Nikon has just officially announced the new Nikon D850, a powerful new full-frame DSLR that takes Nikon’s high-end camera lineup to lofty new heights. Inside the camera is the first back-side illuminated (BSI) full-frame CMOS sensor in a Nikon DSLR, supported by Nikon’s EXPEED 5 image processing engine. It offers a whopping 45.7 megapixels of resolution for stills and can shoot 4K UHD video as well. The ISO range is 64-25600 (expandable to 32-102400).
Photographers will be able to choose between 3 different RAW sizes: 45.4 megapixel Large photos, 25.6MP Medium photos, and 11.4MP Small shots. After capturing RAW photos, you can use an in-camera batch RAW processor to quickly convert a large number of shots.
Despite having such high resolution, the camera is quite speedy: it can shoot up to 7 frames per second normally or up to 9 frames per second if you use a battery grip and a EN-EL18a/b battery. The buffer can hold 51 photos if you’re shooting 14-bit lossless RAW or 170 shots if you’re shooting 12-bit lossless.
Nikon has also left out an optical low pass filter, giving up moiré pattern reduction for maximizing sharpness in photos. For autofocusing, the D850 uses the same system found in the flagship D5. It’s a 153-point, Multi-Cam 20K AF system that uses 99 cross-type sensors (15 of them are sensitive to f/8).
On the back of the D850 is a 3.2-inch, 2.359-million-pixel tilting LCD touchscreen that boasts the most extensive touch functionality ever found in a Nikon DSLR. You’ll also find the widest and brightest optical viewfinder ever found in a Nikon DSLR — one that offers 0.75x magnification.
The physical interface of the D850 uses illuminated buttons that light up at the turn of a dial, allowing you to more easily handle your camera’s functions in low-light environments. Other features of the D850 include dual card slots (XQD and SD), focus stacking (shooting 300 focus-bracketed shots for combining later in computer software), durable construction (a weather-sealed magnesium alloy body), multiple shooting formats with viewfinder shading (full frame, 1.2x, DX, 5:4, and 1:1 square), and wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).
Additional video features include 4K output at full-frame width of 16:9, slow-motion (120fps at 1080p), focus peaking, 8K/4K time-lapse creation in-camera with a built-in intervalometer, zebra stripes for spotting overblown highlights, uncompressed HDMI out, built-in stereo microphone and headphone/microphone inputs, and an audio attenuator for regulating sound levels. The Nikon D850 will be available from September onwards at a price of AED 13,000 (body only).
