Nikon D750 Review

Photograph by Sahil Nanda


Let's rewind a little and go back to when the Nikon Df was about to be revealed. People thought it would replace the highly famous D700 and sit between the D600 and D800(predecessors of D610 and D810 respectively) in Nikon's full-frame line up. But as we all know, that wasn't to be. The Nikon Df turned out to be a retro-styled premium offering from Nikon. Now, when the rumour mill started churning again about a new full-frame camera, people started expecting the same - a replacement of the D700. A D710 maybe. But what we got, was a beast of a camera called the D750, which is not a D700 replacement. I'll explain why in some time.

First, let's take a moment here and think about this. With the launch of the Nikon D750 I think Nikon has sent out a clear message that there is not going to be a replacement of the D700. I think it is about time we gave it a rest. It was undoubtedly a superb camera, leaps and bounds ahead of it's time, but it's time to move on.

Now, coming back to the D750. I had been wanting to buy a new camera for a long time now, to replace my D3000. I was impressed by the D610, but wasn't ever truly satisfied with specifications that it offered. Then, came a long the D750 and I immediately started lusting over it. I had to get it, and I did!

The first thing that I noticed about the D750 when I took I out of the box was, that it was compact and it was light! It is smaller and lighter than the D810, which is not a big deal but what is surprising is that it is smaller and lighter than the D610 as well. This is thanks to Nikon's newly developed monocoque body design and use of special light weight materials. In order to keep the size in control is probably why they went with two SD card slots and not one CF and one SD card slot as is the convention.

SENSOR

The D750 has a 24MP full-frame sensor with an anti-aliasing filter, which helps reduce moire in videos. Nikon says it is a new sensor, but there's a strong possibility that it is the same sensor as that of the D610 with a few tweaks here and there.

This sensor, allows the camera to have a native ISO range of 100-12,800. That's a huge margin to play around with. And you can from time-to-time get some useable shots in the 10,000-12,800 area.

AUTOFOCUS

D750's focusing system is something that really needs to be talked about. It is the best in it's class, probably better than it's higher priced cousins. With it's 51 focus point(out of which 15 are cross-type), it is quick, it is accurate and just never disappoints. Now this depends a lot on the kind of lens that you have on your camera. When I use the kit Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120mm f/4G ED VR lens, the focusing is almost flawless. But when I use my AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED, there is quite a bit of focus breathing. That is because this is an old, old lens not built for this fast a focusing system.

The Group Area focus that has been taken from the D610 and D810 also works quite well for tracking moving subjects. What it basically does is it uses 5 focus points at once to find subjects and focuses in on the closest one. This is in contrast with the D5 system which uses the surrounding focus points only when the centre one can't lock in on the subject.

Low-light focusing in this camera is exceptionally good. It claims to focus down up to -3EV, which is even better than the flagship D4s. To put this to the test, I switched off all the lights in my room(at night) and tried to focus in the almost pitch dark environment. Guess what, the camera was able to focus with great ease.

The only issue that I have with the focusing system is that all the 51 focus points are too concentrated in the middle. A larger spread would have been great. This is not a deal breaker though, just something that will take a shoot or two to get used to.

FRAME RATE/BUFFER

Being marketed as a sports camera, the D750 comes with a continuous shooting frame rate of 6.5fps. This is 0.5fps more than the D610 and 1.5fps more than the D810.

The buffer reservoir on this camera(though not huge) I think is sufficient for the average shooter. With a nice, fast 90mbps you can get about 12 continuous shots(losslessly compressed RAW) before the buffer fills up.

VIDEO

Along with keeping the running and gunning sports shooters in mind, Nikon has also kept in mind the video enthusiasts while making the D750. It comes with the ability to shoot 60fps at 1080p for a maximum of 20 minutes, has an external mic input and all of that usual stuff.

What makes this camera unique is the introduction of a tilting screen(first time ever in a full-frame DSLR). I decided to talk about this in the video section because though the tilting screen can be used to take stills as well through liveview(I personally don't do that), I feel the tilting is best utilised when recording videos. Taking those above-the-head and low-angle shots will be much easier now.

Another great feature is the ability to change aperture while shooting videos in liveview mode. This was missing in Nikon cameras for quite some time and has now started showing up in it's new line-up.

Wi-Fi

Along with all the other goodies that this camera comes with, it all has a built-in Wi-Fi adapter. This allows you to connect your smartphone with your DSLR(as long as you have the Wireless Mobile Utility app) and click photographs, view photographs on your camera or download them to your phone in order to share them on the internet. This is a feature that I am really enjoying, especially for uploading images to Instagram.

A GPS module is missing though.


Okay, let's sum this up:

PROS

  • Small, light-weight body
  • Great auto-focusing system
  • Tilting screen
  • Power aperture
  • Wi-Fi
  • 6.5fps

Cons

  • Centred auto-focus points
  • Maximum shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second
  • No GPS

D750 is a camera that I would recommend to someone looking to buy his/her first full-frame camera upgrading from a cropped-sensor one. If you want the higher resolution and pixel count, go for the D810. At this point I see no point in buying the D610. Save up, pay the extra amount and buy the D750. You will not regret it.


SAMPLE IMAGES


All images taken with D750 and AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4D IF-ED lens.

Click on the images to enlarge them









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