The mysterious Nikon D850 does it really exist for the rest of the world or just NPS members.

My high hopes for a 2017 arrival of the D850 were dashed today after my call with B&H.  My first day order was placed at 7:00 am on 08/24/17.  B&H opened the window at 3:00am.  I had tried at 1:00am, but the window was not open.  However I guess the real go getters just stayed top and kept trying and kudos to them.  I got my order in at 6:00am Central 7:00 to B&H.  B&H customer service told me that now after 3 separate shipments from Nikon, they have not yet even filled the orders that were placed in the 1st hour.  NET, it’s going to be a very very long time before B&H gets to my order close to 4 hours later.

I had some hopes for the Nikon D850 and from what I have read from the few either lucky owners, or NPS shooters (who did not dump the camera on eBay) it will be a significant improvement over the D810.  Resolution differences between the 36mp of the D810 and 46/47mp of the D850 are not that much.  However some of the other features like:

1. Full Electronic shutter
2. Tilting LCD
3. 2x resolution on LCD
4. Vastly improved AF and Low light AF
5. Focus stacking built in (similar to the Phase One approach)
6. Slightly improved high ISO (but this appears not to be a full stop as expected)
7. 7 to 9 fps depending on use of grip (but you have to use the D5 battery, battery not expensive, charge is @ $500.00)
8. Touchscreen for image preview and live view
9. Improved color rendering over the D810, especially blues and greens

Just having a tilting LCD makes the upgrade worth it for me, and the full ES also.

The fact that Nikon is having financial trouble is very clear to me now.  It’s been almost 2 months since Nikon announced the D850 and lets be totally honest the camera had been talked about for over a year, and everyone knew it was coming in 2017.  Nikon started to ship in the U.S on 09/07/17, to mainly NPS orders (don’t get me started on NPS) and a few others.  Then there has been two other official releases.  It’s also apparent that B&H expected a lot more cameras than they received in the 2nd round as I had been told to expect mine D850 by the end of September.  There was a release which covered that time frame but nowhere near enough cameras.

With B&H only covering the 1st hour, it’s going to be a long time before Nikon gets the camera in ready stock, more than likely 1st quarter 2018.   I fully understand it’s a new product, but really so what.  Nikon is manufacturing company which apparently has no clue on how to forecast supply and demand.  Folks there wasn’t an earthquake this time or tsunami to stop Nikon, just poor planning.  It’s too bad as they do make great cameras and it appears that the D850 is no exception.

Written on 10/15/17 for www.paulcaldwellphotography.com and copy write protected

Paul Caldwell