Nikon D500 Review

May 18, 2016 | Amy Davies |

Introduction
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Sample Images
Product Images
Rating & Conclusion
Main Rivals
Review Roundup
Specifications
Comment
More…

Introduction

The D500 is Nikon's new flagship DX-format (APS-C) camera. We were waiting a long time for Nikon to produce an update for the D300S, so much so that it has skipped a number and gone straight to D500.

Despite the fact that the D500 is a DX model, it shares a lot in common with the D5 - Nikon's professional, full-frame, (and much more expensive) DSLR. That includes the same processor, focusing system, and interestingly, same number of pixels.

That resolution count is 20.9 million pixels. That's less than we've seen in some of Nikon's other APS-C sensor cameras (the D7200 has a 24 million pixel sensor), but Nikon says that the sensor has been designed to the same specification as the full-frame D5. The D500 has a native ISO range of 100 - 51,200. This year Nikon seems to be all about incredibly high ISO values, and the D500 is no different - the maximum expanded setting is ISO 1,640,000.

The Nikon D500 has an EXPEED 5 sensor which helps to facilitate a fast frame rate of 10fps. It's also possible to record 4K video, which, unlike the D5, can record for the full 29 minutes and 59 seconds. There are 153 AF points, which includes 99 more sensitive cross-type sensors, and 15 sensors which are sensible down to f/8. All of the focus points are sensitive down to -3EV, with the exception of the central sensor, which can go down to -4EV, which should be fantastic news for low light focusing.

Competing with the 7D Mark II, the Nikon D500 is available body only for £1729 / $1999, or as part of the kit with Nikon's 2015 release 16-80mm f/2.8-4 lens for £2479 / $3099.

Ease of Use

The Nikon D500 is a pretty chunky and solidly built camera, which gives it a feeling of high quality construction. There's a large grip which has a protruding section where the shutter release is found, enabling your middle finger to sit comfortably beneath it. There is a rubberised coating around the grip and on the back of the camera which helps it so sit comfortably in your hand. The camera is also fully weather-sealed, which is great news for landscape and outdoor photographers.

There's a large number of direct access buttons, and dials, which is exactly what we'd expect from a camera which is aimed at enthusiast or advanced amateurs. Like the Nikon D5, the screen is also touch sensitive, which can be used for some elements of operation.

On the top left of the Nikon D500 you'll find a rotating dial which can be moved to change the drive mode, including single shooting, quiet mode, continuous and mirror up. You'll need to push down a small button just in front of the dial in order to change it, which prevents you accidentally moving it when you don't want to.

Above this dial you'll find four buttons, which you need to use in conjunction with a scrolling dials found on the front and rear of the grip. There's a button for Image Quality, for Metering Mode, for White Balance and for Exposure Mode. Simply hold down whichever button you need to use, then use the scrolling dial to make changes. You'll see confirmation of the changes being made in the LCD panel on the top of the camera. It's a very quick and intuitive way of making changes, and you can generally swiftly set up the settings you need for the shot.

Like many high-end cameras, the only shooting modes you can use are P (Program) A (Aperture Priority) S (Shutter Priority) M (Manual) - in other words there's no automatic mode.

Front of the Nikon D500

Just behind the shutter release button there's a button for changing ISO and a button for altering exposure compensation. Again you use this in conjunction with the scrolling wheel on the back of the Nikon D500. Here is also where you'll find a button for video recording, allowing you to start video recording once you're in video shooting mode. Around the shutter release is a switch for turning the camera on or off, and if you move it around on further than the “on” position, you'll also switch on the illumination light for the LCD panel which is useful when you're working in lower light conditions.

Moving to the back of the Nikon D500 and there's a large selection of different buttons here too. To change the AF point, you can use the textured joystick which is easy to reach with your thumb while the camera is held up to your eye. Although there are 153 focus points, only 55 are actually available for your own selection, with the rest of the points acting as support points. Coverage is wide though, covering a very large section of the frame. If you don't want to use the joystick, you can also use the navigational pad just below it. There's a switch around this pad - if you push it to the “L” position, the focus point will be locked and you won't be able to change it. Finally, you can also use the touch-sensitive screen to set the autofocus point if you are shooting in live view, or recording a video.

To the left hand side of the Nikon D500's screen there's the playback button, a delete button, the main menu button, and a variety of buttons which are usually used in playback - such as a magnifying button. There's also an OK button which is used in certain circumstances, such as when you want to confirm that you want to format a memory card. There's also a Fn2 (function) button here which you can customise in the main menu.

On the right hand side of the screen there's an info button, but also an “i” button. The info button can be pressed to display your shooting settings on the main screen, while the “i” button is used as a kind of quick menu, with a few settings that you can quickly access without having to go into the main menu. Just underneath these buttons you'll find the Live View button, which has a switch around it which enables you to switch between stills shooting and video recording.

Rear of the Nikon D500

The screen itself is not only touch sensitive, but it also tilts upwards and downwards. While this isn't quite as useful as a fully articulating screen, it's handy for shooting from either very high or very low angles and so it's great to see it here on an enthusiast level camera.

The Nikon D500 has a 100% field of view optical viewfinder which provides a very bright and clear view of the scene in front of you. There's a rubberised eye cup which helps the camera feel very comfortable against your face. You'll also see that there's a blind which can be activated to block out any light from entering the viewfinder - useful if you're shooting very long exposures on a tripod.

On the front of the camera, surrounding the lens mound, you'll find a customisable Fn1 button, a depth of field preview button, and there's also a switch for moving between autofocus and manual focus. There's a button in the middle of the switch which allows you to choose the type of focus.

Tilting LCD Screen

A door protecting the memory cards can be found on the right hand side of the camera. The D500 has dual memory card slots, supporting both SD cards and XQD cards. This is good news for those with a stash of SD cards, but if you invest in an XQD card you get faster speeds, so it may be worth it if you intend to shoot fast moving subjects, such as sport.

The Nikon D500 has Wi-Fi, bluetooth and NFC connectivity which means you can send your images across to a smartphone using Nikon's Snapbridge app. This is currently only available for Android devices, but an iOS app is also being developed for release later this year.

The camera's main menu is divided into different sections, which are quite sensibly arranged and easy to navigate - especially of course if you've used a Nikon menu before. If any of the settings aren't immediately obvious you can press a button on the back of the camera which is marked with a question mark and you should be shown an explanation of what the function does - it's not available on every function though.

Top of the Nikon D500

Battery life is rated at a very impressive 1240 shots, which is great for an enthusiast level camera - it's unlikely you'll need to invest in a second battery unless you're shooting a lot every single day, or for some reason you can't recharge the battery in between shoots.

Focusing times are very quick in good daylight, dropping a small amount when shooting in lower light. It's only in extremely dark conditions that the Nikon D500 fails to find focus at all. When it comes to continuous focus, the D500 is fantastic at keeping focus when the subject is kept under the active AF point, making it the ideal camera for fast moving subjects such as sport and wildlife - in fact having a crop sensor means that your lenses have a longer reach than they would on a full-frame sensor, which is advantageous when the subject matter is in the distance.

Processing speeds are very good, with a rapid shot-to-shot time and almost instant start-up time. The buffer when shooting at fast continuous speeds is also fantastic, even when shooting in raw format, again making it excellent for sports and action photographers who need to shoot extensive burst depths.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 14Mb.

Directly from the camera, JPEG images from the Nikon D500 are great in a wide variety of different shooting conditions, indicating that this is an ideal camera for enthusiast photographers who want to shoot many types of subject.

Colours are vibrant and punchy, without straying too far into unrealistic territory. Detail is also fantastic, with fine detail clear to see throughout the frame when shooting at lower ISOs. Moving up the ISO scale, detail is still extremely well resolved when you reach what would be very high ISOs for other cameras, but are in the middle-range territory for the D500, such as ISO 12,800 - ISO 51, 200. There is some image smoothing to see when you examine closely, but the overall impression of detail at these ISOs is great at A4 or below.

You can work with the raw format files already in Adobe Camera Raw, or you can use Nikon's proprietary software. If you examine corresponding raw format files and compare with the JPEG files, you can see that there's a fair amount of noise reduction being applied to images shot at high ISOs - although the effect is generally quite pleasing, if you need to bring back some detail which has gone missing, you can do this with the raw format files.

Although the Nikon D500 can shoot at a ridiculously high value of over 1 million, images stop being truly useable from around ISO 102,400, even when sharing at small sizes. Still, if getting the image is more important than it being high quality, you may want to venture further into the high ISO territory.

General purpose metering does a good job of producing accurate exposures for the majority of situations, while automatic white balance copes well with artificial lighting. Like with the D5, there is more than one type of automatic white balance - you can switch between Auto1 (Normal), Auto0 (Keep White - Reduce Warm Colours) and Auto2 (Keep Warm Colours). It's worth switching between these to test which you prefer. Sometimes it'll be dependent on your own personal preference to how colours look, while other times it'll depend on the shooting conditions. Leaving it on Auto0 generally results in accurate colours though.

Noise

Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW files.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 50 (100% Crop)	ISO 50 (100% Crop)


ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 64 (100% Crop)


ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 80 (100% Crop)


ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)


ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)


ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)


ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)


ISO 51200 (100% Crop)	ISO 51200 (100% Crop)


ISO 102400 (100% Crop)	ISO 102400 (100% Crop)


ISO 204800 (100% Crop)	ISO 204800 (100% Crop)


ISO 409600 (100% Crop)	ISO 409600 (100% Crop)


ISO 819200 (100% Crop)	ISO 819200 (100% Crop)


ISO 1638400 (100% Crop)	ISO 1638400 (100% Crop)

Picture Controls

Nikon's Picture Controls are akin to Canon's Picture Styles in being preset combinations of sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. All Picture Controls can be tweaked to your liking, then saved and transferred to other cameras.

Standard	Neutral


Portrait	Vivid


Landscape	Monochrome


Flat

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Nikon D500 camera, which were all taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	5
Features	5
Ease-of-use	5
Image quality	5
Value for money	4

Nikon D500 Review

Latest Reviews

Introduction

Ease of Use

Image Quality

Noise

Picture Controls

Sample Images

Sample RAW Images

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

Main Rivals

Review Roundup

Specifications

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