Nikon D500 First Impressions

[dwswager]

I've now had an opportunity to shoot with the D500 and these are my impressions.  Background, I have never shot significantly with a high frame rate camera.  Most of my shooting has been with the D300, D7100 and D810.

1. High FPS is not a panacea for poor skills in critical situations.  While  press and blast works on slower events like a pitcher's motion, I was unable to get the ball on the bat more consistently with 10FPS over 5-6fps. In fact, done right, it is he first frame that is the shot.  Though I did notice you can get more usable shots with high fps, just not consistently "the shot".  Hence, Don't expect the extra $1000 over the D7200 is going to "fix" things.

2. I have yet to figure out how to turn focus off on the shutter button to back button focus.  The AF-ON button works, but the shutter button still activates focus.  Dear God, I hope they didn't screw this up and leave this out.  I have this setup on the D810 but can find the control for the Shutter Release button. UPDATE:  Found it at Custom Menu a8:  AF Activation  (The cheese moved from a4 on the D810)


3. The focus speed is real and seems to track exceptionally well.  I got more in focus frames than expected.  It snaps into focus quick.  I was shooting with AF-C Priority set to Release. UPDATE:  Can't comment about the D4 due to lack of experience, but with any other Nikon DSLR below that, you will get more in-focus frames and a sequence will snap into sharp focus at least a frame to 2 sooner.  Still can't comment on focus tracking and lock on yet.  But if focus speed and accuracy is a big thing for you and you need a DX camera, the D500 is it.

4. Most people will not need super fast XQD cards.  I never hit slowdown of the camera with a Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s 32GB UHS-I SD card.  I even tried by shooting a sequence with batter from yank of the bat though the run to first base.  Never slowed down.  Of course, if you want to shoot 15 seconds straight, then you'll need faster cards.  I will probably buy one XQD card for backup/overflow and use UHS-II SD until I find a situation where that doesn't work.

5.  Hate that the ISO does not appear in the viewfinder information.  I shoot a lot in Aperture or Manual and Auto ISO and it would be nice to see what the ISO was doing.  The AutoISO symbol blinks when it is pushing ISO so just show me the number and blink it when it is above the set base!

6. THE GRIP  A lot was made about the size and shape of the grip.  I can't say anything except I didn't even notice the camera in my hand for the 90 minutes I was holding it.  It just felt right. And I have smallish hands with short fingers.  Hence, the worry over the taper and depth of the grip seems mute to me.

[gchappel]

Menu d3 lets you turn on iso display in the viewfinder. 
Gary

[pw-pix]

Good quick review, you cover some interesting points.

moot = having little or no practical relevance
mute = silent; refraining from speech or utterance

[dwswager]

Good quick review, you cover some interesting points.

moot = having little or no practical relevance
mute = silent; refraining from speech or utterance

My Daughter's high school soccer coach teaches Honor's English and tries to train me up all the time.

Found the ISO display at d3.  Not sure I need the Frame Count that it replaces.  Hmm.  Lot to learn even though I've been shooting the D810 for over a year.

[rdonson]

Great action photo!  The deformation of the bat really makes it. 

[Chris Livsey]

Found the ISO display at d3.  Not sure I need the Frame Count that it replaces. 

If you choose ISO display in d3 pressing the QUAL button changes the display to frames remaining, whilst pressed, both in the viewfinder and on the top display.

The manual lists a pitch and roll indicator in the viewfinder (in addition to the rear display of virtual horizon) but does not make clear how to "activate" this function. You need to assign Fn1 button to this function, I can't find another way of activating it. Other buttons can be used but it can't be activated from the menu.
Fn2 will not accept this function, I find it useful to assign "my menu" to Fn2.

There is a useful table of possible assignments of the buttons at: http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d500_tips/useful/custom_control/
It probably should be in the manual as well.

[Chris Livsey]

Thread a bit short on pictures, I've been playing with the settings. This in camera jpeg with tweaked "profile" daylight with 105 AiS f2.5, slight crop off the bottom of the frame.

[dwswager]

Thread a bit short on pictures, I've been playing with the settings. This in camera jpeg with tweaked "profile" daylight with 105 AiS f2.5, slight crop off the bottom of the frame.

Interesting and cool!

[dwswager]

I had the opportunity to shoot a night-time high school soccer playoff game last night.  High school fields are pretty poorly lit and  this one seemed worse since a significant number of lights in the standards were dark for some reason.  I mainly shot the D500 with the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 w/ TC-14EIII 1.4x teleconverter.  I have not processed the images yet, but had a chance to look through them

Bottom Line:

FOCUS:  The D500 is amazing.  Not much experience with top line D4s and the like as most of my shooting has been with D810, D7200, D7100 and the D300.  The D500 blows them all away.  It isn't even close.  Even with the TC it snapped into focus and locked on.  Even on shots I thought would be out of focus, were in focus.  There were some out of focus shots, but from what I could tell, it was user error not getting the focus point (Dynamic 25) onto the target properly.

NOISE:  This thing has better high ISO capability and lower (or at least more controlled) noise than the D810.  I pulled the highest ISO shots (ISO 12800) and while they weren't great, they would be usable with some work.  I'm normally able to keep ISO down under 6400 in most cases, but the light on this night was just low.  I was shooting with 1 stop under exposure last night.

BATTERY:  I started with a fully charged battery and had to change it with about 15 minutes left in the game.  This is a first for me. I have 2 spares plus the batteries in the cameras.  All my Nikon DSLRs use the EN-EL15 battery and I am pretty anal about rotating batteries regularly so not to always shoot the same battery.  This was the oldest in the lot from 2013 so it might just be that the battery is dying.  Something to watch going forward.

Memory Card:  Reconfirmed that neither XQD, nor UHS-II SD are required for shooting sports (at least how I do it) with the D500.  A Sandisk UHS-I Extreme Pro (95MB/s Read, 90MB/s Write) is more than fast enough to keep up...Video and specific super long pre planned specialty shooting are another story.  Since SD is the common format between my cameras, there are readers in every laptop and is fast enough, that will likely be where I position myself for now.  I have a 64Gb Lexar 2933x XQD and reader on the way from Amazon to fill that 2nd slot.

The issue with memory cards is that SD will be the king for some time to come because it is ubiquitous and has the speed to support the vast majority of applications.  CF is being killed off.  And there isn't enough market left from SD support both XQD and CFast.  Personally, I like the physical dimension of XQD the best of all 4 formats.  But with Sandisk walking away from XQD and limited market, I'm leery of investing too heavily in what could be a dead end.  Especially when there is no shooting benefit for me, though I like the quicker downloads.  But UHS-II SD is quick enough.

[armand]

I think those prices might be a little off, there are some sales going on.

It would interesting which format will live on. I don't have a XQD camera but I have 2 UHS-2.
On the Fuji X-T1 the lower grade Lexar 1000x seems be be a touch slower than the Sandisk Pro UHS-1 (therefore I have a Lexar 2000 coming) but they seem to be faster on the Olympus E-M5 mark ii.

I wonder if most camera makers who use SD currently will jump to XQD directly or make a stop at UHS-2.  For most cameras UHS-2 seems fast enough for the next 2-3 years at least if not more.

[armand]

while we are at it: http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/the-d5d500-blog/more-on-d500-cards.html

[Chris Livsey]

Shot at 51,200iso
f11 200th
24mm f2.8D Nikkor
Auto White Balance
Matrix metering
A mode
Some noise reduction in Nikon NX-D which I have no previous experience of using so a novice moving sliders and a touch of sharpening when it went a bit soft 3 mins perhaps. I have no doubt an expert could improve and this is of course of no photographic merit purely the toilet corridor in the coffee shop at lunch.
The Auto White Balance is spot on as far as I can tell, no grey card at lunch !!
Looking at the back of the screen, I was shooting in camera jpeg B/W, I thought I had mis-set the iso it couldn't look like that.
Exif is on the Flickr.

[dwswager]

I think those prices might be a little off, there are some sales going on.

It would interesting which format will live on. I don't have a XQD camera but I have 2 UHS-2.
On the Fuji X-T1 the lower grade Lexar 1000x seems be be a touch slower than the Sandisk Pro UHS-1 (therefore I have a Lexar 2000 coming) but they seem to be faster on the Olympus E-M5 mark ii.

I wonder if most camera makers who use SD currently will jump to XQD directly or make a stop at UHS-2.  For most cameras UHS-2 seems fast enough for the next 2-3 years at least if not more.

Prices were from B&H Monday, 2 May 2016.  Just paid $99.99 for the 2933x Lexar XQD from Amazon on 3 May!  If you have better prices, offer them up!

The UHS-II SD and XQD are certainly premium priced.

[armand]

I was looking at the XQD Lexar and thought it's the price for the UHS-2.

[RobertJ]

It turns out that even though the D500 is a crop sensor, it still outperforms the 1DX2 in low ISO dynamic range: http://www.dpreview.com/news/8090146652/canon-eos-1d-x-mark-ii-studio-tests

A very impressive camera from Nikon.

[BernardLanguillier]

It turns out that even though the D500 is a crop sensor, it still outperforms the 1DX2 in low ISO dynamic range: http://www.dpreview.com/news/8090146652/canon-eos-1d-x-mark-ii-studio-tests

A very impressive camera from Nikon.

This is very impressive considering that the 1DXII appears to be one of the 2 first Canon bodies with "improved sensor technology". On the other hand, as written many times, the high end sport bodies are more about high ISO image quality and AF than about improved low ISO sensors since very few people use them at low ISO considering that there are other bodies that are much superior (5Ds or D810). The intersting comparison would be btw their AF capabilities.

As far I am concerned, I may replace my D750 by a D500 in order to get more tele reach... and better low ISO DR than my D5. Combined with their soon to come next gen 200mm f2.0 E FL this would be hard to beat combo for the daytime part of my festival shooting.

Cheers,
Bernard

[dwswager]

This is very impressive considering that the 1DXII appears to be one of the 2 first Canon bodies with "improved sensor technology". On the other hand, as written many times, the high end sport bodies are more about high ISO image quality and AF than about improved low ISO sensors since very few people use them at low ISO considering that there are other bodies that are much superior (5Ds or D810). The intersting comparison would be btw their AF capabilities.

Remember, we are comparing a $6500 camera to a $2000 camera!  With focusing motors in lenses, we have removed one of the big discriminators from consideration.  At this point it is basically down to the focus module, algorithms and processor.   The JPEG algorithms processed on the Expeed5 are good enough to have be take another look at shooting JPEG in some situations or at least both and use the JPEG for it's immediacy.

Oh, the D820 looks like it could be really good.

And I know Nikon won't build it, but drop a 20-24MP FF sensor in a D810 body with the EXPEED5 and the D5 focus module and it would sell like hotcakes.  Hell, even that combo with a 36MP would sell spectacularly IF they make the shutter box capable of 8-10fps in 1.2x (25MP) and 1.5x (15MP) crop modes!

[dwswager]

***UPDATE***

FOCUS SAMPLE:  Was shooting the Alabama Area Softball Tournament yesterday.  I was shooting through a fence behind and the right of home plate as you look at the field.  The play occurred about 6-8ft in front of third base.  The camera was pre-focused on third because there was a runner at 2nd and I was expecting a play at third base. The attached image is the FIRST image in a short sequence.  The camera was in Dynamic 25 with AF-C Priority set to Release so the camera was not waiting for focus before releasing the shutter. The ball was hit so hard it drove through the third basemen's glove and was fielded by the shortstop who threw to first for the out.  Looking at the image in camera, the focus spot was on the player's hip. With no other camera I have ever owned, would this first frame have been in focus.  I don't know how the D500 compares to the D5 or 7DmkII, but I am having a ball with this compared to the D810, D7200 and D300 I have shot in the past.

BTW, the 3rd basemen, Shelby Booker, is the sister of the starting shortstop for the #4 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide softball team.

[Ludwig Nobel]

Some pictures from an oldtimer show this weekend. No 10 fps bursts, just testing the image quality of my new D500 with the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 and the Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR II. RAW files mildly edited in LR, standard LR sharpenig.
I found out I don't like Lightrooms "Adobe standard" calibration, camera standard is more appropriate for me.

Ludwig Nobel

[John Koerner]

The new DP Review of the Nikon D500 is in.

Result = Gold Award
"The D500 is the most well-rounded DSLR we've ever tested."

In a nutshell, the D500's image quality is only a hair above the finest ASP-C cameras, but its overall handling, rugged durability, and ability to AF and handle "live action" utterly destroys the competition. Notice I said "the finest," in regards to image quality, which means it's only a hair above the D7200 and Sony a6300 (the 7D II's image quality isn't even in the Top 10).

Other notable quotes:

• "Cameras such as the Canon EOS 7D Mark II and Sony's a6300 appear to offer comparable capabilities on paper, but these appearances prove deceptive in real-world use: the D500's autofocus and continuous shooting performance is noticeably better."
  
  
• "Autofocus is the D500's great strength: along with the D5 it's the best we've ever used. Just as mirrorless cameras appear to be closing the gap when it comes to following simple subjects, the D500 comes and blows them (and its DSLR rivals) all out of the water."
  
  
• " ... as an APS-C sports and wildlife camera, the D500 is without rival, and that puts in on the top of our awards podium."

Enjoy,

Jack