D850: Moving Pictures

We're going to take a chance here, but not much of one, by telling you that you're going to like the video Corey Rich made with the D850.

He got an early look at the camera, and familiarized himself with it by making...well, essentially a home movie.

"A family camping trip or a day at the beach were my first ideas," he says. Then he saw the Nikon camera that's always in plain sight at home in case he wants to shoot some stills of the family. "I thought, Why not make my little video project a home movie that I'll watch for the rest of my life?"

Video is nothing new to Corey—he added it to his still photography business years ago, and today it comprises over 50 percent of his assignments—and right out of the box the D850 was a familiar Nikon DSLR, so it was pretty much "turn it on, set it for manual and press record."

But there were some significant differences. The D850 was, in fact, a camera that Corey had been hoping for.

"I'd been waiting for the flip screen—the tilting touchscreen, Nikon calls it—in a pro-level camera," he says. "To be able to put the camera on the ground and flip the screen up so I  can see—it used to be I'd lie on my stomach, in the dirt. The flip screen allows me to be infinitely more creative—that's huge for a video maker."

Another big feature for him is the D850's ability to shoot 4K full-frame video. "That's a big deal for guys who come from the still photography world, because we're used to putting a wide-angle, like a 24mm, on our cameras. To have 4K in full frame so that what you see [through the lens] is what you get—that's also huge. Full-frame 4K makes this a viable camera for commercial production."

He also cited the D850's capability to shoot slow motion at 120 frames per second in full HD, a feature he used in his home movie. "There's a clip of my daughter right at the end," Corey says. "She has a blade of grass in her mouth and is smiling—that's at 120 fps. It slows life down, and it's a cool effect we've been looking for as filmmakers."  

And speaking as a filmmaker—there are years when that 50 percent video approaches 75 percent—Corey says that the D850 is the real thing for student filmmakers, independents and multi-media professionals.

And not only for them—there are the home-movie makers, too. "I believe the majority of the enthusiasts who buy the camera, no matter what their aspirations, are going to use it most to shoot friends and family. That opportunity is the most obvious, but it's also the most powerful. I think my video shows that with the right tools, and the commitment to pressing record and spending the time, anyone can create not just a family movie, but a beautiful family movie."

All the features and tech specs of the extraordinary Nikon D850 are right here.