Using the D500 + 70-200/4G AFS VR, I stress tested the XQD card and the battery this afternoon by shooting 731 NEFs (19.8GB) of hopping squirrels with a few birds thrown in for good measure. As well as some tests in which I initially focused on some trees probably 50 feet behind my yard fence and then slowly panned into the yard (across the fence) and through the various plants in the garden until I finished with focus on the bricks about 4 feet away.
I worked mostly using AF-C with d25, d72 or the amazing d153 together with various combinations of a3 lock-on. I also tried the AF-C + Auto combo (which would work much better on a subject moving against a plain background). I flipped back and forth with focusing: sometimes using the shutter and sometimes using AF-ON.
Summary: the D500 is an excellent tracker. As is always wise to remember, the D500 can't track "on its own". You have to really work and practice with these settings and know which one is appropriate for which moving subject. Well, **I** have to practice this stuff, YMMV.
But it is fun, and the D500 makes it easier than it used to be.
The first 5 in a sequence of 15.
f/5 for 1/1000" with auto-ISO varying from 2000 to 3200.
Only one in the sequence was slightly oof.
Cropped and resized for posting, no edits.
The crop area (prior to resize) was 8% of the area of the original photo.
[[I am really tired of squirrels.]]