Nikon D500 - first impressions

[Frank Fremerey]

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?

Only during the upgrade process. I shot 8 hours of heavy Live View Mode on Wendesday with the grip.

There is an error message that says: Only Nikon LiIon batteries are accepted. I have eneloops in the grip.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Hi
I just got my D500.
Just had to try the high ISO, in LR it looks very noisy, but in NX-D the 3200 ISO look acceptable to very good.
Any suggestions on how to use LR, or is it not the route to to go?
I can remove the noise in LR, but have to do manually, maybe just me not knowing enough abot LR, as I have used Aperture for the last 6 years.
Br Bent

[MFloyd]

First, are you shooting in JPEG or NEF ? If you are shooting in NEF, none of the parameters (NR, distorsion, chromatic aberration, etc) set in the camera (long exposure NR excepted) will be incorporated and have to be set separately and post-processed in LR (contrary to NX-D).  I strongly suggest to read the Lr manuals and view the numerous tutorials.  As a hint, I suggest to set, as a first trial, the Lr NR parameters as follows. luminance: 50, detail: 50, contrast:0; color:25; detail: 50, smoothing: 50 (translation may vary; as I have my Lr set up in french)

[stenrasmussen]

Obviously Nikon is not informing openly on every issue the new firmware version is supposed to fix ...

Ain't that the truth.

[stenrasmussen]

Only during the upgrade process. I shot 8 hours of heavy Live View Mode on Wendesday with the grip.

There is an error message that says: Only Nikon LiIon batteries are accepted. I have eneloops in the grip.

Although I have the Meike grip I can run my camera well when I have either one or two (one in the grip) EN-EL15 (20 type) batteries. As soon as I put AA cells in the grip the camera locks up (Err).
 

[tommiejeep]

MF, many thanks.  I've been using PS CC but will go back to LR since I want to use Lens Tagger for the Sony and adapted lenses.

Finally decided to order the D500 and both of my dealers are out of stock , good prices but that is no help.
Tom

[Bent Hjarbo]

First, are you shooting in JPEG or NEF ? If you are shooting in NEF, none of the parameters (NR, distorsion, chromatic aberration, etc) set in the camera (long exposure NR excepted) will be incorporated and have to be set separately and post-processed in LR (contrary to NX-D).  I strongly suggest to read the Lr manuals and view the numerous tutorials.  As a hint, I suggest to set, as a first trial, the Lr NR parameters as follows. luminance: 50, detail: 50, contrast:0; color:25; detail: 50, smoothing: 50 (translation may vary; as I have my Lr set up in french)

Thank you MFloyd, I will look at the tutorials, to see if I can find a batch process to run while importing the files, so I can keep my workflow in LR

[MFloyd]

Ben, there is a batch process foreseen at the import of your pictures into Lr. I'm using it to proces generic post production items (such as lens correction, NR) and incorporate key words and copyright.

[Bent Hjarbo]

I will try that, because the quality in NX-D gives me hope for some good high ISO pictures.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Thanks for helping with the LR noise issue, I think it is under control now
But I got a new question regarding the buses of a smartphone for geotagging.
I have managed to get a location on one picture, but had to keep the camera "active" for quite a while for this to happen, have anybody experience with this?
Br Bent

[Bjørn Rørslett]

That problem probably relates to the GPS receiver (phone?) not the camera as such. Any GPS-capable camera simply records whatever NEMEA-compatible data that arrive on the designated port and can be decoded into latitude and longitude.

I use a Foolography passive module for my D500. This tiny module operates with Blutooth technology and once paired to a suitable GPS-gathering unit, simply receives the actual data without further user intervention and injects the geospatial data to the current image being taken.

[BW]

I have finally accepted the D500 as a capable camera Tried it a few days and it seem to perform quite well. The AF is up to any task and my camera have not seem to have had any need for fine tuning for any lens tested yet. I`m not to sure about the WB and colors yet, so the jury is still out on that one. One thing I really like is the dampened sound from the shutter. Really pleasant. The camera is light and does not balance well with some of the longer lenses. These are just first impressions and some time might be needed to "grow" into the user interface.

[Fanie]

How does the image quality of the D500 compare to a D800, say up to ISO 3200, all other differences being ignored?

DXO rate the D800 sensor higher, but how does it compare in practice?

I know there is a lot of difference in auto focus, frame rate, buffer, field of view etc, but if one ignore that for this comparison.

[BW]

I had the D800E, and compared with the D500 I would say the "real world" experience are in D500`s favor, at least when there is available light (dusk to dawn, high ISO to get faster shutter speed) The downsizing process of the D800 file gets rid of some noise but the there might be some improved signal processing that makes up for the difference in D500 favor. Notice that I haven't compared the RAW-file development from both cameras in Nikons own software, only LR and PS. Basically, my experience is "gut feeling", whatever that might account for.

[stenrasmussen]

The D500 AWB is actually very good, even in incandescent lit conditions. I no longer own a D8xx series camera so cannot compare high Iso performance but I've just "researched" the OOC jpeg vs. raw at high (2000-3000) ISO range and am very impressed by the in EXPEED 5 NR processing.