Nikon D850 is an outstanding stills camera. It is the DSLR I included in my “Best Filmmaking Camera Gear of 2017” video. However, before this camera, I had never used Nikon to record video. So, recently I put the D850 to a test, as a filmmaker would. Please check out my review below.

Nikon D850 DSLR on B&H, Adorama, eBay, Amazon, Newegg

Here are the two lenses I used for all the shots in the video:

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8 on B&H, Adorama, eBay, Amazon

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 on B&H, Adorama, eBay, Amazon

Here is a summary of my impressions of this camera:

The Positives
• weather-proof body, strong
• button layout is great
• solid lens mount can take the weight of these 2 lenses, no problem
• headphone and mic jack
• great stills quality at 45 MP
• 4K video is crisp – no signs of compression
• 1080P looks great, and you can shoot slow motion up to 120fps
• I really like the low ISO 64 option

The Negatives
• big and heavy – not fun on a gimbal; just the camera is over 2 pounds
• might be hard to reach all buttons for someone with small hands
• I would have preferred dual SD card slot, instead of the xqd card
• when filming in 4K, you can not have peaking or Electronic stabilizer on
• in HD you can have peaking or stabilizer on, but not both at the same time tou have to pick one
• limited video profiles: portrait, landscape and flat (I shoot in flat, as it gives you slightly more dynamic range)
• there are no log profiles
• there are also no advanced video features like vectorscopes or RGB parade. You get a histogram and the basic zebra to see if your highlights are blowing out

Here is my video: “Best Filmmaking Camera Gear of 2017”