In order to use your vintage glass on the Fuji X-T20, the first thing you need is an adapter that enables you to mount the vintage glass on the Fuji body. I always go for a “dumb” adapter, meaning that there is no communication between the lens and the camera body which of course means the camera has no idea what focal length is mounted or what aperture is used, but I can live with that. What is probably worse is that you also loose the auto focus, but if you shoot mainly stills, portrait, landscape and street, then I think you will find the manual focus to be ok, some even start to like it more than auto focus, as they feel more involved in the process of taking a picture.
In my case, I have Nikkor (Nikon) vintage glass made for full frame cameras, and as the Fuji is a cropped APS-C camera, that means I will have to multiply the length of the lens with 1.5 due to the crop factor. However, you can get a so called speed booster to reverse this effect, and in addition it gives you a stop more light, i.e. makes your lens faster. I went for the Zhongyi Lens Turbo II:
Zhongyi Lens Turbo II adapter.
But there are many other good options to choose from. Here you can see what the Nikon 135mm f/2.8 looks like with the speed boost adapter mounted:
Zhongyi Lens Turbo II with the Nikon 135mm
And here is the camera with the 135mm lens mounted:
Zhongyi Lens Turbo II with the Nikon 135mm on the Fuji XT20
As you can see it is in this case a long lens for such a small camera body and it also makes the camera quite “front heavy”. Some don’t like this – I don’t mind, but as the X-T20 is quite a light camera, mounting fast FX glass will often give a dramatic weight increase to the total system. I have the Fujinon 27mm lens to the right, just to compare.
Shooting “blind”
As the camera has no communication with the lens, you need to tell the camera it is OK to release the shutter with no lens mounted. It will look that way to the camera! Go find the tool menu and in that menu look for “button/dial settings” and select that menu:
“button/dial settings” menu
In that menu, find the item “shoot without lens” and make sure it is set to “on”:
“shoot without lens” set to “on”.
Now your shutter should work with a vintage lens mounted!
Focus aid
The next thing is to select how you want the Fuji to help you focus. I prefer the focus peak option, where the camera highlights the areas in the picture with strong contrast, which is often also where you will have the focal plane. In the “AF/MF” menu (the second from the top), select the “MF assist item” (MF is Manual Focus):
Manual focus assist in the shape of peaking highlights.
In the sub menu that appears, the manual focus assist settings can be chosen. I go for the focus peak and select the color to help me find the area of focus:
Manual focus assist in the shape of peaking highlights.
Now we should be ready to shoot!
Final hurdle
When shooting in this setup, there is however no focus peak assistance! It is possible to shoot and focus, but you get no help with the manual focus! How come?
The solution to the problem is on the front left of the camera. Here you select drive mode by turning a little dial, i.e. if the camera is in (S)ingle frame mode, (C)ontinuous or (M)anual mode. Hence the letters S, C and M:
Dial on the front left of the camera
You need to turn this dial to “M” in order for the focus peak to start working. Then the high contrast areas area highlighted in the viewfinder and LCD screen. Enjoy! (Remember to flick the switch back to C or M when you mount a Fujinon lens – otherwise you will continue with manual focus…!)
Further aid
When you shoot, in addition to the focus peak, you have the focus magnification that helps you zoom in on details in the frame to see if they are sharp. Press the rear command dial (yes, it feels strange – you are used to turning it! But press as in push!):
Zooming in using the rear command dial
and the camera will show you a magnified area of the picture:
Zooming in using the rear command dial
If you then turn the rear command dial, you will see that the camera flicks between two levels of magnification. In the first example you can see the entire cow, but if you turn the rear command dial the zoom gets extended:
Zooming in using the rear command dial
Now you can only see parts of the cows head! Notice how the graphics (the two boxes – one white and one green (blue?)) show you the zoom level. When you turn the command dial again, the camera jumps back to first level of zoom. So turn the rear command dial to select between the two zoom levels. Press (push) the rear command dial go leave zoom again. And press it once more to get back in, etc.
You will notice that with a long lens and the extended zoom peek switched on as shown above, the picture gets very nervous if the camera is hand held! This is a good reminder to shot with a fast shutter speed to avoid camera shake and hence blurry pictures.
Finally
The Fuji X-T30 offers 3 different manual focus aids:
Standard (basically no aid!)
Digital split image
Focus peak highlight
In the examples in the previous sections, I have only used the focus peak highlight, as I find it to be the best aid for manual focus. However, some like no aid and some like digital split image (where you have to align two pictures so that the vertical lines in the intersection are exactly on top of each other).
If you want to switch fast between the 3 modes mentioned above, you can push the rear command dial for a few seconds (not a brief push – you need to push the button in for a few seconds) to change to the next mode (the button is hiding behind my thumb top right):
Fast switch between focus modes.
When you have kept the button in for a few seconds, the mode the camera is about to switch to will be shown in a bar in the lower part of the screen. If the camera is in standard mode, it will switch to split, if in split then it will shift to focus peak, if in focus peak back to standard and so on. So it is like a wheel turning: standard -> split -> focus peak -> back to standard. Remember to keep the button pushed in until you see the bar on the screen.
When I first started to read the manual for the Sony RX100 M3 regarding shooting stills, I could not believe the amount of intelligence and options they have packed into this little camera! The mode dial has 10 positions, and behind two of them are 3 and 12 options respectively, giving more than 20 mode options of which some are auto modes that combines underlying features in a new way! This may seem quite intimidating of you are new to photography or new to this camera, but let me see if I can give you an overview so that you quickly can zoom in on the options that are best for you.
If you want automation
Professional photographers want control of their camera because they want control of the process and hence the outcome. Us more humble amateurs may want to turn to some of the automatic modes, either because we are lazy or because we have other things to attend to (like hosting the party where we are also taking pictures). Now, there are 2 fully automatic modes for shooting stills named Intelligent Auto (green) and Superior auto (yellow/orange), but the text is not written on the dial, instead a little camera is depicted in yellow and green, with an “i” in front of it (i for intelligent presumably):
In these modes, the camera takes care of everything – ISO, aperture and shutter speed. You “just” have to point and shoot. The difference between Intelligent auto (green) and the Superior Auto (yellow) is that the camera in the latter mode takes several pictures and combines them into one. You may have come across a feature named HDR on your smartphone (or bracketing on a DSLR), this is a bit of the same. The camera takes several pictures and combines them so that the low light parts are “boosted” so they become more bright and the high light parts are scaled back a bit so they are not blown out. This improves the dynamic range, i.e. how bright and dark parts that the camera can handle in one shot.
If you want automation with a twist
In the automatic modes, the camera tries to guess what it is you are shooting, and adjust the camera settings to optimize what you shoot. Sony call this scenes, i.e. types of photographs that you do. It is very kind and in the top left corner shows you what scene it has arrived at, based on what the electronics find on the sensor. In this example where I am taking a picture of a plastic cow, the camera figures that it is flower photography! It is not as bad as it sounds – it is an object full of colors and close up, so a flower is not a bad guess. Notice the graphics top left gives the scene mode:
In the two fully automatic modes described above, the camera constantly guesses what we are trying to shoot and it arrives a for example: Pet, Gourmet, Macro, Baby (!), Sports, Portrait, Landscape, Sunset. Night scene, Night portrait, Fireworks, etc. It also has some scenes where it just concludes that the light is very limited or that you are trying to shoot hand-held. In the fully automatic modes, the camera informs you of what it has concluded in the top left corner.
The point putting the camera in Scene mode (SCN on the dial) is that you can now tell the camera what it is you are shooting. Of course only from the list of options given by Sony, but they cover many situations. In this way, you can control that the camera optimizes for the right scene, so that it does not think you are shooting fireworks, when you actually take a picture of a flower (he he). Such mistake is very unlikely I have to add, but there are some scenes where the camera has troubles finding the right scene (gourmet and macro are very similar to give a better example).
So choose scenes mode when you want to still rely on the cameras ability to optimize the settings based on what you are shooting, but you take control and tell the camera what it is you are shooting, so it selects the right shelf to meter from.
Semi automatic modes and manual mode
The RX100 of course also gives the option to select the classic semi automatic modes: Aperture priority mode, Shutter priority mode and Program mode:
(A)perture priority: You control the aperture, the camera selects the shutter speed.
(S)hutter priority: You control the shutter speed, the camera selects the aperture.
(P)rogram mode: You select both the Aperture and the Shutter speed but in pre-set tandems, so the
exposure is still correct.
The ISO is set according to the value selected in the menu system. Press the Fn button top left of the rear command wheel, and the menu appears. Bottom left gives the ISO setting. You can control if you want to set the ISO yourself, if you want to have the camera do so – with or without limitations to upper and lower values:
The RX100 also lets you control it all in manual mode where you can set each of the parameters in the exposure triangle as you see fit. This is probably the mode you want to use of absolute control of the camera is vital to you, for example if you do long exposures.
Memory recall (MR)
In the memory recall mode, you have 3 modes to choose from of previously stored mode information. So you are not only selecting the priority mode, but also the exposure compensation, just to name one. There are 3 pages of information with what the camera stores!
I find that the confusing part is to store this information (not the recall), but the process is simple: set-up the camera exactly the way you like it to, and then go into the menu system and select item 7 in the shooting menu, and hereafter select “memory”. You can the store then information in bank 1, 2 or 3 by moving left and right with the command wheel and pressing the center for storing.
Panorama
I have done an entire video on how to shoot in panorama mode with the RX100 and you may have come across this feature on your smartphone. But it is a nice way to “get it all in” when you have a wide subject to capture. Notice that you can shoot both in portrait and landscape mode – you select the direction on the front dial (the one at the root of the lens).
If you are in the market for a serious (enthusiast) camera that will deliver pictures on par with many entry level cameras but in a pocket able size, and doing do without breaking the bank? Then I think you should have the Sony RX100iii on your short list. I am not sponsored by Sony and I bought the camera myself.
The Sony next to a Nikon DSLR.
I guess we a are all looking for a good deal, and the most value for money, also when shopping camera gear. I find that the Sony RX100iii is an amazing value for money “package” and below i give you 18 reasons why this is a great pocket camera. And then some less-than-optimal features of this camera and finally my verdict after using this camera as my every-day-in-my-pocket camera for more than half a year.
Notice that the camera I review is the mark 3. It comes in later versions: Mark 4 and 5 has the same lens, whereas mark 6 has a new lens with longer zoom (and it is not so fast). Later version gives 4K, more frames per second, etc, but if you like me want to get the best value for money, the trick is to not buy the latest model, but an older model that still fits your personal preferences. So if say 4K video is important to you, the mark 3 is not the one to go for. So if you decide to go for an older camera model to get better value for money – make sure you do not compromise what is important to you. Ok, lets have a look at the mark 3…
1) Small and compact
The best camera is the one that is with you. We have all heard that statement – but although trivial, it is also very true. I throw the camera in my bicycle bag frequently, and the fact that it is light and takes up very little space, makes it an easy decision to bring it along.
The Sony RX100M3 is compact!
2) Lens cover built in – turtle mode when closed!
Maybe a small thing, but the fact that the camera has a lens cover built in and that it closes every time you shut down the camera is one of those small things that makes life with this camera so much easier. I don’t have to worry about fingerprints on the lens or what way the camera is turning when I grab it to go out the door. It is a turtle until it unfolds!
Lens cover built in!
3) Lens: It is fast!
With a minimum aperture of 1.8, this Zeiss lens is fast! Notice that the M6 version of the RX100 is at 2.8, also with a longer zoom, but it is not as fast as the M3, M4 and M5 of this camera. If you shoot a lot of available light situations with the “risk” of low light, say restaurants and other places where a flash would ruin the mood, then you will love the speed of this lens!
Ready for shooting!
4) Lens: Good all round zoom range
The lens zooms from 24 to 70 mm, and that is a classic all-round zoom range that I find is great for most situations. Maybe not shooting sports and wildlife, nor a landscape (although it has a built in panorama function), but for most other situations, the zoom range is all I need.
The Sony RX100M3 and Nikon vintage lens.
5) Lens: fast focus!
Maybe someone who has tested a lot of different AF lenses can dig out examples of lenses that focus faster than this camera does, but I must say that I am impressed, given that it is a pocket camera. I have not missed a shot due to the lack of speed in the auto focus, but of course I use this camera mainly for street photography and friends/family, so maybe I am easy to please.
6) 20 mp sensor
20 mp is a lot if resolution. It is only slightly less than Nikon’s entry level cameras D3400 and D5600 and at par with the D7500. I am impressed with the quality of the files this camera produces, both in JPG and RAW. It is truly impressive that such a small camera in terms of sensor resolution and ability to produce RAW files takes up the competition with many DSLRs and mirror-less.
Lighthouse, Langelinie, Copenhagen harbor
7) In body camera stabilization
I could simply not understand how I was able to come home with “stable” pictures shot at 1/4 of a second. That has never happened to with my DSLR – always blurry pictures! That was until I read that the RX100 has in body camera stabilization – and it works! Not that it works miracles, I can still come home with shaky pictures, but it certainly enables me to have the shutter open for longer than on my DSLR, where I would be cautious to go below 1/80. Here 1/4 is the limit in my experience.
8) Tilt screen
Camera reviewers always talk about the benefits of a tilt screen, and to be honest I think it is over rated. But I must admit that especially for shooting close to the ground, I enjoy the option to flip out the tilt screen so that I don’t have to lie on my stomach in order to see what I am shooting.
Tilt screen.
9) Viewfinder in that small camera!
I don’t know how they have managed to fit it in there, but there actually is a “pull it out manually” electronic viewfinder built into this small camera! And it is a great feature for those sunny days where the back LCD screen is of little use. Some complaint that it is a two step process to pull out the viewfinder, but I find that once you have learned it, then no problem. And the viewfinder turns off the LCD screen when you put your eye to the viewfinder – smart!
Sony RX100M3 viewfinder.
10) All the benefits of a mirror-less
You have all the benefits of a mirror-less, meaning that it is a quiet camera, you see what you get in the viewfinder prior to shooting and you have all the LCD information in the viewfinder also. I especially enjoy the level information for shooting landscapes, so I don’t have to level in post but can get it right in camera.
11) Ten (10) frames per second
This camera shoots up to 10 frames per second, and the M4 and M5 takes this even higher (24 FPS). I do not really know what you need all those FPS for in this small camera (I mainly shoot burst for wildlife with a long lens), but if you need it – there it is!
12) Consistent menus and controls
The Sony product range has as far as I can tell, consistent interfaces and menu systems across their product range. I think all Nikon and Cannon shooters that convert to Sony find the menu system terrible, but it is consistent across the product range and if you “speak Sony” then you will quickly learn how this camera works.
13) Fast startup – ready shoot!
I think the camera starts up and is ready surprisingly fast. Of course, not as fast as a DSLR where it is just a flick of a button (and where the mechanical viewfinder always works). On this camera, you have to wait for the lens to extend and the EVF to get operational, but I often find that I miss a short more because of me fumbling with pulling the camera out of my bag or pocket than the start up time.
14) ND filter
Although the ND filter “only” gives 3 stops, and maybe will not be enough for those loooong exposure where a waterfall turns silky smooth, it still comes handy when shooting into the light and the maximum shutter speed becomes a limit. Again, I am impressed that it has been possible to cram in an ND filter in this feature packaged camera.
15) Smartphone integration
Unlike the say Snapbridge software from Nikon, the software from Sony actually works every time and transfers pictures from the camera to your smartphone both fast and in a relatively user friendly way.
16) Charges via USB
Sony RX100M3 charging in camera.
You can charge the camera via mini USB, so in your car or in the office, just plug it in and it will start charging. Flashing orange light means charging – steady means done.
The camera does not come with a dedicated battery charger, which some will see this as a downside. Instead it comes with a cable and an AC adapter. As battery life is a bit shallow on most mirror-less, the option to charge in your car or at the office in my case takes some of the pain from poor battery life out of the equation.
The only minor gripe here is that the plug is not USB-C which the industry seems to adopt as the new standard – but here the fact that this camera is an older model starts to show.
17) Control ring
The control ring on the front of the camera in my mind is brilliant! Some complaint that it does not have clicks or stops, but it is not on my wish list. What the ring controls depend on the mode, but if you shoot in aperture mode, the camera will allow you to control the aperture by simply turning the ring at the bottom of the lens. I think this is a brilliant way of making an otherwise not-to-user-friendly interface a lot better.
18) Price
When you go for the M3, then you get a model that is a few years old. And it does not have the latest features like 4K video, a motor driven pop-up eve, 24 FPS or a zoom range of 200mm. If you can live with the specs of the M3, then I think you for the price (400 EUR) get a fantastic feature packed pocket camera that is worth every euro!
On the contrary
Just to complete the picture, I also want to share some of the less great things about this camera:
First of all, it is not weather sealed. A 2 euro cent plastic bag from IKEA can help a lot, but it is not sealed for rough conditions!
The zoom range ends at 70mm. If you need longer zoom, then th Mark 6 offers 200mm, but it is also at a very different price, and the lens is then 2.8 at the short end (up from 1.8)
The LCD screen is not a touch screen. As I have a few “older” DSLRs where the LCD is not touch screen either, I am used to using controls to swipe and zoom in and out. But it is annoying when you have been shooting with a smartphone for a while to come back to a screen that does not react to a touch!
Battery life is not good – but I think this is a common feature of the mirror-less cameras with all the power that is necessary to operate the EVF and the LCD screen.
Some may miss the external flash (a hot shoe), but the camera does provide a built in pop-up flash.
Others may miss a dedicated charger – standard this camera only comes with a AC adaptor for in-camera charging.
The menu system and user interface is – as it is with Sony – a bit cumbersome, but you get used to it. It is a funny mixture of features you use often and features you seldom or never use. So shooting experience is sometimes hampered by a less than optimal user interface.
Some get frustrated by the fact that the camera closes down when you close the EVF. I am now used to it and actually find it quite useful.
4K video is not a feature of the M3 (comes in later models), but I am fine with 1080p and this camera does ok video footage as far as I can tell.
The electronic viewfinder has to be “pulled” out manually, in later models it opens up motor driven. I have no problem with the manual solution. The EVF even survived that I dropped the camera on tarmac, landing on the corner with the EVF (not popped out when it happened, but still!)
Conclusion
This is a feature packed pocket-able camera that I bring with me almost everywhere I go. I love the combination of great technical features and specs packed into a very compact camera body. The shooting experience is not great – the user interface is as Sony is, and it takes some getting used to. But past that hurdle, this little camera delivers and punches far beyond its weight. And if you can live without 4K and 200mm zoom, then this value wise, as I see it, is difficult to beat. Provided what you mainly shoot is landscapes, street photography, travel pictures and friends/family. Sports and wildlife, macro and other more specialized types of photography is not what the pocket cameras out there are intended for.
My only major concern with this camera is that there is no magic or x-factor! When I shoot with a Nikkor vintage lens I sometimes get the feeling that some sort of magic blends into the equation and gives something extra to the pictures that is hard to define. Not with this one. Top level engineering. But no magic. Just technically good pictures. In pocket format. For around 450 EUR (March 2019). I find that value package difficult to beat.
Sony RX100M3 sample image.
Comparison table III to VI
Below a table with selected differences between the later models of the RX100. As you can see the mark 3 is starting to get old, but in my mind still is a very good pocket camera, considering the price point:
Maybe shooting in manual mode with the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 (M3) is a contradiction in terms, as the camera has been designed with a lot of features to automate the process of taking pictures, but it still offers a manual mode despite all the automated options available. The advantage of manual mode is that it gives you as the photographer full control of all the parameters (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) and hence no decision to be made on your behalf by the camera. So if full control is your thing, manual mode is for you.
In the following the back screen will be used to show the menus and the effect of changing the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Notice however, that all of this can also be seen in the viewfinder, so that you do not need to use the back screen, for example on a sunny day when the back screen is difficult so see.
Mysterious manual mode?
Manual mode is often regarded as a complicated mode only managed by the most senior of photographers. With the introduction of mirrorless cameras like the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100, this is much less so now, as both the viewfinder and the back screen shows exactly what the sensor is capturing as it happens, and hence an over- or underexposed picture will be visible before the fact, so you can adjust the settings beforehand. So my suggestion is that you simply give manual mode a try to see what it is like and then based on that decide if manual mode is for you.
Manual mode selection
Manual mode is selected on the mode dial on the top of the RX100 as the red circle shows
Aperture
When in manual mode, the aperture is controlled by the ring on the front of the camera. By turning the ring as indicated by the blue arrows, you change the aperture.
Selecting the aperture
The aperture value is shown at the bottom of the back screen. Here it is f/2.8 which is very wide and open i.e. letting in a lot of light:
The Sony RX100M3 at f/2.8
Here is the same motive, same light, same shutter speed (1/30) and same ISO (80) but with a much more narrow aperture (f/7.1). Notice how dark the screen is now compared to the above:
The Sony RX100M3 at f/7.1
This is one of the big advantages of mirrorless over DSLRs – you can see the picture will be underexposed immediately – no need to take the picture and review it afterwards. You can fix the exposure problem before you take the picture.
Shutter speed
The shutter speed is controlled by turning the command dial (red arrow) in the direction shown with the blue arrows:
Selecting the shutter speed
The shutter speed can vary from 30 seconds to 1/2000th of a second. And again, you will see the brightness of the picture right in the back display, so if it all black or very dark, you probably need to go to a slower shutter speed meaning that the sensor is exposed to light longer.
ISO
ISO as far as I can tell from the RX100 manual does not have a dedicated button. Instead you have to push the “fn” button just above and to the left of the command dial. When doing so you can move the cursor to the bottom left cell using the command dial:
ISO value displayed bottom left in the rear LCD
Pressing the center of the command dial selects the ISO menu point, and then a list appears where the ISO can be selected, ranging from 80 (the least sensitive) all the way up to 12.800. Notice that you can also choose auto-ISO, where the camera selects the ISO automatically for you. The advantage is that you do not have to worry about the ISO when shooting, but you leave the selection of the ISO up to the camera. The camera may then select a very high ISO, which may not be to your liking.
When the menu selector is on top if the ISO item, then an alternative an more easy way to change the ISO is to use the command dial to change the ISO. No need to press the center button first. Simply turn the dial in the direction shown with the blue arrows to the right (do not press down as when moving the cursor around) and a little table appears top center as shown below here. Simply turn the wheel to change the ISO value.
Selecting the ISO
Maybe even easier that this is that instead of using the command dial, you can use the ring on the front of the camera (the one used for aperture previously) and that will have the same effect as turning the command dial.
The price for a high ISO is that your pictures are likely to be grainy, meaning that it looks like sand or pebbles have been thrown at your picture. So be careful if you go much above 1000 – you may get some very grainy pictures. Post processing software like Lightroom may be able to remove or reduce the grain, but it is better to get it right in camera to minimize your post processing time and workload.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100M3 camera makes it easy to take panorama pictures. Most of us have got used to the ease of taking panorama pictures from our smartphones, and the RX100 matches that in terms of user friendliness, and on top also gives better picture quality. The RX100 will get your panorama picture ready “in camera” meaning that no post processing is necessary in order to stitch the pictures together. It is ready for you to view a few seconds after the sweeping is completed. But lets dive right into how to take a panorama still picture with the RX100.
How to
To get started you have to turn the mode dial to the panorama mode as shown below. It has a symbol that looks like a box that has been stepped upon lightly:
The panorama symbol above is flush with the white dot on the camera body. Once that is done, all you have to do is press the shutter and follow the instructions on the screen. Notice that you don’t have to hold down the shutter while the panorama shooting is in progress – you can release the shutter immediately – the camera takes over from here.
By default the camera will ask you to swipe the camera from left to right while it takes a series of pictures. And it will tell you this via the LCD instructions:
In that case, start pointing to the left of what you want to be in the center of your frame and with a steady hand swipe the camera from left to right.
You can use a tripod or the like to stabilize the camera while you sweep, but in my experience the camera (in daylight) takes excellent hand held panoramas.
When you sweep, the camera will give you a status bar showing the panorama progress, but I would ignore that for starters. Simply concentrate on moving the camera in a steady pace from left to right and continue until the clicking sound stops. Once the process is complete, the picture will be presented to you on the LCD screen.
If you have moved the camera too slowly, the RX100 will give an error message at the end of the shooting and ask you to start over again. Don’t be frustrated when this happens – it generally takes a few attempts to get the panorama captured.
The result
The RX100 presents the result in the LCD screen, and it may look a bit strange since it is presenting a very wide picture that is not very tall on a small LCD:
The example above is a picture of the Danish parliament. As you can see, the camera shows the picture in full width and hence not very tall. And apparently I have done something wrong as the right hand side of the picture is left grey. But it is super easy and fast to do a new panorama, so no harm done.
If you have the panorama presented as above, you can get the RX100 to present the panorama as a small movie, where it pans across the picture. Just press the center of the command dial while the panorama is displayed on the LCD, and the presentation starts. The good thing about this way of seeing it is that all of the screen is used top to bottom:
Configuration
There are a few options available regarding the panorama function. If you go into the menu system and on the first page on the first sub-menu in the main menu, you will find two options: size and direction (sorry that the LCD is so scratched here – it is a camera I use a lot!):
The size menu gives top options: Standard and wide:
You can test both versions, but as you probably have guessed, the wide version stitches together more pictures than the standard mode, and hence will give a wider panorama and ask you to turn the camera for a bit longer than the standard mode. My suggestion is that you try both and see which one is to your liking.
The direction menu lets you choose which way to swipe the camera, and I find this option especially useful if I do a panorama in portrait mode. Then I ask the camera to swipe up, but as the camera is 90 degrees turned it becomes sweeping to the right! The point is that the aspect ratio of the panorama is changed so that the picture is more tall and less wide, but there are probably many other reasons why you want to change the direction.
There is a more easy way to change the direction when in panorama mode – simply turn the ring on the front of the camera, this will change the direction (the LCD will inform you):
Moving objects
If you have moving objects while shooting the picture, you may find that you get some strange results. Take a look at the picture below, where the cyclist has been captured many times and chopped up in the most dramatic way! Poor guy! As you have probably guessed, he is moving in the same direction as the camera while producing the panorama. Had he been moving the opposite direction, we would have seen him appear only once and in half a version!
So if you can, try to avoid moving objects when shooting your panorama, unless you are prepared to work with the picture in post when you get back home.
Questions and comments
Hope you found this blog useful. Questions and comments are more than welcome.
You select manual mode on the mode dial top of the camera, right next to the right of the viewfinder. Turn the dial to position (M) for manual mode:
Make sure the pivoting LCD screen is facing outwards (i.e. not towards the camera body) and press the Info button located right next to the viewfinder and just above the LCD screen. This should give you a picture with an M top left, and the shutter speed, aperture and ISO values shown (your picture may be different, but the information content should be the same):
Here the shutter speed is 1/160th of a second, the aperture is f/5 and the ISO is at 3200
Shutter speed
The command dial is located on the camera top right. The command dial controls the shutter speed – turning the dial increases and decreases the shutter speed. The slowest shutter speed is 30 seconds, after that follows bulb and time mode (will not be addressed here). The fastest shutter speed is 1/4000th second. To avoid camera shake, be careful not to use a shutter speed slower than 1/80th of a second, unless the camera is mounted on a tripod (or you have a very steady hand!).
Aperture
Just in front of the main dial, a smaller button is located:
You can see the graphics is +/- and also a circle illustrating a shutter:
This button, when pressed down, alters the effect of the command dial, so that instead of controlling exposure compensation, it changes the aperture. So hold down the +/- button while turning the main dial, and this changes the aperture. The aperture values are subject to the lens mounted, but typically range from f/1.8 to f/22 or thereabout. The larger the number (the f-stop), the smaller the aperture and the less light is let in by the lens.
ISO (sensor sensitivity)
Finally, to change the ISO setting, find the “Fn” button on the front left of the camera. Pressing this button while turning the command dial changes the ISO value, the same way holding down the +/- button did for aperture:
The Fn (function) button is located on the front left of the camera.
You can also change the ISO setting using menus: press the information button (i) as shown here, and a menu appears on the LCD screen:
In the top right corner is the ISO value. Use the multi selector (the large round button just below the (i) button) to move the cursor to the top rightmost cell in the screen. It says “iso” with small letters in the bar just above the cell. In the picture above, the ISO is set to 250. Place the cursor over the ISO cell and push the center of the multi selector (ok) and the ISO selection screen appears. Using the multi selector again, the cursor can be moved to the new ISO value, ok pressed and the ISO value is changed.
Auto ISO sensitivity control
There is an option to let the camera (within boundaries) select the ISO value itself, in order to arrive at a properly exposed picture, given the aperture and shutter speed selected by you. It is not a perfect solution in all cases, but it can be a great aid in the beginning especially, in order to avoid over- or under exposed pictures. And it enables you to focus on one thing less in the beginning of your work with shooting in manual mode.
To switch on Auto ISO, press the “menu” button located top left on the back side of the D5600 camera body. Using the command dial (the big round button middle right), scroll down to the so called shooting menu. The shooting menu has a green icon that looks like a camera viewed from the front. Press the right hand side of the command dial to enter the shooting menu, and press the bottom side of the command dial to scroll down to the “ISO sensitivity settings” menu:
Press the center of the command dial (ok) to select the ISO sensitivity settings. In this menu you can switch the Auto ISO sensitivity on and off, set the maximum allowed ISO sensitivity setting (high values gives grainy pictures), set the minimum shutter speed and select the ISO sensitivity.
Auto ISO sensitivity control…
The minimum ISO value for the Nikon D5600 is 100 – this is a value determined by the nature of the sensor in the camera, and cannot be changed via camera setting.
Notice that when Auto ISO is on, the camera ignores the ISO sensitivity value you have chosen. Only when you switch the Auto ISO off, the ISO setting chosen by you will be used by the camera.
Getting the exposure right
When shooting in manual mode (and Auto ISO is not on), it is very easy to select aperture and shutter speed values that give an over- or underexposed picture. In the bottom of the viewfinder, and also when you press the “info” button, there is a light meter indicating if the picture will be over- or underexposed:
-│ – – │ – – 0 – -│ – – │ +
<————│
If the arrow below the meter points to the left, then the picture will be underexposed. This is the case in the example shown above. If the arrow points to the right the picture will be overexposed, as the picture below illustrates:
The markings to the right of the zero shows the image is over exposed…
Only if there is no arrow visible, the picture will be exposed just right. Minor deviations can be fixed in post, only to some extend for JPG files, more so when shooting in Raw format, but the easiest is to get the exposure right in camera.
Yes, the Nikon D5600 is not a modern camera. It came out in November 2016 and here in 2023 it is about 7 years old! That is a long time in this day and age, looking at the expedient development of mirrorless cameras with backlit sensors and image stabilisation and what not.
However, if you are willing to live with a camera that will not make the heads turn when you flash it in the local café, you may find that you get a camera that takes some excellent pictures and does so offering a wonderfully easy to use sets of dials and buttons. And for a price that does not break the bank.
The Nikon D5600 with a 50mm AF lens mounted.
But let’s have a look at some strongholds and some shortcomings, based upon my personal experience after owning and using this solid camera for more than a year.
Strong features
Price
Maybe the biggest advantage of the D5600 is the price: 530 EUR new with kit lens (Europe, April 2019) and 389 EUR for a camera body only version. That is less than what a battery grip costs for some mirror-less cameras! And if you further can live with a model that is a little older (the D5300) but with many of the same features as the D5600, then I have found it used on e-bay for 230 EUR and you have entered the world of photography on a budget.
A very good sensor still
It is still a very good sensor that sits in this camera, also compared to standards of today. It has 24 megapixels which is still very common for cropped sensor cameras (e.g. most of the Fujifilm x-series cameras). Despite an anti aliasing filter that it has become fashion to remove because some say it affects picture sharpness, it still produces some very great pictures with Nikon’s well known picture quality and color rendition. And you can shoot both RAW and JPG, and the JPGs are fine as well.
Ergonomics and user friendliness is top
Maybe what I enjoy the most with the D5600 is that the camera body is very light and the grip is deep. Some say the grip is not tall enough and that their pinky lacks a place to rest, but I have a very big hands and I have never had that as an issue. The camera is so light that holding it for hours has never been an issue for me. The user interface it the “good old” Nikon one, and although the D5600 lacks a front dial, the D5600 interface is very similar to other Nikon models, so if you speak Nikon, the D5600 is very easy to use. And if you don’t, you will quickly get familiar with the controls.
Superior ergonomics, especially if you – like me – do not have the smallest of hands.
The LCD screen is a bonus
Maybe the LCD screen by today’s standards does not have the best resolution, but the screen is pivoting, touch sensitive, and it reacts – even compared to a modern smartphone – fairly quick.
Articulating rear LCD
Further, it can turn “inwards” when not used, i.e. protected from scratches and guaranteed not to bother you when using the viewfinder. This is a good thing when you shoot at night or throw the camera into an ordinary bag with other stuff – you don’t have to worry about that side of the camera!
Articulating rear LCD can turn “inwards” for maximum protection.
Crop factor = “longer” lenses
The fact that the D5600 sensor is a cropped sensor (APS-C) means that the length of all lenses you attach to the D5600 are multiplied by 1.5. My 70-300mm Tamron lens suddenly becomes a 450mm at the far end which enables me take loads of pictures of birds sitting at the bird-feeder in the far end of my garden. So although some photographers claim that only full frame sensors will do, it is worth noticing that a cropped sensor also has some capabilities that full frame does not offer.
The full frame versus cropped sensor debate is one of the oldest in the photo community, and I do not want to add to the discussion, but for an entry level camera like the D5600 with 24 megapixels, I think you will find that you have plenty of resolution and picture quality for both social media and an occasional print.
Nikon glass and Nikon f-mount
The Nikon F-mount has been around since Donald duck was an egg, and there is literally thousands of lenses available for the Nikon D5600 and its f-mount. Shop around on e-bay and the local flea market, and you will be able to find some cheap vintage glass for your D5600, provided you are not afraid of manual focus. And the good thing is that if you later decide to upgrade to a higher level camera, then much of your glass can be reused. You can also find some new glass at a fair price – Nikons kit lens is a good start, and a 35mm prime lens can be achieved brand new for a reasonable price.
The 135mm prime from Nikon. A wonderful lens!
It is not a mirror-less
Yes it is a strange headline. But after going mirror-less also, I have come to learn to appreciate some of the features of the D5600 that I miss with the mirror-less cameras:
Battery life is awesome! As the D5600 has an optical viewfinder (and not an electronic one that needs to be powered like a tv-screen), the power consumption of the D5600 is very low, both when it sleeps and when it is switched off. I have my D5600 lying in the windowsill for weeks for an occasional bird shot without charging. That is so nice!
Sensor cleaning. On a DSLR the mirror sits between the sensor and the lens mount and that gives some protection to the sensor that I have never thought of. On a mirror-less the sensor is exposed at every lens change and that leads to dust and dirt on the sensor much faster than a DSLR. In fact, after more than a year of use, I have only cleaned the D5600 sensor once.
Shortcomings
It is a DSLR after all
Yes, a DSLR is a bit old-school and does not give you all the benefits found with a mirror-less:
There is no viewfinder with all the “heads up display” benefits. So you cannot in the viewfinder have aids like focus peek or a level meter or in general see what your picture exposure will be like before the fact.
The DSLR is noisy and it has mechanical elements. So if silent shooting is important to you, you need to look for a mirror-less camera. Many DSLRs have silent shooting modes, but you will find that they are not silent at all!
Live view is SLOOOOOW! The reason being that the camera swings the mirror away when going in live view mode (where the LSD is your viewfinder) and for each picture it swings the mirror forth and back again. That takes ages!
No 4K video
If you do a lot of video and 4K is important to you, this camera is not for you. It only does 1080p and a DSLR in my opinion is best suited for stills. If you want a great video camera, I would turn to mirror-less instead, or maybe simply use your smartphone for starters (my iPhone X offers 4K!).
No in-camera AF motor
Many of the older Nikon lenses, although it says AF for auto focus on the tin, assumes that your camera body has a built in motor to control the auto focus on the lens. The lens itself does not have a motor. Unfortunately the D3x00 and D5x00 series Nikon do not have this motor and you have to look at the D750 or the D7x00 series or higher. Or live with manual focus. Or buy only lenses that have motors built in (AF-S), but that of course rules out the vintage lenses.
The lens needs a motor in the camera body in order for auto focus to work.
If you are not sure if your camera – or the one you plan to get – has a built in AF motor, look for a little metal “ear” that sticks out bottom left on the f-mount ring when you look at the camera front. In the picture above, the bottom camera is the D7500 that has an AF motor (you can see the pen pointing at the metal “ear”), whereas the top one is the D5600 and you can see the AF motor is missing. The pen at the upper camera points to where the AF motor “ear” should have been.
No image stabilization
For years and years photographers have taken great photos without image stabilization in neither the lens nor the camera body. Now both seem to be a big wish from many, all of a sudden. So be aware that the D5600 does not have in body image stabilization (IBIS) so you either need a tripod or to buy lenses with stabilization, if you want to avoid camera shake with shutter speeds slower than 1/80th.
One SD card
People looking for a camera to be used professionally often shy away from cameras with only one SD card. I doubt that this is a concern for you if you are considering the D5600. but if coming home with pictures secured 100% on digital media, then a dual slot camera is key. The D5600 “only” as one. I underline that statistics show that it is seldom that an SD card fail, but it does happen and probably when you want it the least (that important child birthday or passing a long time dreaded exam). So if data security is high on your agenda, then a dual card solution is worth a consideration and the Nikon D7100 and D7200 deliver in this department.
Only one card slot. Often makes event photographers run for the hills….
Snapbridge…?
The smartphone integration (Snapbridge) could be more user friendly and many reviewers love to hate Snapbridge. I think it is better than its reputation, and you can actually remotely control your camera from the smartphone via snapbridge. But compared to say Sonys solutions for integrating your camera and smartphone, Snapbridge is cumbersome and has stability issues.
Conclusion
The Nikon D5600 with a 50mm f/1.4 lens – a good combo at 75mm FF equivalent.The Nikon D5600 with the 50mm 1.4D (a nifty fifty)
So, to answer the question if this is the right camera for you here in 2019, depends on your decision criteria and personal preferences: If you are a video shooter, I would seriously consider alternatives to the D5600. If a silent camera is important, I would look toward mirror-less. But if you simply want to take the step from shooting with your smartphone to a level above that, say for friends, family and an occasional landscape photo, the D5600 should be on your short list, provided you want a solution that does not break the bank. It is a very capable camera still, although the future probably is mirror-less. But some still listen to old Long Play records. And others still shoot 35 mm film based photos. Leading edge technology the D5600 is not, but it is still capable of producing great pictures worthy of social media and an occasional print. But before you make your decision, a few alternatives are worth considering.
Alternatives
I am not an expert on Canon or other brands, but I am sure that Canon and Sony and Pentax and … etc … has alternatives that compete in the same price range. The camera vendors know that if they can get you to like their camera system when you enter the market, it is likely that you will stay with that brand so you can re-use your glass. So typically they price their entry level products aggressive, in the hope they get a life-long friend in you.
If a lower pixel count is not a problem for you, and compact and portable is important, maybe your smartphone will simply do. You can get click-on lenses that fits your smartphone, and I started my photo career shooting with an olloclip lens on my iPhone 7 (the alternative is Moments). The problem with that solution is that if you upgrade your smartphone, you are likely to be in need of buying new glass or mount as well, but it is still a small investment compared to a full camera. The pictures you take can compete with an entry level camera in my opinion, and for example the iPhone X shoots 4K video, so it is actually a capable video camera! If you want the higher resolution but portability and compact is important to you, you may want to look for compact cameras such as the Sony RX100 series.
The entry-entry level camera from Nikon is the D3x00 series, and I believe the D3400 is the current model. The D3400 is available at a lower price point, but be ready to loose the pivoting screen and the touch sensitive screen as well, along with exposure bracketing and time lapses. If these features are not important to you, the D3400 could be your camera – the sensor and hence picture quality is very much the same, but check the full list of specifications to get a full overview of what the D3400 misses compared to the D5600.
Within the D5x00 series you can also go backwards on go for one of the earlier models, say the D5300. You will get very much the same camera, but a few features are different or missing on the D5300 but it is fundamentally very much the same camera.
If you are willing to spend a bit more on a camera an you want to stay with Nikon, then the D7100 and the D7200 are where you should look. These cameras are – as far as I can tell – still used by many professionals, and I have read many posts praising the pictures that these cameras produce. And then you have a camera with which you can grow as a photographer – with the D5600 you may find that you quickly grow out of it if you are bid by the photography bug.
Finally, if you want to go mirrorless, the Z50 is a very attractive alternative to the entry level DSLRs from Nikon. It is a APS-C mirrorless camera with the new lens mount that Nikon developed for the Z-series. If you do not have a lot of vintage or F-mount glass you want to re-use, then the Z50 as an entry level alternative should definitely be on your short list.
In this post I will be looking at Nikon’s enthusiast DSLR camera line up to explain why I ended up buying the D750 after owning the D5600 for a year or so. I look at digital cameras here – film is another story!
If you want to get to know the Nikon camera lineup, this wiki page gives a good overview, both in terms of available models and which were released when.
This post is intended to give you inspiration if you are to buy a Nikon camera. Your decision criteria and personal preferences are probably different from mine. So most likely you will end up making a different decision than me, or arrive at the same decision but for different reasons. So please read this post in that context.
Nikon D5600 and D3400
The 3×00 series is the entry level model whereas the 5×00 is considered a notch above that but still in the entry level end of the Nikon scale. I have no experience with the D3x00 but I would imagine it is a budget friendly (scaled down) version of the D5x00 with very much the same look and feel. My D5600 is solid workhorse that has served me well and I only sold it because I moved to full frame.
The reason why I moved away from the 3×00/5×00 series is the lack of a in-body auto focus (AF) motor. Nikon (and Sony) have been around for ages, and their legacy gives access to a wide range of vintage glass that can be bought for a fraction of the prices of new glass. However, many of these lenses either have manual focus or focus via a screwdriver setup, where a small motor driven pin in the camera body as shown here:
The AF motor pin.
It drives the focus mechanism in the lens. I absolutely love the low prices and high quality of vintage Nikkor glass in combination with the comfort of auto focus – the D3x00/D5x00 series were no longer an option for me.
Nikon D7500
The need for an in-body AF motor literally drove me to the 7×00 series. These APS-C sensor cameras have many fans, and especially when reading blog comments from D7100 and D7200 owners, these cameras apparently serve their owners very well. And both used and new, these cameras are close to unbeatable when it comes to the price/performance ratio – a steal.
Despite these two strong candidates, I went for the D7500 – the camera that the internet loves to hate, as Steve Perry says in his review of the camera. I absolutely loved it – super fast frames per second, stunning low light performance, tilt screen, nice LCD and a deep grip. I felt I got a scaled down version of the D500 for a bargain.
The Nikon D7500.
I would probably have owned and used the D7500 today had it not been for an unfortunate accident where I dipped the camera in salt water to save myself from falling. That taught me always wear a camera strap when out and about, but it also meant that my D7500 was ruined in a cannot-be-saved way (salt water simply eats the thin metal in the electronics inside the camera). So I went back to my D5600 for a while, saving money and contemplating my next move.
Cropped versus full-frame
In the photo community on social media the debate regarding full frame versus cropped sensors (APS-C) is probably one of the oldest around. And it goes on and on. I think that over the years the APS-C sensors have moved closer and closer to the full frame sensors in terms of performance, and many will claim that the differences are small if visible at all. I have no ambition to add to this discussion.
I can see that many – also professional – wildlife photographers prefer the APS-C sensor due to the crop factor. So it is a matter of horses for courses – you cannot say that full frame is this A-team and APS-C is the B-team. It is more complicated than that. A Nikon D500 (APS-C) is by many considered more professional grade than the full frame Nikon D610.
So all this just to say that I eventually went for a full frame model simply because I was curious! I wanted to experience what a full frame camera could do when compared to an APS-C. Is it rational and clear thinking to go for full frame just because you are curious? No, absolutely not. But it is my honest answer, and the reason why you should consult your own personal preferences when making a purchase decision. You can read more here about the arguments for shifting from APS-C to full frame.
The Nikon D750
After deciding to go for a full frame Nikon DSLR camera body, it was really down to 4 different models: the D610, D750, D810 and D850. And before I started to look at reviews, I started with the specs and prices – budget is important to me. In February 2019, this is what a simple table of comparison looked like:
The models are across, starting with the D610 and ending with the D850. In the bottom the last 3 lines gives the prices in Euro, the increase going from one model to the next and finally the index comparing towards the D610. So for example, the D850 is 3 times as expensive as the D610, and you will have to raise your budget by 26% if you decide to go for the D810 over the D750.
Let me start with the easy part: the D850. This one is undoubtedly the DSLR of my dreams, but also way out of my league budget wise. It has an impressive 45 mp sensor and an Expeed 5 processor, so I have every reason to believe that this is as good as it gets. But but, budget budget.
In the other end of the scale is the D610 which is much closer to my budget and what I intend to spend. However, having seen what the modern Expeed processor did in the D7500 camera, I wanted to go for the most modern Expeed processor possible, and here the D750 had an advantage (as marked in the lower red circle). Also, as I often shoot low light, the ISO performance of the D750 also seemed very attractive (top red circle). Of course you should buy as cheap as possible, but on the other hand it is silly spending 800 EUR on a camera body and then missing the features of a 300 EUR more expensive body – then I think it is better to save for a little longer and then go for the better model.
So the final choice was between the D750 and the D810. After going in circles for weeks, I finally decided that I could not defend the need for a 36 mp sensor – it is way more than what I need. Most of my pictures are for social media and the like and are condensed/reduced in resolution to a level where 24 mp is more than sufficient.
With this in the back of my head, I started to study reviews of the Nikon D750, and especially two videos caught my attention. The first one is a professional wedding photographer (“this one will shoot in the dark”). The second one is a video from Seattle Museum of flight. Of course I read many more reviews of the D750 like the one from Techradar.
And piling all this together, I found the choice of the D750 an easy one. So I ended up buying the D750, and I am a happy camper!
Afterthought
Here in 2023, I still have my Nikon D750. I also have a Nikon D4, a Nikon Z6ii and a Nikon D700. But I hold on to the D750. It is just a workhorse that does exactly what you ask it to.
It is still my preferred camera for a product shoot, simply because it is so easy to work with. I once read in a review of the car BMW 320 that the reviewer liked the care more and more, the more he drove in it, and that one of the reasons was that every dial and button sat exactly where he wanted them to. There was no strange design features or experimentations going on here – every button and dial was functional and tested in detail. My feeling about the D750 is exactly the same: it is a workhorse that does what you tell it to. The shooting experience is great!
The D750 does not have the heavy sound or feel of say a professional grade Nikon D4, in fact, some will say it feels a little too light and made of too much plastic. That may well be, but if you judge the camera on it’s usability, features and output, I think you will find that it is an all round DSLR that is hard to beat. Add to that the massive lineup of used / vintage f-mount glass that can be mounted on the D750 and you have a very capable package that is hard to beat when it comes to price / performance.
I have several Z-mount lenses and a Nikon Z6ii. The Z-mount glass is better than the F-mount, I think that is evident when you read reviews and see it for yourself. The question is if you need the better technical performance from the Z-mount glass? It is a pleasure to work with the Z-mount glass, but to be honest, I think most photographers really don’t need the additional performance.
You could of course go for the Nikon Z6ii, which is the mirrorless competitor to the Nikon D750, and then mount F-mount glass on the Z6ii using a FTZ adapter. But than all your AF glass with mechanical autofocus would be manual focus, as the Z6ii has no focus motor!
The benefit of a mirrorless camera is eg. a silent camera with no mirror flicking and the focus peaking highlights (my full list of mirrorless advantages is here). And if this is important to you, the Z6ii may be an alternative to consider. But again, if you look at the price / performance, I think you will find that the D750 is an option that is hard to beat. The mirrorless features comes at a high price.
My only reservation is this: If you want a hybrid camera, the video capabilities of the Nikon D750 shows the age of the camera (no 4K). But for photography it is still a very capable camera.
My copy of the D750 has been with me now for several years, and I think I have enough experience with the camera to give my thoughts on the good and the bad about this camera. It is not going to be a complete or an exhaustive review covering all corners of the D750 but some highlights that I as a happy enthusiast have encountered. I suggest you check the full specs of this camera and of course other reviews if you are considering to buy the D750.
My beloved Nikon D750. A true workhorse.
History
Back in September 2014, Nikon released the D750 camera and back then the retail price was around 2399 dollars. In late 2019, the camera was offered on black Friday sales for prices as low as 1000 dollars, and some comments on various blogs suggest the price was even lower than that (USD 699). So a significant price drop since the introduction of the camera. The D750 is also an aging camera body and the professionals seem to go for the mirrorless camera bodies with the release of the Z6 and Z7’s. But my copy has been with me now for several years despite the fact that I also own several mirrorless cameras. So maybe the D750 could be a good enthusiast camera for you. But let’s start to look at what you will not get if you buy the D750 and then afterwards dive into what you will get.
Big and bulky – just as we know DSLRs..
What the D750 will not offer
I have noted a few things on my list of things that I miss. It is not a comprehensive list – it is just what I have found relevant.
No 4K Video
First of all, if you are a video or hybrid shooter with the ambition to make 4K video, then the D750 will disappoint you. It only does 1080, but it does so very well. However, 4K it is not.
No 4K video option….
No IBIS
If you drink too much coffee like me or simply would like to shoot with a slow shutter speed without getting blurred pictures due to camera shake, then the D750 itself cannot help you. There is no in body image stabilization. You can get F-mount lenses with built in stabilization but the body itself has no stabilization.
The D750 – here the mirror is visible.
LCD screen flexibility
The LCD screen is not fully articulating – it only flips up or down, and the LCD is not touch sensitive, meaning that zooming in and out is done via pushing buttons. I think you can get used to it, but I use swiping and pinching all the time on my smartphone, so I do miss it on the D750.
The rear LCD flips out but cannot pivot.
Auto focus system
The auto focus system is very good and I understand it is the same system that sits in the big brother the D810. But measured towards a modern mirrorless camera, the 51 focus points and the fact that they sit very much toward the centre of the frame, cannot match a modern mirrorless where you easily find several hundred focus points and covering most of the frame. Also, the advanced AF systems with eye detect is not part what the D750 has to offer.
AF points
Optical viewfinder gives limitations
As this is a DSLR, there is no focus peak or focus zoom option to help you focus with a manual focus lens. The D750 has a little indicator in the bottom left of the optical viewfinder, but it not as easy to use as the focus peak systems where you can almost see the focal plan walking back and forth as you change focus.
Live view and the gyro.
Likewise the full blown level indicator is only available in live view – it is not to be seen in the optical viewfinder. However, you can re-assign the PV button (sits on the front of the camera, top right just below the AF assist illumination) via the CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU item f3, “assign preview button” to “viewfinder virtual horizon” which will give you a level indicator in the bottom of the viewfinder, just above the exposure meter. You can also assign the f2 button to do the same – see the manual page 359.
Not exactly quiet
Quiet operation is not a D750 stronghold, on the contrary it seems like the D750 enjoys to be loud and noisy. It has a so called quiet mode, but it is really not very quiet at all!
ISO button
A dedicated ISO button on top of the camera would be nice. You can re-program the video record button on top of the camera to act as the ISO button, but for reasons beyond me, it also activates the LCD which is a bit annoying if you are using the optical viewfinder.
No dedicated ISO button.
What you do get!
With all the negative stuff out of the way, let’s look at the positive with the D750. First of all, this is a very good camera for stills. I know the megapixel war is on and that 24MP may be is in the low end of the scale today, but many manufacturers have 24MP or thereabout as a sweet spot for good and sufficient resolution. Unless you print very large or want to crop heavily, I think you as an enthusiast will find that the resolution the D750 offers is more than enough. On top of this the D750 is a full frame camera and the colour rendition is great, even the JPGs I find to look amazing straight out of the camera. And don’t take my words for it, if you google among written reviews or benchmarks, the D750 is still a top performer.
Vibrant colors.Great contrasts.Getting close to the subject.Winter.Vibrant colors.
Low light performance
Add to this the low light performance of the D750 is outstanding. This camera sees in the dark and this is the case for both the sensor and the auto-focus system. I know that some will argue that photography is writing with light and the low light performance is irrelevant – they will argue that I should buy a flash, but I like low light and low key photography. None of my other cameras that all are mirrorless can compete with the low light performance of the D750 in my humble opinion. And I have several times in post processing recovered details that I could not see with the naked eye when I took the picture.
A night out. Not much light, and a flash would ruin the scene.
Long exposure. Nikon D750.Nikon D750 at night.
Ergonomics
A third area where I enjoy the D750 especially in compare with the mirror-less is in terms of ergonomics. The body is feels solid, it is weather sealed, the grip is deep, most buttons and dials sit where they should. AND the battery life is outstanding. I have never bought a grip for my D750 for the simple reason that one battery can last for a full day of shooting. Not so with the mirror-less – I think it has to do with the power required to feed the electronic viewfinder.
The ergonomics of the D750 is just right for me.
Start up time
On the note of benchmarking towards the mirror-less cameras, I simply enjoy that this camera is ready to go in no time. When I do street photography, I sometime miss a situation simply because the mirror-less camera takes a few seconds to be ready. It is like booting a computer or starting your television set – it takes a little while to be ready. Not so with the D750 – it is ready in no time. I miss that so much on my mirror-less systems!
Back-up of your pictures
Another thing that is important to some is the fact that the D750 has dual card slots. For event shooters, this is key. And to me this also is a strong signal that Nikon back in the days when this camera was launched knew, that many professionals would consider this camera due to its many qualities and the price point. The dual card slot was the little extra thing that made professionals go for the D750 even though it probably was targeted for the serious enthusiast.
Dual card slots in the Nikon D750.
Good glass and plenty of it
The D750 has Nikons old F-mount lens interface that has been around since Donald duck was an egg. Nikons new interface for the mirror-less world is the Z-mount and I doubt that we will see many new lenses in the future for the F-mount from Nikon as such. Maybe from 3rd party vendors like Sigma or Samyang. But the amount of both 2nd hand and new glass and lenses for the F-mount system is huge and you can on a budget get hold of used glass that for other systems would break the bank. You may not get the latest and greatest in terms of coating and super silent and fast focus motors, but if you shoot for example landscape or flowers or macro, I doubt that you will miss it.
Lots of great glass made by Nikon.
And if you buy the right glass with screwdriver auto-focus, you can enjoy the comfort of auto focus via the motor that is built into the D750 camera body.
AF motor built into the camera body
Etcetera…
There are many other things I could mention regarding the D750 like a built in flash, WiFi, it is well equipped with connectors…
External microphone and headset is an option.
…shoots 6.5 FPS, the max shutter speed is 1/4000th of a second, and so on. But I stay clear of that to underline that the main point here is that this is a great stills camera with tons of second hand glass available on e-bay or amazon or wherever you shop. And if you can cave in a little bit on prestige and not owning the latest and greatest, I think you will find that the D750 is a fantastic stills camera, that will deliver great pictures for years to come.
Conclusion
And as you have guessed it is a camera that I am very pleased with. I think it has served me well. If you are considering to go for the D750, you should of course also look to the competition within the Nikon line-up, look to the levels below (D610) and the levels above (D810 + D850). You should also consider some of the competition – I think Canon recently has released the EOS R which price point wise is getting closer to the D750, but the problem for the mirrorless Canon is that there is very little glass out there. But of course that will change over time. And I definitely think the Canon should be on your short list of cameras to look into.
Don’t worry, be a happy shooter
I guess we all like to make informed decisions and the right decisions relative to our decision criteria’s and personal preferences. But I just want to make a little point towards the end of this review, as I can see that a lot of the traffic on my blog and channel relates to camera and gear selection and decisions. And that is all fair. I think we all want to make informed decisions it is natural that we want to spend some time on making the right choices in terms of camera. But don’t overdo it. Don’t spend too much time on a an article like this one. Spend the time on getting out there and taking some great photos!
Nikon the 7th of January 2020 announced the long awaited Nikon D780 to replace the Nikon D750. The D750 has hence been around for more than 5 years, and an upgrade was very much due, although I still consider the D750 a great camera for stills.
The fact that 98% or so of the Nikon camera bodies out there are DSLRs with the good old F-mount, gives the financially stressed Nikon company a great opportunity to upgrade some of the DSLR models so all of us with lots of F-mount glass with no desire for a mirror less can upgrade to a more recent camera body.
The Nikon D780 from the Nikon homepage
The big picture
The big change when it comes to the D780 is a merger of the Nikon Z6 and the D750, so you get all the good stuff you know from the D750 when shooting with the mirror flicking, and all the goods from the Z6 when shooting in liveview.
What stays the same?
It is still a full frame DSLR with an 25 MP sensor and 51 AF points, so the sensor seems very similar to the D750 although back-light illuminated. The AF system is still the one we know from the D810. No image stabilization in body (No IBIS).
The outstanding battery life performance when not shooting in liveview mode continues – Nikon reports up to approx. 2300 shots per battery!
And the dual card slot setup that event shooters are so dependent upon remains.
Major improvements
The video specs now cover 4K and certainly also the capabilities in liveview mode, where all the good stuff from the Z6 is inherited, like the 273 AF points, and eye detect AF.
Although many do not notice, the fact that the processor is the EXPEED6 and hence jumps several generations forward, will be a major improvement, especially for color rendition and JPGs. I really look forward to the performance boost that this will give and also suspect that the low light improvements to some extend will be rooted in the new processor generation.
Many professionals will be happy to see that the max shutter speed is now 1/8000th of a second and that FPS has been lifted from 6.5 to 7, and the continuous electronic shutter speed is 12 FPS.
Another major improvement is the LCD screen with much better resolution, but still not fully articulating – we will have to do with the flip screen. And it is touch sensitive, which is a major step forward compared to the D750.
Minor improvements
As far as I can tell from the pictures from the announcements, the D780 will have a dedicated ISO button, like the D7500. That is a minor thing, but if you missed it like me, then this is a small but important improvement.
The USB-C port and the option to charge via USB is great news. I find that as more and more vendors use USB-C connectors my life becomes more easy, as the number of chargers I have to keep track of drops significantly. This is great news IMO.
And the eye-cup seems to be deeper and stick more out from the body, a thing that shooters like me wearing glasses will appreciate.
What worries
There is no contacts for a battery grip. For many professionals this will be a major issue as a battery grip is key in terms of ergonomics when you work with the camera all day long. I will say though that the leaked pictures to me look like there is a grip available, but I cannot say with certainty.
The jury is still out when it comes to the built in AF motor. I really hope that Nikon does not save the production cost of adding the AF motor – for many enthusiasts with lots of Nikon AF glass with the screwdriver AF, this is key.
A built in flash has been removed and to me this is a big setback. I often use the built in flash to trigger other (non Nikon) flashes in optical slave mode and it is a bit of a nuisance that the flash is gone.
Price and availability
The D780 is available from February 2020.
The price is set to 2299 USD. That will then be double the price for a brand new D750. I think you will have to be a professional looking for the improved specs in order to accept the steep price – a happy enthusiast like me cannot justify doubling the price for better video quality and improved AF in liveview. Good news is that the D750, while on stock, is likely to drop further in price. During black friday sales in November 2019, the D750 was available at prices well below 1000 USD.
What do you think?
Will you invest in a Nikon D780? Or what are your thoughts. Please let me know in the comments below.
