Last Updated on 01/09/2026 by Chris Gampat
If you ask many working or professional photographers, they’ll tell you that the last great Nikon DSLR was the Nikon D850. And I very much would agree with them. This camera could easily find people in low light, had great image quality that was very versatile, and overall, it worked perfectly fine for a multimedia journalist. Back in 2017, we’d occasionally shoot videos too as part of our reviews. But we stopped doing that because we’re a photography-based website. And if you don’t care about video, then the Nikon D850 is basically some of the best mirrorless cameras in a DSLR format.
When I published our review, I said that it is an absolutely and fantastic camera in nearly every single way: so much so that I gave it an Editor’s Choice award. But at the same time, it was the last DSLR I ever wanted to touch. This camera is big and heavy. And at the time, everything that this camera could do, a mirrorless camera like the Sony a7r III could do better and in a lighter camera body. You’d be getting it just for the experience of using a DSLR if anything.
In 2025, we’re at a place where mirrorless cameras have become stale, sterile, and soulless. And looking through an optical viewfinder of some sort is probably a much nicer experience. That’s not to say that mirrorless cameras don’t help us with creating photographs, but in many instances, they instead lead us to simply just take what they offer to us instead of photographers taking chances and possibly getting happy accidents occur.
With all that said, I’d only get the Nikon D850 today if you really wanted a DSLR. And yes, it was Nikon’s best DSLR in my opinion. Plus, you can still get it for a pretty low price point.
One last thing: in many ways, it outperforms some of Nikon’s cameras with variants of the same sensor.