Nikon D500 - first impressions

[Frank Fremerey]

Some thoughts and pictures...

There is no shortcut to a decent picture, even not with a camera so darn fast. Faster than anything I had in my hands before and I own a D3 since April 2008.

Risk is to expose a lot of shots which are there only for one reason: to hit the delete button.

The D600 with 1.4/35 Ai-S slown me down. That is a feature.
With the D500 and 1.4/24 AF-S I have to slow down myself. That is a new experience.
There is sure not any equivalence, strange geometricals to begin with. Look!!! :::

1) D600 + 1.4/35 AI-S
2) D500 + 1.4/24 G

[Frank Fremerey]

And here are some shots I took today, the slow down exercise:

1) gilden hangman
2) wrinkle pinkle
3) Frank explains: Lichen eat stone!
4) underwarter fern
5) Jutta and Ilse are waiting for the rest of the family

[simsurace]

Nice rendering in the last set. What lens was this shot with?
If I were you, I would correct the purple fringes though. Especially in shot 3 they are a bit too prominent to be ignored.

[JJChan]

Frank
I like 5) a lot especially the title

JJ

[golunvolo]

Frank, you are being a very bad boy...

  Nice sets. You do have master namer strike, giving new meaning to the images.

   

[Frank Fremerey]

Simone: lens & camera are so recent they have not found their way into all correction algorithms yet.

Paco & JJ: thank you. I would not have taken the shot without the story in mind. The shot is bland. The story is bold.

[Alaun]

Double exposure seems to work fine as well  : 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Only receiving my D500 tomorrow so - for once - arriving late to the scene. I admit the D500 makes me a bit curious and I'll do my best to learn if not master the new camera with the widest possible range of Nikkors, old and new, in the days ahead.

[Frank Fremerey]

If one wants to see a huge collection of D500 shots go to the Scotland thread.

Andrea, Chris and me had one.

There seem to be some minor firmware issues. Nothing that cannot be resolved with battery out for 30 seconds (totally stuck)
...
happend to me once ... several times for Chris ... or factory reset (AF dead)

[tommiejeep]

Thanks Frank.  As much as I have enjoyed, and am enjoying, the Scotland 2016 images, I am really watching action Sports and fast Bird shooters.  That is as in fast birds and fast acquisition of birds caught in my peripheral vision).  It is really interesting how different people see different things and interpret what they are seeing.

I'm very happy with the D750, D3S, Df but not so happy with the D7100, which I have given to my son but still use.  I could really handle the buffer, better AF and higher ISO  .

Shame that a new version of the DBS(Dead Battery Syndrome) is back but I will not be looking to buy a D500 until October when the Soccer and birding seasons return.  By that time Nikon may have admitted the problem and put out a Firmware fix.  A bit disappointed in the new Auto Fine Tune but several friends have been able to use it effectively.  Probably a 'work in progress' .  I agree with Jim Farrell , it could be easily simplified in the mechanics.

Keep enjoying your D500 and posting images,
Cheers,
Tom

[Frank Fremerey]

Chris and me certainly did chase some fast birds very efficiently with our D500s on the Isle of May.

Puffins are small and go at 60 km/h ... Chris has a lot of experience with birding and says the D500 is second to none.

[tommiejeep]

I'm hearing pretty much the same from the Birders but not from the Sports shooters.  They are saying probably the best Dx but not in the league of the better FX cameras.  I like Chris's Puffin images but agree about the lens and distances.  His Kittiwakes image is of more interest since shot against a background.   To be honest , almost any Nikon will get good BIFs against the sky.  I will be very happy if it beats the acquisition and positive lock speed of my gripped D300s.  The D750 is darn near even and the D3S is better but not the D7100 or D610.  I do like your Cormorant image.
Tom

[Frank Fremerey]

  I do like your Cormorant image. Tom

I only just start to do tele & action at all. The AF-performace and hit rate in the playing dogs series -see post #310 in the Scotland thread- is certainly well above what my D3 could do and the D500 is only a 2.000 Euro DX camera. We had the D810 against the D500 when we did the puffins and we have some puffins in front of chaotic BG. I did not develop these. Also here tzhe Hit rate is fascinating, would probably be much better with lower subject distance.

White Gulls in front of a white/grey/black rocks did also go very well, but these birds are quite slow. The Guillemonts and razerbills are really fast and could not be so easily seperatt from the rocks not even with the bare eyes

[Frank Fremerey]

A serious upgrade in the battery department. These are ENELOOP black, 2500 mAh per piece x8 = 20.000 mWh = 2 Watt hours. With another 1900 mWh battery in the Camera I should be well into the 9000 exposure region. More than enough for a day of sports shooting or birding. Also a nice counter balance for bigger glass.

[Frank Fremerey]

The camera was not at fault here. It nailed the focus always. The fault was totally to my lack of experience with holding, aiming and shooting a 500mm lens (first time in my life).
Also the settings for VR and Af and shutter speed and ISO and exposure correction are anything but optimized. Chris helped me, but this was just a drop in an ocean of ignorance.