Digital Trends sought out native Portland-based photographer Alexa Lepisto, an avid Canon user, to test out the Nikon D850. Here’s her take on the camera and its features.
Lepisto, a portrait photographer, was blown away by the Nikon D850’s 45.7 megapixels which captured each image with crisp detail and brilliant colors. Because of her photography style, ISO range is a very important feature to Lepisto; she shoots a variety of projects in which lighting conditions can quickly vary. With Nikon D850’s vast ISO range, Lepisto wasn’t afraid to shoot in low light (with the lowest range of 25,600). Each image captured proved to be clear, with far less noise than she expected.
The Nikon D850 felt intuitive to shoot on for Lepisto and its overall system was easy to navigate. She found the illuminated buttons especially helpful as they can be used while shooting in low light (which she does frequently). In addition, Lepisto enjoyed the tilt screen as it worked flawlessly for times she needed to capture a specific shot that was either too high or low to see through the viewfinder. Additionally, the touchscreen feature made it effortless to scroll through her images and navigate around the menu.
For Lepisto, capturing a subject in motion was a breeze with the Nikon D850’s super fast autofocus system. The camera’s ability to focus within a split second allowed Lepisto to capture multiple photos of her subject seamlessly, even while in motion. Since the autofocus was so quick acting, Lepisto was able to focus more of her attention on other aspects of the photo like composition and lighting. For those who specialize in sports or action photography, Lepisto believes the Nikon D850’s autofocus is hard to beat.
In Lepisto’s world, there are many moments where having a silent camera would be beneficial, with no shutter sound to interrupt a special moment or event. Nikon D850’s silent view setting had her at ease when shooting, as she no longer felt like a distraction to her subjects or those around her. Additionally, Lepisto loved the option to shoot in either RAW Large, RAW Medium, or RAW Small formats as it meant her files wouldn’t take up too much space, and therefore she didn’t have to compromise on quality.
Key features of the Nikon D850 include:
- Nikon-designed back-side illuminated (BSI) full-frame image sensor with no optical low-pass filter
- 45.7 megapixels of extraordinary resolution, outstanding dynamic range and virtually no risk of moiré
- Up to 9 fps continuous shooting at full resolution with full AF performance
- 8K and 4K time-lapse movies with new levels of sharpness and detail
- Tilting touchscreen, Focus Shift shooting mode and outstanding battery performance
- 4K Ultra HD video recording, slow motion up to 120 FPS at 1080p
- The lowest base ISO (ISO 64) of any DSLR or mirrorless camera
