Nikon D780 Rumored Specs and Announcement Date Emerge

Nikon D780 Rumored Specs and Announcement Date Emerge

There is no doubt that camera companies are increasingly moving into the mirrorless realm, but that does not mean DSLRs are totally done for. Fans of Nikon's DSLRs will be happy to hear that the wildly popular D750 is due to get an update fairly soon.

The D750 proved to be a popular workhorse for a lot of photographers, combining a great full frame sensor with a respectable continuous shooting rate and good autofocus at an affordable price point, making it a very versatile camera that excelled in lots of different shooting scenarios. However, it has been over five years since the camera was first announced, and it is well due for an update. Thankfully, it seems that update is likely on its way soon, as Nikon Rumors is reporting that the announcement of the D780 is scheduled for the beginning of CES, likely January 7 or so. 

Specs include a 24-megapixel BSI sensor, articulated touchscreen, faster continuous rate, 4K at 30p, dual card slots, and more. Altogether, it looks to be a quite capable and particularly well-rounded body that should definitely please a lot of Nikon DSLR shooters who would prefer to stick with their DSLR camera and lens libraries for the time being.

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Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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25 Comments

The BSI sensor will make this a solid upgrade for DSLR shooters. Would've preferred a 36MP sensor like the D810 to make it a little sexier, but 24MP is good for 99% of work.

Definitely seems to be a sweet spot, especially for people pumping out lots of images, like wedding shooters.

Nikon has really got itself into a muddle with its nomenclature. For what logical reason would a D700 become a D750 then a D780? That's only 20 away from a D800 - which went from 800 to 810 to 850. What's the next iteration after the D780? What a mess. Sony (and Canon) nailed it with the Mk method of naming its products.

Actually Nikon is likely to start making Marks with Z line. I am afraid d780 is the last of a kind...

Understand what you're saying, but it's really not that big of a deal. Nikon has their reasons for this which, of course, is not clear to us, but I'm sure their reason fits their purposes.

The D800 was the update to the D700. Not the D750. Different body builds. If anything the D750 was an upgrade to the D610 class of FF bodies.

And that's entirely my point. The nomenclature makes no logical sense whatsoever. Nikon make it almost unfathomable for a newcomer to the brand to clearly navigate the model hierarchy.

That clearly shows how Nikon believes that 20-24 MP is sort of practical peak for useful resolution, everything over that leads to many other problems

I have absolutely zero other problems with my 45MP body. What did you have in mind?

I don't own such monster myself, but what I was able to see is revelation of deficiencies on lenses that worked great on lower resolutions. Than, doubling file sizes, slower recording to cards.
I heard few people say, what I was not able to witness myself, that you need to increase shutter speed by one-two steps generally as camera shake is more visible.

Don't believe all you read.

D850 has been no problem. I can pan with super slow shutter speeds and get sharp shots just like my D500.

It has been a recent revelation to me that camera shake is a by-product of too much caffeine consumption. I recently stopped my habit of three-cups-a-day of tea and even my wife notes my hands are not shaking any more. As a consequence, the output from my D850 is tacksharp and the groupings from my Beretta 9mm are under 2 inches.

It is not a practical peak of resolution. It is a practical peak to how much information the software can drive through the processor fast enough and not bog down the information flow writing to the cards at high frame rates. 24mpx file sizes appear to be the upper limit before significant buffering kicks in. Logically, it should take twice as long to process a D850 file as it does for a D750 file.

When saying "practical peak", I was thinking generally, in many fields.

My new-acquired experience in photography is limited, but am yet to see what high-res is useful for other than offering much better opportunities for cropping.

I think 10-12 MP images can look great as a posters and can be used for billboards as well, if you don't expect public that will come 2 metres to billboard and study it with magnifying glass.

Resolution is key. I shoot for customers wanting large pieces to hang on their walls. They get close and seeing the individual leaves on the trees is part of that experience. Using their eyes and concentrating on a specific area of the image is the same as cropping. That data is better captured by the denser high-resolution sensor.
The other day I shot snowmobile races on an icy lake using an 80-200 2.8 on my 850. I captured a crash sequence with the sled rolling over down the track. I was 50 meters away and with cropping, I was able to get close and see the detail clearly on the underside of the machine capturing the ice cleats on the sled's track and ice particles flying in all directions.

If you have customers that want you to make wall-size images, and than they find pleasure in looking at such images from 5 cm distance, than yep, you would likely need 60 MP. Somehow I feel, however, that such customers are very rare, and if say that 300 ppi is generally agreed as excellent level of quality, while Adobe still holds 240 ppi as recommended default, than I'd say 12 MP will be enough for normal size of wall-hung image, and 24 MP gives a lot of reserve.
Cropping ability is undoubtedly useful, though I feel if you get used to it too much, you can end in taking snaps on the field, and than spending most of useful time in cropping.

Rumoured specs for the D780 are disappointing, for me anyway. I rely heavily on the battery grip, and a pop-up flash has come in handy in a pinch when having to resort to CLS to trigger a speedlight off-camera. Do we get a nice, pro-looking *round* OVF eyepiece (like on the D500) in exchange for the pop-up flash removal? Probably not. I'll be skipping the D780 iteration if these initial specs are true. If Nikon issues an updated D780x version with pins for a battery grip, I'll be one of the first in line.

Is it rumored to have no battery grip? I haven't seen any such specs.

Currently just a "rumour". Let's hope it's wrong. Fingers crossed.
https://nikonrumors.com/2019/12/30/nikon-d780-updated-rumored-specificat...

A grip is NOT on the assessories page for this camera on the NikonUSA site.

Sounds like a great body -- may be time to replace my D610.

"There is no doubt that camera companies are increasingly moving into the mirrorless realm, but that does not mean DSLRs are totally done for."

It's a safe bet that all DSLR cameras and lenses you may see coming out are the last in the production gestation period. I suspect there is zero R&D on further mirror cameras and lenses at this time. You may have one company like Pentax/Ricoh capitalize on the OVF crowd by possibly being the last man standing, but it's obvious the age of mirrored cameras is over.

Question is, will the manufactures be able to have a entry level mirrorless kit with two lenses for under $1,000 like they all do now in their DSLR lines for those who are looking to move up from the point and shoot. Everyone said that vinyl records would be gone for ever when CD's came out and yet Vinyl is still here and doing well. It's all about supply and demand and what we the consumers are willing to buy. I hope that DSLR's don't fade away too soon for I just upgraded and not ready to shell out big bucks for a new body yet.

Possibly one company may soldier on, but the DSLR is now in the same shoe as the SLR was at the advent of the DSLR.