D500 General Discussion Thread

starralazn

i'm kinda curious, and forgive me if this has been answered already(tried a search nothing seemed to come up), but where is the D500 manufactured?
for that matter, is there information online telling you where Nikon makes its dslrs?

PB_PM

Nikon's Thailand factory is where the all the DSLR's, other than the D5 which is made in Japan, are made.

Many of the lower end compact cameras are made in Indonesia.

Ironheart

Ken Rockwell always lists where stuff is made.

VisualUniverse

D500 test shot of Andromeda Galaxy through Takahashi TOA-150 telescope:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/visual-universe/28779966486/

MegapixelSchnitzel

Impressive, VisualU'. If we placed the same shot from a D810A side-by-side, I wonder if we'd be able to see the difference?

heartyfisher

Auto guider .. sigh.. wouldn't have thought such a thing was needed or exist.. terribly ignorant I am.

Ironheart

Deep space imaging requires a tracking mount of some sort. Even the hubble 'scope has to lock onto guide stars and use gyroscopes to keep a constant view for the longer images. That's why an equatorial mount is aligned to the north (or south) star (celestial pole) and is driven by a clock-like motor to the precise speed of the rotation of the earth. If you leave your shutter open for any appreciable period of time on a fixed mount, you will get "star trails" instead of points due to this motion.

Gator67

I'm new, I now have a D500 and am having trouble viewing photos on my PC with windows 10. Anyone have a similar issue. Thanks, Lee

rmp

Have you downloaded a Nikon Codex? http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/170/NEF_Codec.html

Msmoto

Just another positive word about the D500. With the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART, this is like an old Nikon F with a 50mm. Great street camera, hangs nicely off a Black Rapid strap attached to an ARCA Swiss plate on bottom. Mine is of course covered with black gaffer's tape to make it look like it has been beaten up.... LOL

I am very happy with it, am looking forward to using it with a longer lens (70-200/2.8 w/TC 14 and 20 as needed) during the pro-am at the upcoming Wyndham golf tournament here in Greensboro.

heartyfisher

jimo said:

Tell me is it the D500 AF that is helping with this dragonfly in flight image? I have done some dragonfly in flight photos before but I was never able to get AF to work fast enough.

jimo

This guy was bouncing around, would be stationary for a few then move a few feet to stop again. Yes the AF did help.

DaveyJ

I shot dragonflies in flight with a D300 and the 70-300 lens. In my opinion it is more to do with a dragonfly who is checking something out than it is with the camera. Some will stay stationary for some time. All that said....the D500 and the same lens would be really good, although personally for lens I would now take the 55-300 as it allows closer focusing. Still, very nice shot.

heartyfisher

Would be interesting if you could give it a go and let us know if it AF as you expect. Ie d500 + 55-300. As i understand it the 55-300 is not known for speedy AF

starralazn

i think i read somewhere on here that some people are finding the 55-300 to focus quickly on the d500, surprisingly. let's see what crawls out of the woodwork..

pictureted

starralazn said:

i think i read somewhere on here that some people are finding the 55-300 to focus quickly on the d500, surprisingly. let's see what crawls out of the woodwork..

I would not be surprised. I'd stopped using the 70-300VR after getting the 70-200/4, but I've found the faster (and more accurate) AF of the D500 has resurrected it and it's become part of my standard D500 kit as a perfect "walk-about" lens. Not perfect if I have time and tripod, but perfect if I don't.

DaveyJ

Unfortunately the 55-300 seems fixed on the D7200, and the D500 on the 16-80, and another D7200 mostly with the 70-300.....all work fast and have non switched lens much. I am working on a timber frame construction project and the cameras are used for work and what with other gear tech requirements, and other types of cameras used too.....switching the 55-300 just hasn't happened really but I will try to correct this?

Photobug

This afternoon I had the opportunity to touch, feel, and shoot the D500 with the new 16-80 lens. Initial impressions, the lens is a nice balance for this camera. As a past D300 owner, oh how I really liked that D500 body. Wow, button placement, grip, and the shutter sound. Really like the two Function buttons. Very impressed with this new addition. Sure looks like a great replacement to the D300. Makes my D7100 look old; especially after shooting over 1,000 photos on vacation a few weeks ago.

Yesterday received the Popular Photography mag and there was a review on the D500. Sure looks like a winner.

spraynpray

Yebbut from the pictures you post here, the D7100 will give at least as good - or even better - results than the D500.

I'd love one but I don't shoot the genres it is optimised for. I would swap my D7100 for a D7200, but only for a cost difference of £100 because there is so little difference.

Photobug

Thanks spraynpray on your kind comments. The D7100 is an excellent camera and I am pleased with it. I need time to start working on pulling out my better shots from vacation last month. The combination of the D7100 and D750 worked so well on vacation.

Msmoto

Just a note from this morning...D500, 70-200/2.8, TC-20EIII....the result after a quick in house AF, at 10 feet no correction required......but, on the golf course at 200mm, about 75 yards... horrible front focus...yikes, but when a bit closer this seemed to diminish and I got some decent shots. At 140mm, f/6.3 1/1000 sec, ISO 320


Bigger: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fantinesfotos/28946871522/sizes/o/

So, I will most likely do a formal AF fine tune on the various combinations. But, having 600mm equivalent, using a tree to provide support, pretty cool for being able to hand hold and carry around on a horribly hot humid day.

iAmJake

I don't know if this has been asked, but will there be any company coming out with SDXC to XQD card adapters? I'm close to affording a D500 and I'm doing my due diligence and researching options. So far my research has turned up nothing.

retread

The XQD card is longer, wider and thicker than a SD card. There is not room for a XQD card to fit in a SD slot even with out an adapter. Any adapter would stick out of the camera and prevent closing the door over the cards.

An adapter cold be used in a computer but card readers for both cards are available so I see no reason for one.

XQD cards out preform SD II cards so two of them in the camera would be my wish.

Nikon can we have an upgrade conversion please

Ironheart

We've been down this road before. Don't buy a Ferrari if you can't afford the gas That being said, SD cards work fine in the D500, albeit like putting 87 octane in a car that wants 92 or 100 (yes, they sell it near my house for like $6 a gallon, I used to go to the airport, but only with my '67 BMW motorcycle since avgas still has lead in it) The fastest SD card goes 160 MB/s, and the fastest XQD almost hits300 MB/s. A non UHS-2 SD will barely break 80 MB/s, and generally much slower. This will severely limit your buffer size, since getting to the full 200 frames requires a card to write almost as fast as it fills.
http://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/nikon-d500/sd-and-xqd-card-speed-test/

I can almost keep pace with the "ludicrous" tesla's when I put the race gas in this puppy:

heartyfisher

@retread I think @iAmJake means the other way around ...

To answer .. I think there is currently no adapter available. Not to say there wont be, but the market for that will probably be very very small.. not really worth the effort of any company to develop. Cant see it ever happening unless XQD becomes half (maybe 1% would be sufficient ) as ubiquitous as SD cards. So, very unlikely though probably possible technically.

Good luck with your purchase.. maybe wait a bit more cos the prices seem to be falling.. low enouch to include the cost of an XQD :-)

BTW you can get cheap XQD with lower performance.. you wont get the 200 frames buffer but 70-90 frames should be more than enough for most uses..