TIP: Turn on D850 eye/face detection AF (Auto
Focus) Even if Nikon hasn't officially introduced human/animal eye/face/head detection AF (Auto Focus) on any of their DSLRs, you can do this by tweaking the
D850 settings, to mimic at some extent the
firmware upgrades they have released for the
Z line.
That's because, unlike modern MILC (mirrorless) cameras, the D850 [or any Nikon DSLR for that matter] doesn't have 5 axis movement/vibration stabilization
built into the camera/lenses, and on top of that the
PDAF (Phase Detection Auto Focus) option is sketchy at best in most situations, and especially with subjects moving at high
speeds.
The obvious alternative would be to use
Manual [M] mode, which is way too slow, therefore that's not an option in the wild with fast flying birds/airplanes, running animals/people, or speeding vehicles.
But the D850 has an
advantage: it performs better with
3D tracking AF turned on than some of the mirrorless out there.
In order to
enable D850 eye/face AF all these settings need to be
enabled/selected/turned on ➜ [
Custom Settings: Fine-Tuning Camera Settings]:
Also, make sure you take all your photos using the
OVF (Optical ViewFinder).