This camera is touted as a sports camera, and I'm sure it's excellent for that purpose, but it's also, at this point in time, the best camera to shoot weddings, events, and fast paced photo sessions (for example, with little kids running around).
My first camera I used professionally was the Canon 6d, shooting weddings and events. I wanted a camera with more dynamic range and better file flexibility so when the Nikon d750 came out I bought one with the 24-120 f4. I loved the files and DR range so much, I brought another d750 with the 24-85mm lens as a backup and for use with the 16-35mm lens. I still loved the d750but I had two problems with the camera
1. The settings constantly changed because I couldn't lock it in ( I had the same issue with the 6d). Shooting in a fast paced environment, I couldn't concentrate all the time to make sure the I didn't touch the shutter speed and aperture dials. When I reminded myself to check that I didn't turn anything by mistake, I had taken many photos either over and underexposed. It was a waste of time editing in post and I was not getting the best IQ because of under and overexposure.
2. Too little focus points. For portraits the AF points were passable, but for the dancing and other events, there were not enough outer points and I ended up with tons of ceiling space which I later mostly cropped in post( losing from the sides as well).
When the d500 came out, I didn't think I'd "downgrade" to a cropped sensor. The reviews were also mixed on how the IQ compares with the d750. But after being so frustrated with the two issues I was having with the d750, I decided to try the d500 because it has a shutter and exposure lock ( only for stills, it doesn't work in video) and a nice amount of AF points, which would solve those two problems. Well, I'm mighty glad I did.
ISO and Dynamic Range
After very extensive comparisons and studying the scenes studio test scenes on dpreview.com, the d750 seems to be approximately a third stop better at high ISO than the d500. I think its really amazing that a cropped camera is almost equal in ISO capabilities to an excellent FF camera. The dynamic range of the d500 seems to be a bit better than the d750. In IQ, the d500 easily competes with FF.
Sharpness
I am extremely impressed with the 16-80 lens which is very sharp at f4 ( I didn't test it at 2.8 aperture ) for a zoom. It is sharper than the 24-120 f4, and of course much lighter. Originally, I thought the difference in sharpness between the images I was seeing from the d500 and the d750 because only because of the two lenses. I am still very impressed with the 16-80 lens, it is indeed sharper than the 24-120 f4. But I saw a comparison by digitalrev.tv of the d750 and d500 and they said the d500 is sharper than the d750. And so I tested these two cameras with the Nikon 85mm 1.8g lens. Indeed, the d500 is noticeably sharper than the d750! It was incredible, I couldn't believe it.
Re- sharpness: Edited on June 4 2018: Regardless of digitalrevtv review on YouTube, after studying many photos which I did get tack sharp images on the d750, equal to that of the d500, I came to the conclusion that the d500 is NOT sharper than the d750. The cause for blurriness on the d750 is SHUTTERSHOCK. Pressing the shutter causes the causes the camera to jerk, thus causing the camera to move a few mm. Depending on the subject and aperture, the camera can still focus on the area on wants even if it veers off very slightly lightly off from the original AF target if the AF point is focusing on the same plane as the original target , or the targeted area of the image can be slightly blurry from veering off the AF targeted area. A fast shutter speed does not help in this case. Setting the shutter to "silent mode" on the d750 does help with shutter shock. The d500 does not have this issue at all. The shutter is smooth and focus ALWAYS where you placed it.
White Balance
I like the color rendering of the d750 more than the d500 in most cases. The d750 is more warm in color, while the d500 is more neutral. I prefer the more warm peachy skin tones and and warmer colors, but this is subjective and some will prefer the d500's neutral color. And in some situations I do prefer the colors from d500. It's actually the white balance, not Nikon's color science, affecting the warm/neutral hue. I use Magmod 1/4 cto filters on my Godox flashes, so the color is nice and warm when I shoot portraits with the d500.
Re-color: Edited on June 4 2018
Unfortunately the d500 can produce red instead of black color with certain lenses like the Nikon 85mm when used for contrasty subjects such as black letters on white paper. It doesn't happen all the time only under certain lighting conditions, certain subjects, and certain lenses. With these lenses it will produce much more chromatic aberation in contrasty situations vs a FF camera (and maybe other crop sensor Nikon cameras) This does not happen ever with my d750. Trying to use Lightroom's chromatic aberation remover results in large chunks of the blacks (and reds) disappearing, destroying the image entirely. Red chroma color can be lowered in post and it will make the reds turn black again, however in photos like portraits, the reds cannot be lowered too much otherwise it effects the photo negatively. This problem doesn't occur too often, but if you mostly work with high-contrast subjects, the d850 is probably for you ( Read above about the d750 shuttershock issue. Setting it on silent shutter almost eliminates the problem.) I would still choose this camera over the d750 for the pro controls since this problem does not occur often.
The Nikon d810 successor will be here sooner or later, I suspect in the next 2-3 months, and will be awesome as well. Some will probably consider it even more awesome than the d500 for wedding photography. However, it will also weigh more and for some of us camera weight with the weight of attached lenses (FF vs cropped), is a considerable factor, especially considering the amount of hours we carry the camera ( or cameras) at weddings and events. Some wedding photographers also carry two cameras at a time and I think that's a lot of weight to carry if they will be using cameras like the d810. And of course, the cost of the upcoming camera will likely be more than $1000 more expensive than the d500. I think the d500 is more than adequate for wedding photography and will likely be a better buy than the d810 successor for wedding photography.
Update Feb. 2 2108: I checked dpreview.com studio scene, the d500 (and also the d750) actually looks better at high ISO, which is not surprising due to the large amount of pixels the d850 has. (However, the d850 may retain better details at high iso). The bottom line is, the d500 has amazing clean high ISO and can compare to FF cameras.
Although 3.1 megapixels more would've been appreciated with the d500, I believe that the average 24 megapixels was sacrificed for the low light IQ. Nikon, had its priorities right in this case, however I hope the d500 successor will once again feature at least 24mp.
In summary, the d500, which has the shutter and aperture lock and sufficient AF points and IQ as good as the d750, makes for an excellent camera to shoot weddings with!
I now have sold one d750 and the 24-85mm f3.5-4.5g lens to help finance the d500. I still have one d750 but I use the d500 as my main camera because of the excellent pro controls. The d500 has the same IQ as the d750 except in low light it is only very slightly more noise that can easily be removed. I would purchase a camera now, I would definitely choose the d500 over the d750.
VIDEO
The video IQ is pretty good! I found that the touch focus is great for focusing on the subject before the video starts so it's great for interviews and subjects that stay in one place. I don't use continuous AF in video because Nikon video AF is simply a disaster, it is unusable. For moving subjects or for when I move I prefer a camera with reliable video AF. I really, really wish the d500 camera had good video AF!
Edit Nov 9 2017: No focus peaking, on top of no reliable video AF, just ruins this as a video camera. I wanted to use the d500 more often for video. The other cameras/camcorder I own that have reliable video AF which I use for shooting video also have small sensors. Very often I find myself in situations where I need better IQ that I can only get with larger sensors. And so I started using manual focusing with the d500, but with no focus peaking it makes it virtually impossible to be 100% sure that you are getting focus especially when I or the object is moving. It's ok when I'm shooting stuff for my projects that I can reshoot if it's not in focus, but not if I can't reshoot the footage if I realize later that it is not perfectly in focus. I mostly shoot video with the d500 on a tripod so I now use the Neewer HD monitor that has the focus peaking feature.
Also, although the DR of still files shot by the d500 is excellent, the DR of the video thhis cameras shoots is not so good. It's not worse than the d750 and it may be better, but it's not that good. It's almost impossible to lift the shadows and to grade in general.
Update:
I realized that I can shoot video with the d500 with the wide end of my zoom lens set to 16mm (24mm FF equivelent), aperture set to f5.6 with the subject at least 20 feet from the camera which in this case scenario the depth of field is to infinity so everything stays in focus even if the subject moves. (I focus on the subject before turning on the video by touching the touchscreen once. I have the AF on AF-S, not AF-C so the camera doesn't try to focus).
When I shoot video at events I use the d500 on a tripod, to the wide angle video. I use my other cameras which focus reliably (but have smaller sensors) to zoom into the subjects and to pan.
The d500 does not get heated up after shooting to the full 29 minutes of 1080pr, but it will become warm when shooting at 4k. The The Canon 6d used to heat up very quickly at 1080p (it doesnt have 4k), I needed to change the batteries frequently when I shot video and the d750 only films 10 minutes of good quality video. The a6000 heated up without finishing the 29 minutes of video it's, supposed to be able to shoot. But the d500 was only very slightly warm after 29 minutes of filming without stopping. I had tested the camera before shooting this event and it was a relief to know I can let it roll.
I'm waiting anxiously for a Nikon APSC mirrorless camera that will focus quickly during video and for a 16-80mm lens for that mirrorless camera that will focus silently and quickly when shooting video.
I will also not purchase another camera that has no focus peaking because I don't want to shlep extra gear, in this case an external monitor, batteries and cable, and I don't want longer setup and teardown time as a result of using this extra gear.
D500 vs D750 vs Sony a6000 stills IQ
Dreview.com's studio comparison tool is very accurate. Through side by side sample testing and real life shooting weddings and events comparing the d500 and d750, I've found the same as I see in the dpreview's studio comparison, almost equal high ISO between the d500 and the d750. So whoever still says FF is much better IQ than cropped has not really compared this camera to current to FF cameras well. DPR's scene comparison also shows how much better the d500's high ISO is from the Sony a6000 and I have found it to be true in real life ( as well as the Sony a6000 having horrible smearing in ISO as low as 800!).
This leads me to the conclusion that dxomark scores are totally meaningless! I don't know if these scores have any merit in technical terms, but in real life, the photos you get out of the cameras do not resemble dxomark's scores at all. Dxomark rates the d500 at a much lower score than the d750, the d750 having more than100% higher ISO score, and I find that to be really funny because it's simply not true. The difference is approximately a third stop ISO, not double the ISO advantage. Also, the a6000 is rated as higher in ISO capabilities than the d500 and I found that to be completely untrue as well. The d500 has much better higher ISO than the a6000, it's much cleaner and has no reddish color smearing. As I've mentioned above, you can see the excellent high ISO quality of the d500 compared to other cameras, FF and cropped, in dpreview's studio scene.
Update Nov 16 2017:
For stills:
After using this camera to shoot many weddings and events, I can say that this is my favorite camera I ever had for shooting stills. I choose to use this over my d750 because of the pro controls and excellent dynamic range. Coupled with the 16-80 lens's better clarity, sharpness and lower weight compared to the 24-120, it's simply a winnining combination for portraiture, wedding and event photography. The d500's IQ is fantastic, the FF d750 having only a third stop advantage in ISO which is nothing. Definitely a pro camera and a joy to use!
For video:
For video it is lacking basic features. IQ is OK but not as good as stills mostly because the DR is not good ( but better than Canon cropped sensor cameras and the FF 6d) . And editing the footage is not easy at all because of the narrow dynamice range. Because of its lack of video features and IQ, I cannot recommend it if purchasing mostly for video use.
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This Item  Nikon D500 DX-Format Digital SLR with 16-80mm ED VR Lens Black |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $1,600.00 | $6,498.00 | $999.00 | -5% $849.95 Typical: $896.95 | $999.95 | $1,287.00 |
| Delivery | Get it May 29 - 30 | Get it May 15 - 17 | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | Get it as soon as Monday, May 20 | Get it May 17 - 21 | Get it May 21 - 24 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Auto focus | ||||||
| Picture quality | ||||||
| For beginners | ||||||
| Sold By | Chumdog LLC | Focus Camera LLC | Wholesale Photo | Amazon.com | Willoughby's Established 1898 | Port Hole Renewed |
| display type | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD |
| display size | 3.2 inches | 3 inches | 3.2 inches | 3.2 inches | 3 inches | 3.2 inches |
| lens type | Telephoto | Prime | Zoom | Converter | Wide Angle | — |
| zoom type | Optical | Optical Zoom | optical | Digital Zoom | Optical Zoom | Optical Zoom |
| shooting modes | Manual | AUTO, Programmed AE, Aperture priorty, Shutter-speed priority, Manual, Movie, Slow and Quick Motion | Landscape; Monochrome; Neutral; Portrait; Standard; Vivid | Aperture-Priority, Auto modes, Manual, Programmed auto with flexible program, Scene Modes, Shutter-Priority, Special Effects Modes U1, U2 | Landscape, Portrait | Automatic, Manual |
| connectivity tech | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, HDMI, USB | HDMI, Micro USB, NFC, Bluetooth | HDMI C (Mini), USB Micro-B (USB 2.0) | HDMI, USB | HDMI, USB | HDMI |
| video resolution | 4K UHD 2160p | 4320p | FHD 1080p | 4K UHD 2160p | FHD 1080p | 2160p |
| optical zoom | 5 multiplier x | — | 3.1 multiplier x | 1 multiplier x | 5.8 multiplier x | 5 multiplier x |
From the manufacturer
Nikon D500 DX-Format Digital SLR
Description:
Meet the new DX flagship, the Nikon D500. At first glance, it may seem unimposing—but contained within a streamlined camera body is a veritable powerhouse of processing power and technological advances. The D500 is ready to go wherever your passion leads you, capturing everything with stunning clarity, speed and resolution. From busy, low-light cityscapes to thrilling wildlife scenes and fast action shots, the D500 is the ideal companion to your wanderlust. Marvel at the clarity of its cinematic 4K UHD video. Be amazed at its ruggedness and versatility. And, once you’ve captured your gorgeous photos, admire them on the D500’s high resolution tilt touchscreen display and share them via the built-in SnapBridge (Wi-Fi + Bluetooth) capabilities. No matter what you shoot, you can be sure that the D500 will be up to the task, time and time again.
Small, Yet Powerful:
Your favorite travel companion
The sleek and beautiful D500 goes anywhere you go, bringing along stunning resolution and performance. Packing a lot of power into a smaller camera body thanks to its DX sensor means you can take advantage of the smaller and lighter DX lenses in the NIKKOR line—and when you’re travelling, every ounce counts. The best part is, there’s no need to sacrifice image quality to gain portability. The D500 strikes the perfect balance with its 20.9 megapixel CMOS sensor, and is ready to capture the exquisite details, colors, and textures this world has to offer. With the D500 at your side—whether you’re hiking through the lush landscapes of New Zealand or on safari in Africa—it will be ready to go, effortless and unobtrusive.
Not Afraid of the Dark:
There’s so much more to see
Not much light to go around? The D500 makes the most out of every bit of available light, giving you the flexibility to produce high quality images in dark environments. With a native ISO range of 100 - 51,200, expandable to Lo 1 and Hi 5 (50 – 1,640,000 equivalent), the versatile D500 is not intimidated by difficult low-light conditions, down to -4 EV. Rich details emerge from the shadows to produce unrivaled quality found only with Nikon cameras and lenses.
16-80mm ED VR Lens:
Take photos and videos that are anything but ordinary with this state-of-the-art 16-80mm DX-format zoom lens. With a fast f/2.8-4 aperture, VR image stabilization and Nikon's advanced lens technology, it covers wide-angle to portrait views with absolutely brilliant image quality. An ideal lens for documenting daily life, conveying a sense of place, blogging, low light, HD video and much more.
Pro-grade image quality:
A new level of DX-format performance
Unleash the power of your high-resolution Nikon DSLR. Nano Crystal Coat virtually eliminates glare, while Extra-low Dispersion Glass and Aspherical elements reduce color aberration and enhance sharpness and contrast. Capture vibrant colors, rich tonality and a level of detail that's staggering.
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Getting Started with the Nikon D500
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DPReview: Nikon D500 DSLR Overview
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CES 2016: Nikon D500
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DPReview Nikon D500 Overview
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Reviews with images
So far this looks like an excellent camera
As an amateur wildlife photographer, so far I'm happy with this camera. I've only had one late afternoon of shooting Ospreys with it (EDIT: see updates below), and it was very impressive. Auto-focus is extremely fast, and the 10 frame-per-second shooting with a massive buffer is unbelievable. I'm using just an SD card (high speed) and I get 26 shots in the buffer (EDIT: in practice I'm getting about a 30 shot burst).My ratio of good shots to bad shots is already significantly higher than it was with my Canon EOS 70D, which is a great camera but not nearly as good at focusing as this one is. I took about 400 images today and there may have been 10 that were too blurry to make use of, and that includes a moment when an Osprey took me by surprise and I had to aim and shoot in about a second. The D500 picked up the bird and focused almost instantly.The shots are a bit softer than I hoped for, but I haven't used the automatic focus fine-tuning yet. I was using my (also new) Sigma 150-600mm Sport, which is a good lens but I haven't used Sigma's USB dock to fine tune it yet. So I (optimistically) suspect that when I use the camera's auto-tune and then use Sigma's dock to push it even further, I'll get razor sharp images almost every time. I'm very impressed so far, this is a big step up from the 70D, where I would get roughly 10 or 15 bad shots for every good one. Not knocking the 70D, I'm not a professional so I'm sure I have room for improvement.I'm also extremely happy with Snapbridge, mainly because it easily connected to my Android phone (NFC didn't work but bluetooth paired easily - I've never had much luck with NFC). Snapbridge is now automatically geotagging every image. That's a big part of why I got this camera - I travel all over the world and geotagging has become a necessity as far as I'm concerned. Here's a knock on Canon - before switching to this Nikon I purchased Canon's latest - the 80D. Not only was the 80D unable to connect to my Android (only worked on Android 5, and I was on 6 which has been out for months), but when connecting to other Android 5 devices, it was unable to automatically geotag images. After speaking to Canon support, they said it was a limitation of the camera, and suggested I grab Canon's GPS add-on unit. Unacceptable when almost everyone has a smartphone that has GPS capabilities these days.Some other quick notes, both pros and cons:- The shutter release button is kind of "soft" meaning even when I don't want to, I frequently accidentally get a burst of 10 shots when I meant to take just 1. Not a big deal, I'm getting used to it already.- The touch screen LCD is great, but I was surprised to find that it's not "always" touch-sensitive. For example, navigating the settings menus is not touch-enabled at all. Not a big deal, but I was surprised.- The swiveling LCD screen is good, but Canon's fully articulating screen on the 70D and 80D is better. I particularly liked that on those cameras I could turn the LCD around entirely, facing inward, protecting the screen from scratches. I already bought a glass screen protector for the D500 so it's kind of a moot point.- By default, the camera shows the remaining exposure count in the viewfinder and the top-display. If you want to see ISO instead, you can, but it shows up in place of the exposure count. So basically you have to choose between one or the other. For me I went with ISO.That's it for now, I'll continue to update this review as I get more experience with the camera, especially after doing some fine-tuning on both the camera and the lens.UPDATE: 5/1/2016I spent a couple of hours playing with the auto AF-tune option using both the bundled Nikon 16-80mm lens, and my Sigma 150-600 (which is not an easy candidate for tuning). The system works generally OK, but repeated attempts give different results, sometimes with wide variations. The Nikon usually got a -1, 0, or +1, so I left it at 0. The Sigma was a lot tougher due to how large of a zoom range it has, and different distances between myself and the subject. I'll have to use Sigma's USB dock for this, but to speed things up I decided on a +3 (manual) adjustment after getting varying readings from the auto adjustment system (from -5 up to +6). I don't think it's the camera's fault, the lens has so many ranges and subject distances that one value will never be enough.I spent another day shooting, mostly birds, and got some shots I'm very happy with. Success rate is still very high, and mistakes have always been my fault. For example I got some motion blur due to not using a high enough ISO setting (and therefore slower shutter speed) a few times on an egret (photos attached). I went up to 5,000 ISO yesterday and used Lightroom for noise reduction, which I was happy with. This was in bright sunlight, but handheld at long range on subjects in motion so I needed fast shutter speeds. I attached more photos here, with 100% crops as well (although Amazon may shrink those a bit, I'm not sure). More mistakes on my part, I forgot to switch the camera to AF-S for a squirrel and a turtle, both of which weren't moving, and didn't need AF-C / 153. However the pictures came out great anyway.UPDATE: 5/8/2016Took the camera to a farm animal event nearby today for more practice. Still a very good success ratio. I noticed something weird with Snapbridge. After connecting and putting my phone in my pocket, maybe 10 minutes later I would check and it would show no connection, and the camera would say awaiting connection. I would reconnect and put the phone back in my pocket, and 10 minutes later it would seem to be disconnected. I got annoyed and figured geotagging would be lost for many images, but upon importing, all geotagging was there. Not sure what the deal is but I was glad to not lose geotagging.I also made use of the bundled 16-80mm lens paired with a Canon 500D close-up lens today (using a 77mm - 72mm adapter). Everything worked perfectly fine, and I'm happy with the lens.As always, I believe any issues with the pictures are on my end. For example a decent close-up of a fly, using manual focus, was focused on his lower body instead of his eyes. Hard to tell when looking through the viewfinder, I should have taken some test shots and then reviewed them at 100% in the LCD and re-adjusted. All close-ups were taken at f/8, but I should have tried for a better depth of field at maybe f/22 or something.Adding more sample pics, my apologies if you're grossed out by bugs!
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018
Color: BlackVerified Purchase
I'm extremely happy with my purchase of the D500. As a beginner I was terrified of buying the wrong camera that I would outgrow fast. This definitely gives tons to work with. Obviously there is a learning curve from going from my note 8 phone to a dslr but I have had no problem getting some amazing pictures of my family. I did alot of research before deciding on this camera and I'm so glad I chose this one. I will definitely be able to use this for years to come without having any regrets of wishing I've gone full frame. Also glad I decided on the camera and its "kit" lens.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
My ratio of good shots to bad shots is already significantly higher than it was with my Canon EOS 70D, which is a great camera but not nearly as good at focusing as this one is. I took about 400 images today and there may have been 10 that were too blurry to make use of, and that includes a moment when an Osprey took me by surprise and I had to aim and shoot in about a second. The D500 picked up the bird and focused almost instantly.
The shots are a bit softer than I hoped for, but I haven't used the automatic focus fine-tuning yet. I was using my (also new) Sigma 150-600mm Sport, which is a good lens but I haven't used Sigma's USB dock to fine tune it yet. So I (optimistically) suspect that when I use the camera's auto-tune and then use Sigma's dock to push it even further, I'll get razor sharp images almost every time. I'm very impressed so far, this is a big step up from the 70D, where I would get roughly 10 or 15 bad shots for every good one. Not knocking the 70D, I'm not a professional so I'm sure I have room for improvement.
I'm also extremely happy with Snapbridge, mainly because it easily connected to my Android phone (NFC didn't work but bluetooth paired easily - I've never had much luck with NFC). Snapbridge is now automatically geotagging every image. That's a big part of why I got this camera - I travel all over the world and geotagging has become a necessity as far as I'm concerned. Here's a knock on Canon - before switching to this Nikon I purchased Canon's latest - the 80D. Not only was the 80D unable to connect to my Android (only worked on Android 5, and I was on 6 which has been out for months), but when connecting to other Android 5 devices, it was unable to automatically geotag images. After speaking to Canon support, they said it was a limitation of the camera, and suggested I grab Canon's GPS add-on unit. Unacceptable when almost everyone has a smartphone that has GPS capabilities these days.
Some other quick notes, both pros and cons:
- The shutter release button is kind of "soft" meaning even when I don't want to, I frequently accidentally get a burst of 10 shots when I meant to take just 1. Not a big deal, I'm getting used to it already.
- The touch screen LCD is great, but I was surprised to find that it's not "always" touch-sensitive. For example, navigating the settings menus is not touch-enabled at all. Not a big deal, but I was surprised.
- The swiveling LCD screen is good, but Canon's fully articulating screen on the 70D and 80D is better. I particularly liked that on those cameras I could turn the LCD around entirely, facing inward, protecting the screen from scratches. I already bought a glass screen protector for the D500 so it's kind of a moot point.
- By default, the camera shows the remaining exposure count in the viewfinder and the top-display. If you want to see ISO instead, you can, but it shows up in place of the exposure count. So basically you have to choose between one or the other. For me I went with ISO.
That's it for now, I'll continue to update this review as I get more experience with the camera, especially after doing some fine-tuning on both the camera and the lens.
UPDATE: 5/1/2016
I spent a couple of hours playing with the auto AF-tune option using both the bundled Nikon 16-80mm lens, and my Sigma 150-600 (which is not an easy candidate for tuning). The system works generally OK, but repeated attempts give different results, sometimes with wide variations. The Nikon usually got a -1, 0, or +1, so I left it at 0. The Sigma was a lot tougher due to how large of a zoom range it has, and different distances between myself and the subject. I'll have to use Sigma's USB dock for this, but to speed things up I decided on a +3 (manual) adjustment after getting varying readings from the auto adjustment system (from -5 up to +6). I don't think it's the camera's fault, the lens has so many ranges and subject distances that one value will never be enough.
I spent another day shooting, mostly birds, and got some shots I'm very happy with. Success rate is still very high, and mistakes have always been my fault. For example I got some motion blur due to not using a high enough ISO setting (and therefore slower shutter speed) a few times on an egret (photos attached). I went up to 5,000 ISO yesterday and used Lightroom for noise reduction, which I was happy with. This was in bright sunlight, but handheld at long range on subjects in motion so I needed fast shutter speeds. I attached more photos here, with 100% crops as well (although Amazon may shrink those a bit, I'm not sure). More mistakes on my part, I forgot to switch the camera to AF-S for a squirrel and a turtle, both of which weren't moving, and didn't need AF-C / 153. However the pictures came out great anyway.
UPDATE: 5/8/2016
Took the camera to a farm animal event nearby today for more practice. Still a very good success ratio. I noticed something weird with Snapbridge. After connecting and putting my phone in my pocket, maybe 10 minutes later I would check and it would show no connection, and the camera would say awaiting connection. I would reconnect and put the phone back in my pocket, and 10 minutes later it would seem to be disconnected. I got annoyed and figured geotagging would be lost for many images, but upon importing, all geotagging was there. Not sure what the deal is but I was glad to not lose geotagging.
I also made use of the bundled 16-80mm lens paired with a Canon 500D close-up lens today (using a 77mm - 72mm adapter). Everything worked perfectly fine, and I'm happy with the lens.
As always, I believe any issues with the pictures are on my end. For example a decent close-up of a fly, using manual focus, was focused on his lower body instead of his eyes. Hard to tell when looking through the viewfinder, I should have taken some test shots and then reviewed them at 100% in the LCD and re-adjusted. All close-ups were taken at f/8, but I should have tried for a better depth of field at maybe f/22 or something.
Adding more sample pics, my apologies if you're grossed out by bugs!
Color: BlackVerified Purchase
So far this looks like an excellent camera
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
As an amateur wildlife photographer, so far I'm happy with this camera. I've only had one late afternoon of shooting Ospreys with it (EDIT: see updates below), and it was very impressive. Auto-focus is extremely fast, and the 10 frame-per-second shooting with a massive buffer is unbelievable. I'm using just an SD card (high speed) and I get 26 shots in the buffer (EDIT: in practice I'm getting about a 30 shot burst).Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
My ratio of good shots to bad shots is already significantly higher than it was with my Canon EOS 70D, which is a great camera but not nearly as good at focusing as this one is. I took about 400 images today and there may have been 10 that were too blurry to make use of, and that includes a moment when an Osprey took me by surprise and I had to aim and shoot in about a second. The D500 picked up the bird and focused almost instantly.
The shots are a bit softer than I hoped for, but I haven't used the automatic focus fine-tuning yet. I was using my (also new) Sigma 150-600mm Sport, which is a good lens but I haven't used Sigma's USB dock to fine tune it yet. So I (optimistically) suspect that when I use the camera's auto-tune and then use Sigma's dock to push it even further, I'll get razor sharp images almost every time. I'm very impressed so far, this is a big step up from the 70D, where I would get roughly 10 or 15 bad shots for every good one. Not knocking the 70D, I'm not a professional so I'm sure I have room for improvement.
I'm also extremely happy with Snapbridge, mainly because it easily connected to my Android phone (NFC didn't work but bluetooth paired easily - I've never had much luck with NFC). Snapbridge is now automatically geotagging every image. That's a big part of why I got this camera - I travel all over the world and geotagging has become a necessity as far as I'm concerned. Here's a knock on Canon - before switching to this Nikon I purchased Canon's latest - the 80D. Not only was the 80D unable to connect to my Android (only worked on Android 5, and I was on 6 which has been out for months), but when connecting to other Android 5 devices, it was unable to automatically geotag images. After speaking to Canon support, they said it was a limitation of the camera, and suggested I grab Canon's GPS add-on unit. Unacceptable when almost everyone has a smartphone that has GPS capabilities these days.
Some other quick notes, both pros and cons:
- The shutter release button is kind of "soft" meaning even when I don't want to, I frequently accidentally get a burst of 10 shots when I meant to take just 1. Not a big deal, I'm getting used to it already.
- The touch screen LCD is great, but I was surprised to find that it's not "always" touch-sensitive. For example, navigating the settings menus is not touch-enabled at all. Not a big deal, but I was surprised.
- The swiveling LCD screen is good, but Canon's fully articulating screen on the 70D and 80D is better. I particularly liked that on those cameras I could turn the LCD around entirely, facing inward, protecting the screen from scratches. I already bought a glass screen protector for the D500 so it's kind of a moot point.
- By default, the camera shows the remaining exposure count in the viewfinder and the top-display. If you want to see ISO instead, you can, but it shows up in place of the exposure count. So basically you have to choose between one or the other. For me I went with ISO.
That's it for now, I'll continue to update this review as I get more experience with the camera, especially after doing some fine-tuning on both the camera and the lens.
UPDATE: 5/1/2016
I spent a couple of hours playing with the auto AF-tune option using both the bundled Nikon 16-80mm lens, and my Sigma 150-600 (which is not an easy candidate for tuning). The system works generally OK, but repeated attempts give different results, sometimes with wide variations. The Nikon usually got a -1, 0, or +1, so I left it at 0. The Sigma was a lot tougher due to how large of a zoom range it has, and different distances between myself and the subject. I'll have to use Sigma's USB dock for this, but to speed things up I decided on a +3 (manual) adjustment after getting varying readings from the auto adjustment system (from -5 up to +6). I don't think it's the camera's fault, the lens has so many ranges and subject distances that one value will never be enough.
I spent another day shooting, mostly birds, and got some shots I'm very happy with. Success rate is still very high, and mistakes have always been my fault. For example I got some motion blur due to not using a high enough ISO setting (and therefore slower shutter speed) a few times on an egret (photos attached). I went up to 5,000 ISO yesterday and used Lightroom for noise reduction, which I was happy with. This was in bright sunlight, but handheld at long range on subjects in motion so I needed fast shutter speeds. I attached more photos here, with 100% crops as well (although Amazon may shrink those a bit, I'm not sure). More mistakes on my part, I forgot to switch the camera to AF-S for a squirrel and a turtle, both of which weren't moving, and didn't need AF-C / 153. However the pictures came out great anyway.
UPDATE: 5/8/2016
Took the camera to a farm animal event nearby today for more practice. Still a very good success ratio. I noticed something weird with Snapbridge. After connecting and putting my phone in my pocket, maybe 10 minutes later I would check and it would show no connection, and the camera would say awaiting connection. I would reconnect and put the phone back in my pocket, and 10 minutes later it would seem to be disconnected. I got annoyed and figured geotagging would be lost for many images, but upon importing, all geotagging was there. Not sure what the deal is but I was glad to not lose geotagging.
I also made use of the bundled 16-80mm lens paired with a Canon 500D close-up lens today (using a 77mm - 72mm adapter). Everything worked perfectly fine, and I'm happy with the lens.
As always, I believe any issues with the pictures are on my end. For example a decent close-up of a fly, using manual focus, was focused on his lower body instead of his eyes. Hard to tell when looking through the viewfinder, I should have taken some test shots and then reviewed them at 100% in the LCD and re-adjusted. All close-ups were taken at f/8, but I should have tried for a better depth of field at maybe f/22 or something.
Adding more sample pics, my apologies if you're grossed out by bugs!
Images in this review
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