Michael Topham

Michael Topham, reviews editor, sees Nikon strike back with the D850, Canon release a long-overdue lens and Olympus continue its stronghold in the competitive compact market

Nikon D850

After a tough couple of years, everyone knew Nikon needed to release something sensational that would be capable of getting photographers genuinely excited again. That product finally landed in late August in the form of the Nikon D850, and ever since that day there’s been a lot of hype surrounding the camera I described in my review as ‘one of the finest and most versatile DSLRs ever made’ (AP 21 Oct). It’s not often your jaw drops as a product manager reels off the specification of a new camera during a presentation, but that’s exactly what happened to me, and I remember walking away from my hands on session itching to get my hands back on the camera again as soon as possible.

The D850 does something special that we’ve never seen done so well before. It marries high resolution with high speed and high performance – things we as photographers have had to compromise on in the past, deciding on what is most important for the images we like to take. Don’t get me wrong, there have been full-frame DSLRs on the market that shoot at moderately high resolution and offer satisfactory burst shooting speeds – such as the Nikon D750 – but for anyone who carries a D810 to capture high resolution stills and a D500 for fast action work, for example, the D850 is capable of replacing both in a single body.

Outstanding autofocus