haren

My current location on the learning curve? Most of the time this site is a friendly place. How can you judge by a few words. Just to let you know I have received many ribbons on my amateur photography I do not pretend to be a Pro. I have been published in many travel magazines and tourism brochures, featured in newspapers, and am asked by organizations to present slide shows on nature and native wildflowers, historical structures, and Church Art for example. So in my exceedingly basic question, this user has gotten her "back up" or maybe My Irish up, ...and yes I already know the answer. Photography has always been a fun hobby and will continue to be.

haren

All good advice thanks. I am leaning toward lighter as we do a lot of hiking and not afraid of a new system .

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I do not agree that it is necessary to make a wholesale jump ditching everything at once when migrating to a new camera. It is completely OK to select a new camera and have a plan around gradually migrating to new lenses as the opportunity and budget allows. In fact, that path provides opportunity to make much more intelligent choices about which lenses to buy. Once you have a new camera, you will fairly quickly learn what works OK and what you may need to do differently.

I also do not agree that you need to know everything that there is to know before buying a new camera. I started out directly on a D200 (equivalent of today's D500) back in 2007, and the process worked fine. I never had an "entry-level" camera. This is not a fraternity or sorority, and there are no rules of initiation that you must suffer through. In fact, depending on what you would like to learn to do as you gain better equipment, the new equipment may be necessary to have in-hand before the learning can realistically take place.

To cite a neutral example (one that is completely separate from this discussion), a person who wants to learn how to effectively use exposure bracketing but who only has a D3x00 would need to acquire different equipment before learning, since the D3x00 cameras do not provide hardware support for bracketing. And yes, you could awkwardly do it one exposure at a time by making manual adjustments, but that's not the point of how it should work.

Besides making the everyday process of photography significantly easier, the D850 (or the D500) offers a number of functions that will extend your capabilities. You will likely use some of them and not others. It may be a bit of overkill for you. I know that didn't stop me from getting mine (I did have one specific use for which it was the only camera that would work).

It is not my intention to spend your money for you. But I will support you along the way if you choose to go ahead.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

Take what advice is useful and leave the rest. Based on your statements, you are a very advance "amateur" or "enthusiast". I suspect you could easily get paided for what you do.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

The D850 is a great camera. However it is heavy and the FF lenses are heavier too. If you hand hold you should keep that in mind. I love my D850 but recently added a Nikon Z50 to have a camera that I didn’t mind carrying around for longer periods of time. It takes very good pictures and is a dream to handle.

haren

thanks for your input...handheld, and lighter sound inviting

haren

Will do thanks

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

You should be more clear.
What he’s actually saying is that those lenses will “work”, but only in crop mode or with major vignetting. Only the 50 and 100, and maybe the 35 will work natively as FF lenses. My question is, do you have a reason you aren’t looking at a Z7II as opposed to the D850?

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

Putting those lenses on a d850 is liken to wagon wheels on a sports car
If you want light with awesome quality look at Olympus system

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

My friend has an XT3 and other Fuji cameras with many lenses. I tried shooting with his XT3 - it's like learning a new language. I don't like their autofocus system or how their exposure triangle in full manual mode works - I find it a few light-years behind. However, he does get excellent photos and it's much lighter weight than my D850.
You might consider a Z50 with a few Z-lenses. Your learning curve will be not be steep and you'll have a lighter weight state-of-the-art system.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

The menu's on the D7200 and D850 are close, the learning curve will be less than with going to the Fuji XT 3.
Also, all of your current lenses will work on the D850, it has a cropped sensor mode for your Nikon zooms, however, using this mode lessons the amount of pixels on the final images, your Tokina I believe is a FF lens, As are the 50 and 35, so these three will give you the full megs. on the D850.
Also, none of your currents lenses will work on the Fuji, unless there is an adapter, and I do not like adapters (long story).
Good luck and keep on shooting until the end.

colt4x5 Loc: Central Connecticut

Agree with several people here, including burkphoto ...
Rent an 850 to test it out.
It's a wonderful camera. (I love mine.) It's also heavy, and begs for superior glass to benefit its 45.7MP. It's true you can select "formats" with the 850 (DX, square, etc.), but then you're lugging around a bunch of weight and not using part of the sensor.
Here's an idea: Grab an inexpensive DX kit for your grandchild (it will be more up to date, perhaps with WiFi and maybe even bluetooth), and keep what you're comfortable with.
Best of luck!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My advice is always the same: read all the reviews and comparisons you can find. Then decide which camera has the features you like. I prefer cameras with a built-in flash, which the D850 doesn't have. I have a D750 and a Fuji X-T30, and I like both of them.

uhaas2009

They are both nice cameras. The lenses you have will work better on the 850. If you have DX lenses the 850 can be set to DX format. I tried the older Fuji what was good too, can’t say much wasn’t my.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If you go with Fuji, let me suggest that you spend the extra $ for an X-T4, for the in-body stabilization in particular. I will only add that I have a very good 30MP full frame body and a variety of good lenses, but more and more, it stays in the bag, and I grab my X-T2 Fuji (1/2 the size and weight and similar IQ)