Nikon D850 – Nikon’s latest workhorse officially released

Rumours have been banded around for some time over a replacement for one of Nikon’s most successful cameras, the D810. Finally, 3 years after the release of the D810, Nikon have announced official specifications and pre-orders for their latest camera, the D850.

So what do we know so far?

Well it has an all-new 45.7MP Full-Frame CMOS sensor, upped from 36.3MP in the D810; that is a great increase in resolution of just over 25%. There will be some speculation over how this new sensor performs over the older Sony sensor in the D810, but initial shots look very promising indeed. It utilises the same AF system as in the Nikon D5 with 153 AF points and rapid fire is increased to 7fps, or up to 9fps with the battery grip. ISO performance is also extended by one stop to 25,600.

Video capabilities have been dramatically increased, offering 4K UHD with no crop, as well as 120fps 1080. It can also do timelapse in 8K.

Externally, it includes a new 3.2” full touch, tilting LCD screen and a viewfinder with 0.75x magnification. The pop-up flash is gone to make space for the new viewfinder however, although probably not an issue for most. It also includes standard features we have come to expect like Bluetooth and WiFi, although still no GPS but again, probably not an issue for most.

Memory is handled by one XQD Card as the primary card, and one UHSII SD Card as the secondary; that should keep up nicely with the vast amount of data being moved around.

In a similar fashion to the Canon 5D MkIV released a while back, it is more of an “evolution” over a “revolution”. It is certainly not pushing the boundaries of what is possible like the Sony A9; what it is, I hope, is a rugged and reliable professional workhorse upgraded to cope with modern demands.

Pre-orders are priced at £3,499 and I have no doubt it will fly off the shelves!