From the BlogSubscribe Now

10/16/17 Nikon still has a long way to go with the D850–B&H still has not fulfilled all the orders placed 1 hour after open order window.

Posted on October 16, 2017 //
The mysterious Nikon D850 does it really exist for the rest of the world or just NPS members.

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

 

Filed Under: Nikon Cameras // Tagged: , , , , ,

09/07/17–Nikon Still has not learned how to ship a new camera the D850

Posted on September 7, 2017 //

As anyone who is a Nikon photographer knows, the highly anticipated D850 finally started to ship today worldwide.  But instead of a flood of new cameras hitting the stores, it appears that Nikon was barely able to ship enough cameras to even cover the NPS orders.  So the common folk like myself are left holding the bag once again, just like with the D800.  To add insult to injury, I received this email from Nikon this afternoon.

Nikon D850

Stupid Nikon Ad

Lets see, the wait is over? Really? What a Joke!!, when actually the wait has just begun.

It’s really amazing that a company such as Nikon can’t figure out how to cover a first day shipment of a new camera.  They had the same issue with the D800 and D800e when they were announced.  At first the D800 was hard to get, and the D800e next to impossible but after about 4 months the supply started to free up.

Lets move forward 2 years, Nikon announces the D810, possible the best DSLR they have ever made, but again there were supply issues and quality issues.  So those like myself who paid in advance, received a camera and had to turn it right around to Nikon to have the white dot issue fixed.

Now Nikon can’t even ship enough cameras to cover the NPS orders.  NPS, (Nikon Professional Services) is next to impossible to get into now as you have to have 2 other professional photographers sponsor you.  Ever try to get your competition to sponsor you?  Leaving NPS alone, it’s amazing to me that Nikon was not able to ship enough cameras to cover 1/3 to 1/2 of the first day orders.

Did Nikon just announce this camera, NO, it’s been in the works now for over 3 years.  Nikon has toyed with users for the past 6 months maybe longer talking this new camera up.  They pre-announced the announcement and received a ton of good press.  NOTE TO NIKON, when you start to see a lot of good talk on the photography forums, you might WANT TO START making some cameras.  NOT wait until the 24th of August of 2017 to start making cameras to cover all the orders you have received.

This is not a revolutionary camera, like the D800 was or the D810.  It’s just a upgrade to an already great platform with some nice updates to AF, LiveView, High ISO, and LCD (there are more for sure).  But either way, Nikon should have been more in touch with what they needed to manufacture.

There has not be an earthquake or a tsunami or any other type of catestrophic event that Nikon had to work around.  I have to wonder who is in charge over there.  It’s well known that Nikon is not doing the best financially, so this issue doesn’t make things look very good for them.  Surely someone in such a large company understands what forecasting is about?  Don’t they? Maybe not.

But of course cameras are showing up in places like Best Buy (really go figure) or Amazon (NPS cancellations), etc.  This happens every time, but just makes this process all the harder to understand.

I guess the best policy is to just keep the order out there with B&H, and hope that something frees up sooner than later.

Written by Paul Caldwell for paulcaldwellphotography.com 09/07/17

 

Filed Under: Nikon Cameras, Photographic Equipment, Uncategorized // Tagged: , , , ,