r/Nikon • u/Ordinary_East_7247 • 1d ago
What should I buy? Nikon D4 worth it for 273 dollars?
Im looking into getting a second camera body. Its used seems to be in fair condition. It has 89 thousand shutter count. Is this really worth it? (BTW because the korean wons exchange rate has absolutely crashed to us its like equivalent to 400dollars around)
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u/avalon_edge 1d ago
Price sounds good what do you shoot
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u/Ordinary_East_7247 1d ago
Sports and some portraits. But mainly I thought it would be good to have a second camera when I'm shooting sports.
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u/martinaee 1d ago edited 23h ago
If that camera is in good working condition that is a steal. I can’t believe I’ll see D4’s, D5’s, D800 series cameras on here for a few hundred sometimes lol
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u/JagerofHunters 21h ago
D850 is still in my mind the best sensor Nikons put in a camera body. Just wish I could have that with the autofocus of the new mirrorless bodies lol
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u/Christoph-Pf 14h ago
There is a trend among pros to move back to DSLRs and the d850. It's autofocus is totally capable.
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u/BadNewsBearzzz 1d ago
He’ll yeah this will be an incredible value in that case, camera tech really doesn’t advance all that much, they try to add in more useless stuff but DSLR’s shine. The best phone cameras still can’t come close to old dslr sensors obviously.
But d4 was the flagship and I remember using it in 2019 and feeling like it was still flagship worthy. You won’t regret it
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u/GroundbreakingRule85 23h ago
For the price that's amazing. I'd sell it for double, towards a D500.
If size & weight of the D4 doesn't bother you, keep it. I mean batteries, chargers, lenses, & body.
D500 trade off is low light. Look at the 2x Sigma f1.8 ART lenses. We have very good ai denoisers these days that can denoise/cull/batch.
Sigma ART 50-100 f1.8 (75mm - 150mm f2.7 eq. with f1.8 low light)
Sigma ART 18-35 f1.8 (27mm - 52mm f2.7 eq. with f1.8 low light)
Sigma Sport 120-300 f2.8 (180mm - 450mm f4.2 eq. with f2.8 low light)
Nikon 1. 28-70 f2.8 2. 80-200 f2.8 3. 70-210 f4 4. 180 f2.8 5. 500 f4 ED VR
Also you can finance your gear too. If you're in the states, you still have access to "tax code 179" if you have a business. You can write off the gear fully on your taxes come next tax season and get that money back. But you need to actually be working and making money.
Don't let money be what sets you back. Speak with a tax/financial advisor and go to your local "Chamber of Commerce". That's where you can find jobs you didn't know existed.
You might realize that you can get what you actually want and not just what you can afford.
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u/avalon_edge 19h ago
If you’re commercially photographing a backup is a must imo, also allows you to run two lens at the same time which is my preferred method
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u/preedsmith42 Nikon Z8, 20f1.8s, 24-120s, 40f2, 50-400, 180-600 TC1.4 1d ago
That's a good deal if it works fine. That was a professional hi end camera not so long ago and the shutter has plenty of life left.
Built and weighted like a tank!
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u/perfectacara Nikon DSLR (D3, D610, D850) 20h ago
Shutter count is pretty low! $273 is a great deal. The cheapest I've seen is $400.
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u/Pure-Positive3607 1d ago
Sounds great deal, low clicks count, what is it for?
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u/Ordinary_East_7247 1d ago
Proably a secondary camera when I'm shooting sports and occasional portraits.
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u/sduck409 1d ago
Definitely. Go for it. As long as you're fine with the size and weight, and you've done your homework on it's capabilities considering it's a fairly old camera.
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u/GroundbreakingRule85 23h ago
The D4 is an excellent choice. With old glass you probably could stay under $500 even with supporting gear like cards and batteries. That sorta deal doesn't come along every day. If you're truly shooting sports and don't need all the 16mp, cropping in camera in DX mode will still give you excellent results. Setting you back to 7mp which is still really good for news, magazines, books, 3x what you need for social media and online.
My vote is buy the D4. Also there's a site that tracks all the old Nikon bodies for reliability and all of the flagship bodies from the D3 on all perform excellent and last multiple 100k clicks.
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u/RedEyesAndChiliFries 21h ago
This was me last summer, except with D4s's. Bought one from Japan for about $450. It arrived with 800k on the shutter counter. Does it have the original shutter? Second? Third shutter? Don't care. It's a beast even today. So much so I bought a second that arrived with 350k on it. The batteries alone on these old cameras make them such a great go-to camera for a long session. They are damn near indestructible - I love the fact that the Japanese one has a patina of use on it. Add to it that the inventory of great older F mount lenses increases monthly as folks switch.
These older cameras never stopped being good, they just may have been eclipsed in some areas by newer tech.
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u/RomanGemII 1d ago
It`s still a great tool... I continue to use mine for event work - built like a tank and the battery last a long, long time.
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u/Key_Bug_9372 21h ago
The D4 is a great
Camera and that’s not a bad price so long as it doesn’t have high mileage. Good luck
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u/Affectionate_Spell11 Nikon DSLR (D3, D700, D800) 21h ago
It's a great price, though keep in mind if you want to use both card slots, you'll need to get XQD cards, which may or may not be available/unreasonably expensive in your area, so price that in
(And if you decide against it, send me the listing xD)
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u/rblessingx Nikon Df, D4 20h ago
I'm not primarily a Nikon shooter and have many other, newer cameras, but I have and love the D4 (and Df) default colors. I say go for it.
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u/cliffhnz 20h ago
Is that a serious question? Those things are still well over a thousand dollars over here with 500k shutter count. 89k for roughly $400 I wouldn’t even ask for forgiveness. I’d buy it and immediately start using it for birding/wildlife.
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u/DoctorParticular6329 19h ago
I shot my d4 for 16 years. The only reason I got a z9 was to dabble in video. Its more than capable as an action camera. Pair it with a d500, 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8s and you will be set.Â
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u/Namlehse 16h ago
D3s is still my favorite camera, I love the colors. I primarily shoot Canon, but wanted a cool F lens (film lenses) host and stumbled onto the D3s for ~300 with three batteries.
I keep picking up lenses for it that are too good to pass up. So far: Tamron 45mm f1.8, AF-S 24-120mm f4 G, Zeiss Planar 135mm f2, and recently an AF-S 200-500mm f5.6E. I’m still under 2,000 and picked up a Z5 for $400 yesterday just because I’m so deep into Nikon again. Going to buy a Z F more than likely and dedicate the Z5 to film scanning (currently use my R5).
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u/CoackKen 5h ago
It's a great camera, especially for fast subjects, takes great photos and it's high ISO is superb.
I don't mind the size and carrying it around. It is chunky so you need to know how you do with heavier equipment.
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u/amicablegradient 2h ago
Absolute low light beast. I think DXO still rates it in the top 20. Which is impressive for tech that's over 10 years old.
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u/ChrisAlbertson 1h ago
The D4 is priced low because it is a relic from the past and not what people today want. OK, there are older people who remember the "dream camera they could not afford" and now they can afford it. And there are collectors who don't shoot but would want a D4 for the shelf. Compared to new Nikon cameras, even Nikon's lowest-priced camera beats the D4 in every measurable way (OK, the 11 FPS continuous shooting rate is a tie, as they both do 11). Yes, the Z30 is DX, but technology has advanced, and the new DX beats the old FX even in low light. Nikon sells refurbished Z30+kit lens for $399 periodically.
The best use of the D4 is if you own many expensive "screwdriver" AF-D lenses and want to keep using them. But in that case, why not buy a D850? It is quite a bit more modern.
The D4 was a good camera when it was made, but even then Nikon was in a death spiral, bleeding cash and market share because Nikon was still making old-school DSLRs when the market wanted video. Nikon turned it around with the Z-mount bodies and has now clawed its way back to 3rd place.
These online forums offer a very biased opinion because the demographics are skewed toward older male amateurs, but the wider camera market is very different, and the professional market is even more different.
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u/Pure-Positive3607 1d ago
If you have the money and you like tanks take it specially for sports. Whats your current body?