Nikon D750: Nikon serves up a winner

Introduction

We’ll be honest: when the Nikon D750 was first announced, we didn’t quite know what to make of it. It was too soon to be a replacement for the Nikon D610 or the just-released Nikon D810, and yet not quite powerful enough to be a new top of the line model. No particular feature stood out individually, yet it seemed that the camera would be very capable in almost every aspect just based on the specs.

And what do we get with the D750? It’s not quite a professional model in the strictest sense, yet the combination of features means it can more than handle anything an enthusiast could throw at it and more, meaning it could quite easily be used for professional shoots. It’s also priced at a very reasonable S$3079, which in a sense, reminds us very much of the Nikon D700, which was just about within the reach of serious enthusiasts, yet more than capable enough to be a professional’s second camera.

We were recently sent on a media trip to Nikon’s Ayutthaya factory - getting a chance to see the rigorous testing done during the assembly process for the D750 while we were there - and we must say we were duly impressed. On top of that, we were given review units to use for the entire trip, and so had a chance to try out the D750 for ourselves. Our conclusion? The D750 truly is the successor to the D700 in more ways than one.

Design and Handling

As we’ve mentioned in our first looks article here, the first impression you get when handling the D750 is how light it is. Nikon’s new monocoque structure body design eliminates the rear body panel, and the use of a carbon fiber composite for the front body and cover adds to the weight savings, making it Nikon’s lightest full-frame camera to date at just 840g (inclusive of battery and memory card).

The camera fits nicely in your hand, and while the body is smaller than even the D610 before it, we felt that there was still enough of a grip on the right of the camera for us to handle the camera comfortably. Overall, the layout of the D750 is very much the same one that we saw on the D610, with the "info" button moved above the directional pad and the "i" button moved to the rear. Like the D610, the lock button for the drive dial is on the rear, which we feel doesn’t make it easy to depress when you’re holding the camera up to your face - we much prefer it in front of the dial, as it is with the D800/D800E and the D810.

That said, everything remains easily accessible, and with the inclusion of the "i" menu, should mean you won’t need to do much menu diving to change your settings, which is always a good thing. Also nice, is the inclusion of a tilting LCD screen - the first on a full-frame Nikon DSLR. This simply adds to the usability of the camera, especially if you find yourself shooting photos/video at awkward angles. The screen tilts up to approximately 90 degrees and down to 75 degrees, so you can have the camera above or under you and still see everything that’s going on.

There’s even Wi-Fi capabilities built-in - a first for Nikon's full-frame cameras - though we must note that the companion app from Nikon leaves quite a bit to be desired, as there is no way for you to adjust any of the controls on the camera, so it acts as nothing more than a remote trigger that also allows you to transfer images to your smart device. That’s quite a missed opportunity, as there will always be an occasion where a photographer can benefit from being able to react to the changing situations in front of his camera while not having to physically be with it.

Image Performance

Taking pictures with the D750 was a breeze. The camera responds quickly, and we do like the Auto-ISO implementation, which allows you to set the threshold at which Auto-ISO kicks in. It’s also very easy to activate, needing just a press of a button and a turn of a control dial. Colors are rich and vibrant, and the white balance is generally accurate, though there’s also an Extended Picture Control feature built-in that lets you choose from a range of presets that you can fine-tune in incremental steps.

The shutter is again made of a Kevlar/Carbon-fiber composite which is much more discrete than the D800, going off with much less noise. Less mirror slap and a lighter body overall means that the D750 is probably one of the easiest full-frame cameras to use handheld, and even images taken at 1/20s at 112mm with the AF-S Nikkor 24-120 f/4 G ED VR lens (with VR engaged) were perfectly acceptable.

One thing of note though, is that unlike the D810's 36-megapixel sensor, the D750’s newly developed 24.3-megapixel CMOS sensor includes an AA-filter, so you won’t get the critical sharpness of the D800E/D810, but that alone shouldn’t put you off, as you do gain the improved smarts that Nikon introduced with the D810, like highlight-weighted metering and Group Area AF mode. What’s more, the smaller files make for a faster camera overall (other factors like image processor and buffer size being constant), which again lends to the idea of the D750 being suitable for professional use (a 24MP sensor can still capture plenty of details to satisfy this group of users).

Also, the D750 sports a brand new autofocus module - the 51-point Multi-CAM 3500 FX II AF system, which is supposed to be even more sensitive than the unit used in the D810, being rated down to -3EV. The autofocus points are grouped closer together though, and Nikon explains that the smaller body of the D750 meant that a smaller pentaprism had to be used and hence the distance between the AF sensor had to be adjusted to compensate. In real-world terms, it just means that the entire AF area occupies about 85~90% of what it does on the D810, and you probably won’t notice it unless you’ve been using a D800 series camera for a long time.

Indeed, we were never bothered by the tighter grouping of the AF points, and we must say the new AF system works very well, even on the days where the sky was overcast and we were out shooting in less than ideal conditions on the streets of Bangkok, the D750 picked up focus quickly and accurately. Testing out the highlight-weighted exposure mode proved that it does work well in all but the most extreme of cases, and that the D750 is capable of some astonishing shadow recovery!

The D750’s continuous drive does a more-than-respectable continuous frame rate of 6.5 frames per second on the continuous-high setting, and while it shares the same megapixel count as the D610, it has the same Expeed 4 Image processing engine as the D810, which means while you lose a little on resolution, you gain a fair bit in terms of image quality. This is something that is especially evident when you look at the images taken at high ISOs. We do have to make another mention of the new AF system here; as the 3D focus tracking and auto-area AF (with face detection) worked well in the instances that we tried it, taking full advantage of the 91,000-pixel RGB metering sensor used in the D810 and D4S.

On the whole, we’d say that unless you’re doing extreme photography like motor sports or capture fast moving wildlife where you might need shutter speeds speedier than 1/4000 of a second, or if you’re working with applications that require maximum resolution (like commercial photography for example), the D750 will produce images that more than fit your requirements.

On the video front, the D750 gains the same video capabilities as the D810, with 1080/60p resolution capture, built-in stereo recording, zebra display for checking highlights, and the new "Flat" picture control mode, which preserves color information best for video. There’s also power aperture for video, and you can enable Auto ISO for video too, which can be infinitely handy as that means your camera will react to the changes in exposure while not making much visible change to the recording (as shutter and aperture can remain untouched).

Sample Images

These are sample photographs shot with the Nikon D750. The photos were shot in RAW and have been post-processed in Adobe Lightroom and processed as JPEGs in SRGB color space. The pictures are copyright to SPH Magazines and are provided for your reference only, so we ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere. Click for full-resolution images.

Conclusion

The D750 has many things going for it: an incredible battery life of 1,230 shots (CIPA standard) on a single EN-EL15 (which is also the same battery used by the D610, D800, and the D810), a relatively fast continuous-shooting rate backed by an excellent autofocus system, and a highly capable CMOS sensor that will give you excellent images. While S$3,079 isn’t a small amount of money, it certainly isn’t completely out of reach of most enthusiasts.

Handling is excellent overall, and the camera feels solidly built even with the new monocoque body design and the inclusion of a tiltable LCD display. More importantly, the camera responds well with fast, accurate autofocus and you now get Wi-Fi capabilities built-in (though the companion app needs some work), so there’s little to nitpick on, especially if you already have a collection of full-frame lenses. Just like the D700 before it, the D750 excels in providing an excellent feature set for a reasonable price and maybe just as importantly for others, in a slimmer, lighter, and more consumer-friendly body overall.

Looking at other opinion pieces and reviews online, it seems apparent that many professional photographers are taking to the D750 as a second body, and with good reason, as there's very little you can't do with this camera, with the exception of the most demanding jobs that would require the extreme resolution of the 36-megapixel D810 or a medium format camera. For those looking to move from enthusiast to professional class cameras, this should be your first stop, as the cost savings can go towards another professional grade lens or some lighting equipment which will probably give you more value in the long term. As of this point, if you're looking for a full-frame camera and you're not locked into any particular system, the Nikon D750 is a camera we'd wholeheartedly recommend, and that's why it gets our Editor's choice award.

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