Nikon D850 vs D5 - Focus & 3D Tracking

[NXDL]

My autofocus never shifted away from Stephanie

[melahat]

I noticed people complaining about Nikon's 3D autofocus setting in the comments so I thought I would add something to the discussion. I used to to not like using 3D in my D3s and now my D5 but later learned I was not using it correctly. This is very important, with the meter on and the center point focus point lit up, you must place the lit up focus point on your subject then press and hold down the shutter release half way or press and hold down the af-on button. the 3D has now locked on to the subject and will follow it.
I never knew this tid bit of info and thus when I used 3D it wouldn't work correctly. I'm not saying everyone who doesn't like 3D doesn't already know this but some probably don't know.

[charlierivera]

Just recently switched from Nikon Z6ii to Nikon D5 and is unbelievable how good for sports is the D5. I am not a professional photographer but love to shoot anything really. I do miss the flip screen and a few other features like EVF but Love the D5.

[CraigLincoln]

I shot a high school football game last night to test a D850 and a D810 on a field with only four light poles. I tested with a Nikon 2.8 70-200mm and a 24-70mm because they are a part of the holy trinity of lenses. If you are well positioned, you can often get plays that come right at you, just like the papers want.
I shoot continuous AF-C in single point when the play is far downfield to ensure that the AF stays on the one player. Likewise AF-C Group AF was right on when the ball was closer. I shot AF-C 9-pt or 25-pt dynamic with great results when I can be within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage . I reversed lenses and bodies at half time.
The D850 nailed fous 9 out of 10 times, 8/10 in the shadowy end zones. The D810 was 7 or 8 out of 10. Try 3-D just once for close, mid, or long range in these cases and you would never do it again. The D810 nails focus 10/10 time under college stadium lights or daylight.
I got the same results in dimly lit gyms for basketball and volleyball with the D810. 3D BAD. I don't know anyone who uses 3D tracking for sports because 3D zeros in on the contrast of the referees' black and white shirts.
Sidenote 1: The D810 ISO 3600 is grainy. The D850 is cleaner at 6400 ISO and usable to 12k ISO. The D5 ISO is great at 52k.
Sidenote 2: The D850 30 frames per second was perfect for getting extra point kicks with the ball just leaving the foot.
Sidenote 3: Matt used 3D Auto-Focus with a model bouncing towards him. I have never shot that sport.

[brb]

Matt, May I suggest that the focus comparison you did (D5 vs D850)
has more to do with the battery voltage than the camera itself. You
can hardly expect to throw heavy glass elements around as fast with 7 volts as
you can with a 10.8 volt battery. Try it again but with the battery grip.

[fghjohn]

does the additional battery grip help? since it boosts the frames from 7 to 9

[streetgato]

I'm not surprised, had the same experience with the D810 action tracking comparison with the D4

[jerryfaircloth]

Well there were just too many differences for this to be a good test. A better test would be to make sure the D850 had the grip with the EN EL18 battery so both cameras would be using the same voltage. You also should set the D850 to use an image size as close as possible to the much smaller D5 sensor resolution. Its logical moving 45MP around vs 20MP using the same CPU will be slower. It would also be very interesting to test it against a D500 where the buffer will not fill up and has a similar sensor resolution. So how bout a quick test like that Matt?

[scriptosaurusrex]

Hi Matt.
I just want to add another vote for doing the test with the d5 battery in the d850 grip too (at 9fps happily).
The d5 battery of course delivers more voltage, which is what allows the d850 to actuate the shutter faster. My d700 (anecdotally) focusses better with the grip and the higher voltages that brings, than with the standard battery.
I could imagine the processor to work faster as well as the body simply being able to drive the lens motor faster improving AF performance.
Thanks

[juliusguillermo]

I doubt Nikon wanted the D850 to compete against one of their own. It is still an impressive body as you said. This video is useful for sports or action photographers if they were thinking of picking the D850 up as their workhorse vs. something more expensive like the D5 or equivalent body from other manufacturers. Hope you could also test it further tracking race cars or planes at an airshow to get really exhaustive with the AF and Tracking tests.

[TheSuzshep]

I think the problem here is the 3d af - i never use it. I find it pretty unreliable even on my d5. it is ok for slow moving subjects . you would be far better to put d9 or the group on her face and hold it there . I would love to see that comparison .

[tonyfabris]

To do a fair test why didn’t you wait to use the extra more powerful grip?
That would have put the two cameras on a more levelled playing field .
If the 850 performed better than the d5 in every aspect than there would be much
point to continue the production of the d5.

[cooloox]

Excellent video, Matt. Thanks to both you and Stephanie for making it.

[i.setyawan]

No matter what camera/lenses you want to review in the future, please do keep Steph.

[simon_patterson]

Terrific test that looked and sounded great! And, most importantly, it seemed to demonstrate the difference in autofocus performance between the two cameras. Bravo!

[mihonomoto]

I love how you test it Matt, this reveal more than ads do, great work!

BTW, the girl is cute.

[thisis]

I just have to say this because it's my strong opinion, and i think it matters for anyone concerned with AF performance of the D850 or D5 or other Nikons. The Default AF setup of the D850, is probably more adjusted towards static, or less erratically moving subjects. There are settings that adjust the behavior of the 3D Tracking. If this test had been done with the " Blocked shot AF Response" set to 1 instead of the default of 3, along with the subject motion set to erratic, than I think this test could have gone differently. It only makes sense that Nikon would set the default settings to slightly different purposes between the D5 and D850. If this had been tested under different circumstances with the default settings, than its possible the D850 would have out performed with a less erratically moving subject. However, a setting change makes a world of difference, as these cameras come out of the box designed to do different things. They should both be able to match each other ability when setup properly. However I could be wrong, and maybe the D850 is still handicapped in some way. We won't know this for sure however until someone who owns these cameras tests them with different settings.

[romiemiller]

I'm still using a D800, which works great for me. I want to upgrade to a D850 rather than the Z7ll for three reasons: the D850 is now showing up used in near new condition at significant savings; The battery lasts longer in the D850; and I don't need an adapter to continue using my current lenses.

[sonalakadesilva]

Thank you Matt for your review. I own a D4s for the past 4 years and sometimes not happy with the continues focusing. Also sometimes it struggles to hunt in low light. I use the holy trinity lenses. Any recommendations that I should get the D5 in replacement of D4s. Kind of reluctant to switch to Z6 as the focus tracking is not as good as D4s.

[joeextraknow]

Matt: both use separated dedicated processor to process AF. So, if you use full frame of D850 which is 47 Mpix though. You should have set D850 to DX mode that is 20 Mpix, which is apple-to-apple comparing with D5. I think it is fair to say...