Nikon D6 is the replacement for D5 announced in February 2020 so I thought this was a good time to take a look at what’s new from the D6 and whether it’s truly worth buying it for wildlife photography. After I decided to rent this camera for a couple of days just to make a review. But nonetheless, I think pretty much got a good gist of what this camera can do.

there are certain features that it must have to compete against the currently existing mirrorless cameras which are doing exceedingly well in the world market. So, I’m going to tell you why some photographers bought the Nikon D6 instead of the new Nikon Z9 because their work is photography and wedding video.

D6 is a specialized tool that is a professional photo camera that requires the best tracking autofocus and the fastest shooting capability.

Nikon D6 is different than a first-generation full-frame mirrorless camera like the Nikon Z7. It’s a sixth-generation DSLR designed for sports in action and other types of photography.

Nikon D6 is a great version of Nikon d5 the upgrades and differences between the Nikon D6 over the Nikon D5 there are two cf express card slots, I believe backward compatible with xqd and the buffering is much better with the cf express card.

the camera isn’t a big upgrade from the Nikon D5, the video features are identical it’s not up over the Canon 1dx Mark III it’s not compared with the Sony Alpha A9 and Sony Alpha A9 II but this is a purely photography camera.

So, with a camera like this, you’re not expecting huge jumps and the reason for it is that these cameras are really meant for photographers.

Nikon has improved 4k the video functionality a little bit more and you can take some really good video and really good photos.

one thing that Nikon does always have is a flagship for us it’s the Nikon Z7 but the Nikon D6 is a different animal rather than a first-generation full-frame mirrorless camera like the Nikon Z7.

I still believe that this could be the end of the line for the professional flagship DSLR camera from Nikon that’s being offered with mirrorless cameras and the technology and the advances that are coming from mirrorless cameras.

let me tell you my experience about the successor to the Nikon D5, while I think mirrorless is the future Nikon wanted to get the fastest camera in the hands of photographers.

I have listed some thoughts from my Nikon D6 review, you can decide whether it’s worth it or not, I’m going to list out the things that I was expecting from the update and whether it’s worth having this camera for wildlife photography.

1. Nikon D6 Performance

D6 shoot 4K video at 30 frames per second very similar to the Nikon D850, it boasts a 20-point 8mp-megapixel sensor and 14 fps per second compared to the D5 which is 11 and 12 it got to XQD card slots where the CF Express cards can also, be put in tow.

the Nikon D6 boats ISO to 100 2400 expandable to ISO 3 million 280,000 powerful triple-density 105 points all cross-type all selectable AF system 14 fps using mechanical shutter + full resolution silent shooting at 10.5 fps in live view built tough with pro-grade weather sealing and illuminated controls.

it has built-in GPS Wi-Fi Ethernet connection Bluetooth, the water resistance of the d6 is prettyexceptional.

Nikon D6 comes equipped with an all-new high density all cross-type and fully selectable AF sensor and Nikon’s latest image-processing engine.

Nikon D6 capture imaging power astonishing speed dazzling low-light performance and extreme durability all paired with the most powerful AF. It shots with the exceptional focus where it matters fast and reliable 14 FPS continuous shooting stunningly clean image quality that shines in any light remote ‘less long exposures.

2. Nikon D6 Body

the build quality is always just as I expected it’s excellent it’s built like a Nikon D4 from the past. The grip feels very comfortable and the D6 feels very sturdy in my hands.

D6 got the elimination of the back buttons they are all eliminated look good and dark they have introduced something new which is the lock locking slot you can just use a regular laptop locking cable and lock this to your tripod.

there’s not much difference between the Nikon D5 and the Nikon D6 all the buttons, the shape and body look exactly the same. So, both are approximately the same size and weight and feel identical in your hand. It’s a little different on the top probably where they put the GPS and all of the different types of Units.

there are a few minor differences its built-in GPS and on-the-top areas are a little bit squared off. The ports have been stirred up but the build and design are different. The bottom line feels instantly familiar.

So D6 on top is larger than the current D5 but I think the Nikon D850 might have a larger viewfinder than the D5.

3. Nikon D6 Menu

the menu provides all sorts of options for it including an option to set the camera’s time via GPS signal and create an ongoing log of your position.

there are a lot of buttons you can customize 14 and there are 46 different customizations to choose from. Some buttons have dozens of options but others only a handful.

the D6 features a refined version of the little column menus putting all the options for a button in one sub-menu.

Nikon D6 features a customizable eye menu that looks like been lifted directly from the Nikon Z series when you press the menu it’ll pop up allowing you to adjust any of the 12 settings.

4. Nikon D6 Battery Life

Nikon D6 comes with a battery with almost about a day in my test I achieved eight 1800 pictures. The battery lasts 2.5 hours for a relatively long time which not every camera does that by far. In comparison with the Canon EOS 1DX Mark III lasts 3.5 hours.

the battery life will give you around 3580 on a full-charged battery compared to the Nikon D5 will give you around 3780 shots.

the new en el 18C battery easily provided me with around seven thousand to eight thousand images.

5. Nikon D6 ISO Range

D6 goes an ISO of 50 to 100 and 2400 and has an expandable option to help you go even further up to 3 million, 280,000, it’s got the new XP + sr built into it. With its performance, you can shoot 4K Ultra High Definition at 30P and this is all down to the Xpeed 6 processor.

So, the D5 and D6 really aren’t the greatest at lower ISO they are optimized well for higher ISO values. When I tested in Higher ISO D6 delivered nicer colors it looking great at higher ISO and I think the D6 is the best I’ve ever seen in addition.

• better white balance and color rendering higher ISO than the D5 does.

6. Nikon D6 Dynamic Range

If I compare D5 vs D6 they are identical when it comes to dynamic range performance.

7. Nikon D6 image Quality

In comparison with D5 images are very close even the D5 plays a very slight advantage but I think that’s because the D6 files seem to have slightly more contrast out of the box. With D6 you could get much better photo quality than D5 and more importantly, you could get much better video quality.

I can compare the Nikon D500 over D6 because I used to a few months ago and I can say the video quality wasn’t that good at 4K recording.

But Panasonic GH5 can blow it out of the water and what is the difference I think it might be the bit rate because Nikon just limits the bit rate from their video so low that even though it’s 1080 or 4K it does not deliver good quality.

8. Nikon D6 LCD touch screen

the LCD touch screen is still 3.2 inches and 2.3 million dots it’s a full touch screen and in comparison with the Nikon D5, it allows you to use touch functionality within the menu system too. The screen isn’t a flip-out style screen like in other Nikon bodies and Sony A7R IV.

this camera comes with a touch-enabled rear display with high resolution this makes this camera more user-friendly.

D6 has a fully touch-enabled LCD as against the D5s and limited touch functionality and a touch option in the D6 that allows you to quickly select a photo just by flicking up or down on the touch LCD screen.

Nikon D6 Specs

• FX-Format Digital SLR Camera Body
• 21 MP Full-frame CMOS Sensor
• EN-EL19c Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
• MH-26a Battery Charger
• HDML/USB Cable Clip
• UC-E24 USB Cable
• AN-DC22 Strap
• 14 fps shooting
• DK-27 Eyepiece Adapter
• DK-17F Fluorine-Coated Finder Eyepi
• Built-in WI-Fi and GPS
• 3.2 inches 8.1 cm
• 2.3 milion dots
• TFT Touchscreen
• 170 Degree viewing Angle
• 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution
• 4k 60 video
• f-mount
•  dual compact flash Express cards
•  en el 18C V battery
• Buffer Size 200 Shoots
• Shutter Durability 4000, 000 cycles
• Video Compression Mpeg-4 H.264

Nikon D6 boasts a 20.8-megapixel sensor and 14 flaps per second, compared to the previous model Nikon D5 which is 11 and 12. D6 got 2 XQD card slots where the CF Express cards can also be put in tow. It goes an ISO of 50 to 100 and 2400 and is expandable up to three million two hundred and eighty thousand.

It’s got the new XP + sr built into it. It talks about 105 autofocus points and it also comes with a full autofocus touchscreen.

9. Nikon D6 Sensor

The D6 is a full-frame 20.8-megapixel sensor that can shoot at 14 frames per second mechanically but in silent mode, it can do 20 frames like the Canon 1DX mark iii or like the Sony A9 ii.

The sensor density is higher in comparison to the D5 with fewer gaps between the column groups and the most powerful autofocus system Nikon has ever made. The new triple sensor arrangement will give 1.6 times denser autofocus coverage than D5.

D6 has an improved sensor over the D5 somewhere between 24 to 30 megapixels. It comes equipped with an all-new high density all cross-type and fully selectable AF sensor and Nikon’s latest image-processing engine. Its fast-action 14 FPS camera is the one to choose for the toughest of assignments.

let’s just get to the specs there is a 20. 8-megapixel sensor with no Ibis. Nikon D6 sensor seems to be just a tweaked version of the sensor in the D5. Nikon D6 has installed a new 105 point AF sensor with full cross-type sensors at every point.

So, what I mean is the cross-type AF sensors allow the camera to sense both vertical and horizontal lines. But at the AF point line sensors are only going to sense lines in one direction while the D5 had plenty of cross-type AF points. In my opinion, this will be the first Nikon camera ever to have internal sensor stabilization.

• Nikon D6 has quite a few line sensors
• potentials to use cross-type sensors all across the frame.
• the cross-type sensors have some limitations they revert to line sensors if you have an aperture of f28 or faster.

Remember when the rumor sites were saying that this camera would have ibis it does not have Ibis in it and that 20.8-megapixel sensor sounds awfully familiar.

It can do ten and a half frames a second silent or in the weird mode, it can do 60 frames per second at two megapixels or 30 frames per second at 8 megapixels.

so doesn’t shoot more frames a second in silent mode or like the 1DX mark iii that could shoot 20 frames per second.

10. Nikon D6 Buffer

buffer performance is 12 frames a second, shots at 14 frames a second, shooting 14-bit raw files drops to a still very respectable 171 frames using ACF express card and frankly.

the buffer is slightly less robust if you’re using xqd cards and shooting 14-bit raw files.

the buffer is more than adequate it’s less than 200 even in 12-bit mode. in order to get full buffer capacity you need to shoot at the base island this is true of the D5 and lots of other Nikon cameras.

11. Nikon D6 Autofocus

this is a brand new 105 point AF system with a full autofocus touchscreen in your live view using the new Multicam 37K autofocus module thanks to a triple sensor arrangement for each AF point, the shutter speed is from 30 seconds all the way up to one by a thousand of a second.

So, every AF point is now fully selectable while also being a cross-type sensor as well providing even greater sensitivity no matter where your subject is within the frame.

Nikon D6 has a new feature called single point watch area that allows you to expand the watch area around the single AF point which gives you a slightly larger single AF point than what you actually see in the viewfinder.

there is another new feature called auto AF area starting point that when turned on allows you to specify a starting point for auto AF.

• Single point watch area
• Auto AF area starting point

in terms of autofocusing it has an upgraded autofocusing system it’s a multi-cam 37K 105 point autofocusing system. It’s all cross-time you can do it in various different groups.

Autofocusing is 14 frames per second with a mechanical shutter of 10 and a half frames per second with electronic shutter silent mode.

Nikon D6 features focus shift shooting which can create a focused deck for you automatically like Nikon’s other cameras. It only takes the images you need to stack them on your computer once you get home.

D6 includes a new dedicated AF engine that processes about 1.6 times the amount of defocus information that the D5 did.

The new AF system includes four dynamic modes and when you break them down by size you have d9 d25 d49 and d105, this works exactly the same as the Nikon D5, Nikon D500, and Nikon D850.

the AF air is also much denser than previous cameras with more horizontal and vertical sensor bars than any previous model.

So finally in my testing, the D5 AF system is exceptional both cameras would give me the same results. Nikon D6 has a great AF system it’s the best ever in a Nikon, maybe not the biggest in AF performance, but In addition, the D6 still has a frame rate that comes in third compared to Nikon D5 and Nikon D5S.

I found that the D6 new AF algorithm is able to easily separate the subject from the background or foreground even if another object passes in between the camera and the subject. Also, another positive feature is when you use either auto-area AF or 3d tracking the D6 is able to achieve focus using the upper body face even eye priority this is done all through the viewfinder.

So, for me the autofocus performance is as I expected so the Nikon Z6 and Nikon Z7 have made usable long time ago, they’ve added some features and it’s got ten better.

12. Nikon D6 Shutter

it also comes with a full autofocus touchscreen, the shutter speed as normal it’s from 30 seconds all the way up to one by a thousandth of a second.

the shutter is a kevlar fiber variety and is rated for a whopping 400 000 shots standard shutter speeds range from 1 8000 of a second to 30 seconds. But the slow and can actually be extended in the custom setting menu up to 900 seconds that is a 15-minute exposure.

the D6 can also select slow shutter speed down to 900 seconds of a shutter speed or 15 minutes for professional photographers who are shooting in the field needing to file their photos on the spot.

13. Nikon D6 Price

the D6 would come in around $6,500 for the body only obviously this is a massive amount of money but these are professional tools these are not your cameras for every day the Nikon D6, the Canon EOS 1DX Mark III are professional sports and wildlife cameras.

14. Nikon D6 Weight

the D6 is almost 45 grams heavier than the D5 and it’s no light as a D5 is. If you’re a sports photographer or a journalist who needs a fast camera and you don’t mind it weighs like a brick on your shoulders then this camera is for you.

Of course, there are cameras that have sufficient or adequate speed for wildlife photography which are way lighter and smaller.

CF Express Speeds
D6 14 fps,14bit-171 Shots
D6 14 fps, 12 bit 200 Shots
D6 12 fps,14 bit 200 Shots
XQD Speeds
D6 14 fps, 14 bit 129 Shots
D6 14 fps, 12 bit 200 Shots
D6 12 fps,14 bit 200 Shots

ISO 3200 14 fps, 14 bit 151 Shots
ISO 100 14 fps, 14 bit 171 Shots

Advantages

there are so many improvements in the D6 built-in GPS, built-in Bluetooth, and 5 gigahertz dual-band Wi-Fi that can send photos directly to your computer.

I found the D6 files to be nicer to process than the D5 files they take a few fewer slider adjustments than the D5 files took.

• Nikon has introduced the mp4 recording US BC a good faster speed transfer.
• Nikon D6 includes a new Kensington lock slot on the side.
• Built-in GPS feature that will embed GPS coordinates into your images.
• Dounloading the pictures via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or a LAN connection.
• Download RAW’s via Wi-Fi using the snap bridge app.

with the record location data option enabled the GPS is always on even when you have the camera turned off. this means when you go to snap a photo you don’t have to wait for GPS to lock on it.

the D6 also includes a new time-lapse movie feature that allows you to set the interval between shots the shooting time and a variety of other options.

It tells you how long the final finished clip will be in its fairly full-featured.

• Supports a nice combination of frame rates and resolutions.
• support CF Expressmemory card
• D6 has a Gigabit Ethernet port
• can take more than 8,000 shots
• support more than 100 minutes
• Once the camera is done it outputs it to a finished movie for you.
• Shoot in silent mode and get a maximum of 10 and 1/2 frames per second.

Nikon has improved the mirror return mechanism to reduce bounce and vibration. It also reduces blackout in fact 14 frames per second the mirror moves so fast that the blackout effect seems very minimal compared to other DSLRs.

Disadvantages

• the video Department does not have a full-frame 4K shooting .
• The second disadvantage is the lack of 120 FPS slow-motion photography.
• Does not have an LCD that can move up and down.
• No support in a big way

Wraping Up

In my experience, this is not a video camera this is for the most part a photographer’s camera. So I still think Nikon D850 is the best wildlife DSLR camera you can buy. in my opinion, the Nikon D6 has the best Nikon AF system I’ve ever used it’s a bit faster and stick a bit better than the D5.

In comparison with D5, the D6 is just a faster version of the D5 the body is pretty much the same the back buttons have stayed the same but the performance has taken a nice little boost.

so the autofocus has a pretty good improvement over the Nikon D5, so if you are using the e type lens so you can imagine how responsive the autofocus is going to be.

the shutter sound is slightly different from the D5, it’s got a clear optical viewfinder an all-cross talk 105 autofocus with 17 custom group area autofocus patterns. The D6 is powered by Nikon’s fastest processor xp6 there’s a dual sd card slot available for the new CF express cards.

You can shoot horizontal and vertical, wi-fi and Bluetooth is available for transferring your photos and videos to your smart device using the snap bridge. What I don’t like is the ISO is very low compared to similar models from the same range.

Conclusion

I shot many times only to test this camera and I have been impressed I couldn’t ask for better performance. It really is that good as I expected four Kipp at 30 frames per second.

So in my long experience, the Nikon d6 is the end of the road the last pro DSLR that Nikon will ever make it. the Nikon D6 has an amazing level of customization options the most of any Nikon DSLR it could take hours to go through everything.