I must admit that when I first saw the specs for the Nikon D750 I wasn’t really too excited. It fits between the Nikon D610 and D810 both spec wise and price wise. However, I decided to go ahead and take it for a spin if for no other reason than to give my opinion about it to my readers. What I didn’t expect to happen was that I would fall in love with shooting with it.
The Nikon D750 functions pretty much just like my Nikon D600. A few of the controls have been moved around, but certainly nothing you couldn’t get used to very quickly. There is definitely a difference in dynamic range or at least to my eye the D750 does a better job as it should.
Thrilled with the built-in WiFi
I’ve been complaining for years that DSLRs should have both WiFi and GPS built-in. You can find these features on lower end cameras all day long, but why not the higher end models? My Nikon reps tell me it’s because the alloys used in the pro bodies and I say BS. There has to be a way to have WiFi/GPS AND a metal/weather secure body. It’s not rocket science (we communicate millions of miles with a probe on an asteroid). The D750 answers one of my two wishes. It has built-in WiFi. No need for a small external module. It’s in the camera! Finally! This means that I have a native workflow that I can use to shoot RAW to the 1st card slot and basic JPG to the 2nd card slot. Those small JPGs can be sent to my iPhone or iPad FASTER as I shoot them for review.
While this feature works just fine with Nikon’s App, I much prefer ShutterSnitch for iPad and iPhone when I just want to shoot wirelessly to my mobile devices.
Get ShutterSnitch here from the
Get the Nikon WiFi app here from the
The camera does a great job with skin tones
I shoot a wide range of skin tones in my portrait sessions and I’ve always been happy with the results from my Nikon DSLRs. The D750 continues this tradition giving me great results. The EXPEED 4 sensor is a nice improvement over the EXPEED 3 found in my D600.
The colors thus far have been spot on with the D750.
The Nikon 20mm f/1.8 Wide Angle Lens
I’m sorry that I don’t have a better subject to show off this lens than the airport at night, but the weather here has been kind of sucky for the past few days. Nonetheless, this is a great lens. I already have the Nikon 14-24mm lens, but this one covers the sweet spot for a lot less money. If I didn’t already have a great wide angle lens, I’d get this one in a heart beat!
It’s a fast f/1.8 lens with no distortion that I can see. No fisheye effect, just great wide angle results and great low light performance.
The Bottom Line
This camera is a solid upgrade for those looking to step into a 24.3MP full-frame DSLR or those looking for something a little better than the D610. It lists for $1,000 less than the D810. It also has improved video specs now doing 1080p video at 60fps (yes 4K would have been even better, but I’ll take the faster 1080p video for now. My only complaint with this model is that for some reason it seems slow when going into the menu. Normally on all my other Nikon DSLRs the menu comes up the moment you press the button, but for some reason the D750 hesitates for a couple of seconds. I’ve debated going to the Nikon D810 and moving up from my D600, but I think I’ll be taking this intermediate step instead. While I love the more “pro” feel of the D810 and the higher dynamic range, I’m still not thrilled with the 36MP RAW files (or smaller sRAW) file sizes that it produces. For my workflow and the way I shoot the D750 is (as much as I hate to admit it) simply a better fit. Of course that doesn’t mean that I ultimately won’t end up with both bodies 🙂
Get the Nikon D750 Body here.
Get the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 lens here.
Great review as always Terry. Could it be that you are not happy with the dynamic range of the RAW because the ACR is simply terrible at processing RAW images, while the Nikon Capture NX-D is much better? I have found the differences in image processing to be quite noticeable with the edge going to Nikon. Your views?
Nice try Don 🙂 , but where did I say I was “unhappy with the dynamic range”? I simply said one camera did better than the other. As always I’m quite pleased with my results with ACR and LR. If you’re happy with Nikon Caputre NX-D thats awesome! However, I’ll keep using what I’m quite happy with as well. Cheers!
P.S. Perhaps you should get a job working for Nikon. You evangelize their product whenever you get a chance (even though there really wasn’t one here.).
Sorry Terry. Read one thing, posted something else. I meant this: “I’m still not thrilled with the 36MP RAW files (or smaller sRAW) file sizes that it produces.” I was meaning to ask is it because of the performance of the ACR. It is dark over here in Finland. Slows the brain. 🙂
I see the trend here. You don’t like ACR. I get it. That’s fine, but for whatever reason you seem to not be happy with the fact that I DO LIKE ACR and LR. I’m fine with the performance and results. My opposition to 36MP files is simply the amount of storage space required and memory needed to work on them in PS for a result that isn’t significantly better for my final needs.
Thanks for the clarification. And I will be for first to say, you misunderstood my post. Partly because I did not articulate it well enough, and maybe something was lost in translation. For the record. Capture NX-D is terrible to use. A root canal is less painful. Up until the D810, the ACR was fine. I never had a problem with it. So much so, that I switched from Aperture to LR. I misunderstood your statement about the 36MP files and was wondering if it was linked to the ACR which some have complained about in regards to the D810. So in effect, we both agree. You seemed to have felt I was making an attack on you which I wasn’t. I was simply asking a question based on my experience. Also, you seemed to have cherry-picked my answer and not read all of my reply to your reply. So, if I offended you in some way that caused you to stop reading all of my replies, forgive me.
You forgot to mention how it feels, it feels much better than the d610 as far the grip. This makes holding a big lens much easier 🙂 overall yes great cam
I’m curious about the D750 wifi functionality when connected to Shuttersnitch.. I currently do this with the D600 and WU-1B. Once the wifi connection is made I can have it running so that every shot I take with the camera flies into the iPad/Shuttersnitch app immediately.. BUT with the WU-1B connected to the camera the D600 LCD screen doesn’t show images – no image review, not even playback. As long as I’m using wifi I can ONLY view images on the iPad.
Does the built in wifi on the D750 function in the same way or does the LCD screen stay live? I want to be able to do shoots where an art director or designer can “look over my shoulder” by receiving the JPGs I’m sending into Shuttersnitch on the iPad as I am shooting, but I don’t want to disable my ability to review what I’m doing on the camera’s LCD screen.
Thanks
Hi Mike, I no longer have the review unit so I can’t look at that aspect of it to be sure, but from what I remember I was still seeing the images on the display after I took them.