When the D750 was released I have to say that I was mildly disappointed. The technical specs looked great but why package it in in the consumer D600 style body. I shouldn't really have been surprised as the D7100 is a similar story a great crop spec but not a true D300s replacement. Anyway I am not a gear head so I won't discuss Nikon's development strategy.I decided to give the D750 a try the plan was to use it alongside my aging D3. When I placed the order in the back of my mind I thought that I would end up regretting the purchase and selling it to go for a used D4 or D4s.
I got my D750 from Panamoz for an amazingly good price - I know some people are against buying grey imports but I am afraid it suits me and my budget and the service from Panamoz is second to none.
My cameras get heavily used - I do weddings (30+ per year), corporate work and I also freelance for a couple of local news paper groups. I shoot with two bodies and Nikon 2.8 zooms depending on the job.
Day one with the D750 - it felt awkward with the big heavy lenses so I ordered a Meike grip. I will be honest and tell you that I am not a grip fan and prefer the feel of the camera without the grip and a small prime but for what I do I need the zooms. I would like to try the body with the F4 glass - perhaps I will rent some and give it a try.
I tend to shoot either on Manual or Aperture Priority so the controls I am interested in are obviously Aperture and Shutter but also Exposure compensation, ISO and White Balance. I have customised my controls so that the 'Movie Record' button goes to the ISO controls - which means the three main functions ave usable with my right hand and without having to move the camera from my eye. The only minor irritation is that the rear LCD illuminates every time you press the ISO control but I think I can live with it!
Other controls like Focus Mode are handled by pushing the relevant button then using the control and sub control dials to select what you want - it all seems very intuitive to me. I got used to it all pretty quickly and I am old, set in my ways and not great with change.
In daily use the camera has exceeded my expectations. The focus system is the best that I have ever experienced, I use back button and AFC for pretty much everything and it is superb. The ability to focus in low light is also game changing. I was concerned about the focus points all being grouped in the middle of the frame and whilst it would nice to have a wider spread it is not a great issue.
So how good is it in real world situations? Very quickly it became my 'main' body which surprised me. For general PR/Press work it is great and this is where I am thinking about pairing it to the 24-120 F4 and ditching the grip.
The flippy screen is useful especially in crowd situation where you want to hold the camera above your head. I realise this doesn't happen often but it is surprisingly useful it is also good for shooting low angles. The WIFI is a very welcome addition for me. I don't often need to upload files immediately but to have the facility to quickly send images from my phone is a real asset.
I have professionally covered Rugby, Football and Hockey and it performed perfectly. One football match was a floodlit night time game - I used the 70-200 with 1.4 tele-converter and I was blown away by the image quality.
If you like to motordive you may have a slight problem with the buffer size. I shoot RAW + Small JPG for everything except weddings where it is RAW all the way. I am using 64Gb 95mb/s SD cards and haven't experienced any buffer issues.
I have shot one wedding with the camera where the ceremony was in a 14th Century vault and the main illumination was candle light. At 6400+ ISO the images look great.
Time will tell how the body copes with the daily abuse - I am yet to use the camera in torrential rain but it is supposed to be weather proof so I am sure it will be fine. My overall conclusion is that this is a really amazing piece of kit and I am extremely likely to order another.
