-Camera HDR
Notice how it takes advantage of the great dynamic range of this camera to come up with a much better result in mixed light, but it comes at the expense of motion blur when your subjects are alive vs ones that are dead - ha ha

With In-Camera HDR on - oops!
This is proof that the HDR mode really is taking and combining multiple exposures even though you only hear what sounds like two exposures

f/2.8 @ 48mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 7200
High ISO performance is drastically improved over the D800 as this ISO 7200 image definitely impresses

f/2.8 @ 32mm for 1/125 sec at ISO 2000
Auto focus performance was quite good and the VR helped to get a lot more keepers with the 24-70 than I got with the 135mm

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/160 sec at ISO 25600
ISO 25,600 - are you kidding me?
This is a huge improvement over the D800 and I think a big improvement over the D810 as well

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/320 sec at ISO 16000
ISO 16,000 was downright sharp in reasonable lighting conditions

f/2.8 @ 52mm for 1/1000 sec at ISO 5600
This is only one of a series I took in burst mode with continuous AF, but I found that if you have enough light for 1/1000 or faster you have an AF system that can handle active subjects

f/2.8 @ 135mm for 1/1000 sec at ISO 100
For fun I thought I'd see how much detail could be resolved in this fake webbing. It was quite impressive!

f/3.2 @ 135mm for 1/640 sec at ISO 900
How can you not love the 135mm Art? Wonderful bokeh and crispy sharp detail!

f/4 @ 135mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 4500
This would have been a good time to play around with the focus stacking, but sadly I was handheld this day. That said, this is pretty good for handheld at f/4 and ISO 4500!

f/4 @ 135mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 1800
Once you start shooting flowers with this lens, it gets addicting in a hurry.
The D850 makes for a nice file that captures gobs of detail

f/4 @ 135mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 3600
Yes, a needless shot but look at the detail of the fabric in the face - ha, ha!
Just wait, if you get a D850 you'll be doing this too (especially if you have a killer lens like the 135!!!)

f/1.8 @ 135mm for 1/640 sec at ISO 4000
Despite using my handheld technique on this shot (the only one in this article), I still found it tricky to get precise focus on the eye. As a result, I think I needed to use the USB Dock to fine tune the AF calibration of  this lens to this camera

For more review photos, see http://ronmartinsen.com/nikon/d850.

Please note that all photos are copyright Ron Martinsen - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may view these photos only while your web browser is open to this article, but you must delete them when done. No printing, linking, editing, or reuse of any kind is permitted without expressed written consent.

One Edited Shot

Typically I don't include edited shots in my reviews because I want readers to see what the camera can do, not what I can do with Photoshop. However, I'm making a rare exception in this case as the positive feedback I got from this edited shot was so overwhelming from my pro photographer friends (names you'd recognize) that I decided to share it here.

The photo above is hosted on 500px where you can learn more about it, but the original was in color. The color version actually shows off a better job with the dynamic range of the underexposed subject and the background - details which get lost in the above post-processing.

While I wanted to hate the D850 for the technical things about it that drive me crazy, there is an indisputable fact that the dynamic range of this camera led to me capturing some interesting shots that I was quite pleased with. While it may not perfect, it's definitely a nice piece of photography equipment!

Compared to the Canon 5Ds, 5Ds R, and Sony a7R II

If someone set the Nikon D850 down in front of me along side the Canon 5Ds, 5Ds R, and Sony a7R II and told me I could have anyone one that I want plus $5000 for lenses to go with it, I'd still probably go for the Sony a7R II. While the D850 is my favorite Nikon D8** series camera, it's not as easy to pull off hand held shots like what I could get with the Sony or even the Canon's for that matter. This camera has a sensor that performs much closer to the Sony, than the Canon, but when all things are considered I still prefer the Sony - despite its freaking horrible menus. With that said, the a9 showed a lot of promise in addressing the things I hated about the Sony body so there's hope that finally might have something magical for us in its next release.

Conclusion

For most existing Nikon users with an investment in Nikon lenses, the D750 is a much better investment for everyday use. However, the tonal range advantage of the D850 - especially in specular highlight areas - makes it tough to pass on. In fact, if you are a Nikon shooter who is looking for a specialized body to give you the best studio and landscape shots that the platform offers, then look no further - this is the camera you want.

While it definitely pays to bump up the ISO sensitivity settings of Auto ISO to the Faster setting to ensure that your shutter speeds stay up when you are in aperture priority. Even with VR turned on, I was surprised at how easy it was to get shots where the eyes of my subjects clearly had motion blur despite them holding perfectly still. Part of it was the depth of field challenge previously mentioned, but I also believe the lack of a precision spot auto focus feature that Canon offers or the eye tracking feature of Sony & Fujifilm.

With those gripes out of my system, I can finally highly recommend this camera - for Nikon shooters. As for lenses, there's lots of good choices, but if it were me I'd be investing in the Sigma 85mm and Sigma 135mm Art. These two incredible lenses have impressed the heck out of me and really made me a Sigma fan - when I used to be a Sigma hater.   

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy the Nikon D850.

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR.

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy the SIGMA 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these reviews:

• Nikon D5 (Nikon D4s)
• Nikon D500 with 24-70mm f/2.8 VR & SB-5000
• Nikon D610 (D600 vs Canon)
• Nikon D750 - Yeah, you want this one!
• Nikon D810 (includes SIGMA 50mm Art & Otus 55mm)
• SIGMA 120-300mm
• SIGMA 24mm Art Series
• SIGMA 35mm Art Series
• SIGMA 50mm f/1.4 Art Series (includes comparisons)
• SIGMA 85mm f/1.4 Art Series - the best art series I've tested
• SIGMA USB Dock
• Sony a7R Mark II with 24-70mm
• Sony a9 with 24-70mm GM
• NEC PA322UHD 4k for Pro Photo & Video Editing
• Canon PRO-1000 and Epson P800 Fine Art Printer Reviews
• Canon 5D Mark IV
• Canon 5Ds
• Canon 5DsR
• Canon 6D (vs Canon 5DM3 & D600)

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

PhotoPlus Expo New York 2016–Day 1

Today was a light day where on a small subset of exhibitors were on hand for the “Test Drive” event, but some of what I saw was very cool. Here are some of my favorites of the day:

Global Drone Union (GDU) Byrd  – Replace the gimbal, not the drone

This was a super cool drone that collapses up and is easy to carry, but it has a unique feature – you can mount different gimbals. What this means is that in the near future you can mount any camera up to 5 pounds including DSLR’s and point and shoots like the Sony RX100 IV.

While this drone does have the limitation that it can only travel up to 1000 meters from the user, FAA guidelines require line of site so this won’t be an issue. Instead, what people will love from this $849 drone (before the gimbal which should cost about $100) is that you can choose the device you want to use from major makers like Canon, Nikon and Sony, yet still have it control shooting via your phone app.

I’ll have more news on these early next year after it has fully matured, but all signs show that this is the drone many photographers have been waiting for. If you are someone who is fine with having a camera provided by the drone, then they offer that too as shown in the display image above.

DJI users will find the controls very familiar as there are ex DJI employees who worked together to make this product realize their dreams and ambitions about what a drone should be.

Mounting your phone is exactly like the DJI and the feel of the controls seems the same from a quality standpoint, but more intuitive from a practical standpoint.

VR is getting real

Ricoh was showing off the Theta SC 360 degree camera which is everything you like about the Theta S, but with a cost savings derived from not having an HDMI port. Aside from that, it’s the same lens and sensors so the final results are identical – at a lower price.

To really enjoy 360 cameras, VUZE was offering the 3D 360 degree VR camera which adds a whole new dimension to enjoying VR content:

Panono also showed off its unique 360 camera with demos of amazing shots achieved by tossing it in the air. Be careful though, as this device isn’t drop proof so if you toss it, you better catch it!

DxO One

I’ve been eager to try the DxO One out ever since I heard about them, so it was fun to finally see them in real life. It not only works great with your iPhone as shown above, it offers a wide selection of underwater housings to take a great camera and make it even more practical:

Unlike a GoPro, it offers a tiny LCD for the scenarios where your mobile phone isn’t attached as shown below:

Placing it in the housing is a simple operation that happens in seconds, so you don’t have to choose do I want an underwater version or not – you can have both as shown below:

And why stop at an underwater housing, when you can have cool filters to go on the end as shown below to help you realize your creative intent:

Ikan Gimbal Stabilizer

The best way to describe the Ikan gimbals that I saw would be to say they are intelligent gimbals designed for mobile phone cameras all the way up to DSLR’s. It’s a brilliant design that works incredibly well. Definitely check them out if you are looking to get smoother video.

Conclusion

Lots more to come in what promises to be a fun and exciting show this year.

Disclosure

If you purchase links found this article, I may make a commission.

REVIEW: Nikon D500 with 24-70mm f/2.8 VR & SB-5000

Nikon D500 Camera Body

I was  big fan of the Nikon D7100 and D7200, so when I heard Nikon was doing a APS-C sized sensor (23.5 x 15.7 mm) camera, I wondered where this would fit into the line up. After learning about its 10fps burst mode, it immediately became clear that this was to be a direct compete to the Canon 7D Mark II (review). In fact, I spent a little time comparing the specs of all three side by side to get my head around all of the differences. In a nutshell the D500 gives you:

• Same fps burst mode as the 7D Mark II (10 fps)
• The best in class high ISO range (51,2000 and more in extended modes)
• The best LCD resolution with touch screen support
• 153 phase detection and 99 cross type autofocus points (but you can still only select up to 55 of them)
• 4k video
• A bigger price tag and a few other minor improvements

Given how much I enjoyed the D7100 and D7200, this all sounded good so I was excited to give it a go.

Accessories Tested

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR Lens

Ever since I heard Nikon released the 24-70 f/2.8 VR, I've been anxious to try it - but it has alluded me due to high demand - until now. While this is a very expensive lens, the idea of having my favorite travel range of 24-70 with both f/2.8 and VR was a dream come true.

Nikon SB-5000 AF Radio Control Speedlight

Another item high on my todo list from Nikon was the SB-5000 speedlight which features both radio control support, as well as a tiny fan to allow for up to 100 consecutive shots without overheating. Given the problems the SB-900 & SB-910 had with overheating, this was a big improvement and the radio control puts it on par with the Canon 600EX-RT flashes that I shoot with.

Unfortunately for this review, I didn't have the WR-R10 so I wasn't able to test the off-camera radio control support.

Hands On Impressions

One of the main features of this camera is its burst mode performance, but a fast burst mode is meaningless if the buffer fills up and you cant' take photos. It's hard to quantify burst mode and buffer flush times in text, so I decided to do a quick video where I do a quick high level overview of the body and show off its burst mode in action:

Ultimately I liked the body performance which mimics the great Nikon design with lots of physical hard buttons that are user reprogrammable. It's burst mode was great, and buffer flush times were reasonable - although not as blazing fast as the D5 (review) - of course. That said, I didn't test XQD, but even with a SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro UHS-I SDHC U1 Memory Card (Class 10) it was very fast.Simply put, buffer flush times aren't going to be an issue with this camera based on my extensive experience testing other camera bodies.

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/2000 sec at ISO 360
This is one of a series of 42 burst mode images
so you can see how many shots were in focus vs blurry

During my testing, I found the performance to be closer to the D5 than I expected but not as good in the tests that I ran. This is to be expected since I wasn't using a sports lens for this test, so your mileage may vary depending on the lens used.

Like the D5, the best performance was in AF-C single point mode for moving subjects and of course AF-S single point for stationary subjects. Just like the D5, when you try to use the dynamic area modes it seems to get lost sporadically during the burst mode before locking onto the subject again.

Overall, I found myself getting less in focus shots than I did with the D7100 and D7200 I tested, but again that could be due to the lens used. Bargain hunters should keep this in mind when deciding which lens to buy (my recommendations), as I would expect the best in-focus shots performance to come with the newest and best Nikon sports lenses.

A Word About Nikon Metering

If you read the marketing material for Nikon's metering system it sounds wonderful - in fact, it sounds revolutionary. However, in practice the metering experience I've had on the D5 and the D500 is the worse metering I've ever seen on a digital SLR since 2007.

This statement will infuriate the fan boys and cause me no end of hate mail, but I've got to say it because it's been such a nuisance in real world testing. I've experimented with all of the modes (see the manual here) and here are my observations:

• Matrix - This is the mode you want to use (and the default) because it's supposed to take into consideration the entire scene and balance the exposure for the scene using the most advanced algorithms developed by Nikon. Sadly, it is very inconsistent alternates between dark and light exposures even when the camera and subject doesn't move. In real world use it can drive you made, so you'll start trying other modes.
• Center-weighted - this is a classic simple mode that is supposed to meter based on what in the center of the frame and in some cases it can be the best choice, yet for the D5 & D500 it isn't quite as reliable and is prone to errors just like Matrix
• Spot - Many of my Nikon friends both in the pro and prosumer ranks have sworn that Spot metering is the way to go on Nikon because it will meter off your focus point. In theory this sounds brilliant, but in practice even this can screw up if your spot is on an dark eye vs the cheek of a subject. The cheek will give you the metering you want and the wrong focus, but eye will over expose with perfect focus. It's very frustrating!
• Highlight-weighted - This looks like spot, but what I does is assign the greatest metering weight to the highlights which ends up being the wrong choice for pretty much every circumstance unless your subject is a Geisha with hot highlights of light on her face. Nikon suggests it for use with stage actors, but I haven't used it for that so I can't comment if it works well but for everything else I tried it with it would make the highlights great at the expense of what you cared about.

The more you time spend fighting it, the more you learn how to work around it (hint: spot metering is you friend and often with -1EV of exposure compensation), but why does it have to be so difficult? For all of the Canon, Fujifilm, Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus cameras I've tested the default metering modes just work so it's something you never really need to fool with. In fact, out of 400,000+ shots I've taken with Canon cameras, I've only switched from Evaluate metering mode to Spot mode < 10 times, and while I've demonstrated what it's Partial and Center-Weighted metering do, I've never really needed to use them.

I think this will be a frustrating point to new DSLR owners who buy this camera, and ironically it was never this bad with other models before the D5 & D500. Yes, those benefited from spot metering and weren't as good as I'd like, but they were loads better than the D5/D500 metering.

Hopefully Nikon will address this in a firmware update at some point, but in the meantime don't say you haven't been warned! It's also another reason to make sure you shoot RAW.

Auto Fine Tune Frustrations

If you don't know what Auto Fine Tune is, you can see a good video in my D5 first look article, but what this does is "automatically" calibrate your lens with your camera to avoid any focus errors (aka back focus / front focus). On most cameras this has to be done manually using something like a Datacolor SpyderLensCal Autofocus Calibration Aid, or software like the like Reikan FoCal. Both of these work, but it's not as easy - in theory - as the camera doing it for you.

There lies the rub, I've found that it doesn't work well and often makes things worse more than it helps. I'm not alone with the frustrations and inconsistency in the results as you can read on DPReview here.

I'm glad they have it and I hope they perfect it, but for now I strongly advise people to avoid this buggy feature and do it the good old fashion ways mentioned earlier in this section.

24-70 f/2.8 VR Thoughts

f/3.5 @ 70mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 720
Minimum focus distance of this lens was amazing
even when babies attack while you are shooting

I like the 24-70mm range on any camera platform as a versatile every day / travel lens, but surprisingly it's been a common practice to offer a f/2.8 without any sort of vibration reduction/image stabilization, but it has shown up on f/4 variants. As a result, it's been a long-time ask of fans of many platforms to have their cake and eat it too by getting a lens that is both a 24-70mm f/2.8 AND VR. Of course, the predecessor 24-70mm f/2.8 was an outstanding lens, so getting VR at the expense of image quality simply wouldn't do.

During my testing, I've been very happy with the sharpness but even more impressed with the minimum focus distance. As any parent will tell you, when you photography kids - especially little ones that are on the move - they are going to come after you as soon as they see the camera. As a result, you have precious little time to try to get a shot before you end up with a finger on your lens. Typically this results in a series of blurry out of focus shots, but the nice thing about this combo was that the excellent minimum focus distance meant that I could still acquire focus even as a child would cross into my personal bubble. The burst mode and great focus of the D500 allowed me to get the shots I wanted and surprise shots that were closer than I expected to get.

f/22 @ 24mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 400
Shooting in the sun used to always create lens flare like this, but it's less common with premium lenses these days. I was disappointed that this lens didn't do better.

The only major concerns that I had with this lens was that it doesn't have the warm contrast punch that I typically enjoy of lenses in this price range, and it was subject to a lot more flare issues than I would have expected. Lenses like my Canon 11-24mm have a coating that basically eliminates flare, so I would expect a lens of this price point to leverage a similar technology for excellent flare protection. Of course if you don't shoot into direct harsh light like the sun this won't be an issue, so it's not a serious problem.

I give this lens high marks for parents and travel photographers who want a single lens that's good for unpredictable situations in life under all lighting conditions. The VR can save you from camera shake blurriness, and the physical size of the lens isn't too obnoxious to carry around.

I liked it and and can easily recommend it for parents, event and travel photographers.

SB-5000 Thoughts

f/2.8 @ 60mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 45600
I was a bit surprised that the camera with SB-5000 flash
chose such a high ISO when in Auto ISO mode and Matrix metering

While I didn't get to do as much testing as I would have liked with this flash, I was impressed with how well it coordinated with the camera to give me the right amount of flash when I needed it. It also had a good harmony with the auto ISO which means that backgrounds weren't pitch black when in matrix metering mode. However, you may want to cap the maximum auto ISO when using it as sometimes I think it went too far - as in the case above where it chose ISO 45,600. While technically right, it wasn't what I expected after using other flashes for so many years so this is something to keep in mind.

The SB-900 and SB-910 suffered from overheating issues when used heavily, so this flash addresses that by having a built-in fan that fires up briefly after you take a shot (and yes, you can disable it). I didn't' find the noise to be a problem in real world use, and I appreciated how fast this flash was ready to go for another shot (much faster than any flash I can recall using).

When used properly it can give you results that give you the amount of light you need without having the overly bright look that you see in the shot above (pointed directly due to this being taken in pitch black darkness during July 4th fireworks).

If I were a Nikon shooter, this is the only flash I would want to have on my camera. I'd gladly take it over the SB-910 any day. The radio wireless support makes it an even better choice for anyone that needs a proper flash.

Overall Thoughts

Everything I've seen seems to indicate this is the camera that most were hoping it would be - it's basically a D7200 on burst mode steroids with improved AF performance and higher ISO support. The camera body is a delight to use, and I definitely prefer it over the Canon 7D Mark II. While the usability of both the Canon and Nikon are very good, I'd take the Nikon over the Canon for better high ISO performance and overall image quality. 

Real World Shots

For my reviews I always like to take casual shots of every day life using both RAW+JPEG with default camera settings (excluding exposure and other where noted below). These shots have been unedited and are 100% exactly s they came out of the camera.

All images are copy protected and may not be used for any other purpose beyond this review, and must not be printed, edited, uploaded, displayed or otherwise used without signed written consent on a notarized document.

Click here for a full gallery of images, and see my comments on a subset of those images below...

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/2000 sec at ISO 280
This was the 149th of 156 shots in a running series and my son was all of the place for the last part of this sprint. I was pleased at how great the focus was with him being at the edge both from the camera and lens performance. The minimum focus distance also made the last few shots sharper than I usually get with sports cameras.

f/2.8 @ 56mm for 1/640 sec at ISO 100
The colors are a bit exaggerated here because I forgot the camera in Vivid picture control mode
but the image quality was solid. This was a bit of a dynamic range torture test that passed with flying colors - especially with the data in the raw file

f/22 @ 62mm for 1/125 sec at ISO 250
Excellent dynamic range for a cropped sensor means that if you can position yourself right you can get great in the sun shots - just be mindful of the position of the inevitable flare spots

f/5.6 @ 62mm for 1/1600 sec at ISO 100
On a full frame with this lens this spider would have been a speck so this shot wouldn't have been possible, so this was definitely a case where I was happy to be shooting APS-C!

f/11 @ 34mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 100
I needed a flash here but didn't have it, but I was impressed with the dynamic range that I got despite that reality. This was one frame of a bracketed shot, so I definitely can save the shot via HDR processing later in Aurora.

f/3.5 @ 70mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 720
While you can't tell from this shot, my son was walking and looking the other direction when I yelled "hey Kai". With one frame in single-shot mode it managed to nail the focus quickly and the cropped sensor meant that I could put the focus point exactly where I wanted it (his eye instead of just below it on full frame sensors)

f/8 @ 24mm for 1 sec at ISO 800
Long exposure shooters will appreciate the switch to close the viewfinder to avoid light leaks during events like firework shows where you are surrounded by people with cell phone flashes going off during your long exposures

f/5.6 @ 24mm for 1/160 sec at ISO 2200
The dynamic range is good even as the ISO's climb yielding much better results than I expected for tough conditions like this shot

f/2.8 @ 38mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 1600
The bokeh of the 24-70 is quite pleasing and I was plenty satisfied with the sharpness even when it was wide open at f/2.8. Edge performance was impressive too!

f/3.5 @ 70mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 900
In camera processing is very pleasant even with the Standard Picture Control
and Auto1 White Balance. It's rare to see an image this pleasing out of a Nikon, but thanks to three Auto white balance choices, you can get great in-camera results instead of the historically cold neutral tones

f/22 @ 62mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 51200
Read those settings - both the lens and camera impressed me here with an image that would have not been this good even at 1600 ISO just 7 years ago! Yes, the high ISO performance is great and the VR made this handheld shot super sharp!

f/5.6 @ 62mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 2800
The great minimum focus distance of the 24-70mm will make it a great choice for amateur macro photographers who want the one lens that does it all during their vacation

Conclusion

It's been a while since I shot an APS-C sensor, but this camera reminded me why there is still a place for them in the crowded camera body market these days. I loved being able to put my focus points all the way to the edges of the frame without having to point and recompose like I must do on full-frame cameras. I loved the extra reach especially when at the minimum focus distance zoomed at 70mm. This makes the tilting LCD on the back during live view even more important and useful - as is the pinch to zoom!

This camera is everything everyone has been saying it is. It's got very good AF performance with even a simple travel lens like the 24-70, and its got the burst mode and buffer flush performance to make it a great choice for sports photographers. I also loved how well it worked with the SB-5000 so that you only needed to be mindful of your flash head position and not have to fight the flash as I've had to do with earlier Nikon body and flash combos.

While I thought the metering sucked because series of shots would be ruined with overly dark and overly bright exposures in the middle of a series, this same problem exists on the D5 so I can't help but think Nikon will get to the bottom of this issue for both camera bodies and issue firmware updates to fix it - let's hope! The good news is that when the meter gets the exposure right, it does a spectacular job so take advantage of the great AF performance and fast buffer speed to take a few extra shots and it won't be an issue in real world use.

This is a very good camera that is sure to please the Nikon faithful who are looking for a new body to replace their D7200 or D750 shooters who are longing for better burst mode performance that is closer to the D700 with a battery grip - even if it is at the expense of a cropped sensor.

While I don't care to use DSLR's for video, the 4k video support is sure to please aspiring videographers too.

In the end, it's easy to give this camera a high recommendation but if you don't need the FPS, 4k video and the extra reach, the D750 and D610 are still excellent cameras that are worth considering.

Where to order

Click here to learn more or order on the B&H web site. Click here to learn more about the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR Lens, and click here to learn more about the SB-5000.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Nikon D5 (Nikon D4s)
• Nikon D610 (D600 vs Canon)
• Nikon D7200 (and older model links)
• Nikon D750 - Yeah, you want this one!
• Canon 7D Mark II
• NEC PA322UHD 4k for Pro Photo & Video Editing
• Aurora HDR by Macphun & Trey Ratcliff
• Ron's Recommendations

Disclosure

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