Hal Masover Loc: Iowa and Florida

First, Sony and Canon make wonderful cameras, but I'm not going to switch systems and I really do love my Nikons so please refrain from posting about other systems. I have 3 Nikon DSLR bodies. I have no objection to mirrorless except that because everyone wants them, DSLRs are at fire sale prices. I have a D600, D750 and D850. I only recently bought the D850 and as far as I can tell it's a better camera than everything that came before the Z9. And what an amazing workhorse my D750 has been! But it finally started to succumb to all the abuse from dozens of weddings, travel, and on and on. The hotshoe stopped functioning and that's vital to my professional work so sent it off to be repaired asking for an estimate to repair/replace the hotshoe and generally go over the camera and see what else needs to be done. The shop came back with a cost of repairs that pretty much need to be done, at over $500. OK. That's a lot for a 10 year old camera with 120,000 clicks on the shutter. So thinking of trading it in as is, along with the D600. But what to buy? I'm not interested in going to the Z line because I have to either do everything with an adapter or buy new Z lenses. If price were no obstacle then a Z8 would be the way to go. But price is an obstacle. $4 grand for the body only, plus the adapter or Z lenses - just can't justify the expense. So the question is should I buy a used D750 or a used D850? I prefer to shoot the D850 at 25 mp resolution so forget the resolution diff. The D750 is a lot less money and weighs a little less. But the D850 has a much better AF system and handles much higher ISO levels. Low light performance is important for weddings and my hobby is shooting at night - the milky way, light painting, etc. So handling noise is important but so is low light focus ability. I've always had a lot of trouble focusing the D750 in low light because once you lose any contrast, it can't do it. I only just got my D850 so not enough experience to know. For you D850 owners, how good is it at getting focus at night? Anyone have both a D750 and D850 that can weigh in?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The D850 is both Nikon's best and final DSLR. But personally, I think D750 is the best mix of price and performance in the Nikon DSLRs. As you even admit, 46MP is overkill, unless you need a print size with that pixel resolution or need deep, deep crops into the image details. Only you can decide how best to spend your money, where any used D850, D750 or D780 seems like a logical replacement, although a repair might still be cost-effective, depending on what you can find in used body prices.

Hal Masover Loc: Iowa and Florida

Thanks. Yes, I am very happy with the D750's resolution and have no desire to deal with the extremely large files at 46 mp. But AF systems make a difference. Hopefully we'll hear from someone with low light experience with both cameras.

Hal Masover Loc: Iowa and Florida

As for repairing the old one, there are some used ones in excellent condition with far fewer shutter counts and not a lot more money than it would cost to repair the old one so if I go the D750 direction, I'd trade in the old one "as is" for one with far less wear.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I didn't pay much attention to the D780, thinking it too redundant to the D750. But, you might consider if it picked up any of the 'final' Nikon DSLR features of the D850.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

I own two D850's and do about 80% wildlife. If you don't own an 800mm plus telephoto and do wildlife, especially birds, the 46MP sensor isn't even close to overkill!! I'm not crazy about cropping, but with a 46MP sensor delivering about 30 plus MB files, you can crop till the cows come home and still get fantastic, sharp, clear, bright, soul satisfying photos!! I have posted photos of Dragonflies here that were only specks in the viewfinder. So much so that I had to go to manual focus because there was not enough subject matter for the outstanding D850 focus system to grab. I got photos from Africa of Grey Go-away birds, same-same. I did it almost every day for birds in Florida. I'm not ready to go mirrorless, and probably never will be. The D850 has done everything I have asked of it and it has never let me down as long as I have done my part.
I used a D850 at Bosque del Apache a year ago. The Cranes and Snow Geese were gone, but I got more than acceptable results on Deer, Javelina and wild Turkeys after it was so dark that I was amazed that the autofocus could still function. You can see the results in my posts.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

The operating system and user interface of the D850 is very different from that of the D750. Since you are shooting the D850 at 25MP, I'd think about whether I'd noticed that and whether it makes any difference to me.

The D850 has some really cool functionality that is not available on the D750. If you've discovered that and if it makes a difference, I'd think about that.

There was a lot of discussion here when the D780 came out that it offered some key improvements over the D750, including in the area of AF. I don't have personal knowledge about that, but given the importance of AF to you, I'd suggest reading about it and deciding how much it might matter.

Final comment...most of the D750s that I've seen have been ridden pretty hard. I'd think about that, too.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

I'll be watching this with interest.
Like you I've been a Nikon follower from my beginning digital photography. My first was the D70. I now own the D7100 and a 24-70 2.8, a 70-300 4.5-5.6 and the 50 1.8D lens.
Ive also got the Lumix LX100 & the Lx100II.
The LX100 choice was because of weight, portability, RAW files and the 24-70 lens. And of course the quality of the files. And it has become my constant friend for the last few years. The DX D7100 just hasnt been used, until a month or so ago I put my 50mm on it and took it out to do some 'extended family' portraits. I didn't realise how much I'd missed using it.
So, maybe with a touch of gas, I started looking online and on YouTube at another, newer, D series DX Nikons. Long story short, I started looking at FF options. That led to the D750, D780 and out of my budget the D850. Next step was to go to our local camera shop. They had an old well used D750 (about 100,000 clicks) for what I thought was an astronomical high price, about NZ1500! But I was silly enough to pick it up when offered and have a play. I couldnt put it down. Everything about it seemed right. (especially the deep hand grip- even tho I have quite bad arthritis in my left hand thumb). They had no used D780's or D850's.
So back home I put a search on our local version of EBay, Trademe, for a used D750. They rarely seem to come up for sale and those that did went for pretty high prices even tho they were all pretty well used. But I became addicted to YouTube videos, everything from 'Reviews' to Pro User suggestions for setting up.
Today I wait, with some trepidation for my new, to me, D750 complete with a 24-120 kit lens and only 23000 clicks. The seller assured 'watchers' (all 23 of us) the camera and lens are in mint condition and they were both recently serviced. All for less than the camera alone at our local shop. There was only one bid, other then mine over the 2 week auction.
Have I made the right decision? Only time will tell but am keen to see any users here telling us about their real life experience.
I keep looking out my office door when a truck goes past. Could be the courier. My wife thinks I'm like a kid on Christmas Day waiting to open presents

therwol Loc: USA

The D850 is said to have the best autofocus performance of any of their DSLRs. It uses 153 focus points versus 51 for the D750 and D780, and is said to be one of the best cameras for acquiring focus in low light. The advantage of the D780 over the D750 is mainly the ability to use phase detection autofocus in Live View and when taking video.

One thing to consider is how long the D750 will be supported by Nikon. It came out in 2014 and was discontinued in 2020. I can't find any announcement about that, but I did read that support for the D810, another 2014 camera, will be ended by Nikon at the end of this year. The D780 and D850 are both still in production. I personally think that the D780 is overpriced in 2023 for what you get. If it were priced like the D750 before it was discontinued, then it would be a no-brainer to consider one. I own a D850 and couldn't be happier. If you can stand the weight and the bulk, buying another one makes the most sense (to me). Or buy nothing and just use the D850 that you have before deciding on anything.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You might find the D7100 more useful with an 18-140 DX VR lens, a great general purpose lens that seems to be missing in your kit, and would be cheaper than a FF camera and corresponding FX lens of nearly the same equivalent focal length. The 24-120 idea also overlaps with another FX lens in the 24-70.

Hal Masover Loc: Iowa and Florida

Never been a fan of superzooms but it's been a long time since I looked at them. As for crop sensor cameras, I really have no interest. I looked at the D500 when it came out and didn't think it was as good as my D750. If I was a wildlife enthusiast this would obviously all be different, but I'm not. I'm more interested in going to medium format but have so far resisted that. Yes, I know crop sensor cameras are smaller and cheaper but they are cheaper for a reason. As for lenses, I have more than I need for my uses. 15-30 f2.8 tamron, 24-70 f2.8 tamron, 70-200 f2.8 tamon so pretty much the holy trinity there. Also have numerous primes but the only one I use to any extent is the Nikkor 85mm f1.8. For travel I have a Nikkor 18-35 with a variable aperture. It's a nice lightweight lens with above average sharpness for an inexpensive lens. I so rarely need telephoto while traveling. On a trip to Europe this past spring I almost never took the telephoto out of the bag. So often I'm either inside a museum, church, or in a narrow street that the wide angle zoom is the most useful. Ditto for the occasional vista.

For astro photography and light painting I use the tamron 15-30. For weddings I mostly use the 24-70. The only reason I could ever see going to a crop sensor would be if I needed the extra reach to turn something like a 600mm into a 900mm but I never do that kind of shooting so no need.

I'd say that 75% of my use is for weddings and portraits. The rest is night photography and travel. The only thing a crop sensor would make sense for in regards to those uses would be travel and I can't see having a body just for travel. In fact, I have an old Sony NEX 6. Super light but not nearly as good as the D750 so when I travel I accept the extra weight in order to get better pictures of places I'll likely never get back to.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Sorry Hal. I was responding directly to Tony P on a somewhat unrelated post, except for his expressed GAS and a D750 bid he's made. From the other comments to your OP, it seems my earlier assessment of the D750 being the best of breed in Nikon's 24MP FF options was accurate, and you're not going to get the D850 AF functionality shared elsewhere, except the D500. Other than the need for a back-up and / or 2nd body for event shooting, you might try living with the D850 and see how things shake out for a bit.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Thanks for the advice. My 24-70 is pretty much my main lens for 80%+ of my pics and is good over almost the whole range of 24-70. (48-140 on DX). Mine is the older version and was recognised by many as one of the Nikon 'Trinity' lenses. One of the reasons I decided a few years ago on the LX100.
I don't know how good the 18-140 is at both ends of the range, but many of these zooms do display problems when used at the extremes of their focal limits. So they can be sort of limited in the full use of the, say, 18mm.
One of the big pluses and reasons for the D750 is the adjustable screen and of course the extra pixels. Plus all the body controls are virtually in the same place as the D7100.
All three of my lenses are FX.

By the way, Ive not just bid on, but as I said have bought, the D750
Cheers

Hal Masover Loc: Iowa and Florida

Thanks! Your comment inadvertently went click in my brain. I'm used to thinking of my D750 as my main camera and my D600 as my backup. But my recently acquired D850 is now my frontline camera. I don't need another one to serve as a backup! That's the word that clicked for me. Thanks. Decision made. Selling the D600 and getting a used D750 as backup.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Thanks Hal. Pleased to hear that as an existing owner you think they are good enough to buy another. Sort of confirming my decision.
Cheers