Nikon D780 First Shots: Sample images from Nikon’s new Z6-powered full-frame DSLR

posted Monday, February 3, 2020 at 4:27 PM EDT

Click here to see our Nikon D780 First Shots

While Nikon is going full-steam with their new Z-series of mirrorless cameras, the Japanese camera maker is still dedicated to the tried-and-true DSLR, as evidenced by their recent announcement of the D780. As the successor to the popular D750, the new Nikon D780 maintains a similar DSLR body style, keeps the same 24MP image resolution (though using a newer sensor) and blends both photo and video features for a versatile, multimedia-centric powerhouse.

In fact, the Nikon D780 brings over a host of features and performance capabilities of the Z6 full-frame mirrorless camera, including a similar 24MP sensor with on-sensor phase-detect -- a first for a Nikon DSLR. As such, the Live View shooting experience is drastically improved for both stills and video compared to earlier Nikon DSLRs. Live View AF is reportedly much faster, the camera offers Eye AF and up to 12fps burst shooting when using the electronic shutter in Live View. Powering the camera is a newer, faster EXPEED 6 image processor.

In terms of shooting performance, the D780 offers a more expansive ISO range, with a native range of ISO 100 up to ISO 51,200. The D780 offers further sensitivity expansion down to a low ISO of 50 and all the way up to ISO 204,800 for extreme low-light shooting. Plus, the shutter mechanism is new, allowing for faster 1/8000s shutter speeds, or super long shutter times down to a full 15 minutes!

We recently got our hands on our NIkon D780 review unit and have just published our First Shots series of lab sample images. Here, you can see the image quality performance across the camera's full ISO range, both with default NR processing and with it disabled. And, of course, there are RAW files to download as well. Below are a few quick comparison crops showing the D780 up against a few competing cameras, the Canon 6D Mark II and Sony A7 III. Of course, jump over to our Comparometer to see side-by-side sample images from any of the cameras we've ever lab-tested.