The Nikon D850 has the same autofocus system as the D5 but it’s not as good
Sep 28, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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We know that the Nikon D850 autofocus system isn’t that great for video. This wasn’t really going to be much of a surprise. But it seems that it’s not as quite good as it could be when it comes to stills, either. The Nikon D850 autofocus is the same as that found in the flagship Nikon D5. And while the D850 does seem to outperform just about every other Nikon out there, it can’t keep up with its big brother.
Matt Granger felt that he was missing more shots with the D850 than he was with his D5. So, he puts the two to the test, side by side in this video. With the assistance of a 4th dan taekwondo black belt subject, Matt sets to work pairing the two off against each other.
To keep the test fair, Matt set both cameras to the same settings, and slowed down the D5’s frame rate to match the D850’s 7fps.
First, Matt does some tests in the studio with the 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. He shoots low light with high (4 figure) ISO as his subject spins and kicks her away across the set. It gave it several attempts with each DSLR. The D5 nailed the shot almost every time for all of its tests, while the D850 only kept up once.
The next test was outdoors with the 70-200mm f/2.8. This one seemed to go even worse for the D850. Unless the subject was starting off in bright light, it struggled to initially hit the target. And if the subject went from bright light to shadow, it lost it and never managed to recover. The D5, on the other hand, again, seems to keep up just fine.
For the third and final test, Matt took the camera off the tripod to see if the autofocus would track any better. Still using the 70-200, the D5 had no trouble keeping up at all with the subject, even as she got very close to the camera. The D850, though, didn’t stand a chance.
Matt still believes that generally speaking, the autofocus is better than any other Nikon out there, with the one obvious exception. It seems, though, that if you really want that fast sports or wildlife action DSLR, the D5 is the way to go.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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5 responses to “The Nikon D850 has the same autofocus system as the D5 but it’s not as good”
D5 and D850 don’t share the same prism, mirrors, shutters… There’s a bunch of things that an af system is dependent on. Having the same sensor array and af engine doesn’t imply equal performance. You wouldn’t think an MB s500 and an e500 have the same performance just because they share the same motor?
The 850 had the opportunity to become what the 5D3 was in sales. Nikon holding back and holding back tech is why I left them after 15 years. I would have came back and stayed but it’s not happening. What Nikon (and many others) doesn’t understand is… if they’d pack all their tech into a 3K body… they’d make it up in the long term with people buying their expensive glass. Just my opinion of course.
Considering he didn’t do anything for variable control or even switch AF modes to something better for what he was shooting, it’s absolutely surprising that he was having issues. /sarcasm.
This isn’t a ‘test.’ This is a subjective playtime.
Properly select an AF mode for what you are doing.
Using the same lens and focal length on each camera, with the lens autocalibrated by the internal software.
etc, etc, etc.
That is how you do a test and narrow down what it could be. As it sits now, it could be tolerance stacking, front/back focus, or a million other things.
I think he’s complaining too much.
I bet if he grabbed an older camera like a Canon 5D Mk2 or D700 he would think the D850 is amazing. Modern cameras are insanely good compared to just a few years ago, and if you compare with older film cameras the new ones just blow them away.
Having used several Nikon models including the D5, I think I was expecting more from the D850 focus system. It pains me to say this, as the camera is absolutely awesome, but yeah, they definitely dumbed the focus system down despite having the same module.
In fact, after shooting a sporting event recently, my D750 outperformed my D850 in terms of focus tracking, especially when using 3d tracking. I’ve tried near and wide 3d tracking options, various combinations of tracking with lock on (0-5, and stead, erratic moving subject), and the my D750 still outperforms it. Where the D750 does not is the side points where the D850 has cross type ones, obviously the D850 can grab focus on things the D750 can’t with those points, but in good light and contrasty subjects that are fast the result is a bit disappointing.
Again, not knocking the D850 – it’s a beautiful machine, the colors and files are excellent and I love it. But it misses focus more than it should. I’ve AF fine tuned my primes and all, values similar to what’s set in my D750, but it seems inconsistent as hell where as the D750 is spot on most of the time.
Maybe I got a bad one?