28.04.2018

The D850 got so many lorels and is still really hyped. Rightly. What results this camera delivered with such a huge resolution can you see when you take a look on the pictures. All the pictures were made with the D850 in combination with 70-200 f/2.8E FL ED VR and the TC-20E III to get closer to what happened. 45 Megapixels and these are also useful for sports photography, like car race. The ADAC GT Masters started on 14th of April in Oschersleben and I was invited from a friend to take some photographs.

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/2500, f/8, ISO 1000

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/1250, f/8, ISO 500

The GT Masters offers cars of the class GT3. These Gran Turismos class has cars like the Audi R8, Porsche 993, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 458 and more sports cars. I’m no great fan of motorsports, but I like fast cars and what I liked much more are the sounds which I got to hear on the race track. I got a lot of goose bumps that day. Before this race class the TCR Germany was still running. This class had some “smaller” cars like VW Golf, Seat Leon, Honda Civic and other. This racing series was no less exciting, what you can see in the photos.

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/2000, f/8, ISO 1000

This was my first use of the teleconverter TC-20E III and it performed really well. Of course, with a teleconverter you have a few downer drops, but the results are 100% respectable (in the truest sense of the word). The look through the viewfinder gets darker, the widest aperture is 5.6 instead of 2.8, so you have to amplify the ISO settings but with a camera like the D850 it won’t be a problem. The perfect sharpness starts with the teleconverter at f/8 so I used this aperture the whole time.

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/2000, f/8, ISO 1000

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 350 mm, 1/4000, f/8, ISO 1000

As you can see is my editing style really dramatic, the RAW files of the D850 offer so much play what should be used. I decided me for a strong vignette and a deep black. In combination with the bright colors of the cars this results in a wonderful contrast and the vignette lets you focus on the essential: the cars.

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/2500, f/8, ISO 2000 - no edit

The same picture with a full edit.

For the pixel peepers I got this 100 % view of this shot:

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 370 mm, 1/1250, f/8, ISO 250

At 100 %.

We also had the pleasure to witness what happened in the pits of Team BWT and Mücke Motorsport. I spent there some time before the race start and during the race until the first pit stop where the drivers must be changed. And of course shortly before the race we could go for a walk in the grid.

The drivers practicing the change. Nikkor 24-70E ED VR @ 52 mm, 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 2000

The Grid. Nikkor 24-70E ED VR @ 27 mm, 1/200, f/5, ISO 64

The Audi R8 of the BWT and Mücke Motorsport Team. Nikkor 24-70E ED VR @ 24 mm, 1/8000, f/5.6, ISO 5000

The drivers changing in the pit stop. Nikkor 24-70E ED VR @ 70 mm, 1/640, f/5, ISO 400

The D850 performed really well for this job. Sport pictures with a resolution of 45 megapixels with no crop are just superb. Altogether I made over 1500 releases at this day and of course not all had the right focus or the right exposure. The pictures of the driving cars were at least taken with 1000th of a second. There wasn’t always sun so I had be aware of the ISO settings to get a short exposure time. I’m looking forward to the next challenge for the D850.

Nikkor 70-200E FL ED VR + TC-20E III @ 400 mm, 1/5000, f/8, ISO 1250

Nikkor 24-70E ED VR @ 24 mm, 1/200, f/5, ISO 250