Went to and imaged a number of great places including Wyoming for my first total eclipse, and got my D850, and also took 1st place in digital monochrome with a mandrill portrait in the greater Detroit camera club council's end of year competition, but I think my most memorable thing was to see three snowy's at one time and then get a portrait of one of the snowy owls that was only feet from me at sunset with the yellow sky in the Back ground. These images are straight out of the camera! Theses were shot with a Nikon 300 f4 AF-s and a D850.

push down on the ISO button and rotate the front wheel... the same one that controls aperture. One click will be auto, and the next will be out of auto... it is very easy once you get the hang of it.

I bought the D800 shortly after it came out, and then last New Years Eve took delivery on the D500. What a Combination! When the D850 came out and I verified the specs on it, I went forward with my plan to sell the D500 to get the D850. I told one person about it, and in less than 5 minutes it was sold. I was two months without a fast camera and I REALLY missed my D500. Then when I got my D850, it had continuous focusing issues and was pretty much usless for my Birds in Flight shooting until I was able to diagnose and then get it in to Nikon. When I got it back, my Grip was already here, so now I had 9 fps and I was pretty happy with it... I still miss the D500 but probably more so because it really gave me an advantage that I had not had in the past... but, it is a fantastic camera. Today, the D850 is really all that I need.

About a month ago, I went and shot three snowy owls with the D850. I was so close to the one snowy, that I was VERY thankful that I had the D850 and not my D500... as I was restricted as to how far I could back up from the owl because of the lake. There were times that I could not get farther away from him than 12 feet because I was at waters edge. I dont think that he had ever seen a human before and was therefore not afraid of me... When I processed those images, if I cropped an image it was minimal, and I always had way more image than I would have with the D500. So to me, if you are not able to get a D500 and a D850, then I personally would not get a D500... just my 2.5 cents (inflation has raised it from 2 cents)!

My situation was not a concept but rather an event. In 2007, if visited my insurance agent mid summer and asked what I needed to do to make sure that my equipment was protected, and he told me that I was all set, I did not need to do anything. Then in August I went to a National wildlife refuge and was canoeing through it when because of high water, we were unable to see a submerged limb. We hit it and were over in less than 2 seconds. Canoe was upside down, two cameras, several lenses, and miscellaneous other equipment were suddenly in the water. all total about $8500 worth of equipment... but outside of the D200 all was consumer grade. Unfortunately, only $2700 of it was covered. my agent told me that he did not recall the early summer visit... so I lost.

Over the next 3 months I replaced everything, but this time with pro stuff... that was the turning point for me. Now, I had the image quality that I needed and it has been a real blessing for my photography ever since...
kelly

you know Jim bob, you are right. we are just a bunch of idiots who suck up all of the bs that canon and nikon push to us. every lens and camera should be made to exact specs, at least to 1/10000 of an inch... that should work for nearly everyone... well except for those who can not afford to pay the extra $5000 that would be added to the cost of each camera. But none the less, you are right. Now can we get back to reality.

Are you so unrealistic as to believe that we are talking about trying to fix a broken lens?

Then please dont buy into the truth. If you were an engineer, or draftsman, or a machinist, you would have no issue with this. However since you are obviously not familiar with anything mechanical, please go ahead and believe that the world is flat and that the moon is made of cheese. But also, you can now stop arguing with the truth and reality... nothing you say, think, or do is going to change what is real and true. and yes I am getting snarky... it has gone on for way to long and is no longer relevant to the list.

I do a lot of night work as in cityscapes, fireworks, Christmas lights, but the northern lights only a couple of times because we are in southern michigan which is often times too far south or way too cloudy to see them. When I do shoot something that is often a panoramic type shot, I use a nikon 20-35 2.8. Any wide fast lens will work, but you want something wide to get as much in the image as possible. I say fast because it is not uncommon to need a long exposure because the northern lights are always not real bright... northern sweeden will help but not guarantee a bright and obvious subject.

I would also suggest that you get subscribed to Aurora alerts which is a free texting service that will tell you when the aurora is building or coming to an end. sure you will need data while you are there, but it might well make the difference between a successful trip and a bust.

And lastly, since I dont know your experience level, as one of the other posters said, if you are not going right away, you might have an issue with the midnight sun. I was in Norway 2.5 years ago from July 1 until 19th and never saw darkness... I knew that it would be that way, but had I been going to see the northern lights, I could have been very disappointed had i not known. But if you go now, you will be able to them just about all day long and all night too so that if there are no clouds, then you will have many chances to see and capture... be sure to use a long exposure and high iso 3200-6400 most likely depending upon the intensity because you dont want to go over about 25 or 30 seconds otherwise you will get star trails. You will be in manual mode and on a stable tripod so you will have to just look at your LCD screen to know when you get enough light, but not over exposed! And lastly good luck!

the slot that the card slides into is long/deep enough that you would have to really work on it to mess up a set of pins. the slot is nearly 1/2 again longer than that of a CF slot. you should have no worries on this.

No, Any adjustment that you make to lens camera combination is only recorded in that camera... the lens retains nothing so you are free to fine tune it another body at any time and never mess things up.

A friend of mine called Roberts in Indianapolis 10 days ago, and got one about a week later. when I was still on order, Roberts had told me that they expected to have them in stock around Christmas.

When I bought my D500, I got the Lexar unit included when I bought the XQD card. It was listed at around $40 and that was from Roberts in Indianapolis Indiana. Talk to Ed or Nick in the internet Dept.

Or maybe they really do like it... as much as the canon fan girls like their camera... maybe they are even so heavily invested in their lenses and bodies that they could not switch even if they wanted too... maybe ... maybe... maybe... please stick to the topic BWA thank you

I got my name on the list at Roberts in Indianapolis about 45 minutes after it was announced for preorder. but, after 2 months it did not come, so I started to check around. I found one locally that was not spoken for and had it in a couple of hours... it was an ok camera... certainly nothing to write home about. Every shot was just a bit out of focus even after doing all that I could to make it sharp. So I took it back to where I bought it (Procam in Livonia Michigan) they took one brief look at the images that I had shot and said, yes it has a problem. We will take of you but we dont have anouther one in stock. Two hours later, I was not even home yet because of the long drive, and I got a call telling me that nothing was wrong, and they refused to return the camera for a refund. If that was taking care of me, I would hate to see what beating me up and leaving me along side the road would be like. So I kept shooting with it, determining what was actually wrong with it so that I could call Nikon and get it fixed since returning it was not an option. I found that the AF mechanism in continuous AF was broken. So I called nikon, they wanted pics, sent them what they wanted and two minutes later they told me to send the camera in. When I got it back it was a whole new camera... same serial number so they did not replace it but they did replace the AF mech. I now see richer images, perfect focus, just all around one of the best cameras that I have had in the past 50 years.

I wanted to sell it before it was fixed but in good conscience could not.... now, I would never sell it. The camera may have more noise than we would like, but after what I have seen, and read, I think that our expectations for this high ISO camera have become unreal... no it is not a D3 or D700 for ISO, but try and shoot those cameras above 25,600 and compare... I dont think that you would be very happy with either of them. If we keep the iSO under 6400 which is where 99% of images are shot, I dont think that you would have an issue... if so, then maybe something has gone wrong and it needs service.

The D850 is a great camera, but it certainly is not any more a high ISO camera than your flagship models! Just my opinion.

I recently was in your position of needing more and sharper reach. I had the 70-200 f2.8, and the tamron 150-600. The 70-200 was great, the 150-600 was good, but it was a bright sunny day lens and I do a lot of low light wildlife and so needed a different lens. I rented a 300 f4 af-s not the new version and I also added a tc1.4 (Nikon) and with that combination I am very happy. It can be a bright sunny day lens as well, but I don't have to use the TC, and that in my opinion makes it an excellent choice. Would I like the 300 f 2.8? Not really... It is way too heavy for my type of shooting. If you can get over the weight, it is an excellent choice, but the 300 f4 is in my opinion an equal image quality choice with a good body. I am shooting the D800 and the images at 100% are tack sharp.... That is all that I can expect out of any lens. Consider renting the 300 f4 and see if it works for you!