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Cameras are commodities. Which is to say they're all pretty good at this point, it's just a matter of picking one. But which one? Should you go simple, ultraportable and just shoot with your phone? Or should you go to the opposite extreme and shoot with a hulking behemoth like Nikon's new D780?
Many people will still be well-served by a camera that's always in their pocket, but after spending some time with the D780 I would argue not only is there a place for the full size DSLR, if you're serious about photography and videography, the D780 might be a camera you've been looking for.
## Mirrored Pedigree, Mirrorless Smarts
The Nikon D780 replaces the D750, a long-time favorite of mine in the Nikon lineup. The D750 was a camera that was very good at many things and the D780 takes that legacy and combines it with Nikon's more recent mirrorless efforts like the Z6 to create a camera that's almost a hybrid mirrored, yet with many things we think of as mirrorless capabilities.
The D780 is an F-mount Nikon, which means you can use nearly any F-mount lens Nikon has ever made (though older, manual focus models won't record some data to exif and of course can't take advantage of the autofocus).
It has a 24.5 megapixel full-frame sensor with on-sensor phase detection. Pixel-wise that's not much of a change from the D750, but the chip itself has a number of features that go beyond pixel density to provide considerably improved images. Without diving too deep into the technical details, the new chip provides better dynamic range and improved noise performance at high ISO (the D780 tops out at 51200 ISO).
The other welcome feature in this chip is the on-sensor phase detection, which comes from Nikon's Z series mirrorless cameras. This enables the D780 to have 273 auto-focus points spread across 90 percent of the frame. That means better auto-focus accuracy and fewer missed shots. I had to work in my testing to miss shots. Nothing is perfect in the auto focus world, but the D780 is as close as any camera I've used.
Another feature pulled from Nikon's higher end DSLRs is the focus stacking mode. The D780 will shoot a series of images (up to 300) with very slight focus adjustments in each shot. These images are then combined to create a depth of field far beyond what a simple lens can do. This is especially helpful in macro photography, though it can work in landscape and other situations as well, so long as your subject doesn't move.
## Living Large
The body of the D780 is heavy, but comfortable in the hand and not overly taxing when slung over your shoulder for a day of shooting. The grip fits nicely in my hand and left the grip on my Sony A7 II suddenly feeling undersized.
The D780 is festooned with buttons and controls. I felt no need to customize any buttons as everything you'd ever want to tweak in a hurry is already accessible somewhere on the body. That said, there is no touchpad control or joystick to move the auto-focus point while the camera is up at your eye. Given that nearly every other camera maker offers something like this it feels like a serious oversight on a camera as otherwise feature-complete as the D780.
The tilting rear screen is now a touchscreen, and its tilt mechanism appears to have been beefed up quite a bit. You can use the touchscreen to set the auto-focus point when shooting in live view mode (what I think of as mirrorless mode), and of course you can navigate through the various menus and controls using the touchscreen.
The user interface on the D780 is very similar to what you get in the Z-series cameras and while there's a lot in there, it's reasonably well-organized and easy to navigate.
I may be showing my recent Sony background here, but one of my favorite things about shooting with the D780 is the battery life: it's phenomenal. Much of that is of course due to the mirrored design, versus the battery draining live video view of mirrorless. Nikon claims 2260 shots per charge using the optical viewfinder and my experience bears that out (I actually got better than that). When you do finally need to charge up the D780 it doesn't take long thanks to the USB-C charging port (there's a wall wart battery charger available separately).
Video is one place the D780 shines next to many DSLRs. There's 4K video with no crop, a 1080/120p slow-mo mode, and fast auto-focusing with face detection. The only thing that felt lacking relative to the Sony A7 series is in-camera image stabilization. If you want to shoot video with Nikon lenses and really need that extra stabilization -- and I'll admit, I missed it in shooting video with the D780 -- the Nikon Z6 might be the better choice. The D780 does have electronic stabilization, but there will be a slight crop. Still, the D780 is perhaps the best video performance you'll find in a DSLR.
Here comes the hard part, should you get the D780?
If you're already invested in the Nikon system, have a bunch of Nikon F-mount lenses, and want a good, jack-of-all-trades camera I think the answer is yes.
The higher-end Nikon D850 does have a larger sensor and more auto-focus points, but it also sells for nearly $1000 more. If you're a landscape or portrait photographer who needs the 45.7-megapixel sensor of the D850, then, well you need it. But if you're looking for a generalist camera with excellent specs, very nice straight-out-of-the-camera JPGs, and mirrorless quality 4K video features, the D780 is hard to beat.
The Nikon D780 is available for [$2,297 at B&H Photo](https://fave.co/2VQ6ntV){: rel=nofollow}, or with the AF-S 24-120mm F4G ED VR [kit lens for $2,797](https://fave.co/2SjaA7e){: rel=nofollow}.
***
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