Big test
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PERFORMANCE: HDR
Final word
The D780 has a host of features typical of amodern DSLR and includesmultiple exposure, focus shift shooting, silent shooting, time-lapsemovie and HDR. In the latter, the camera automatically makes two exposures and merges them in-camera to give a final, processed, straight-out-of- the-camera JPEG– there is the option to keep the two original Raws.Typically, in HDR the two exposures were 3EVapart. I went for a contrasty scenic to test the feature shooting at all the available HDR settings, plus a normal exposure. Here, shooting into the sunmeant the contrast was very high, even though high cloud did take the edge off the sun’s intensity.The D780 was fitted with a 24-120mm f/4 zoomand the straight exposure in aperture-prioritymode was 1/160sec at f/11. The extra high setting was too much for this particular scenario, while the low setting hadminimal effect.The normal setting did a good job of helping rein in highlights, but shadows were still a tad too deep, so with this scene and tomy tastes I’d go for the JPEG created using the high setting, which I think gave the best tonal balance. such as a headphone jack for audio, face detect AF, time-lapse, 120fps Full HD and electronic vibration reduction. The latter does gives a minor crop – as a rough guide, a tightly framed shot at 55mmwith no electronic VR needs a 50mm focal length for the same composition with VR on. Electronic VR works well within reason, but not having in-body image stabilisation, which the Z 6 does have, limits handheld shooting. It’s fine for static handheld shooting, but was a little jerky with panning even a walking subject and not much good shooting on the go. Face detect during video shooting works well and keeps track of your subject well as they across the frame at normal walking pace. This is providing the face isn't too small in the frame, when the AF detect does not pick it up. If the subject being tracked turns away or moves too far from the camera position, the face detect drifts off and then reacquires as the subject reveals more of their face or comes in closer. A side profile was often enough for face detect to work, but not always. If you have several people in shot, you can use the touchscreen to highlight the face you want to focus on. The quality of video and still shots was impressive, with excellent sharpness and great detail. I was especially impressed with the D780’s high-speed ISO performance, so see the panel earlier in this review for more on this. WC
No HDR
Auto HDR
Verdict The Nikon D780 is a very fine
Low HDR
Normal HDR
camera with an attractive feature set offering full-frame imagemaking at a competitive price.Would-be full-frame content creators, whether existing Nikon users looking to upgrade or currently uncommitted to a system, have a seriously capable camera for their short list, and the D780 comes highly recommended.
High HDR
Extra high HDR
FEATURES Full-frame, 24.5 megapixels and good set of video features. HANDLING A focus level and bigger AF-ON button would be nice, but no serious issues. PERFORMANCE Impressive AF and exposure performance, plus excellent image quality, even at higher ISO speeds. VALUE FOR MONEY Great feature set for current full- frame users and perfect for full- frame aspirants. OVERALL There is no denying the D780’s qualities and it is a very fine, hugely capable DSLR.
24 /25
23 /25
LEFT The D780's exposure system proved consistently accurate, though contrasty bright scenes were very marginally underexposed
24 /25
coming out grey was another example of meter fallibility, but that’s why we have exposure compensation. Overall, though, I thought exposure and auto white-balance performance were impressive. On battery life, Nikon claims 2260 shots from a full battery with viewfinder shooting – this compares with 1230 on the D750. In Iceland, I was getting around 500 still shots and movie footage using live view and the optical finder with capacity to spare, and this was in temperatures of around 0°C. On one day, when I shot no video, I took nearly 800 stills and had two bars of battery life left, which I thought was very good. When it comes to shooting speed, using a Lexar 2000X SD card in continuous high, I got 60 14-bit compressed Raws at just under 8fps before the camera paused to draw breath – and that number increased to 100 in 12-bit Raw. Switching to live view, silent mode and 12-bit Raw, I got 33 shots at 12fps. While the D780 is not the fastest camera in this respect, it is easily good enough for most enthusiast action shooters. As is the norm nowadays, the D780 has 4K video shooting and has features
24 /25
95 /100
PROS Impressive image quality, excellent noise performance at high ISOs, fine handling, good battery life, dual card slots CONS Live viewAF slipped up on occasion, AF area in viewfinder shooting not as broad as mirrorless rivals, lack of in-body image stabiliser
Go to photographynews.co.uk to see how the Nikon D780 performed on location in Iceland
74 Photography News | Issue 75
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