Nikon D810 long term review

I bought my Nikon D810 in January 2018, so the camera is not yet 2 years old, but very close to that. The shutter is currently at 15900 shots, which means I took around 720 shots per month, which is not bad for a purely hobbyist photographer. I bought this camera after a few years shooting APS-C (I started with the D5300 and then upgraded to a D7100) and I needed something more rugged. I was also interested to jump into full frame, because I already had a lot of full frame glass, and I wanted to have that extra quality and wider field of view. So when Nikon launched the D850 in September 2017, the prices on the D810 started to dip. I got mine in a shop here in Taipei for about 2050 USD as they were clearing stock, and I thought it was a steal (the D810 launch price was 3000 USD).

Nikon D810 basics

Material: magnesium alloy, weather and dust sealed
Shutter cycles: 200,000
Resolution: 36.3 mpxl (7360 × 4912 pixels)
Sensor dimension: 35.9mm × 24mm
Format: Full Frame FX
Pixel pitch: 4.88 µm
ISO range: 64–12800, extended mode 32 to 51,200
Max shutter speed: 1/8000 s
Continuous shooting: 5 fps; 6 fps in DX; 7 fps with battery grip
Battery: Nikon EN-EL15a/EN-EL15
Viewfinder: OVF, 100% coverage, approx. 0.70× magnification
Rear LCD: 3.2 inch (1.229 mpxl)
Dimensions: 146 mm × 123 mm × 81.5 mm
Weight: 980 g (with battery)

The good stuff

The camera is fully functional and had no software issues so far. Not a single glitch, not a single problem (unlike my old Fuji X100T). There were also no hardware issues so far, but the camera is quite banged up. Therefore the only problems so far are of cosmetic nature (more about that later).

Backside shot.

The hand grip side.

Another angle from the back.

The back side again.

The front part.

The bad stuff

I first have to explain that I travel a lot (privately and for work). Since I bought the camera in January 2018 I went on 8 trips to South Asia (which is extremely congested, hot and dusty), as well as 1 trip to South East Asia (which was extremely humid at that time), then recently 1 trip to Japan, and 1 trip to Europe (all of these trips had Taiwan as the starting point). So the camera travelled 11 times between several countries and continents into various different climates and conditions. Do also note that Taiwan itself is very hot and humid. The second thing I have to mention as well: I almost never use zooms. I have 1 zoom lens, the AF-S NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G, but all the other lenses I have are primes (20mm, 28mm, 50mm, 58mm, 85mm, 100mm). So because of that I usually switch 3-4 lenses during my travel, which adds additional strain to the camera. So I'm not surprised that I started to see following issues of late:

This part with the red swoosh kind of popped out a bit. This was the first issue with the camera that I noticed (some 3 months ago).

This is the worst problem so far, and I noticed it a few days ago: The rubber on the grip is peeling off, if I peak inside, I can see the yellow glue. I plan to repair this.

Several dents appeared at the bottom, which is fine. This is normal wear and tear if you travel a lot.

The final verdict

The Nikon D810 with the Nikon 100mm 2.8 E lens.

Despite all the wear and tear issues, I still love the D810 and will keep it for many years, maybe throughout the whole 2020s decade, or as long as it works well. The thing is: The sensor is outstanding, the image quality is amazing. 36 mpx is a sweet spot for me and I believe it will remain as such for the foreseeable future. It gives me enough flexibility to occasionally crop images in order to fix some issues, and it has great dynamic range, which also helps me greatly during post processing to fix under exposed areas or any color issues. I'm not a subscriber of the megapixel craze, sensors with 40 or more megapixels are not appealing to me. I believe 20 to 40 megapixels is the best range for a hobbyist like me (I could even live with 16). One thing I am considering is to add a Z6 mirrorless camera to my kit for 4K video and for manual lenses, but that's a story for another blog. The D810 will remain my main stills camera for the foreseeable future, but I do plan to go to a repair shop and fix these cosmetic issues. I also need to clean the sensor for the first time, there are some spots popping up at lower apertures, which I've noticed it recently. In terms of ergonomics, the camera is the best I've ever used. I love the button layout and the vast customizations in the settings. The camera enables me to use only a few functions which I really need - for example you can remove various AF modes and types which you don't need, and there are dozen of them. I only use these two modes for example: AF-S (Single Point focus) and AF-C (3D Tracking). I can toggle them with one button press and a single scroll. I love the grip, as I have big hands. The camera fits me perfectly, and this is one of the key reasons that I'm not adding a Z6, because the grip is too small for me and uncomfortable. If I could change one thing about the Nikon D810 would be the weight. At 980g you add a lens and you're easily carrying a 1.2-1.5 kg heavy camera, which sometimes does get heavy if I shoot for a while. But I still think the image quality justifies it, because I am visiting places that I might visit just once in my life, and I'm glad I'm able to get the best image quality possible. I wish Nikon would have a 36 mpxl DSLR with similar ergonomics available in the future, just add some things like a flipping screen, a touch interface and SnapBridge. If the D810 had all that, and be a bit lighter, it would have been the perfect camera for me.