D500 General Discussion Thread

Coastalconn

@donaldejose Asked if I would share some of my initial thoughts on the D500.

Well my first thought was that it was riding a bike, even though I hadn't shot Nikon in 15 months I somehow managed to remember where most things were in the menus.

One thing became obvious right away, I have never used a camera with a better AF system. The D500 is as sure footed as could be and it has only missed when I have messed up which happens because I'm just not used to the massive buffer yet. I will be tracking a bird and in the back of my mind I let up on the Af button... Good ol user area.

To answer his specific questions, in all practicality I find no difference in the 24 MP vs 21 Mp sensor as far as resolution... I think the D500 was pretty great out of the box. I changed release to focus and release. I also changed af lock on to high. I know many people turn it off, but I have always been a fan of leaving it on. I also found group AF to be straight up deadly for tracking. I've played briefly with the other modes just to see what they did, but not enough to really evaluate them.

So far I have used it with 3 lenses. the 300 F/4D, The Tamron 150-600 and briefly this morning the Nikon 200-500.

So far I prefer the 300 F4 with a TC. Everyone already knows what a great lens it is and it focuses instantly on the D500 even with the TC. It also doesn't chatter as much as I remember it doing on the D7100 and D800.

I also found the Tamron to be a little snappier than I remember and still surprisingly sharp for what it is. I have a theory it will be updated very soon and might be the new best xxx-xxx lens.

This morning a guy that has been showing up in my spot wanted me to try his 200-500. I was really surprised at the weight. It's not even a pound heavier than the Tamron but it feels very substantial. IQ seemed very good even wide open. I was very surprised at acquisition speed though. It seemed extremely slow to me. If you were in the ballpark it wasn't too bad, but if a small bird came cruising by it didn't stand a chance to catch it.

I also briefly tried his 300 F2.8 and I probably don't need to say much about that...

As long as nothing goofy happens with my 500 that I sold to someone in Cali (it's arriving on monday) I plan on having a 500 F4 VR within 2 weeks which will be my walk around lens. The Tamron I borrowed from a friend to help with my transition.

donaldejose

Thanks Kris. Moose Peterson also says group AF on the D5 (same AF system) is best for him.

manhattanboy

donaldejose said:

Thanks Kris. Moose Peterson also says group AF on the D5 (same AF system) is best for him.

On full frame, group AF is the way to go. However, on the 500 I think it is not good unless you have a clear background. For example, if you shoot birds against the sky then you are pretty much never going to lose focus with group AF, but birds among the trees is not as good with group focus. I have been using 3D more on the 500. It eats the battery like candy, but at 10fps I find it is better able to keep up with a subject in a busy background then my feeble human abilities. I need to try 3D with longer lock on that Coastalconb uses to see if that is better still. The buffer on the 500 is great and the only time I have "felt" it is when I accidentally forgot to put the XQD card back in and was shooting off the SD card.

@Coastalconn I too am a little disappointed in the 200-500. Not sure why everyone LOVES that lens. Its not sharper than the primes and weighs a significant amount. I had mine tuned up at Nikon recently so need to test it out again to see if it is better.

heartyfisher

Thanks @Coastalconn for the mini review.

Just curious.. are you saying that the Tamron 150-600 focuses faster and more accurate than the Nikon 200-500? thats cool :-)

Coastalconn

@manhattanboy Interesting, that has not been my experience at all with group AF. I'm almost always shooting against non sky backgrounds and I have found group to excel at staying on the birds. I did find focus and release to help in menu A1. Another strange thing is so far I'm getting exceptional battery life. My D500 actually came with a faulty charger so I shot the first few days with AA in the grip. Today was my second day with the en-el15 and my battery is showing 47% left after 883 shots..
You can check my flickr page, I'm pretty sure most of my D500 images are in group.

Hopefully they got it tuned up good for you. I'm very happy with my 300 F4 and besides a 500 F4, I'm not really inclined to load up on other lenses. The only thing else I'm really considering is another Tamron 70-200 and probably a 17-50.

@heartyfisher From my limited testing, The Nikon is sharper by 2/3 of a stop so F5.6 on the Nikon is about the same sharpness as F7.1 on the Tamron. Tracking wise I feel they are about the same and to me the Tamron is noticeably snappier from infinity to MFD. Maybe the guy has a slightly faulty lens? The AF-S motor make a noticeable but faint whine, almost like it is struggling..

DaveyJ

The D500 I have been using with the 16-80 most. It is how my grandson, Christjen shoots it too. Then use my D7200 with either 10-20mm or the 79-300 Nikon lens. The 80-4008 mm Nikon or the 200-500 Nikon would also be useful that way.,I'd rather carry two cameras are n the field than change lens!

autofocus

I have the Black Rapid DR-1 Double Strap and carry two cameras for the same reason. I can carry a wide and tele lens to shoot without missing an opportunity. My next outing I'm going to carry the D5 and D500 where I would normally have the D4 and D810. The D810 will be close by in case I want the resolution. The 80-400mm has worked great on the D500. The 24-70mm will most likely be attached to the D5. Between the two it covers almost any situation I find myself in.

rmp

Great minds run along the same rut track. :-)
I carry the D819 - 24-70 and the D500-70-200 for the same reason.

DaveyJ

Problem with the "safe" capture cards! This D500 is apparently not resolved for all issues before it's release! Proceed with caution!

Ironheart

What are you referring to @DaveyJ ? Never seen an issue, I'm using all lexar.

donaldejose

I have had a number of issues with Sandisk SD card. Just click them out and back in and they are good to go. Rare event and never caused me to miss a shot. Likely to be fixed in a future firmware update.

DaveyJ

Problem resolved.No images lost! My Grandson, Chistjen who uses a D500 too found the problem in seconds! Still with the D500 are simply always in focus, always very good! Video takes more work, planning, and expertise! I do rate the D500 the best camera I have ever used. The actual problem turned out to be nothing more than a battery that was too low....and yet it seemed OK just would not playback. We are buying several backups accordingly! Thanks for your very swift responses, Nikon USA (the digital hotline also responded swiftly and accurately). My operator malfunction!! Posting this ASAP! Thank You'all!!!

DaveyJ

I was using Lexar XQD 128 GB and Sandisk 128GB. They were good to go.....again just a battery that I thought was OK but it was not. The Lexar Card Reader (supplied) and the new type download card are pretty serious! Nikon has one tremendous camera here. For what it is worth the Full time Pro shooters at this big race were incredibly interested in the D500!

heartyfisher

was it the new 20 or older 1 battery? (Li-ion01 and Li-ion20)

DaveyJ

The new one. It does use battery power! A lot of it!

donaldejose

Battery drain can be reduced by turning off some features operating in the background which are not needed and then turning them on only when needed. For example, turn on airplane mode in the setup menu to stop the camera from using up batter power constantly looking for WiFi and bluetooth links. Turn airplane mode off only when you actually want to use wireless.

manhattanboy

@donaldejose I shot several thousand yesterday on the D500 and found much better battery life this time. Not sure why the difference as I continued to use 3D AF tracking; the only thing I changed was to do away with the subject-only preference for spot metering, which was leading to blown pictures for me. Stupidly I didn't realize that there are two spot metering options, with one for the subject only and the other for subject in context of the background (which is what I thought the purpose of matrix metering was, but goes to show I still have a lot of learning to do!).

donaldejose

It also could be that when the new battery goes through a few charge and discharge cycles it charges up to a higher level?

Photobug

Agree with donaldejose on the battery life. I ran into that issue with the D750 and after two recharges, battery life is terrific and not an issue. The first outing I was stunned as how much battery drain occurred.

Ironheart

Two things are at play here. One, the first time you put a battery into a camera, the internal battery (clock, settings, blah blah blah) needs to charge, so that will suck some juice. Two, all of these batteries are managed with a chip on-board with the battery, and it takes a few cycles for the chip to measure/understand exactly how that particular set of cells behaves under discharge/recharge.

DaveyJ

Great Info on D500 batteries!

donaldejose

Thom Hogan's D500 review is out. http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/current-nikon-dslr-reviews/nikon-d500-camera-review.html He says ISO improvement is about one third to two third of a stop over the D7200. Still DX remains about one stop less than FX. No real reason to switch for that small gain. However, there is a reason to switch if you need or want improved autofocus, more frames per second and a deeper buffer. He also discusses batteries saying if you turn certain things off battery life is fine but if you turn certain features on it will use up a battery fast.

Sports

donaldejose said:

battery life is fine

True, I've seen the battery level drop from 100% to 30% after I shot 1900 frames. No wi-fi'ing or bluetooth'ing. Some chimping, though, but not excessive :-)

DaveyJ

I read the Thom Hogan D500 review. Certainly worth waiting for. My D7200 and D500 are both great cameras. I do have more faith in the D500 for some things. This camera benefitted from the D5 development...but that is a camera I will never own. I still,use almost exclusively the 16-80 lens on the D500. I've tried to others briefly. Soon though it will be in an Ikelite Housing with a Sigma 10-20 lens and a fisheye Tokina......Guess I'll have to get another D500? Right now I have to make money to spend money.....
We don't use Snapbridge much yet.....

heartyfisher

D500 prices have been so inflated locally here.. its like 35 % higher than the D750... luckily the prices are dropping steadily.. its now like 20% higher.. I guess since I have been waiting 8years its ok to wait a bit more :-)
( aren't they supposed to be the same price ? )

In the mean time my D7200 is going well :-) maybe I don't need the D500? ;-)