It’s been almost two years since my last blog and I haven’t been doing too much photography, at least not the volume of photography that I was doing. Once I got a new job working for a marketing agency in Denver, my focus on photography fell off a little bit. I have been storm chasing and I did a fall photography trip with my good friend Chase back in October of 2020. However, outside of those events I haven’t been doing too much.

You might be asking, “why write a blog about switching cameras if you haven’t been doing much photography?”. In December 2020, all of my photography gear was stolen from my truck. I had been planning an early morning winter shoot with Chase and had even rented a lens for that, but it wasn’t meant to be. My Canon 5D, three lenses, backpack, and accessories were gone and for the first time since 2004, I didn’t have an SLR camera.

Which left me with the question, “what camera should I get when I replace my gear?”.

Choosing Nikon

I had been interested in the Nikon D850 for several years, in fact I almost bought one back in 2017 when I had the Iceland waterfall saga but decided against it at the time. I made a spreadsheet where I outlined the pros and cons of the three camera models I was considering; Canon’s R5, Sony A7R4, and the Nikon D850.

For me to even be considering using a Nikon should come as a surprise, I have had Canon SLRs since 2004; first with a Rebel Ti film SLR, then the Canon 30D, then the 5D Mk. II, Mk. III, and so forth. I’m most familiar with their camera systems, lenses, menu systems, and everything else. So why not buy a Canon R5?

In all reviews I’ve read, the Canon R5 is probably the best mirrorless camera in the planet right now. It’s a beast of a camera and has all of the resolution and features you could ask for. Maybe you could ask for a Sony Alpha 1 to get more resolution and some additional features. But the R5 is a huge advancement in mirrorless cameras and will be the benchmark for professional grade mirrorless cameras going forward. It also carriers the professional price tag.

The Sony A7R4 is also a beast of a camera is slightly less expensive than the R5 and just as packed with features and even higher resolution. You see it on the sidelines for NFL, MLB, and NBA games for a reason. I’ve never used a Sony but I have friends who have and I reached out to them, it sounded like if you didn’t mind terrible ergonomics and a frustrating menu system, then it’s a great camera. Oh, and Sony’s lenses cannot match Canon’s.

The D850 was something I had looked at previously, I was familiar with the D800 and D810 and I had shot a handful of photos on those systems before. My reasoning for going with Nikon mainly came down to getting the most for the least possible price. Is the Nikon D850 future proof? No, within a few years dSLR camera systems will be completely phased out. It can be argued that the D850 is the best dSLR ever made, so the basis for owning this camera at a time when everyone is going to mirrorless is a bit of an odd choice.

Why Not Mirrorless?

Resisting going mirrorless is an odd choice, I have friends who rave about their mirrorless cameras and I have read plenty of reviews. Everyone talks about how much weight mirrorless cameras save and it’s true, they are significantly lighter in weight than dSLRs. Image quality is just as good as in dSLRs too. So what made me go with a dSLR?

It comes down to glass for me. I’ve heard many times that it doesn’t matter what camera body you have, but rather the importance of the glass in front of the body. This has been proven true time and time again. I shot my first wedding on a Canon 30D but rented the 85mm f/1.2L and the 35mm f/1.4L, the pictures were some of the best portraits I ever took with that lens.

To be fair to Canon, Nikon, and Sony, they are making great lenses for their mirrorless systems. But sparkling new lenses cost a lot of money! Especially when the tech inside the lenses is more advanced. I’m going to buy high quality lenses with my camera, so I want to be able to buy from the largest selection of lenses available. Canon and Nikon haven’t built out their R and Z mount lens lineup nearly as much as their existing EF and F mounts, which is understandable. Until they do, I’ll stick with the older lenses to create images that will be on par with or exceed the R or Z mount lenses.

Price was a big factor as well but so was lens availability, since the F lineup of lenses have around since 1959. There are more than 400 different lenses compatible with that system and now that they are being phased out, it means they are going to be slightly less expensive than brand new Z mount lenses.

So You Bought the Camera, What Do You Think?

While I can’t give a review of the D850 just yet, I can give my initial thoughts after being a lifelong Canon shooter. I can’t give a review yet because I haven’t taken a single photo with the camera yet, my 16-35 f/4 lens doesn’t arrive until a few more days.

My first impressions are mostly positive and a few mixed thoughts. I think I’m going to be very happy with the camera, but there were a few adjustments that I needed to make coming from my familiarity with Canon’s look and feel.

The ergonomics are similar to Canon’s and I’m very relieved about that, I didn’t realize how much that matter until I held a Sony A7R4, it felt terrible in my hand. However, the D850 is significantly larger than the Canon 5Ds than I’m most familiar with and this was before I put an RRS L-Plate on there. The most noticeable aspect of the camera by looking at it is the amount of buttons, there are buttons galore on the D850. There are 5 buttons on the FRONT of the camera along.

The menu system is taking a little bit education to understand clearly, I have had to consult blogs and the manual to make sure I know where all of the most important buttons are. This is something I never had to do with Canon, there were way less buttons on my previous cameras. Also, I didn’t realize that there is a switch for AF and Manual focus on the camera body itself, it doesn’t really bother me but it was a surprise. Another welcome surprise was the bracketing button near the viewfinder, turning on bracketing on a Canon camera wasn’t difficult but you had to go into the menu system in order to do so. That will be handy when I’m out in the early morning cold before sunrise.

The LCD display at the top of the camera is, I think, more intuitive than Canon’s LCD display as there is a bit more information available. I love the dedicated ISO button right next the shutter release button and I was pleased that the AF-ON button was very near where it is on my old 5Ds.

There are some definite benefits to using the D850 and one I’m most excited for is the built-in interval shooting available, which saves me from having to buy another intervalometer from Canon to achieve the same thing. This will be shooting night photography much easier and more intuitive, the remote that I had for my Canons was never the easiest to use and wasn’t the most durable either.

Another benefit that I’m excited about is shooting in the 14-bit lossless compressed mode which will allow for more information in the photos which will lead to being able to make better adjustments to the photos.

There are some nagging issues with the Nikon however, mostly to do with the look and feel that I’m used to. I had a hard time understanding how to put it in manual shooting which is how I shoot everything. That was harder to figure out and why I had to consult some blogs about Nikon settings. Another gripe is the QUAL button being on top of the dial on the left side of the camera. I can see accidentally switching the image quality because I pressed that button, which is something I’ve heard from other Nikon shooters as well. Lastly, there are some buttons that don’t seem all too useful or are placed in odd locations. The fn. 1 button is well hidden on the front of the camera and the key button that shortcuts to the image style menu will not be used.

My Initial Setup

I loved my last setup, I had a great range of focal lengths, great accessories, and I knew how to use all of it to it’s fullest extent. My initial setup with the Nikon will be pretty bare bones until I can get some more glass, I’m looking at you 70-200 f/2.8. I’ll have the following which I’ll be writing reviews of in the coming weeks after I’ve had time to use the equipment.

Nikon D850
Nikon Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 VR
Lowepro Powder 500 Backpack
RRS D850 Ultralight L-Plate
Sandisk 128GB CFExpress Card

I’m most familiar with the RRS L-Plates, I’ve used them on all of my 5Ds and I love them. For years I used Manfrotto quick release plates with ball head tripods and I got tired of how much drift I experienced either with the ball head or the plate. Plus it’s much faster to turn from shoot landscape orientation to vertical orientation.

I previously had an f-stop Tilopa backpack and I liked it a lot, it was very durable and kept everything organized for me. I’m very intrigued about the LowePro Powder 500 backpack after reading reviews and researching backpack options. I think it’ll combine the best features of the f-stop with more storage space for non-photography related items (hiking poles, water, clothing, etc.).

I choose to go with a 16-35mm lens first because I predominantly shoot wide-angle landscapes and I really enjoy using wide-angle lenses because they have such a range of uses for me. I previously had a 70-300mm f/4-5.6L lens from Canon and I really liked using that lens, Nikon doesn’t have an equivalent in terms of quality and focal length, I’ll probably go with the 70-200mm lens at that time.

I’ve heard great things about Nikon’s 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and I look forward to using it down the road, but I don’t have an immediate use for being limited on the wide-angle side. I don’t shoot much between 30-70mm.

What’s interesting about the differences between lenses from Canon and lenses from Nikon, it seems they specialize in different things. Canon’s “holy trinity” of lenses were primes, the 35 f/1.4, the 85 f/1.2, and the 135mm f/2. I’ve shot with them all and they are truly remarkable lenses, and deserving of the praise they receive.

Nikon’s “holy trinity” seem to all be zoom lenses, the 14-24mm f/2.8, the 24-70 f/2.8, and the 70-200 f/2.8. I look forward to trying them all out and giving you my thoughts, but I found this a little interesting. I realize that Canon also have L-series lenses in the same lengths and apertures as Nikon and I’ve used them all as well. They are all great lenses, but every time I’ve heard “holy trinity” used in reference to Canon it’s with their prime lenses. The same is true with Nikon and their zoom lenses.

Final Verdict

That was a lot of text with no pictures, I apologize for that because this is a photography blog. But at the moment, I have no way to take pictures (other than my phone) and no way to process the photos since I bricked my iMac from 2012 back in December too. December 2020 was a dark month for electronics. I’ll be building a Windows computer to fit my photography needs and look forward to reviewing my setup and why I chose to go that route in a later blog.

Hopefully more photography is coming your way soon too because I already have photo trips lined up to Great Sand Dunes National Park and I’d like to go to Moab if possible before too long. Additionally, I’ll be storm chasing in May and June, then photography in the mountains for June/July, then sunflowers in August, then fall photos at the end of September, then finally I’d like to go to Death Valley National Park for a few days in late October.