Review
DSLR / CAMERA REFERENCE
D850
Nikon
Announced:
The launch date follows Nikon’s product announcement. The previous catalogue record gave 2017-07-25.
The D850 combined a 45.7-megapixel full-frame sensor with a DSLR body built for both detailed stills and action. Its optical viewfinder and separate autofocus module make it a useful reference point for the years when high-end DSLRs and mirrorless systems overlapped.
01 / TECHNICAL RECORD
Specifications
Catalogue specifications. Source: DPReview historical specification record ↗.
Sensor and files
- Effective pixels
- 45.7 million Manufacturer ↗
- Sensor size
- 35.9 x 23.9 mm CMOS sensor Manufacturer ↗
- Sensor type
- BSI-CMOS
- Max resolution
- 8256 x 5504
- ISO
- Auto, 64-25600 (expands to 32-102400)
- Boosted ISO (minimum)
- 32
- Boosted ISO (maximum)
- 102400
- Uncompressed format
- RAW + TIFF
Lens and focus
- Lens mount
- Nikon F mount (with AF coupling and AF contacts) Manufacturer ↗
- Number of focus points
- 153 focus points, of which 55 or 15 are available for selection Manufacturer ↗
- Manual focus
- Yes
- Image stabilization
- No
Exposure and shooting
- Minimum shutter speed
- 30 sec
- Maximum shutter speed
- 1/8000 sec
- Continuous drive
- 7.0 fps
- Exposure compensation
- ±5 (at 1/3 EV, 1/2 EV, 1 EV steps)
- Metering modes
- MultiCenter-weightedHighlight-weightedSpot
- Aperture priority
- Yes
- Shutter priority
- Yes
- Built-in flash
- No
- External flash
- Yes (via hot shoe or flash sync port)
- Timelapse recording
- Yes (4K movies or '8K' stills)
Video and audio
- Frame size and frame rate
- 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD); 30p (progressive), 25p, 24p 1920 x 1080; 60p, 50p, 30p, 25p, 24p 1280 x 720; 60p, 50p 1920 x 1080 (slow-mo); 30p x4, 25p x4, 24p x5 Actual frame rates for 60p, 50p, 30p, 25p and 24p are 59.94, 50, 29.97, 25 and 23.976 fps respectively; quality selection available at all sizes except 3840 x 2160 (when quality is fixed at ★) and 1920 x 1080 slow-mo (when quality is fixed at "normal") Manufacturer ↗
- Format
- MPEG-4
- Microphone
- Stereo
- Microphone port
- Yes
- Headphone port
- Yes
- Speaker
- Mono
Viewfinder and screen
- Viewfinder type
- Optical (pentaprism)
- Viewfinder coverage
- 100%
- Viewfinder magnification
- 0.75×
- Screen size
- 3.2″
- Screen dots
- 2,359,000
- Articulated LCD
- Tilting
- Touch screen
- Yes
Body and connections
- Storage types
- SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II supported) + XQD
- Battery description
- EN-EL15a lithium-ion battery & charger
- Battery Life (CIPA)
- 1840
- Weight (inc. batteries)
- Approx. 1005 g/2 lb 3.5 oz with battery and XQD memory card but without body cap; approx. 915 g/2 lb 0.3 oz (camera body only) Manufacturer ↗
- Dimensions
- Approx. 146 x 124 x 78.5 mm/5.8 x 4.9 x 3.1 in. Manufacturer ↗
- Environmentally sealed
- Yes
- USB
- USB 3.0 (5 GBit/sec)
- HDMI
- Yes (mini HDMI)
- Wireless
- Built-In
- Remote control
- Yes (wired, wireless, smartphone)
02 / INDEPENDENT COVERAGE
Reviews and field reports
Independent review
Cameralabs · Nikon D850 review ↗
Laing praised the combination of resolution, fast viewfinder autofocus and uncropped 4K recording. Live-view and video autofocus were less convincing: the contrast-based system could not match the camera’s performance through the optical viewfinder.
03 / PROVENANCE
Sources and dates
A catalogue year identifies the year held in the source dataset. Announcement dates and retail months are labelled separately. Specifications can vary by region, firmware and recording mode; use the linked manufacturer documentation for those conditions.
Archive updated 2026-10-04. Archive coverage and dataset credits →