The successor to Nikon's D750, one of their more successful full frame camera bodies, is here in the form of the D780 and here is what you need to know.
In this overview from the legend himself Ken Rockwell, you can bring yourself up to speed with the specs and updates for Nikon's new DSLR (you'll find his full write-up here). As one would expect, Nikon has attempted to make a number of quality of life improvements over the D750 by tapping some features from their own mirrorless line, the Z series. Overall, the D780 sounds like it more or less hits the right notes and is a functional upgrade to the previous iteration.
Myself being a D750 shooter with essentially zero complaints about the camera (seriously, I would strongly recommend the Nikon D750 to anyone looking for a full frame DSLR). I'm certainly keeping an eye on the D780 and I am curious to see how it performs both in terms of retail sales and as a potential new workhorse camera that (if anything like the D750) does pretty much everything well with the notable improvements made to video capability and live-view shooting.
The obvious question that I'm interested in answering is who is this camera for? If you did end up purchasing a Nikon mirrorless body, either the Z 6, Z 7, or new Z 50 crop sensor then this is probably not intended for you unless for one reason or another the DSLR is calling you back. If you have a D750, of which many, many people do as it is one of Nikon's most well received cameras to date, then you'll probably find yourself in the target audience as well as anyone in the market for a full frame DSLR. If you own a D750 (or really any Nikon camera for that matter) leave a comment with your thoughts on the D780. Is it something that at the very least has caught your attention?
The D780 certainly grabs my attention, since my beloved D750 really does so much right. Not going to upgrade soon though, my D750 still works like a charm. But when it needs upgrading, it certainly tops the list (for now).
As a D610 owner, I am certainly interested in the D780. Having a bunch of 3rd party F-mount lenses the move to mirrorless is financially out of the question. Shooting mostly landscape and architecture I use live view quiet a lot, so the improvements on this are welcome. If it had a boost in resolution it would be the camera for me. Now it will probably be between the D780 and a used D850 or D810...
For me, I am a D600 owner, with older D type lenses that use screwdrive. Optically, the older lenses have nothing wrong with them and work great.
My D600's AF is holding me back, especially low light and for action, so I was before the D780 was announced was looking at either going to a D750 and buying something like the Z50 for video use or going to a Z6 and needing to rebuy glass. Now I have my almost perfect camera, it can use my screw drive lenses, and gives me the eye AF I like. If the FTZ adapter had screwdrive AF support, i would see less want for it, but for me its darn near perfect.
The biggest thing I am going to miss is vertical grip with controls...
I'm still hoping that Nikon will surprise everyone and announce that the D780 can actually accommodate a grip through internal contacts in the battery compartment, like the D90 grip. What a great marketing strategy that would be!
Marketing strategy?
If they were to do this, i would have expected it on the Z6 and Z7 first...
I wouldn't buy a camera for $2300, which does not allow me to mount on the newest and best lenses of this company. Just makes no sense to me. If I have several F-mount lenses, I would buy the Z6 and continue using them. This one is just weird.
For people who own a lot of quality screw drive lenses, upgrading to a Z6 and keeping the same kit means spending several times over the cost of the D780 just to upgrade to F mount lenses with built in motors....
I can't believe this is the first time I've ever seen and heard Ken Rockwell speak on camera. What is the world coming to!
I know. I was like, "Holy *#$#! He appears in talkies!"
I actually didn't know what he looked like either haha
Nikon has by far the best button layout of any FF digital camera in my opinion. I own a d700 and i use D800 and D3S often. For my videos i got an olympus em1 mk2, a camera that has the best ergonomics its just wow... af system is great, eye focusing, focus peaking , 4k vid.. everything that my nikon d700 is too old to do the olympus does. When looking at the d780 i saw that i can do everything i love at olympus but i can use a native f mount for me manual nikon lenses such as 105 f2.5, 58mm noct, and lots of other lenses like 80-200 afs and 150-600g1 tamron. I will sell the olympus with batery grip, and two lenses to buy this d780. Its a perfect all arround camera. Face detction has replaced the AF lock button basically. The af lock button is one of the reasons i still keep my d700. Af lock and af on next te eachothet...those were days....