My Experience With The Nikon D810

I have had Nikon D700 for more than five years and loved every bit of it. When it was time for an upgrade, I was looking for a camera with a similar kind of body and controls. After doing much research, I ended up buying Nikon D810 even though Nikon had just announced D850 to upgrade D810. Before getting D810, I was struggling between D750 and D810 but my decision was made easy once I got my hands on both cameras. Even though D750 is newer model than D810, same look and feel and control as my trusted D700 sold me to D810. Some argue that D750 has better dynamic range than D180 but when I was happy shooting with even D700, I was pretty sure that D810 wouldn't disappoint me and it didn't. After I got my camera, I took it to the New York trip this December and got few shots of New York City and some of the city skyline. After I downloaded the pictures on my computer, I was amazed by the dynamic range of this camera and the details it captured. One of my favorite shot from this trip was mid-town New York City view from my hotel room. After having dinner, when I came back to the room, it was already dark and the town was glowing with the city lights. The city view from my room looked amazing and I was excited to capture it. When I took the test shot, I saw some reflections during the playback on the camera LCD screen. I had no choice but to wait little more so that the lights from neighboring rooms and other hotels will start fading and then try another shot. After waiting for few hours, I closed all the lights in my room and increase the camera distance to the glass window so that the camera reflection on the window wouldn't show up on the picture.

Whatever I did at that time to cut down the lights and avoid reflection, it worked and the picture came out with every possible detail I was expecting from 36 Mega-Pixel full frame camera. When I zoomed the picture to 100%, I could even see a person inside distant hotel room. The clarity of the camera sensor is amazing, I love the dynamic range and every detail was visible in the picture. I used Nikon 16-35mm f/4 wide angle lens with the D810 and processed the image using Adobe Lightroom.

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Midtown New York City View (click the image to view full size)

Please let me know what do you think of this picture and if you are also shooting with D810, please share your experience with this camera. I always appreciate your feedback or any comments you may have. Happy Shooting!

Should I Get DX Model Or FX Model As My First DSLR?

This post is a part of our Q&A section. If you want to submit your question, please use the form in the Contact page.

Andy (Colorado, USA) asked: I want to buy my first DSLR and I am struggling to make a decision on whether to get a DX model or a FX model? Are there any advantages or disadvantages of getting one over another?

Andy, when I bought my first DSLR in 2010, I didn't know anything about the DX models or the FX models. Let alone the details of different models, I didn't even know about the existence of those models. But nowadays, due to many wonderful photography blogs and magazines, we have much more detail information about the different brands of camera, different models and their functionality, which is really a good thing so that the buyers can make an educated decision.

Buying the first DSLR is always exciting and yet very confusing task. We get easily confused on which brand to consider as our first DSLR. Some of your friend might say that the camera they are shooting with, whether it is a Nikon or a Cannon or a Sony or any other brand, is the best brand which makes your brand selection job even tougher. But once you get your mind set on the brand you are getting, next question you will encounter is which model should you get? At the beginning and specially if you are trying photography as a hobby, you might want to get an entry level and relatively cheaper DSLR camera and in that case, decision is relatively easier. But if the budget is not an issue and you are considering photography as a serious hobby and then later turn it into a profession, you might want to get a decent DSLR and that's when our discussion of DX vs FX might come handy.

The first and the most important thing you have to remember while selecting the DX or the FX model is, they differ by their sensor size. The DX models have a smaller sensor or also referred as a APS-C censor which is approximately 24x16mm whereas, the FX models have a larger sensor and also called a full frame (same as 35mm film format) sensor which is 36x24mm. If you are a beginner, DX models might serve you well but if you are looking to upgrade to more "serious" camera, you have to go to full-frame because most of the DX line-up are aimed to let you introduce into the photography world but lacks many pro-level features and specs. But it is also true that with the change of technology and the competition among different brands, DX models are also getting close towards being professional camera if you get the top of the line DX model, Nikon D500 for example. Nikon D500 is the most expensive DX-format DSLR within Nikon brand and it comes with many pro-level features. In fact, many professional photographers have started using this camera as a main or backup camera because of it's light weight and other pro level features.

DX camera bodies are relatively smaller and lightweight than FX bodies and built quality is little bit compromised with the high quality plastic vs aluminum on FX bodies. Usually, DX-format lenses are more compact because the image circle that they need to produce only needs to cover the smaller sensor area compared to that of full frame camera. This makes DX camera bodies an ideal choice if you want to travel with lightweight camera and lenses. Another advantage of DX camera is that you get an extra reach on the lenses because of it's 1.5x crop factor on the sensor. If you use 70-200mm f/2.8 lens on DX bodies, it gives you an effective focal length of 105-300mm but it won't help you to get the shallower depth of field because depth of field depends on "actual" focal length rather than "effective" focal length.

But in FX camera sensor, for any given pixel count, the photo-diodes will be larger than those on a DX sensor and that is the reason FX camera can produce cleaner images when shooting in a low light condition using higher ISO. The latest high megapixels FX camera bodies have an additional advantage of more pixels packed into the sensor to capture more details although it might produce little noisier picture at higher ISO.

In my opinion, which came from my own personal experience, if you are just starting out, you may want to get a decent DX model DSLR so that you can understand how does your camera work and also get to know about the different controls and the features of the camera and then later upgrade it to the FX model. By doing so, you can discover pros and cons of both sides and decide which fits best for your work. Good luck!

Let's Review Nikon's Latest DX-Format DSLR, D7500

Nikon released a new DX-Format DSLR camera for serious enthusiasts earlier this year (announced on April 12, 2017 to be exact). It is the latest model release in DX-Format series and comes with the 20.6 Mega Pixels on the image sensor. After releasing major updates on DX-Lineup back in 2013 with D7100, Nikon didn't offer much revolutionary features in D7200. But Nikon's latest release came with some exciting features that sits between last year released Nikon's flagship DX-Format digital SLR camera, D500, and an earlier model D7200. It carries some of the best features from D500, specially imaging quality, and the body type of D7200 making it the best DX-Format for someone who is trying to upgrade from D7200 but do not want to commit for the more expensive D500 yet. Nikon released D7500 (body only) with the price tag of $1,250 and if you want to get it with 18-140mm kit lens, it costs you around $1,750. Since it is the mix of D500 and D7200, it has the best of both bodies with some added new features. Now, let's review some of the features available on new Nikon D7500 and what are the upgrades from it's predecessor, D7200, and compromises from the flagship DSLR, D500.

Nikon D7500

Improved Sensor and Processor - D7500 uses the same imaging sensor and high-performance Nikon EXPEED 5 imaging processor that is used in D500 which is 30% faster than the EXPEED 4 processor used in the D7200. It gives D7500 a huge advantage over D7200 for many key areas like buffer speed, image quality, video capability and better ISO performance. The price is a steal if you are looking for an upgrade from other lower end DX-Format DSLR.

New Body Design - The 'carbon-fiber reinforced' body has been redesigned to make it lighter (1.6 oz. or 45g lighter than the D7200) and little smaller. Nikon introduced D7500 with the tilting screen and the touchscreen feature. Nikon D7200 had a fixed screen but D500 came with the tilting screen. However, D7500 has a fewer pixel (resolution) on the LCD screen than D7200. The D7500 has the same control layout as the D7200, with a mode dial on the top. D500 had more professional bodies style mode dial, however. Another feature that D7200 had and D7500 lacks is a dual card slot. It might be a deal breaker for some photographers, wedding photographer specially, because shooting with only one memory card is a risky job.

Performance (Frame per second and Buffer Size) - The D7500 increases the shooting speed to 8 frames-per-second continuous (up from 6 FPS in D7200). This is an excellent feature to have for sports or wildlife photographer. D7500 also comes with a buffer capacity of up-to 100 JPEG images and 50 RAW (NEF) images using high quality images and 14-bit setting with lossless compression. Buffer is a space in a camera body where it stores images before writing it to the memory card. That is why it is a very important feature to measure the shooting performance. To compare, D7200 had 18 RAW and D500 had 200-RAW buffer capacity. Also, D7500 comes with 150,000-shot shutter life.

Additional Metering Mode - In addition to already existing three metering modes (Matrix, Center-Weighted and Spot), Nikon has added a new Highlight-weighted metering mode with the adoption of 180,000-pixel RGB sensor (also used by D500) to increase the accuracy of automatically controlled functions, including AF and AE, Auto White Balance and Active D-Lighting.

Advanced Creative Lighting System - Since Nikon introduced the new technology to handle the communication between creative lighting systems, D7500 is the first DSLR which comes with the pop-up flash that talks to other external flash units using a radio signal. This is a huge upgrade from the old infrared system, which only worked within limited range and required direct line of sight between the camera and the external flash unit.

Captures 4K Video - Nikon D7500 comes with same 4K UHD/30p video recording feature found in D500. If you shoot 4K UHD, it can record up-to approximate 30 minutes. And the movie recorded with this camera is supported by smart devices so that you can view on them quickly without doing any cross platform conversion. You can also create a time lapse video within the camera and output it to an external device using an HDMI port while it is being recorded in camera memory. It also comes with an electronic vibration reduction, which helps to reduce the effect of camera shake while recording hand-held.

Let's see briefly what are the good sides and not so good sides of this DSLR camera.

Pros

1. D7500 comes with a built-in focus motor, so it works with all AF lenses (for an Autofocus purpose).

2. Weather-sealed body - Even though it is not constructed using magnesium-alloy like other more expensive pro bodies, according to Nikon, it protects against light rain even though it is not completely waterproof.

3. Deeper grip - D7500 body comes with a deeper grip and makes it easy to curl your fingers fully around the grip and feel camera body secure and comfortable in your hand.

4. D7500 comes with the support of Nikon SnapBridge system which allows you to transfer the images from the camera to the smart devices using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections.

5. Nikon D7500 comes with a new Autofocus mode called Group-area AF which uses a group of five Autofocus points in a 'diamond' shape and focuses object which is nearest to the camera within that area. This mode is a new addition to already existing 3D-tracking mode and helps to focus randomly moving subjects.

6. D7500 also comes with an impressive maximum ISO of 51,200 compared to 25,600 in D7200. It is set to perform very well in low light conditions.

Cons

1. It comes with a single card slot and may be a deal-breaker for some photographers.

2. It comes with slightly fewer pixels in the both sensor pixel (20.6 MP Vs. 24 MP on D7200) and the LCD monitor than it's predecessor, D7200, but might not be an issue to many.

3. Nikon D7500 doesn't have a built-in GPS and need to buy an extra GP-1A GPS unit if you want to track the location of your images.

4. It is powered with an EN-EL 15a rechargeable Li-ion battery which is different from older EN-EL 15 batteries used in D7200 and D500. According to Nikon, the battery can take up-to 950 shots which is slightly lower than on D7200 (takes up-to 1,100 shots) and D500 (takes up-to 1,240 shots) when fully charged.

5. And on top of lower shot counts per battery, it doesn't have an option to install an additional external battery grip like in other professional DSLR models.

In my view, if you are looking for an upgrade to your older model DSLR, Nikon D7500 might be a perfect choice for you given all the new technologies Nikon has put together into a smaller, lighter and comparatively inexpensive body.