Nikon D750: A $2,300 full-frame dSLR with crowd-pleasing potential

It's been so long since Nikon introduced the D700 -- it's over six years old -- that asking "what's new?" for the $2,300 D750 (I don't have non-US pricing yet, but that's roughly £1,420/AU$2,530) is pretty much irrelevant. It's all new.

A more interesting question might be "what's different from the D810," which costs $1,000 more. (Note that my analysis may change once I have pricing for other regions.) That answer essentially boils down to just a few things: the D750's sensor has an OLPF and lower resolution ("only" 24.3MP), a CompactFlash slot, it maxes out at one stop slower shutter speed (1/4000 sec vs. 1/8000 sec), and it has a lower flash sync of 1/200 vs. 1/250 sec.

Nikon positions the D750 as a more general-purpose camera than the D810, and the sensor does make a big difference if you want the sharpest stills possible.

Nikon D750, a midrange full frame revised (pictures)

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That said, the D750 has several potential advantages over the D810: an updated, more low-light sensitive autofocus system (though it still has the same number and type of focus points); slightly better continuous-shooting performance; built-in Wi-Fi; a tilting LCD; longer battery life; and it's smaller and lighter.

With comparable weather sealing, video capabilities, and lots more, I suspect some folks who bought the D810 are facepalming about now.

On the flip side, though, as a general-purpose full-frame it runs into the D610's territory, and that camera currently runs about $400 less. The D750's advantages over the D610 include newer autofocus and metering systems, slightly faster continuous shooting, 1080/60p video and clean HDMI out, a tilting LCD, built-in Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 support, and better battery life. And, in fact, with a few minor exceptions it has the same body design as the D610. That's a lot more camera for a fairly modest price differential.

The D750's body uses magnesium alloy for the rear and top cover, but incorporates lighter carbon fiber for the front chassis and cover. Otherwise, the design bears a striking resemblance to the D610. The D750 does have an extra Effects option on the mode dial and the Info button and Live View/Movie switch have swapped places, but really, overall the D750 feels more like a successor to the D610 than the D700.

It inherits some feature updates from the D810, including the more granular Picture Control settings (plus a new a new Flat profile for video and stills you plan to edit). It also introduces a Movie tab in the Menu system, which allows you to save different Picture Control, ISO sensitivity, and white balance settings, among other things.

My take

As long as Nikon didn't make any mistakes with the D750, it sounds like it will likely please a lot of the D700 users who've been holding out for something less expensive and lighter than the D810, though I suspect a subset will be cranky about the OLPF on the sensor and possibly the slower flash sync speed. And the potential performance improvements over the D610, plus the better feature set, make it look like a much better value, at least on paper. I'd expect to see the D610's price drop soon.

As for the competition, the D750 looks a lot better than the Canon EOS 6D, which is now over a year-and-a-half old and also ready for a price drop. Canon simply doesn't have a competitor for this anymore. The Sony Alpha SLT-A99 is also two years old -- it debuted at the last Photokina -- but Sony put a lot of newer technology in it at the time and it started out at as a higher-end model, so it's stood the test of time a little better than the 6D. Plus the price has dropped substantially since it launched. Despite its poor battery life, it's still a pretty good alternative to these.

Of course, there's also the mirrorless Sony Alpha A7 for those willing to forgo the optical viewfinder; it's the cheapest of the lot, not to mention the smallest. But it has miserable battery life and poor continuous-shooting performance for this class of camera.

Overall, I think the D750 has a lot of promise; I'll see when I get my hands on one to test.

Comparative specifications