I have been using my Nikon D750 almost exclusively for over a year. Today I would like to tell you about my experiences, especially about its suitability for light art photography and light painting.
What do I expect from a camera?
- Good image quality, I work in such a way that I can have a large print made of each of my pictures if necessary.
- good operability, all relevant functions should be able to be operated blindly without a display and menu
- robustness, I’m often out and about in rather neglected places, the camera has to be insensitive to the penetration of
dust and moisture and withstand the odd knock or two without damage - good noise behaviour with long exposure times
- Long battery life, I sometimes expose for many minutes or even hours, so the battery should not run down during the exposure.
- built-in WLAN would be good
How well does the D750 meet my requirements?
The image quality is more than sufficient for my requirements, I was particularly impressed by the dynamic range.
Compared to my old D300s, the operation takes a little getting used to in some places. I don’t understand why Nikon would include functions like the woman with the hat, the flower and the mountain in a €1800 camera whose target group is definitely not beginners and holiday shooters. Nor do I understand the purpose of a foldable display. I fear that this will be the first thing to break, even though I hardly ever unfold it. In any case, I never missed the folding display before.
Otherwise, all the controls that are important to me are easy to reach and have a good pressure point. After about 2 weeks I was able to operate the camera completely blind, which is a huge advantage when working in the dark.
I can’t say too much about the robustness after one year, but so far the D750 has survived all the rocky locations I’ve visited without damage.
The noise is much lower than with my old D300s. At temperatures below 10°C, I usually switch off the noise reduction in the camera because it simply brings almost no advantage, even if I expose for 10 minutes or longer. Noise at high ISO is also surprisingly low, although it doesn’t matter much for light painting and light art photography.
I took the cover picture at ISO 6400 with an exposure time of 30 seconds. The in-camera noise reduction was switched off here. The temperatures were also a summery 21°C at night.
I only removed a few (less than 100) hot pixels from the image using Darktable. Otherwise it is as the sensor recorded it.
Nikon gives the battery life as over 1200 shots. The battery lasts long enough even at temperatures around freezing point. So 15 exposures of 5-6 minutes each are possible even on a cold winter night. The only downer is the fancy price of over 50€ for the replacement battery. Due to many bad experiences with replica batteries from China, I no longer buy them. Since there are a lot of scammers in the various online shops, the only option is to buy from a local, well-stocked specialist shop.
Every €100 mobile phone has WLAN, Bluetooth and GPS built in, and then I’m allowed to buy these as expensive accessories for an expensive camera?
In 2015, Nikon actually managed to equip a professional DSLR with Wi-Fi. I never thought I’d see the day…
The D750’s Wi-Fi works well. The battery is not overused, but this is probably also due to the fact that the camera automatically disconnects after a short time. Anyway, the function is suitable for transferring a Live View image or the finished result to the tablet and I don’t need anything else.
I can’t say whether the autofocus works well. I usually use manual lenses anyway, like the Samyang 14/2.8 or the Meyer Optik Görlitz Figmentum 35/2. And with the autofocus lenses I switch it off, because it wouldn’t work anyway for light painting in the dark.
What I like about the camera is that it has two memory card slots. And I particularly appreciated the “time” function for controlling the exposure. In contrast to “bulb”, the shutter is opened the first time the shutter release button is pressed and closed the second time. This saves the remote shutter release when working with two people, and when working alone I no longer get a bad thumb because I don’t have to hold down the button on my Yongnuo radio shutter release for the entire exposure time.
Conclusion:
All in all, a very decent work tool with hardly any weaknesses worth mentioning…. Actually, I can’t think of anything negative at the moment.
I wish you good light all the time
Sven
Sven Gerard, Jahrgang 1969, geboren und aufgewachsen in Berlin. Er fotografiert seit frühester Jugend mit großer Leidenschaft. Neben dem fotografischen Erkunden zahlreicher beeindruckender verlassener Orte, widmet er sich seit mittlerweile 10 Jahren intensiv dem Lightpainting. Sein umfangreiches Wissen teilt er auf seinem Blog „Lichtkunstfoto.de“, weiteren Publikationen und in seinen Workshops. Darüber hinaus organisiert er Veranstaltungen zum Thema Lightpainting, wie „Light Up Berlin“. Gerard lebt gemeinsam mit seiner Lebensgefährtin in Berlin und hat einen erwachsenen Sohn.
Sven Gerard was born in 1969 and grew up in Berlin. He has been a passionate photographer since his early youth. In addition to photographically exploring numerous impressive abandoned places, he has been intensively involved in light painting for 10 years now. He shares his extensive knowledge on his blog ‘Lichtkunstfoto.de’, other publications and in his workshops. He also organises events on the subject of light painting, such as ‘Light Up Berlin’. Gerard lives in Berlin with his partner and has a grown-up son.
