First Days With The D750

Nikon D750, Nikkor 35/2 AI


I've now had a chance to do a little shooting with the D750, well, around 200 frames from a nice photowalk plus a few incidental bits.

It's light enough that it doesn't aggravate my right shoulder any more than the A7II does (the A7II with an F mount adapter and the massive L bracket weighs basically the same as the D750). Ergonomics are very good, the only beef is the front buttons aren't well placed, but I've tweaked my usual setup to account for that (Put AE lock on the Fn button so it can be reached by my left hand, Pv is Non-CPU lens selection, which is only used when changing lenses, the movie record button is set to crop mode and AE-L/AF-L is AF-On).

It's actually amazing how small & light the package is when combined with the Nikkor-H 28/3.5 or 50/1.8D (my two smallest/lightest lenses). Rather makes me want to track down a CV 40/2 Ultron, Nikkor 45/2.8P, 50/1.8 E or maybe even another 35/2.5 E as they're just about the smallest lenses you can get for F mount. It wouldn't be pocket-able, but it would be a remarkably small combo with any of those lenses.

The grip is about the best I've owned. Marginally better than the D300/D700 which previously set the standard. The viewfinder is brilliant as well, it's the same size/coverage as the D800's but brighter which makes a lot of difference in how easy it is to focus.

LV is average for a DSLR. Not very seamless and slow focusing, but overall just a little smoother to operate than the older bodies like the D800, D600 or D300/700. Most annoying thing remains the slight but noticeable shutter delay that LV introduces.

File sizes are surprising. I was expecting smaller files than the D800, but at 14 bit lossless, the files are coming in around 25MB, half the size of the A7II files. Yes Sony, you need lossless. The D750 doesn't do uncompressed, but there's no reason to ever use it, so it's as vestigial a setting as TIFF (which the D750 also doesn't do).

I'm honestly not really missing AF, right now I only have the one AF lens (the 50/1.8D) and everything else in use is manual focus. I mostly just use the 35/2 and 105/2.5 and I expect I'll mostly round that out with a wide prime (17-21mm), likely manual focus. I will get an UWA and telephoto zoom for hiking, but long-term I don't see myself buying a lot of AF glass. I just don't really need it for most of my uses, really only telephoto coverage is what I'd use AF for a lot, plus 1-2 primes for street shooting. I'll get an AF UWA, but only because all the good ones are AF (hmm, wonder if I could find a 17-35 AF-S with a bad motor cheaply....great lens and I don't need the AF)