Nikon D5 20.8 MP FX-Format Digital SLR Camera Body (CF Version)

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I am a professional photographer and I either own or have owned many other Nikon FF bodies, including the D4, D810. D750, and D700. I use these cameras as a job function; they pay my bills. So a lot of the gimmick features are wasted on me. I want bodies that do their job, do it well, and dont fail me. The D5 is not the D4. Its not the same thing with a few tweaks. Even a few days of ownership are enough to be certain of that fact. That statement includes both positives and negatives, both of which Ill try to outline here. As the weeks and months go on I will update this review with further findings. Im going to touch on four main issues: autofocus, high ISO performance, handling/ergonomics, and overall impressions. First, the autofocus is incredible. Not good, not great; truly exceptional. I almost have to try to make it miss. The D4 does a great job of focusing in most conditions but it does struggle in a few situations. Erratic side to side movements are very tough, for example. Ive yet to find a situation where the D5 struggles. Short of using superlatives Im not sure what there is left to say on this subject. A+, 10/10, AAA. High ISO performance is one of the hallmarks of the D series. Its always excellent and the D5 is no exception. When the light gets low the D5 steps up and doesnt disappoint. Im primarily a RAW shooter but Ive been shooting RAW+JPEG since I have received the camera. The JPEGs are superb. Its very obvious that Nikon has made significant progress with their JPEG engine. The RAWs are also excellent, but not quite as amazing (comparatively) as the JPEGs. They are still MORE than acceptable and I find them to be about a stop better than the D4. However, I expect a future firmware update, paired with software updates, to make them truly amazing in the months to come. JPEGs get an A+. RAWs get an A. The ergonomics of the D5 are every bit as good as their predecessors. Everything is tight, well built, and well placed. There have been some small changes in button layout, all of which I think are improvements. The biggest improvement being the relocation of the ISO button. Instead of being located in the bottom left its now near the shutter, making changing ISO on the fly much more convenient. It will take some relearning of muscle memory, but in the long run it will definitely be a positive. My overall impressions are highly positive. I think that Nikons changes have been for the better and that those improvements have been significant. The high ISO quality has been improved and even a minor improvement (combined with more resolution) is impressive. The focus improvements are significant and immediately noticeable. The low ISO dynamic range seems little lower than I would have hoped for, but its not a concern for my work and I cant imagine buyers of this camera would be concerned with it either. As I said, I will update this review in the future after I use it more, but if my long term impressions are anywhere close to what Ive seen so far, Ill be highly pleased with this purchase.

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After taking almost 10k images, the feature I am most impressed with is the new focusing system... Low light and moving action is where this tool is designed to consistently capture image after image crisp and in focus. Using the D3s, Ive learned to use the center point focus capturing that "perfect moment" during action -- sometimes it was "spray and pray" hoping that the right moment was captured. With the D5, I find the group area AF to be most helpful. This uses a diamond shaped pattern of 5 points to track the subject; they act in concert to maintain focus as a single point and avoids mis-focusing on the background. The 3D and Auto AF also have face detection priority which is amazingly accurate. For BIF, I utilize the 25 point dynamic AF most frequently. For static subjects and controlled lighting, I think you can get better images with the D810 where you will have larger files and better dynamic range at 1/2 the price. Find the right tool that works for you! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgraded from a D3s which has served me well over the years. Read those concerns about dynamic range and ISO invariance. While interesting and thought provoking discussion, in the end does the end product look good? Putting down a few thousand shots this week, two things immediately stand out. First, images shot in challenging lighting environments and thus high ISO is just amazing. Perhaps this is because I am coming from a D3s, but its no slouch for low light either... Shooting for competitive swimming, Im often at ISO 9000-15000. Images have noise but easily cleaned in post processing. Second, the focusing technology is incredible! The auto-area setting in the D3s was not very good in capturing erratically moving subjects. I often used single point focus and this was hit or miss at times. With the D5, I am stunned at the number of in focus images in auto-area AF mode. 153 focusing points is awesome and it does prioritize the face! I also really like the Group-area focus mode for fast moving objects toward me. This camera is a tool built for those who shoot in challenging lighting environments and moving subjects. If your job/work/images are taken under these instances, this is the right tool for you. D5 paired with my 70-200 28 is just magical. Build is solid like all the other Nikon D series bodies. Im not a video shooter, so its not an important feature for me. I have absolutely no regrets!

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Some people will give this camera a stellar review because its their first real pro body, but trust me, its good for those of us that have owned pro bodies before. Ive been shooting with pro bodies since 2004. Ive owned 1Ds, 1Ds-II, 1Ds-III, D3, D3s, D810, others... So Im not impressed just because its a pro body. However I did love the Nikon D3s so much that I stuck with it from 2009 to 2017 (and I still have it), so its not like Im just a gear junkie. I cant compare it to a D4 or a D4s because I skipped those. Anyway, let me summarize. AF Im accustomed to the amazing 51 point AF system that came with the Nikon D3s. It was revolutionary and my understanding was that it didnt really get significantly better in the D4 or D4s, which is why I waited. Now the D5 has 153, 3x more! Is it 3x better, well no... but its better and not just marginally, its REALLY GOOD. It rarely misses, but when it does miss its not far off and typically yields a usable 5x7. Whats even better is that it can do it in nearly zero light, "moonlight they say", but I get solid AF in what Id call pitch black. I tend to shoot natural light (no flash) and this camera can AF in any situation. Its hard to quantify these things. My summary is that it yields much higher hit ratio than the already amazing D3s and it does it in nearly zero light. Noise If youre pixel peeping at 100%, I see slightly less noise than the D3s at 100%, however the D3s is 12mp. If you scale the D5 down to 12mp it looks much cleaner than the D3s. Compared to the D810, there is no comparison. D810 isnt bad considering the amount of data youre collecting but even when you scale the D810 36mp image down to 20mp or even 12mp, it doesnt look nearly as clean as the D5 or D3s. Though IMHO still very clean and not a bad choice for low light -- just not the best choice. I find D3s, D810 and D5 are all phenomenal up to about ISO 1600. D810 is usable but D3s and D5 and are still very clean through 6400. At 12800+ the D5 seems to be about a 1/2 stop ahead of the D3s in noise when pixel peeping each at 100% or maybe 1.5 stops ahead if you scale the D5 down to 12mp. Where the D5 really shines apart from the D3s is the D3s is not usable after 25600 IMO other than B&W, though the D5 if scaled down to 8mp or 10mp is usable in color at ISO 102,400 or instagram photos at 204,800. The D5 starts to get a color tint at ISO 400k which is when I must go B&W. But to be able to grab a photo in extreme low light at ISO 400k and actually have something you could put on your wall (B&W) is simply amazing, magic. Dynamic Range Let me start by saying, yes yes its true, the D810 is better at recovering blown highlights or deep dark shadows at bright ISOs like 64 - 800, but beyond 800 the D5 is equal and beyond ISO 800 the D5 begins to out perform the D810 in recovering highlights and shadows. So its a matter of taste. IMO low ISO shots are for studios and landscapes, in those situations you can set up your shot perfectly with lights or bracketing and dont need highlight or shadow recovery as much (though its convenient). I almost exclusively shoot above ISO 800 and thats where the D5 is like magic, yes there is noise but to be able to recover 2.5 - 3 stops of shadows at ISO 6400 is pretty damn impressive! Speed: D3s was already fast enough for me at 9 or 11 fps. 14 is just a whirlwind of memory card eating. It is great when capturing bracketed shots handheld (which you shouldnt do) or when capturing kids, one of the 50 photos you just snapped is bound to have a non-blinking smile in there ;) Ergo and Weather proofing: As good or better than the D3s, theyre almost identical. One complaint I thought theyd have fixed by now is the custom button assignment. I still cant assign any function I want to any button I want. Its like theyre teasing me. Why? I just want to assign Auto-ISO to that button for that rare moment that I need to capture something in a split second. Nope, cant do it. Silly Nikon. Touch screen is pretty cool, though Id have bought the camera even if it didnt have it. I love to be able to pinch and zoom and slide around while zoomed to make sure no one was blinking, or double check that yes in fact the D5 did get perfect focus AGAIN... Wow... I could go on, theres plenty to love.

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Superb. Coming from 3D this is so much more than I expected. Incredibly fast, the autofocus is mind-blowing, you have to try hard to make image out of focus. The high ISO produces great photos ready for post process.

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Unbelievable camera for all low light situations. I have used it for high school sports at night at 25,600 ISO/1500 sec. with incredible results. I have used it for live stage performances at 12,800 ISO/1/500 sec with spectacular clarity. Right now probably the best professional sports camera on the planet.

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Im a freelance photographer and shoot mainly sports. I have two D5 bodies and am extremely happy with them. I switched from Canon for this body. My favorite things bout the D5 are its incredibly fast and accurate auto focus, and its high iso performance. With a good performing lens, the camera quickly acquires focus and locks on. I shoot up to 12800 and 16000 ISO before I start to worry about the image quality. I do add some noice reduction at 12800 and beyond, but hardly any and never enough to degrade the image.

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Thiis is an awesome camera. I have had a number Nikon cameras over the year. Not surprising this is the best I have had so far. Built like a Rolls-Royce with solid construction, weather proof, ... It is rock-solid for outdoor use. It is a heavy camera house so make sure you want the full body weight if you travel a lot. Very solid focusing performance, great dynamic range and very fast. The 4K video is great for dynamic scenes. I have to admit that I have so far not used the video feature very much, but the 20MP pictures are very good. The improved focussing, ... all make it the go to (semi-) pro Nikon camera.

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The D5’s niche is really sports, low light and moving subject photography. It’s fast frame rate, insane ISO range and ability to follow and auto focus on moving targets can’t be beat. The native ISO is 100-102400 although I’ve never shot higher than about 12,000; you’ll see the artifact around 25k. If you’re shooting sports or news this can’t be beat! If you’re doing landscape and nature photography or portraiture, save some money and get the D850 due to its much higher resolution that can create large prints even after cropping.

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Ive owned many cameras, including a D3s and D800, but the D5 is really a great performer in every respect. I bought the CF version because I have many CF cards, but the QXD version is supposed to be even faster. So far, the CF version has worked extremely fast and provides extreme low light shots with excellent quality.

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Does anything really need to be said?

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