Nikon D850 Quick start guide

Professional
En
Technical Guide
— Useful Features —

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Table of Contents
Live View: Pinpoint AF ........................................................ 4
Focus Stacking (Focus Shift Photography) .................... 8
• “Focus Shift Shooting” ..................................................................10
• Before Shooting .............................................................................12
• Focus Shift Photography ..............................................................13
• Suggested Settings .......................................................................16
• Choosing the Number of Shots ..................................................18
• Focus Shift: Tips ..............................................................................21
• Before Stacking ..............................................................................22
• Some Examples of Focus Stacking ............................................23
White Balance Tips and Tricks ......................................... 25
• White Balance Options .................................................................25
• Auto White Balance for Incandescent Lighting ......................27
• Natural Light Auto .........................................................................28
• Color Temperature Information .................................................29
• Measuring Preset Manual White Balance ................................30
Muing the Shutter ......................................................... 32
• ”Quiet” Versus “Silent” ...................................................................32
• Quiet Shutter-Release Mode .......................................................33
• Silent Photography .......................................................................34
• Movie Stills ......................................................................................35

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Focus Peaking .................................................................... 36
Cropping and Zoom ......................................................... 37
On-Camera Batch NEF (RAW) Processing ..................... 38
• The Benefits of On-Camera Processing ....................................38
• On-Camera NEF (RAW) Processing ............................................39
Auto AF Fine-Tuning ......................................................... 43

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Live View: Pinpoint AF
The D850’s live view features a new pinpoint AF-area mode
for more precise focus than ever before.
Pinpoint AF: The camera
focuses precisely on
the intended point (in
this case, the stamens).
Intended focus point (enlarged)
Normal-area AF: The
wider focus area may
result in the camera
not focusing on the
intended point.
Intended focus point (enlarged)

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Follow the steps below to take pictures using pinpoint
AF. Before proceeding, we recommend that you mount
the camera on a tripod and select single-servo autofocus
(AF-S).
1 Start live view.
Pinpoint AF is available in live
view only. Press the a button
to start live view.
2 Select 3.
Keeping the AF-mode button pressed, rotate the sub-
command dial until 3 (pinpoint AF) appears in the
display.

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3 Position the focus point.
Use the multi selector or touch
controls to position the focus
point, or press the center of
the multi selector to return the
focus point to the center of the
frame.
4 Zoom in.
For greater accuracy, press the
X button to zoom in on the se-
lected focus point.
5 Take the picture.
Although you can take pictures using the shutter-re-
lease button, to prevent blur caused by camera shake
we recommend that you use the remote photography
feature in the SnapBridge app or an optional accesso-
ry such as a wireless remote controller or remote cord.

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Live View: Pinpoint AF
Touch Controls
When using touch controls to
position the focus point, note
that at default settings, the shut-
ter will be released when you
lift your nger from the display
(“touch shutter”); for more accu-
rate focus, tap the touch shutter
icon to turn the touch shutter o (X).

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“Focus stacking” combines photos shot at dierent focus
positions into a single image with increased depth of eld.
The D850’s new focus shift feature, which automatically
varies focus over a series of shots, is used to take photos
that will later be combined using focus stacking.
Normal photograph Focus-stacked image
(for camera settings, see page 23)
Normal photograph Focus-stacked image
(for camera settings, see page 24)
Focus Stacking (Focus Shift Photography)

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When shooting is complete, you can copy the photos to
a computer and use third-party focus-stacking software
to combine the areas that are in focus into a single image.
The camera takes a se-
ries of shots (150 in this
example), which are
used to create a com-
posite image contain-
ing only the areas that
are in focus.
Focus-Stacking Software
The following applications support focus stacking. Note that
Nikon neither endorses this software nor guarantees its op-
eration.
• Adobe: Photoshop CC
• Helicon Soft: Helicon Focus
• Zerene Systems: Zerene Stacker

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“Focus Shift Shooting”
The Focus shift shooting item in
the photo shooting menu is used
to adjust settings for focus shift
photography. The following op-
tions are available:
• Start: Start shooting. The camera
will change the focus distance by the selected amount
with each shot.
• No. of shots: Choose the number of shots (up to 300) that
you will need when performing focus stacking.
• Focus step width: Choose the amount the focus distance
changes with each shot. The options available range
from 1 to 10: choose lower values for smaller steps, high-
er values for larger steps.
• Interval until next shot: The time between shots, in seconds.
Select 00 to take photos at approximately 5fps (release
modes S, Cl, Ch, and Mup) or 3fps (release modes Q and QC).
• Exposure smoothing: If On is selected, the camera will adjust
the exposure for each new shot to match the immedi-
ately preceding shot.
• Silent photography: Select On to silence the shutter during
shooting.
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