D500 inferior? Maybe not.

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Capturingtheunseen.com said:
Ok, I have to man up here. I've been talking trash about the D500. I've not been satisfied with the results of it when compared to my D4. It turns out I may have been guilty of something I warn others about: Not sufficiently exploring new settings when comparing one camera body to another, but assuming that what is golden with one body will work with another. Wrong, and I knew it was wrong.

For example, the D4 is so capable of resolving different lighting situations on its own, that my normal settings are spot metering, f/7.1, 1/4000, auto iso from 100 to 12,800. Even in lower light conditions, the images came out great after processing through LR and Topaz DeNoise AI. In almost all cases, they needed very little noise reduction.

I'm finding the D500 to not be so accommodating. That shouldn't be surprising, given cropped sensor versus Full frame. But somehow that failed to totally register.

After experimenting more, trying different metering modes, keeping the shutter speed only as high as absolutely necessary, and opening up the aperture more, I'm having better success, even in low-light conditions. And, I'm thinking I MIGHT be getting more detail with the D500. More testing to come on that.

Here are a couple of Eagle shots taken over the past couple of weeks. The immature bird was taken in overcast skies as a rain moved in.

View attachment 6872

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From the D4:

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I am getting envious again ... I desperately need to visit my friend to get an opportunity to shoot some eagles.
After this experience, will you get back to the D5 and do the same excercise with this one again - or is it already gone ?
 
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robg said:
Very interesting thread. I'm about to get a D500 for my birthday (actually I already have it, but my better half won't let me at it yet…). I've been using a D7100 for the past three years or so, and am pretty familiar and comfortable with my setup and results. I mainly shoot miscellaneous wildlife/nature and flowers as well as just general purpose photography of no particular genre. I use back button focus, mainly with single-point focus and occasionally with D9. I mostly use matrix metering, dialling in some exposure compensation when necessary, and occasionally use spot metering.

So, a question to those of you who have successfully navigated a similar transition (i.e. from a D7100 or similar to a D500): what are the major learning points I'm likely to face? What settings will I need to be immediately looking at configuring on the D500 in order to be up and running as quickly as possible?
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The logic of the AF system (CAM module) in the D500 is somewhat different than the D7200. Steve talked a lot about it in a 30+ page thread at Fred Miranda. I do not know if he has a summary of it, but that might be useful to read if he does. And note that there is no D9 on the D500. There is D25 and some larger patterns, but no D9. And there is the addition of Group which I do not believe exists on the D7200.

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
The logic of the AF system (CAM module) in the D500 is somewhat different than the D7200. Steve talked a lot about it in a 30+ page thread at Fred Miranda. I do not know if he has a summary of it, but that might be useful to read if he does. And note that there is no D9 on the D500. There is D25 and some larger patterns, but no D9. And there is the addition of Group which I do not believe exists on the D7200.

Good luck,

--Ken
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Interesting point with that D9 missing. As I don't have a D500 I can't check, but the interesting question would be how large the area is that is covered by the smallest AF-C Dx mode. They way I understand the AF system works in AF-C Dx modes from @Steve 's book I would expect that if you cover the same area in the viewfinder but with more AF sensor fields the AF should still work more accurate in terms of following the exact spot that you focused on iitially.

I didn't know Fred Miranda until now, so I took a look and tried to find @ Steve's comment there. Would you mind sharing the link to the thread or even the post within the thread ?
 
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Woodpecker said:
Interesting point with that D9 missing. As I don't have a D500 I can't check, but the interesting question would be how large the area is that is covered by the smallest AF-C Dx mode. They way I understand the AF system works in AF-C Dx modes from @Steve 's book I would expect that if you cover the same area in the viewfinder but with more AF sensor fields the AF should still work more accurate in terms of following the exact spot that you focused on iitially.

I didn't know Fred Miranda until now, so I took a look and tried to find @ Steve's comment there. Would you mind sharing the link to the thread or even the post within the thread ?
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It is a lot of reading, and I would be interested to hear if Steve has any new thoughts a few years out: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1478115 .

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
It is a lot of reading, and I would be interested to hear if Steve has any new thoughts a few years out: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1478115 .

--Ken
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Thanks anyway .... and yes, it is a lot of stuff :sleep::coffee::geek:, but part of it explains why some people complain about AF problems with these two cameras.
At least I will check what my cameras are doing with their tiny little family of 51 AF points :D.

I think @Steve will sort that out quickly as he seems to have the privilege to be able to mobilize considerable amount of manpower :)
And beside getting the camera working the way it should, it is a very nice sport to prove companies like Nikon to be wrong and make them admit there is an error.
Ages ago I was part of a group providing evidence to Siemens that they had a critical bug in the firmware of the network adapter for their main PLC series that is used for automating all kinds of production facilities and it was great to see them getting pale in the face when they realized that a couple of amateurs prooved the PLC whizz kids to be wrong :devilish: .
 
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Woodpecker said:
Interesting point with that D9 missing. As I don't have a D500 I can't check, but the interesting question would be how large the area is that is covered by the smallest AF-C Dx mode. They way I understand the AF system works in AF-C Dx modes from @Steve 's book I would expect that if you cover the same area in the viewfinder but with more AF sensor fields the AF should still work more accurate in terms of following the exact spot that you focused on iitially.

I didn't know Fred Miranda until now, so I took a look and tried to find @ Steve's comment there. Would you mind sharing the link to the thread or even the post within the thread ?
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From what I understand the d25 on the D500 covers the same area as the d9 on the 7200. There are just more focus points in the D500.
 
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Woodpecker said:
One thing that really needs changing in my behaviour is that I really used the user modes on my D750 and D7200 - also to allow quick and reliable resetting to my preferred settings after playing with the options. With the D4S I have to get the discipine to set back mode, auto ISO, EC etc. one by one. That would be the same for you when moving to the D500 as it also has no program dial with user modes. If you did everything separately also on your D7100 you are at least one step in front compared with me ;).
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Thanks for taking the time to reply. As you indiceted, the D7100 is a "prosumer" model, so hopefully not too dissimilar in concept to the D500.

I've never got around to using the U1/U2 user modes on my D7100, so that at least is something I won't have to unlearn :)
 
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Replytoken said:
The logic of the AF system (CAM module) in the D500 is somewhat different than the D7200. Steve talked a lot about it in a 30+ page thread at Fred Miranda. I do not know if he has a summary of it, but that might be useful to read if he does. And note that there is no D9 on the D500. There is D25 and some larger patterns, but no D9. And there is the addition of Group which I do not believe exists on the D7200.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Ken. I see you posted the link to the Fred Miranda thread below, so I'll take a look at that.
 
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