I'm still waiting for the D780 to go on sale, but, stumbled into a one owner D4 with 30,000 clicks on it.   Camera is beautiful.  

How much better would the D4 for Friday night piss poor lighting at a typical high school football game?   I'm sure the autofocus tracking would blow the doors off my D750, but what about low light, high ISO ??    I'm "assuming" the high ISO performance would be similiar, since they are about the same vintage of camera.    Guy wants $1000 for it.

Worth the switch, or, be patient and wait for the D780 to go on sale with it's current generation high ISO performance?

Zero personal experience, but this article is pretty intriguing.  Basically the noise is pretty on par between them at high ISO.  The D4 will spank the D750 with autofocus though, and the high ISO looks a little more saturated.

https://picturestoryteller.com/2014/11/28/nikon-d750-vs-nikon-d4-iso-100-and-iso-12800/

D750 and then D4 at ISO 12400

Much will depend on the lighting available where you are shooting. There are fields that have modern high intensity stadium lighting, can shoot something like 1/1000-f4-iso2000, in which case you have fewer worries. Then there are fields with old mercury vapor bulbs with terrible flicker, and there are only a few cameras with the flicker reduction system - D5, D500, and D7500 I think is the whole list. Huge difference under mercury vapor or florescent lighting if flicker is an issue.

Really looking at big gla$$ to shoot football with an FX body, depending on exactly what you want to get. I'd think you would be looking at something like a 100-300/4 or 120-300/2.8, or longer. I shoot with a 100-300/4 on a DX body most of the time and wouldn't mind more at times.

Thanks for the replies and link.

My D750 does do a reasonable job at tracking and focus........I think my Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 G2 does a good job as well, providing I keep my shots in close.    A longer lens would be nice, as has been pointed out.


Our home field has lights that were probably put up in the 1800's.    I honestly can't think of a worse stadium for lighting.   A handful of our away games, the stadiums have artificial turf, which helps in reflecting some of the light back, and the field we play at in Traverse City has both artificial turf and really good lights.     Really easy to shoot there since there is sooooo much light to work with.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.    Think I'm gonna hold out on a deal for a D780, since the low light performance HAS to be pretty darn good.