Nikon D500 - first impressions

[tommiejeep]

For sports etc. I assume getting the picture so to speak is far more important than getting the ultimate level of detail, so acceptable ISO range is probably much higher up the ladder.

Yup,  I'm always a bit upset when an image I am particularly happy with  is not at all popular and a quick grab of action , that is basically a blown shot, is very popular .  Sorry to hear that my D3S is  "obsolete" but for the moment I'll just have to make do with it , the D750 and gripped D700.  Still thinking about the D500 but funds being pulled in several directions  including a 105 f1.4 .  For newsprint and the NET high MP doesn't get me a lot.

[stenrasmussen]

Old lenses like the D500.

From today's collection;

So far that's my finding too (apart from my 24/2.8Ai-S...but I never liked that lens anyway so it matters not).

Ad the picture: A wee bit of Viagra ought to make the cone more potent...

[Frank Fremerey]

I am curious to know how D500 balance heavier lenses like, 200-500?
Handheld, without monopod. Krister

I caried the 200-500/5.6 through Scotland NG meeting. See this thread for shiploads of examples. Optical performance, AF and VR are great, also ask user "Chris Dees" who works the same combination.

The ungripped D500 is a tail for the dog 200-500, so I took the tripod collar -- which is actually quite usable -- as a carrying grip.

For me the combination was to heavy for days of walking, although a lot of fun.

I tried it with a monopod. Was not helpful in many cases, so I skipped the monopod after a while.

Now I have the grip which makes the D500 a much better camera ergonomically but I gave back the 200-500/5.6 and aquired the 4/300PF instead.

Frankly I have much more fun with that combination: 1.5 kilo Camera plus 750 grams of lens is a wonderful package for a whole day of shooting, whereas the 2.3 klios of the 200-500 does not balance well with the 900 gramms of the D500 IMO.

CAVEAT: Because the front of cameras like the D810 and D500 is made of some plastic compound you should take care of the joint between heavy lenses and these bodies D3/D4/D5 are of more solid build.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

With heavy lenses such as the 200-500/5.6, the lens should never be hung from the body; the lens itself should be always supported. This is stated in the manual as well.

Personally I would love to have a 200-500 with an internal zoom mechanism, so that it would be easy and quick to adjust framing on an approaching subject. With the current version, I found the zoom to be difficult to use hand held because of its stiffness and long throw. On a monopod or tripod, it was easier but still slow. I tried the zoom on the 150-600 Sigma Contemporary and it was similar in this respect. I believe making the 200-500 an internal zoom might make it a bit larger and heavier but it would be more useful for action than the current implementation. However, hand-holding might be more difficult if the weight is increased. For my arms it is not really hand-holdable in its present form; I got along with the lens better with a monopod or tripod; more precise compositions and less chance of blur.  The 200-400/4 is internal zoom but has less range. I guess it is difficult to design a long lens that will please everyone. 

[Akira]

Ilkka, a designer of Sigma said in an interview that you can use their "Sports" version of 150-600 zoom as a push-pull one: you can grab the inner barrel directly to zoom in and out quickly, which is not recommended for the "Contemporary" version or any other zooms of this kind.

[chris dees]

Ilkka, a designer of Sigma said in an interview that you can use their "Sports" version of 150-600 zoom as a push-pull one: you can grab the inner barrel directly to zoom in and out quickly, which is not recommended for the "Contemporary" version or any other zooms of this kind.

This is one reason I decided in favour of the 150-600 sports. You can turn the zoom ring as well as push-pull.
9 out of 10 I use the push-pull as it is much faster.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

First experience with a 'sudden death' of my D500. Camera just abruptly locked up, no response to any controls or buttons. Lens off, then on, didn't bring the camera back to life. A different lens, no change. Finally I pulled the battery out for 30 secs then reinserted and revival was immediate.

Not the faintest idea of how this came about. I was doing extreme photomacrography and had my studio flashes running (connected via the camera's PC flash port). At the time of the incident I had shot almost 100 frames with no issues whatsoever.

[Akira]

How high is the synch voltage of your studio flash?  If it is high enough to cause some spark between the contacts on the shutter curtain, it may cause the malfunction of the internal computer...

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Don't know, as I usually work by Pocket Wizards. The session was impromptu so didn't bother getting the Pocket Wizards, though.

I have shot many thousands of frames with various Nikons (and Panasonics, Sony, Fuji) over the years using an ordinary synch cable, no problem with any make or model before.

The studio units are Broncolor (Minicom C80).

[Frank Fremerey]

First experience with a 'sudden death' of my D500. Camera just abruptly locked up, no response to any controls or buttons. Lens off, then on, didn't bring the camera back to life. A different lens, no change. Finally I pulled the battery out for 30 secs then reinserted and revival was immediate.

I had that in Scotland 3 to 4 times  & I am pretty sure it is a battery issue.

When I read about the battery issue I exchanged all of the faulty batteries. Now I am running on the MB-D17 (8xEneloop Prp / 2500) most of the time. Never happened again, although I missed to load the firware update till today.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The battery was the newest type. I have replaced all the older ones.

[ArendV]

There is one known way that the D500 locked up that is now solved with Firmware version 1.10
http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/198.html

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Thanks for the heads-up. My D500 had 1.02. I read the change log for 1.10 and didn't notice anything of importance to make me update the firmware. Obviously Nikon is not informing openly on every issue the new firmware version is supposed to fix ...

Downloading 1.10 as I write this.

[Frank Fremerey]

updating. update does not accept the mb-d17 as a power source!
very slow procedure, even from the XQD-Card. Slowest FW-update I have experienced so far

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Maybe there is a contact problem with the grip? Could you try taking it off and putting it back on, to see if that fixes the problem? Just a thought. Or, is it  only during the update process that the grip battery is not accepted?