Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Wow! When you were growing up, you watched a different Disney movie that what I saw. Cinderella had a camera? But, she did look into a mirror.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Just in the spirit of making trouble, I had thought that the D810 had about all the functionality I could ever want, and then came the D850 with the one thing I REALLY REALLY wanted but hadn't imagined: automatic focus stacking. So I jumped on the D850, trading in the 810, and been extraordinarily pleased ever since. My point is that you often can't imagine the next bit feature until it shows up, so the D860 - if there ever is one - just might be the OP's wet dream camera!

joemcl1

Excellent advice. If carefully bought there should be little downside if you wish to resell.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Why plan to resell? Buy used. Plan to use 10+ years as the last best DSLR you'll ever purchase. Who is going to think digital photography is going to need more than 45MP at any point in the useful ownership life of this model?

jimpitt

There is information on this blogsite that a D880 from Nikon is on the radar. Delayed intro from 2020 and due any day now in 2021.
No detailed infor, but certainly that is the reason for the $500 rebate on the D850.
I will wait to see what the new model offers.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

We will see, but it seems to me that if I were running Nikon and watching my business decline and the leaders in market share moving to mirrorless, the last thing I would do would be to continue to bring out new DSLRs, which fewer and fewer want (unless that I decided to go for being a niche player, but then you have the investment in the Z series). Just makes no business sense.

User ID

For sure. This is hardly a propitious day to introduce another new SLR chassis.

Surely the 800 chassis can support whatever advances remain to be made, except if IBIS were to be included, and IBIS isn’t going to pay back any ROI in the declining days of the SLR market.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being a fan of IBIS I added that to my
Nikon lenses via two mount converters, for both “Z” and Sony bodies. I tried to get a trio of VR primes for my SLRs and found nothing wider than 35. (Did get a 45 and a 105.)

Bubbaeml Loc: Port Jefferson, NY

Read the whole article.... it states the release is pushed out to 3rd qtr/4th qtr 2021

Badgertale Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

I always have difficulty making up my mind and I always have buyers remorse...why? Photography is expensive, at least the type of photography I've placed myself in.

You have a great D500! I have one and love the speed and selection of lenses. Look for older manual lenses and experiment with 'em. I bought a D850 and love it and use it interchangeably with my D500. I use manual and auto lenses on both.

You can't go wrong sticking with what you have OR getting the D850. Both are workhorses!

Here are a few, "should I buy it," flowcharts:

(Download)

Attached file:
(Download)

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

How sad that there’s no room in your life to buy only what you need and not what you want.

baron_silverton Loc: Los Angeles, CA

If you are a still shooter only the D850 is not going to be vastly outdone by a potential D860/880. Look to Nikon themselves - they just replaced the D750 after 5.5 years with the D780 and it is basically the same camera from a still shot perspective - it may have slightly better low light capabilities but only slightly - the D750 was (and remains) excellent for this.

The only real difference between the D750 and the D780 is Live View and video.

In Live View the D780 becomes a Z6 and by extension a Z6 video camera - and the Z camera's SMOKE the DSLR's for video.

So, if you care at all about video, and insist on staying with DSLR then you should either wait for the D860/880 but as others have pointed out, it may never come, or buy a D780 now - this camera is excellent and is still higher resolution than your D500 having 25.5MP to your 20.9MP. Yes the D850 has 45.7MP but if its really just full frame look that you are going for the D780 could be an answer for you - and I think they are on sale right now.

That all said, just get a Z7II if you are looking for high resolution and a great camera - you can adapt the FX zooms that you have (or just sell then and put the money toward Z glass). The Z system is now very good and rivals the DSLR's in almost everything with the possible exception of high speed tracking - if you want that then the next generation of Z's will have it but you'll have to wait about 8-18 months depending on model.

The added bonus of the Z7II over the D850 is that it has excellent video, so if that is something you are interested in, it comes with it.

Good luck :)
-B

BebuLamar

With that I would never buy a camera. I never need a camera.

A. T.

Well said and I totally agree, not that my agreement means much. I have a D500, D4s and a D850. My passion is wildlife and landscapes so I definitely have the need for my D500 which was the first of my DSLR's. I'm not one of these camera experts or a professional photographer who gets his income from photography; however, I don't ever see the need to upgrade from my D850. I just can't imagine anything that could make the current D850 any better than what it is. Just my humble opinion.

A. T.

Amen brother. The D850 is a masterpiece and most will never utilize all of the features that wonderful DSLR has to offer.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Another difference, as I understand it, is that the D780 has the focus shift feature that drove me to the D850. If you do a lot of closeup or macro, or even a lot of landscape, that feature can dramatically alter how you shoot.