40 JULY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE389
THETOPENDof theDSLRmarket is a
minefield forconsumers. Should pros and
high-end amateurs go mirrorless?Will your
investment in afull-frame DSLR hold up in a
fewyears’ time? What about established
versus upstart lens mounts?
The Nikon D780 is acamera that might
convincemorethan afew that theDSLR isn’t
buried yet.It’sa24.5-megapixel,full-frame
sensor in acamera that can shoot up to a
respectable7fps and which takes advantage
of Nikon’s legendaryAdvanced Multi-CAM
3500 II AF moduletogive you51autofocus
points.ItisalsoNikon’s first DSLR to offer
hybrid AF,bringing high-performance
autofocus to live-view and video shooting.
With awesome image quality,this is a
camera thatshouldthreatenjust about
everything in its price bracket.DUALWIELD
There’s acertain romance to the D780’s
design,whichisclassicDSLR. That means
it’s notmuch to look at,but is achamp
when it comes to usability.It’spretty big, at
144mm wide and 116mm tall, but all that
heftisput to excellent use.
Forone thing, body controls arechunky
and easy to hit; the dialshaveasolidclunk to
them,and the controls on the back are easy
to manage. Our only complaint is directed at
the drive mode selector,which getsits own
selector wheel underneath themoddedial.
To use it, you hold down alockbutttton with
your thumb andmovethe selectorraround
tochooseanewdrivemode.Theffrontedge
oftheselectorisridgedsoyoucanngeta
good grip on it with afingertip, butt
nonetheless,it’s fiddly. It’s also,givven the
great design of thecamera, abitwweird –
drive mode,which youcan expect to want
to change frequently,gets the fiddly,
locked dial,while bracketing, whichh
most photographers will use once then
forget about,gets itsown shortcutt
button on the front of thecamera..
Elsewhere, theD780’sheftybuiild
is put to gooduse.Swing open thee
card slotdoor and you’llfind twoSSD
slots with allthe normal options
–overflow forwhenthe first card
fills, mirrored forhardware
redundancy, or JPEG and RAW
files to different cards. It’s a
welcome if obvious conclusion for
acamerathat will findits wayintothe
bags of manyprofessionals.NIKON D780
★★★★★
£2, (^183) • Fromwww.amazon.co.ukk
VERDICT
Astupendouscameracapableofoutstanding
results, whatever genre you shootDSLRCAMERA
OOnneetthhiinnggtthhaatthhaassggoonneessiinncceetthheeoolldd
D750isthepop-upflash,withtheD7 80
joiningthelikesoftheCanonEOS5DMarkIV
andthetop-endNikonD5inhavingno
on-camera lighting. In truththismeans one
fewermoving componenttobreak, and will
make no meaningfuldifferencetomost
high-end professionals, who willsupply their
own off-camera lighting of onesort or
another.One group of photographers who
might be negatively affected is snappers
who use their camera’s integrated flash to
trigger anearby optical slave unit.
Still,Nikon taketh awayand Nikon giveth:
althoughthe monitor on the back of the
camera hasn’tgrown, it has gained touch
sensitivity.Unlike some,itmerely tilts,
allowing youtoangle thecamera up and
down;itdoesn’t swivel or rotate.THE LONG PLAY
The battery deserves amention.
Photographers will quickly get
usedtosimply popping theDD 778800 iinnaaccuuppbbooaarrddwwiitthhoouutthhaavviinnggttoocchhaarrggee
it,becausethe2,260-shot batterylife means
mostofthetimeyousimplywon’tthinkabout
it. It’svastly superiortothe EOS 5D Mark IV’s
claimedbattery life of 900 shots.Onceit
starts to falter,you’llbepleased to know the
D780’s next-generation specs extend to its
USB port,which is aUSB Type-C PD socket,
allowing you to charge the camerawithout
removing thebattery.Italso givesyou the
option of charging from aportable power bank.
The viewfinder is acracker,big andsharp,
andthat bulging grip gives you plenty to hold
on to.Its topspeed of 7fps is utterly usable
foralmost everything but high-endsports,
and we fell in love with itsautofocus system.
Tenacious even in poor light, therelatively
austerenumberofAFpoints (51 versus
multiple hundredsonmirrorlesscameras)
neverheldusup. We alsofound subject and
face trackingginliveviewmodetobeexcellent.
NikoncclaimstheD7 80 willfocusin
condittionsupto-3EV,andweused
it innanumber of low-light,low-
ccontrastscenarios in thehopeof
tripping it up,only to findit
ferociously holding on. We also
foundleaving thecamera to its
own devices in either dynamic
area or auto-area yieldedgood
results, withitaccurately
detecting our intended subject
annddelivering asharp result.TWOINONE
Switch to livveview,and the D780 has atrick
up itssleevve: it’sthe first NikonDSLR to
offer hybrid live-view autofocus.It’s the
same systeemasinNikon’s superb range of
Z-series caameras. Setthe camera to live
view andyyou get on-sensor phase detection
that autommaticallyswitches to contrast
detection iffit needs to.You get alot more
autofocus pooints: 273,the same as on the
mirrorless Z 66 .Adecent live-view autofocus