Evaluation of APS-C format all-around flagship Nikon D500

IT 168？ Evaluation At this year's CES20 16, Nikon released a brand-new DX format flagship SLR-Nikon D500. This is an APS-C format camera for high-speed photography. At the same time, it is equipped with the same 153-point AF focusing system as D5. In 1.3 times cropping mode, focusing can cover the whole visual range. In addition, it is Nikon's only APS-C format camera that can shoot 4K video. After six years' waiting, what kind of answer sheet will Nikon D500 hand over? Let's take a look at the evaluation:

Nikon D500 uses 20.9 effective pixels and is equipped with the same 153-point autofocus system as flagship machine D5. And the excellent EXPEED 5 image processor, which can provide 4K video shooting function. The normal sensitivity range is ISO ISO100-ISO 51200+0200, which can be extended to ISO 50- 1640000. It is also the first Nikon camera equipped with SnapBridge software, which is connected through Bluetooth technology such as smart devices, making photo transmission faster and more convenient.

superiority

1. The layout of buttons and control wheels of the fuselage is very reasonable, and the fuselage can be adjusted quickly.

2. When shooting through the rocker, you can quickly select and adjust the focus, which is very practical.

3. 153 is in focus, with large coverage and flexible composition.

4. Is ISO12800 available? Easily capture in the dark

5. 10 sheets/sec continuous shooting is suitable for "bird hunting".

deficient

1, autofocus can be faster in video mode.

2. Using SnapBridge to connect smart devices, the supported models are too few, and the stability and practicability need to be improved.

The specific evaluation is as follows:

▲ Click on the picture to enter the screen.

▲ Click on the picture to enter the screen.

▲ Click on the picture to enter the screen.

▲ Click on the picture to enter the screen.

Purchase suggestion:

Click to view the details of Nikon D500, which is worthy of the title of new flagship of APS-C. In addition to the 153-point autofocus system as the flagship model D5, Nikon D500 is also equipped with 10 frames per second high-speed continuous shooting, 4K video animation, large-field high-magnification viewfinder, touch-type foldable LCD screen and XQD/SD dual memory card slot. Of course, its pricing is also closely related to its identity. If necessary, D500' s bright and huge viewfinder and solid workmanship are almost impeccable. Although it's not cheap, it's still worth spending money, especially when you look up to D5 and worry about its price. But if you don't care about the high-speed performance of the camera, the demand for high-speed snapshots is not great. Then cameras like D7200 and D750 are better choices. But for a sports and wildlife photographer and amateur who can't pay the high price of D5, D500 is your best choice.

1, key layout specialty of composite fuselage

The size of the fuselage is moderate, and the layout of the fuselage buttons and control wheels is also reasonable. The most commonly used and customizable buttons are placed near the fingers, so that the user's hands can quickly adjust the fuselage without much action.

ISO and exposure compensation keys are placed on the top of the handle, which can be adjusted quickly when shooting.

Commonly used white balance and metering mode buttons are arranged on the four-leaf clover button only available in flagship machine.

Nikon D500 also designed the same rocker as Quan Huafu's new flagship D5 on the upper right of the back, which can be used to quickly select and adjust the focus when shooting, which is very practical.

The optical viewfinder of D500 adopts a glass pentaprism with a diagonal viewing angle of about 30.8 and a magnification of about 1.0. Users can keep the subject tracking in a wide visual angle range, which reduces the delay characteristics of the electronic viewfinder and further improves the comfort of continuous shooting. This is a circular viewfinder design only available for full-size models, which represents its professional identity.

The D500 is equipped with UHS-II SD and XQD memory card slots, and both dual-card slots support high-speed writing. When using the ultra-high speed XQD memory card, the D500 can take about 200 lossless compressed RAW images 14 bits at a time in continuous shooting.

On the left side of the fuselage are data interfaces, USB3.0 and HDMI sockets, and 3.5mm sockets are used for microphones and headphones.

The D500 adopts a practical LCD touch screen, and the viewing angle is about 2.359 million pixels, about 170, which is more convenient for shooting at high and low angles. At the same time, it provides a variety of functions, such as touch AF autofocus and touch shutter (still photography), and provides the use of screen progress bar to quickly switch the image order when playing images-these functions are especially useful for professionals.

There is also a cable release jack and a 10 pin remote control terminal in the upper right corner of the front of the fuselage. 10 pin remote control terminal can be used to connect faster wireless network adapters WR-R 10 or WR- 1, but it needs to be purchased separately.

D500 uses EN-EL 15 lithium-ion batteries, such as D8 10, D750 and D7200. The EXPEED 5 image processing system helps to reduce the energy consumption of the camera. You can shoot about 1, 140 still images or about 50 minutes of animation (based on CIPA standard) on a single charge.

The D500 uses an easy-to-hold handle, which is narrower than the D7200. In this way, the D500 battery is not directly placed at the handle. However, although the handle is narrower, the distance between the handle and the lens is wider, which can provide a better grip and will not be too crowded when paired with some lenses and larger lenses.

2. 153 Focus? Cover the big picture? Composition is more flexible

As the flagship fuselage of Nikon APS-C format, D500 is equipped with the same 153-point autofocus system as D5. Multi-camera 20000 autofocus sensor module and 180000 pixel RBG sensor are adopted, including 99 cross sensors. 153 focus points, 55 can be selected manually, and the rest can be selected automatically. The big picture covering the focus is more flexible than other cameras. At the same time, it can easily focus on small-sized or low-contrast objects.

The autofocus capability of D500 is not only reflected in the number of focus points. The Multi-CAM 20000 autofocus sensor module developed by Nikon can reduce the exposure value of the central focus to -4EV, and the exposure value of other focuses to -3EV. Even in low light conditions, or when shooting a subject with low contrast, autofocus can be performed. In other words, all the focus points of Nikon D500, like D5, have reached the current top level in dark focusing.

At the same time, as a "bird" camera, D500 can clearly focus on distant subjects. When using the rangefinder, the camera's 153 is compatible with the maximum effective aperture value f/5.6 or faster. Even if the effective aperture value is f/8, 15 focus points (9 optional focus points) can be used.

Nikon D500 also supports autofocus locking function, which can prevent the focus from shifting to the obstacle between the moving subject and the camera. With this function, whether it is a speed skater who tracks a sprint at a specific speed or a player who shoots a fierce football or football match, the AF locking function can be adjusted to keep the focus on the target object.

D500 provides two adjustment parameters, namely, "occlusion shooting AF response" and "shooting object movement". The former allows automatic focusing when the subject is blocked by other objects, and the sensitivity of transfer to focusing can be adjusted between "fast" and "delayed". At the same time, the latter can be adjusted according to the motion characteristics of the subject. Specifically, it is divided into "unstable" options suitable for the sudden start or stop of regular meetings and "stable" options suitable for more uniform movement.

Nikon D500 Auto-focus Response for Occlusion Shooting (Fast)

Nikon D500 prevents shooting autofocus response (delay)

Through the actual test, it can be seen that the sensitivity of transfer to focus is really affected by "fast" and "slow" adjustment, but the change is not particularly obvious.

In addition, D500 provides a simple way to fine-tune the AF of the lens. When shooting with live view, the camera can automatically set and save the fine-tuning value, thus achieving accurate focusing. In addition, manual fine-tuning can be performed. This function bid farewell to the tedious process of manual adjustment with the help of focus detection card.

Generally speaking, Nikon D500 is inferior to D5 in continuous shooting. But the same focusing system as D5 allows photographers to shoot various subjects with confidence.

3. 10 sheets/sec continuous shooting is suitable for "bird hunting".

As mentioned above, Nikon D500 has the continuous shooting function of 10 frames per second, and can continuously shoot 200 frames 14-bit lossless compressed RAW files, with a shutter lag of only 0.05 seconds. It is very suitable for shooting fast-moving scenes, such as racing cars or catching birds.

In the actual experience, Nikon D500 can achieve accurate autofocus very well, ensuring sufficient shooting success rate, and you won't miss any wonderful moments. Similarly, although the number of continuous shooting sheets is not as good as D5, D500 has obvious advantages in volume and weight. After using the image area function of 1.3 times, its viewing angle is equivalent to the lens viewing angle of about 2 times the focal length in 35mm frame (equivalent to about 1.3 times in DX frame). This function is especially useful when shooting animation, and it can provide full HD animation with cut size.

4, 20.8 million pixels without low-pass picture is clear and sharp.

This time, the Nikon D500 uses a self-made 20.8 megapixel sensor and an EXPEED 5 image processor. So what about the picture quality of this 20.8 megapixel? Next, we used Nikon D500 with AF-S DX Nick 16-80mf/2.8-4ED VR to take a sample shot, and took a 100% enlarged screenshot of the center and edge of the picture for comparison:

▲ Resolution test

As can be seen from the resolution screenshot above, the D500 is clear and sharp in both the center and the edge. It can meet the various needs of photographers for image quality. At the same time, there is no low-pass filter design, which further improves the clarity of the image.

5. n o128000 can be easily filmed in the dark.

The D500 high sense is equally amazing. Using the sensitivity range of ISO100–51200, the ISO sensitivity can also be reduced to Lo 1 (equivalent to ISO 50) or increased to Hi 5 (equivalent to ISO 100-5 1200). We were deeply impressed by the high sensitivity of D5. How did the D500 perform this time?

▲ Sensitivity test

Through the comparison of the above screenshots, we can see that the camera maintains a fairly good picture cleanliness below ISO 3200, while in ISO 12800, although there is a slight noise, it is still ok. The improvement of image quality at ordinary sensitivity is beneficial for users to use higher shutter speed, coupled with further enhanced metering and AF autofocus capabilities under low light conditions, and it is easy to capture low-light scenes that were difficult to present before.

6, 4K shooting

D500 provides 4K ultra-high definition (3840 × 2 160)/24p/25p/30p and 1080/60p video shooting function, and the duration of 4K can reach 29 minutes and 59 seconds. When using 4K recording, the focal length of the lens is also converted to 1.5 times. At the same time, full HD and HD formats support electronic image stabilization, which can extract 8 megapixel still photos.

Next, we shot videos in 4K format and 1080P respectively in the actual scene, and took screenshots of 100% for comparison.

▲ Video screenshot 100% zoom in and compare

From the screenshot, the quality of Nikon D500 real-shot 4K video is obviously better than 1080P, and it can be used as a picture even if a single frame is intercepted. Another significance of 4K video for most users is that we compress the 4K video we shot into full HD format for output, which is better than shooting full HD video directly. With 4K video shooting function, D500 is more comprehensive.

D500 can directly generate 4K Ultra HD and Full HD timing animation in the camera. When using automatic exposure mode such as aperture priority, its exposure smoothing function can automatically reduce the subtle exposure difference between the current picture and the previous picture, thus reducing unnecessary flicker.

The exposure smoothing function can also be used for interval timing shooting, and the maximum number of shots is about 9999. ?

7, practical flip touch screen

The D500 adopts a practical LCD touch screen, and the viewing angle is about 170. The display screen adopts a 3-axis hinge structure, which can tilt up and down in a large angle range, making it more convenient to shoot at high and low angles. It also provides a variety of functions, such as touch AF autofocus and touch shutter (still photography), and provides the ability to quickly switch image sequences by using the picture progress bar when playing images-these functions are especially useful for professionals.

Focus Test of Nikon D500 Touch Screen

Nikon D500 Touch Screen Looking Back at Photos

Unfortunately, in live view mode, the response speed of contrast detection autofocus is still slow. There is still room for improvement.

8. Connect with the mobile phone via Bluetooth, and take pictures and enjoy them remotely.

After installing SnapBridge application on smart devices, D500 can connect with smart devices via Bluetooth. You can transfer the images taken by D500 to smart devices, automatically upload them to Nikon image library, and use smart devices to browse the images stored in the camera.

It should be noted that in order to use this function, the following requirements need to be met: first, you must have a smartphone supporting Bluetooth function (but I don't think if you don't have a smartphone supporting Bluetooth function, you will definitely not use the D500 machine); second, you must use Android, and it is a specific model (see the figure below for details), because Snapbridge has no iOS version yet. And ordinary Android phones will also fail to connect.

In other words, the so-called Wi-Fi function of D500 actually relies on Bluetooth connection and only supports certain models.

If your mobile phone meets the above requirements and you downloaded the SnapBridge application from official website, you can connect.

APP supports the transfer of images taken by D500 to smart devices, and can also be automatically uploaded to Nikon image gallery. You can also use smart devices to browse the images stored in the camera. However, the response speed is average and the stability needs to be improved. At present, this function is not very practical.

9. Summary

Click to view the details of Nikon D500, which is worthy of the title of new flagship of APS-C. In addition to the 153-point autofocus system as the flagship model D5, Nikon D500 is also equipped with 10 frames per second high-speed continuous shooting, 4K video animation, large-field high-magnification viewfinder, touch-type foldable LCD screen and XQD/SD dual memory card slot. Of course, its pricing is also closely related to its identity. If necessary, D500' s bright and huge viewfinder and solid workmanship are almost impeccable. Although it's not cheap, it's still worth spending money, especially when you look up to D5 and worry about its price. But if you don't care about the high-speed performance of the camera, the demand for high-speed snapshots is not great. Then cameras like D7200 and D750 are better choices. But for a sports and wildlife photographer and amateur who can't pay the high price of D5, D500 is your best choice.

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10, real sample: