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Cameras

Nikon D

9owners with an opinion
57%of verdicts positive
2/2positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for display and performance; criticized for design and portability.

What people wrote

Likes itOwned 10 yearsStill going
> In a blind test, could you tell the difference between photos taken with that equipment and photos taken with less expensive equipment? I can't speak for the OP, but I can certainly tell the difference between photos taken with my different camera gear. I have an iPhone, a Fuji T3, and a Nikon D810 to compare against. The Nikon is 10 years old and still a lot sharper than the other ones, despite them all being years newer than the Nikon. In challenging conditions (wet, low light, etc.) the difference is even more noticeable. https://photos.smugmug.com/Snowy-Davidson-Mesa-Ride/i-wGFDt5... For example, a picture like that one would be difficult to take on a phone because of the snow. First of all wet fingers would make using the phone nearly impossible. Even if it didn't, there's a good chance the focus would be off due to the snow in the foreground. And the sharpness of the Nikon blows the other cameras away. In the linked photo, do a 1:1 zoom of the fire department logo above/leftleft of the front wheel and you can read the text, including the small "EMS", "Colorado", etc. around the border. Phones just won't get that detail. And that's an old camera. Besides the image quality, the DSLR is just easier and more comfortable to use once I learned the controls. There are no dumb menus and touch screens and I can adjust settings and take pictures with big mittens on even when it's wet/snowy/raining. Meanwhile, my iPhone is completely unusable with wet fingers. I use…
Neutral
Yeah that's exactly what happens. The 85mm 1.8G is really good enough though! I wouldn't want to fudge with focus screens - I managed to cock up a D750 doing that once. Took ages to get it right after. Really I stopped shooting film in 2022 because of the arrival of CT scanners at airports. Fed up of arguing with people as I do most of my photography out of my home country. And it's expensive. Sold it all, bought a Nikon Z50ii basic kit in 2024 and that was so good and tiny that I sold my D850 and the rest of the F mount lenses. AF on the newer Z cameras is something special, even on the crap bodies. Haven't felt the need to buy an FX Z yet as the DX ones are so good.
Likes it
I thought the article was parody/sarcasm at first. I've got an old Nikon D5100 DSLR which I sometimes pull out and take photos with, and a cheap $200 Motorola phone, which does amazingly well, if there's plenty of light and the subject happens to take up most of the frame (and can thus focus) Getting a good photo with the Nikon is easier for me, but I've had a lot of practice. The main issue is getting things to focus in macro land.
Doesn’t like it
There's one photo I didn't take (and really regret not taking) the day Sproutlet was born, a photo of the placenta... it was so vividly full of life, deep red and violet striking in a way I didn't think possible. I was shocked when the shutter on my Nikon D40 wore out, I didn't know that was a thing. I was really into manually aligned computational photography for the decade I rode the train to Chicago. I've got half a terabyte of photos and short videos. I doubt that sproutlet will want much of it once I'm gone, but the photos helped make friends, and build friendships over the years, and bring me joy when I look back on them. Long covid took me out of the game, and I'm just starting to get back into it. While they are better than the old point and shoots from the start of the digital camera era, Smartphone Cameras still suck compared to a DSLR when it comes to image composition and just getting the focus on the right thing.
Doesn’t like it
> Why should _I_ do that instead of the camera? First, every machine has its limits, second every photographer has a style. > You shouldn't. The camera should. No. The camera should do exactly as I say . It's an instrument, which shall allow footguns. Because one person's footgun is other person's style. Camera should be a blunt instrument, and should completely get out of the photographer's way, shall become transparent. It's not the camera's interpretation of the scene. It's the photographer's interpretation through the camera . > ...offer the HDR version. If you feel lazy, many mirrorless cameras do that, but the results are may not fit your taste. Sony A7III's Auto-HDR is nice, but it's not exactly what I want, so I merge mine manually. > You know, the thing that phone cameras have been doing for a decade or so. I have quite a few cameras: A Canonette 28, a Pentax MZ50, a Nikon D70s and a Sony A7-III. I also used Canon AE-1, etc. All of these cameras have metering, and all of them are excellent for their era. They are not infallible or perfect. For example, D70s freaks out in CFL and LED environments, because these indoor lighting was non-existent when it was designed. So a custom WB is a must in this case. A7-III sometimes struggles in colored LED (sodium yellow-ish) environments, so you again set custom WB. That machine was the most accurate camera in terms of color when it came out. As I said, every machine has its limits. > However, the same software can do so m…
Doesn’t like it
Agreed. I used to be a hardcore Nikonite (I'd argue with Canon people on Dpreview forumns) but the form factor of these cameras are just disgusting. I made the switch to Fuji's X-T* and X100* line a few years ago and I haven't looked back. I unearthed a Nikon D4 from the camera bag a while back and I was just disgusted with the form factor. I'm so far gone from my brutalist photography days and I love life as a jpeg maximalist.
Likes it
I don’t know if it’s the same thing, but capture on my Nikon D7100 always felt more “manipulable” than capture on an iPhone or the like, I suspected as a downstream effect of using RAW format with a larger image sensor. Interpreting log through this understanding, it felt pretty intuitive reading through this post. I don’t know if it’s accurate, but it feels accurate…
Doesn’t like it
I have a similar photo done on S22 ultra on March 6 this year, and neither look like your (position of lower right mega crater but also the rest). So its not simple 'photoshop-into-predefined-nice-image'. I can clearly see that most folks here don't actually own discussed devices (which is fine, its US-based HN, a bastion of iphone and many Apple employees dwell here and uncritical appreciation of Apple is very evident in every single related thread). I've used its 10x zoom extensively over more than a year, it simply blows all other phones away easily for that kind of situation (more than those rather weak 3x zooms available everywhere). Family photos, wild animals, nature, anything you want to come closer, otherwise the scene is tiny dots in the center like on other phones. It works really well for what it is, with obvious unavoidable physical limits. Overall this phone made me put my fullframe Nikon D750 away on a day I bought it. I took it 'just to be sure' on vacation to Egypt last year, didn't touch it a single time. Most often it doesn't produce strictly as good images but a) they are good enough to be viewed on phones side by side easily, basically as good as fullframe there and sometimes even much better, ie handheld photos in the night of dark scenes, fullframe is utterly lost without tripod, and b) it weights 0 and takes 0 extra space (and cost 0 instead of many thousands for modern camera with big sensor), since I have phone with me always anyway. Tried exactly th…
Likes it
On my S21 Ultra the viewfinder will sometimes show a brightened image, to what I would prefer. A long hold on the focus point brings up an exposure slider, which lets you easily darken the image. It works really well, but the Samsung doesn't quite have the "flatten everything" feature that Marques talked about though ( https://youtu.be/88kd9tVwkH8 - recommend watching this). Also the stronger AI enhancements (auto scene detect) can be turned off with a single toggle; it's useful having the control. And if that's not enough, there's the Pro mode - everything can be made manual. I'm ashamed to say I'm generally getting better photos with my S21U than my old full frame D70s, with decent fixed lenses (35+50). Mainly it's down to the sensor; I often go for the hand held, low light kind of look, and the Samsung results are more often than not simply excellent. I intend to get a mirrorless Nikon Z6II body and a lens adapter this year (my lenses still have decent value), but nonetheless, taking the time to fully explore the tool in your hand is probably one of the best things you can do.