Camera Upgrade

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GWP

GWP

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I'm currently shooting D7200. I'm considering D500 or D850 I shoot mostly wildlife and landscape. I'm thinking the D500 for wildlife since I have af-s lens, but would it be that much of a upgrade to the d500 other than the fps?
Thanks in advance.
 
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I have both the D7200 and D500. The autofocus is significantly better in the D500. The D500 is weather proofed, has group autofocus, has some touch screen functions and a flip screen, has the focus thumb joystick, illuminated control buttons, Is build stronger, has more function buttons, has a dedicated ISO button, has a much brighter viewfinder, and probably another dozen things I am forgetting. So, yes, it's a pretty huge upgrade from the D7200 in many ways.
 
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For wildlife, I would prefer the D500 over the D7200 for the reasons Woody mentioned, as well as frame rate and buffer. And the auto-focus difference (including the ability to switch modes with customized buttons) is material for birds in flight and other fast action. For landscapes, it might be a bit closer question, as the D7200 has a bit more resolution, although not sure how noticeable that would be in most cases. I took a D500 and a D7200 to Galapagos a couple of years ago -- used the D500 for wildlife and the D7200 (with 16-80 mm lens) for landscapes and other non-wildlife shots (and it was a backup to the D500, although I did not end up needing it for that).

That said, I mostly use full frame now, other than the D500 (still a great wildlife camera and my favorite choice for birds in flight and other faster action or cases where I know I will need to crop anyway). If I could have only one body and wanted to do both wildlife and landscapes, I would probably get a D850. In DX crop mode it is almost identical to the D500 in image quality and field of view. You lose some frame rate (7 fps versus 10 fps, if memory serves, with 9 fps on the D850 available with an add-on grip), but you get a lot more detail for landscapes and for wildlife feathers and fur (at least if you are close enough to not need to crop materially).
 
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A few more thoughts. I have used the D850 for wildlife and landscapes (along with a Z7) on several recent pre-Covid trips, including to Torres Del Paine and to the Antarctic Peninsula. It's very versatile and I was very happy with the wildlife shots I took with it, as well as with my landscape/seascape shots. The ability to do a DX crop lets you shoot a 500 mm PF, for example, as a 500 mm lens at FX and as a 750 mm lens (field of view anyway) at DX. I found that flexibility very helpful when wildlife was sometimes closer and sometimes farther away.
 
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I was also considering a body upgrade. I was using a D7500, which has the touchscreen, Expeed 5 processor, and sensor of the D500, but a lower level AF system, along with less options. It’s a great camera but I got a case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and I was looking seriously at the D850. I read a couple of posts here, and Steve made a comment on one that if you’re looking at cropping images anyway, then maybe the D500 would be a better option than the D850. For me, I do very little landscape and more wildlife, mostly birds. And the cost of a new D500 is half that of the D850. So I pulled that string and bought a new D500, and plan on using the D7500 as a 2nd body/backup.

So after 2 weeks, I am very happy with the D500 performance. The AF system just seems to be so much crisper and doesn’t easily lose it’s lock. I also like that I can go from Group AF to single point and back with the operation of a single button. By no means am I an expert on it, but I like what I’m seeing so far.

So for me, even thought it wasn’t a significant upgrade, I’m really happy I got the D500. The key decision points were camera use and budget. Not to say I won’t acquire a D850 in the future, but this made more sense to me at least for now.
 
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Woodyg3 said:
I have both the D7200 and D500. The autofocus is significantly better in the D500. The D500 is weather proofed, has group autofocus, has some touch screen functions and a flip screen, has the focus thumb joystick, illuminated control buttons, Is build stronger, has more function buttons, has a dedicated ISO button, has a much brighter viewfinder, and probably another dozen things I am forgetting. So, yes, it's a pretty huge upgrade from the D7200 in many ways.
Click to expand...

What about the image quality difference?
 
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The D7200 is an excellent camera but it has the older generation of autofocus. The D500, D5, D850 have the newer system with more light sensitive AF sensors and a dedicated autofocus processor. With the D750 the Group AF was a complete bust but with the D500 I found that this mode was extremely effective when photographing hummindbird where it was effective for more than 95% of my shots.

I replaced the D500 with a second D850 as I often needed a wider field of view than the DX afforded. With the D500 I often used the 80-400mm in place of the 200-500mm lens for this reason. I also disagree completely with the notion that if you are going to crop a FX image then why not start with a DX camera. Especially with wildlife such as birds in flight the best placement of a subject in the frame is to be made after the shot is taken and this affects how I do each image crop. The same applies to large mammals where there is often a stronger picture that can be made with judicious cropping and this is something I want to do at my leisure at a computer.

The D500 with its advanced AF system and 10 fps using standard EN-EL15 batteries is a tremendous value as digital cameras go but the D850 is a better camera overall though a lot more expensive, in particular if one adds in the cost of a battery grip and EN-EL18 batteries and a charger for them.
 
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Calson said:
I also disagree completely with the notion that if you are going to crop a FX image then why not start with a DX camera. Especially with wildlife such as birds in flight the best placement of a subject in the frame is to be made after the shot is taken and this affects how I do each image crop. The same applies to large mammals where there is often a stronger picture that can be made with judicious cropping and this is something I want to do at my leisure at a computer.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
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