Nikon D750 Performance

Camera Reviews / Nikon Cameras / Nikon D i Review

Navigate Review Jump to review page...

Nikon D750 Performance

Timing and Performance

Good to very good performance for its class.

Startup/Play to Record
Power on to first shot	~0.5 second	Time it takes for camera to turn on.
Play to Record, first shot	~0.5 second	Time until first shot is captured.

Startup including taking a shot was fast, as was switching from Record to Play and taking a shot. (See below for buffer clearing.)

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Optical Viewfinder
Full Autofocus Single Point (Center) AF	0.206 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture using optical viewfinder. All timing performed with a Sigma 70mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
Full Autofocus Single Area AF, Flash enabled	0.247 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture. Auto Flash enabled.
Full Autofocus 51-point Auto Area	0.228 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture using optical viewfinder.
Manual focus	0.055 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".
Prefocused	0.054 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.
Live View
Full Autofocus	1.769 seconds	Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button, waiting for focus confirmation, then fully pressing shutter button in Live View mode.
Prefocused	0.174 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button in Live View mode.

In terms of the Nikon D750's ability to determine that it's properly focused when shooting the same target multiple times (with no change of focus setting between iteration, to remove the impact of lens AF speed), its speed was good for an enthusiast model. The D750's AF shutter lag measured at 0.206 second using single-area (center) AF mode, 0.247 second with flash enabled, and 51-point Auto Area AF lag measured 0.228 second.

Manual focus shutter lag was only 55 milliseconds. And when prefocused, shutter lag was only 54 milliseconds, which is quite good for a DSLR.

As expected, the Nikon D750's Live View mode adds considerable AF shutter lag. We measured 1.769 seconds for full autofocus lag which is quite slow, but the lens used will make a big difference here. Once prefocused, shutter lag in Live View mode was 0.174 second which is pretty good but still quite a bit slower than using the optical viewfinder.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large/Fine JPEG	< 0.3 second	Time per shot, averaged over a few frames (we no longer test for buffer depths in single-shot mode).
Single Shot mode RAW + L/F JPEG	< 0.3 second	Time per shot, averaged over a few frames (we no longer test for buffer depths in single-shot mode).
Early shutter penalty?	No	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous Hi mode Large Fine JPEG (Optimal quality)	0.15 second (6.60 frames/sec); 40 frames total; 7 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 40 shots, then slowed to an average of 0.27s or 3.65 fps with a full buffer, but with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi mode 14-bit RAW (Lossless compressed)	0.15 second (6.63 frames/sec); 14 frames total; 5 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 14 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.44s or 2.29 fps with a full buffer.
Continuous Hi mode 14-bit RAW (Lossless) + L/F JPEG	0.15 second (6.67 frames/sec); 10 frames total; 8 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 10 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.72s or 1.39 fps with a full buffer.
Continuous Hi mode 12-bit RAW (Lossless compressed)	0.15 second (6.65 frames/sec); 22 frames total; 6 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 22 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.30s or 3.31 fps with a full buffer.
Continuous Hi mode 12-bit RAW (Lossless) + L/F JPEG	0.15 second (6.63 frames/sec); 14 frames total; 9 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 14 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.67s or 1.50 fps with a full buffer.
Continuous Hi DX Crop Mode 10.3MP JPEG (Optimal quality)	0.15 second (6.64 frames/sec); 100 frames total; 1 second to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over set buffer length of 100 shots.
Continuous Hi DX Crop Mode 10.3MP 14-bit RAW (Lossless compressed)	0.15 second (6.65 frames/sec); 42 frames total; 4 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 42 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.22s or 4.55 fps with a full buffer, with a lot of variation.
Continuous Hi DX Crop Mode 10.3MP 14-bit RAW (Lossless) + L/F JPEG	0.15 second (6.64 frames/sec); 18 frames total; 5 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 18 shot buffer, then slowed to an average of 0.37s or 2.748 fps when buffer was full, with a lot of variation.
Flash recycling	2.4 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card except where otherwise noted. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle times were so fast that they were difficult to accurately measure as they depend on the tester's nimbleness and ability to maintain an optimum rhythm, so your results may vary. (Note that we no longer test single-shot mode with just RAW files, as the results are usually somewhere in between.)

Continuous Hi burst mode was very good considering the resolution and sensor size, slightly exceeding Nikon's 6.5 frames per second spec in all the modes we tested.

Buffer depths we good, though not great. In best quality JPEG mode, we managed 40 frames before the D750 slowed down which is pretty good. You'll likely do better with typical scenes as our target for this test was designed to be difficult to compress. (Also note that Nikon's spec of 87 large/fine JPEGs uses the Size Priority compression setting, instead of Optimal Quality we used.) Buffer depth however fell to 14 frames in 14-bit lossless compressed RAW mode, and 10 frames in RAW+JPEG mode.

Switching to 12-bit RAW files made quite a difference, increasing buffer depth to 22 frames for RAW and 14 for RAW+JPEG. The D750 also has a lossy compression option for RAWs, however we did not test that. We also tested DX crop mode and while the frame rate didn't change, buffer depths increased significantly.

The D750's flash took 2.4 seconds on average to recycle after full-power discharge, which is good.

Bottom line, the Nikon D750 is pretty fast in most respects for its class, with fast startup, good AF speeds (when using the optical viewfinder) and excellent burst speeds for a full-frame 24-megapixel sensor. Buffer depths are good when shooting JPEGs but only fair when shooting 14-bit RAW files, however reducing bit-depth helps.

Battery

Battery Life

Excellent battery life.

Test Conditions	Number of Shots
Lithium-ion rechargeable battery, Optical Viewfinder (CIPA Standard)	1,230
Lithium-ion rechargeable battery, Live View LCD (CIPA standard)	Unknown

The Nikon D750 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and charger. The CIPA-rated 1,230 shots per charge using the optical viewfinder is excellent for its class. Unfortunately, Nikon does not seem to publish battery life results for when Live View mode is used, but it's a safe bet that it's considerably lower.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of on fully-charged battery, based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))