Hands-on with the Nikon D6

Nikon D6 with 300mm f/4 at 1/2000 second, ISO 400

I had the opportunity to test the Nikon D6 at several sporting events, which were ideal to put the super fast focus system through its paces, and it worked brilliantly. I chose a variety of action subjects, including motorcycle races, ATV events and BMX competitions. While racing photography is a challenge, the action is often predictable, so I shifted my focus to birds in flight, where the subject movement can be more erratic. I tried several features of the D6 autofocus system, including 3D and group autofocus… the results were fabulous.

Nikon D6 with 200mm f/3.5 at 1/2000 second, ISO 320

Nikon D6 with 200mm f/2.8 at 1/1600 second, ISO 2000

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/5.6 at 1/4000 second, ISO 500

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/5.6 at 1/1600 second, ISO 360

Nikon’s new autofocus system is truly a marvel, capable of the kind of smart tracking and subject acquisition you need in split-second situations. It recognizes subjects almost as fast as you can point your camera at them, and more importantly, it doesn’t lose them when your view is interrupted.

While the 14 frames per second continuous shooting rate is super fast, you sometimes want to limit the number of photos in a sequence – with the D6 you have the option of choosing the number of shots to suit your subject.

The ability to customize the button functions is another feature that lets you fine-tune the D6 so that you can make setting adjustments very quickly as your shooting situation develops.

For sports and bird photography with long lenses, I really enjoyed the balance and the ergonomics of the D6. The grip is comfortable and my choice of the 500mm f / 5.6 PF proved to be a winning combination.

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/5.6 at 1/1600 second, ISO 250

Compared to the D5, the D6 features an improved AF system, thanks to a new higher density 105-point sensor (the D5 has 153 points) with a brand new EXPEED 6 image processing engine. But the new DSLR is also equipped with faster image output and workflow improvements, along with better customization options.

The D5 was equipped with a touch screen function, but it could only be used in image playback mode and I rarely used it. The D6, by comparison, utilizes the touchscreen feature to navigate the menu system, which is extremely useful, especially when you want to enter letters of the alphabet to create the folder name, copyright information, photographer credits, IPTC, and other details.

Nikon D6 with 14-24mm f/2.8 at 16mm f/2.8 at 1/1600 second, ISO 900

Some of Nikon’s advances in the new mirrorless Z series have been incorporated into the D6, for example, the “i” button can now set 12 shortcuts for advanced custom tuning. Some of the useful settings that I personally set were Wi-Fi, autofocus mode, area-AF mode, focus tracking with lock-on, etc. This allows quick access to all these settings without having to dive deep into the menu system.

The focus shift shooting function was first introduced in the D850 and has been added to the D6. There’s no doubt that the D6 is a speed demon meant for shooting fast-moving action, but focus shift is a great feature to have for landscapes, close-up and product photography.

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/7.1 at 1/2000 second, ISO 640

While the D5 required an external GPS module if you wanted to geotag, the D6 features an integrated GPS module, which greatly facilitates the geolocation of images during your travels. This is very handy when you want to return to the exact location where the photos were taken, and when you want to provide very specific geographic information for your photo captions.

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/5.6 at 1/4000 second. ISO 640

I was really impressed with the GPS performance of the D6. It locked on to my location and when I checked the location accuracy using Adobe Lightroom’s map feature, I found the geolocation data to be very accurate every time.

Here are some photos taken with the Nikon D6.

Nikon D6 with 70-200mm f/2.8 at 155mm f/16 at 1/25 second, ISO 100

Nikon D6 with 500mm f/5.6 at 1/3200 second, ISO 1000

Nikon D6 with 70-200mm f/2.8 at 92mm f/20 at 1/40 second, ISO 500

By Jacques Dumont