Nikon D500 Review

Overview

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UPDATE: 06/23/2017:
We've just added a detailed look at the video quality of the D500, its performance and a general overview its video-related specs and features. Click here to check out our Nikon D500 Video Review.

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Back in 2007, Nikon introduced the DX-format D300 to the world and photographers were smitten with its heavy-duty build-quality, fast autofocus, and excellent performance. In 2009, Nikon gave the D300 a cursory upgrade by way of the D300S, which added video recording capabilities and a few specification upgrades.

In the over six years since, amateurs and professionals alike have been wondering, "Where's the D400? Where's the next pro-level, high-performance APS-C DSLR from Nikon?"

Well, you can stop wondering because the D500 has arrived. With a 20.9-megapixel DX-format (1.5x lens crop factor) CMOS sensor without an optical low-pass filter, the EXPEED 5-powered D500 brings improved professional performance back to Nikon's DX camera lineup. 

Let's start first with the new 20.9-megapixel CMOS DX sensor. By foregoing an optical low pass filter, the D500 delivers sharper image files. Like with the new Nikon D5, there is a particular focus with the D500 on providing rich colors and smooth tones. By utilizing Nikon's new EXPEED 5 image processing engine, the D500 captures images with low noise even at high ISO speeds. Speaking of ISO, the D500's native ISO range of 100-51,200 bests the previous top-of-the-line DX camera, the D7200, by a stop and even offers an expanded ISO range of 50-1,638,400. Yes, 1,638,400! This makes the D500 the highest ISO setting of Hi-2BW ISO 102,400 on the D7200 look particularly low. The D300S' native ISO range of 200-3200 is simply being left in the dust by the new D500.

Metering is also an area of great improvement, with the D500 being fitted with a 180k-pixel RGB metering sensor compared to the 1,005-pixel RGB sensor found in the D300S. The D500 also includes Nikon's Advanced Scene Recognition System, and their new White Balance: Keep White feature, which leads to more natural color reproduction by combining the EXPEED 5 image processor and the camera's auto white balance setting.

This new EXPEED 5 image processor has also led to improvements in both continuous high speed shooting capabilities and buffer depth. The D500 can capture full-resolution images at up to 10fps in CH drive mode, which is 2fps better than the D300S and 4fps better than the original D300. According to Nikon, the D500 can capture 200 lossless compressed 14-bit RAW files and 79 uncompressed 14-bit RAW files at 10fps, compared to the 30 and 19 shots respectively that the EXPEED 1-powered D300S could produce. Visit our Performance page to see how the D500 performed in the lab.

Top shutter speed remains at 1/8000s like that of the D300S, but shutter durability is now rated at 200,000 cycles, up from 150,000, and the D500 adds an electronic first curtain shutter option in mirror-up mode, to avoid blur due to shutter shock. X-sync remains at 1/250s, though the D300S' could be boosted to 1/320s with reduced flash range.

Nikon's brand-new Multi-CAM 20K autofocus system from the D5 also finds its way into the D500. The autofocus sensor module has 153 focus points, including 99 cross-type sensors and 15 sensors that support f/8 autofocusing (perfect for using, say, a Nikon TC-14e III and Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E lens to make for an autofocus-capable 1050mm f/8 lens). Of the 99 cross-type sensors and 15 f/8-supporting sensors, 35 cross-type and 9 f/8 sensors are available for selection. Comparing this to the Multi-CAM 3500 II autofocus system found in the D300S, the D500 has 102 more autofocus points and 84 more cross-type sensors. The autofocus improvements are not just to sheer number of points and sensors, however, but also to low-light autofocus performance. The D500 can autofocus down to -4 EV, whereas the D300S could only autofocus to -1 EV. AF modes include Single-point, Dynamic Area AF (25, 72, and 153 AF point options), Group Area AF, 3D-Tracking, and Auto Area AF. Further, unlike the D300S, the D500 offers Live View contrast detect AF in AF-S and AF-F modes.

Improvements can also be seen on the camera body itself. The D500 offers the same level of weather sealing as the rugged Nikon D810. In pursuit of further durability, the D500 doesn't include a built-in pop-up flash, is made of magnesium alloy for the top and rear of the camera, and is reinforced with lightweight carbon fiber on the front. For your flash needs, the D500 is compatible with Nikon's new radio-frequency capable SB-5000 Speedlight flash. The D500 is also the first DX camera to include button illumination, which will improve operability in dark or nighttime situations.

The D500 has also seen an increase in viewfinder magnification from 0.94x on the D300S to a full 1.0x on the D500. If you prefer to use live view, you'll be happy to know that Nikon has given the D500 a new tilting 3.2" RGBW LCD touchscreen with approximately 2,359k dots. This high-resolution screen will be put to great use when recording video at up to 4K UHD resolution and 30 frames per second. The 1280 x 720 24p video recording capabilities of the D300S are now very much a thing of the past. With 4K video recording capabilities, the D500 can also save individual 4K frames as 8-megapixel JPEG Fine images. Other movie features include simultaneous recording to an internal memory card and external recorder, Flat picture control, Smooth Exposure, Zebra Stripes, Power Aperture Control, and Electronic vibration reduction.

Constant connectivity is a major point of focus for the Wi-Fi-, NFC-, and Bluetooth-enabled D500. Nikon's new SnapBridge allows the D500 to stay connected to your mobile device at all times using a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection and thus automatically transfers photos to your mobile device, perfect for photographers on-the-go. You can also tag images in-camera for transfer if you don't want it to be done automatically and can even password-protect your connection. And of course remote control is supported as well.

The D500 is also compatible with Nikon's new WT-7A Wireless Transmitter for wired or wireless file transmission to an FTP server or computer (the WT-7A Wireless Transmitter has an SRP of US$935).

The D500 still has dual card slots, but instead of the D300S' CF+SD slots, they are now XQD+SD, and the SD slot is UHS-II compatible.

The USB port has also been upgraded from Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to SuperSpeed USB 3.0.

There's still a 10-pin Remote Terminal and an external stereo microphone jack, however a headphone jack has been added.

Of course, the D500 still offers HDMI output in the form of a Mini HDMI (Type-C) port, but it can now output clean, uncompressed video while simultaneously recording to a memory card.

The D300S' composite A/V output has been dropped, as has its DC input terminal. (The D500 requires an EP-5B dummy battery adapter for use with the EH-5B AC adapter.)

The D500 normally derives its power from an EN-EL15 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack and is CIPA-rated to 1,240 shots per charge. Compare that to 950 shots for the D300S with its EN-EL3e battery, but keep in mind the D300S had a built-in flash which is an additional load during CIPA battery life testing.

The D500 began shipping in March 2016 for a suggested retail price of US$1999.95 in a body-only configuration. A kit is also available, including a AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED VR lens for US$3,069.95. The MB-D17 multi battery grip for the D500 sells for US$449.95 to provide additional battery life and improved comfort for vertical shooting.

In the Box

The Nikon D500 retail box as tested ships with the following items:

• D500 Body
• EN-EL15 Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery
• MH-25a Battery Charger
• UC-E22 USB 3.0 Cable
• AN-DC17 Camera Strap
• BF-1B Body Cap
• BS-3 Accessory Shoe Cover
• USB Cable Clip
• HDMI Cable Clip
• DK-17 Eyepiece
• User's Manual
• Warranty Card

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SD and/or XQD memory cards. Given the high resolution and large file sizes of the D500, 32GB is a good tradeoff between cost and capacity. If you plan to capture high-definition or 4K movie clips, shoot image bursts, or shoot in RAW format, opt for the fastest cards you can afford.
• Extra EN-EL15 lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack for extended outings
• External shoe mount flash (SB-5000, SB-910 AF, SB-700 AF), macro light (R1C1, R1), wireless commander (SU-800) or other accessory flash
• ME-1 external stereo microphone or other external mic with 3.5mm stereo plug
• Medium to large camera bag

Optics

Our Nikon D500 did not come with a "kit" lens, so we don't have any lens test results. We do however have our viewfinder accuracy test results below.

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Very good accuracy with the optical viewfinder and LCD monitor in Live View mode.

The Nikon D500's optical viewfinder displayed about 99% coverage in our test, which is very good but a little short of Nikon's 100% spec. Interestingly, LCD coverage in Live View mode was close to 101% in our tests. Still, very good coverage.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D500 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Vibrant colors with average hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
50	100	200	400
800	1600	3200	6400
12800	25600	51200	102400
204800	409600	819200	1638400
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links above to compare ISOs, and click to load a larger version.

Saturation. The Nikon D500 pumps dark blues a lot, dark green, dark orange, and reds moderately, and most other colors slightly, though yellow and aqua are slightly undersaturated. Overall, mean saturation levels are a little higher than average at 15.3% oversaturated at ISO 100 versus a more typical 10%, however colors are quite pleasing and vibrant in real-world images as a result. The D500's default mean saturation is fairly consistent at low to moderately high ISOs, but starts to fall off at ISO 51,200, to a minimum of 91.9% at ISO 819,200. Camera JPEGs are quite discolored at extended ISOs above 204,800, though, with a red or magenta tint, so take those numbers with a grain of salt. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. The Nikon D500 did fairly well with Caucasian skin tones, rendering them with a bit of a pink tint with both Manual and Auto white balance in our "Sunlit" outdoor lighting, but they were a bit on the warm side. However when using Daylight white balance, they were definitely too yellow, so we preferred Auto or Manual white balance. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Nikon D500 produces a few color shifts relative to ideal colors, as do most cameras. Reds are shifted slightly toward orange, and cyan toward blue, but there are only slight shifts in yellow, orange, green and purple. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) Mean "delta-C" color error at base ISO was 5.42 after correction for saturation, which is about average, and remains about average up to ISO 204,800, increasing rapidly from there due to the aforementioned tint at very high extended ISOs. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Warm results with Auto and Incandescent white balance, though excellent color balance with Manual. Average exposure accuracy.

Indoors, in common incandescent lighting, color balance is a little warm and reddish with the default Auto white balance setting, however performance here is noticeably better than prior Nikons. The D500 has Auto WB options to reduce warm colors ("Keep white") which is the default tested here, "Normal", or "Keep warm lighting colors", however we did not test the non-default options. The Incandescent setting is very warm with a strong yellow tint. (Some users may prefer this look, though, as being more representative of the original lighting.) The Manual white balance setting produced accurate results, though perhaps a touch cool. The Nikon D500 required +0.3 EV exposure compensation, which is about average among cameras we've tested for this scene. Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Vibrant color and very good exposure outdoors, but somewhat high default contrast.

We found skin tones fairly realistic with both Auto and Manual white balance in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot. Default contrast is on the high side, so a few highlights were clipped in the mannequin's shirt, pendant and some of the flowers while darker shadows are quite deep, though noise in all but the deepest shadows is quite low. Exposure accuracy was about average for this shot, requiring +0.7 EV exposure compensation to keep the face bright. The Far-field image on the right is very well exposed, with only a few clipped highlights in very bright white areas and in specular highlights. Again, detail in the shadows is quite good, and deep shadow noise is low. Color here with Auto white balance is very pleasing, if a little more pumped than we're used to seeing from Nikon.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
~2,550 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, about the same from converted RAW files.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns up to about 2,550 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and to about 2,550 lines per picture height in the vertical direction in JPEGs. (Some might argue for higher, but lines begin to merge at those resolutions.) Complete extinction of the pattern didn't occur until around 3,400 lines with signs of moiré/false color suppression. We weren't able to extract any more resolution with RAW files processed through Adobe Camera Raw, though the ACR conversion contained more color moiré than the in-camera JPEG images, so the camera's processing does a decent good job suppressing it. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Very crisp images, though default sharpening is a bit high and generates noticeable sharpening halos. Minor noise suppression artifacts at base ISO.

Sharpness. The Nikon D500 produced very sharp, detailed images for a 21-megapixel sensor at default settings, though edge enhancement artifacts are somewhat conspicuous around high-contrast edges, such as the sharpening halos around the lines and lettering in the crop above left. Default sharpening is probably optimized for crisp-looking prints which can look overdone on screen at 100%, and you can always turn it down if you prefer. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing color and tonal differences right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows some minor detail loss and smudging due to noise suppression, as the darker areas of the mannequin's hair show a lot of detail. Individual strands are still distinguishable even in the lighter shadows, though some begin to merge as shadows deepen, and in places where the tone and color of adjacent strands is very close. The hair is also virtually free from chroma noise, which is often not the case. An excellent performance here. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Nikon D500 does a great job at capturing lots of fine, crisp detail in its JPEGs for its resolution, but more detail can often be obtained from carefully processing RAW files, while at the same time reducing sharpening artifacts. Let's have a look at base ISO:

Base ISO (100)
Camera JPEG, defaults	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw

In the table above, we compare an in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to the matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 9.1 via DNG Converter 9.6 using default noise reduction with some strong but tight unsharp mask sharpening applied in Photoshop (300%, radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0).

As is frequently the case, the demosaicing in Adobe Camera Raw and sharpening in Photoshop deliver finer detail than the camera, with fewer sharpening artifacts. Looking very closely at the images, it's clear that ACR extracts a bit more detail that isn't present in the JPEGs from the camera itself, even in the red-leaf swatch Nikons traditionally do very well with. The ACR conversion manages to resolve more of the thread patterns in the fabrics while the camera treats them as noise and blurs them away. While it doesn't look quite as finely detailed, Nikon's rendering is smoother-looking with higher contrast and more vibrant colors, and noise is less visible in the shadows and flatter areas. Still, we'd personally go the Adobe (or other high-quality third-party RAW converter) route here if we were concerned about making the best images possible from the D500's sensor. That said, the D500's in-camera JPEGs are excellent at low ISOs, and you can always try adjusting image processing settings to your tastes.

ISO & Noise Performance
Excellent high ISO performance for an APS-C sensor.

Noise Reduction = Default
ISO 50	ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 6400	ISO 12,800
ISO 25,600	ISO 51,200	ISO 102,400
ISO 204,800	ISO 409,600	ISO 819,200
ISO 1,638,400

Nikon D500 images are clean and very detailed up to ISO 800, with just a touch of luminance noise becoming more visible in the shadows as ISO increases, as well as a very slight drop in fine detail due to noise reduction processing. ISO 1600 shows more noticeable luminance noise, but fine detail is still quite good, and chroma noise is very low. ISO 3200 still contains very good detail and relatively low noise. ISO 6400 exhibits a larger drop in image quality, but fine detail is still fair. Image quality drops off more rapidly at ISO 12,800 and above, with increasing noise "grain", blurring from noise reduction and chroma blotches, and ISOs above 51,200 are so noisy and discolored we question why Nikon included them other than for pure specmanship.

All in all, though, excellent high ISO performance for an APS-C camera, one of the best we've tested.

Of course, the impact of noise and detail loss are highly dependent on the size the photos are printed at, and pixel-peeping on-screen has surprisingly little relationship to how the images look when printed: See the Print Quality section below for recommended maximum print sizes at each ISO.

A note about focus for this shot: We used to shoot this image at f/4, however depth of field became so shallow with larger, high-resolution sensors that it was difficult to keep important areas of this shot in focus, so we have since started shooting at f/8, the best compromise between depth of field and sharpness.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
Excellent dynamic range despite the high default contrast. Very good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images in near darkness.

Sunlight:
The Nikon D500 performed well in the deliberately harsh lighting in the above test, despite its high default contrast. We felt +0.7 EV exposure compensation was required to keep the mannequin's face bright, but that led to only a few highlights blown in her shirt and flowers, and shadows contained good detail with relatively low noise. Note that these shots were captured with the Nikon D500's Active D-Lighting control set to its default of "Off." See below for how Active D-Lighting and contrast settings help with hot highlights and deep shadows.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)

Active D-Lighting
Active D-Lighting attempts to preserve detail in both highlights and shadows in high-contrast situations, while maintaining moderate levels of contrast. The series of shots below show the effect of the various Active D-Lighting settings (Off (default), Low, Normal, High, Extra High and Auto) available on the Nikon D500 on our high-contrast "Sunlit" Portrait scene.

Note that Active D-Lighting is different from the Retouch menu's D-Lighting, as it is performed during image capture instead of after. (It does affect only JPEG images, though, Nikon very properly doesn't apply tonal adjustments like this to RAW file data. NEF files are however tagged so that Nikon software can automatically apply the effect when converted.)

"Sunlit" Portrait Active D-Lighting
	ADL Settings: Off (Default) Auto Low Normal High Extra High

Mouse over the links to see how the various levels of Active D-Lighting affects our "Sunlit" Portrait shot at default exposure, and click on any link to get to the full-res image. (Active D-Lighting's effect can be a little subtle in shots like those above, so we use a mouse-over with matching histograms to better show how each setting compares.)

As you can see from the thumbnail images and histograms above, the default exposure was somewhat dim so almost no highlights were blown to begin with, but we can see that enabling Active D-Lighting boosted shadows and lower midtones for a better overall exposure (still too dim, though), while at the same time preserving highlights even when cranking up the level. Normally, there is a noise penalty to be paid for boosting shadows, but noise levels in the shadows are quite low with this camera, so increased shadow noise is not really a concern here at base ISO. It's also interesting to note that the default ADL setting for the D500 is Off, while in more consumer-oriented models, the default is Auto.

Far-field Active D-Lighting (0 EV)
Off	Auto	Low	Normal
	High	Extra High

Here are the results with our Far-field shot. As you can see, Active D-Lighting brought up shadow detail while holding on to highlights. The Auto setting did a pretty good job here.

HDR Mode
Like other recent Nikon DSLRs, the D500 offers an in-camera high-dynamic-range imaging function. When enabled, the D500 captures two images with one push of the shutter button -- one underexposed and one overexposed -- and combines them in-camera to produce a high-dynamic-range JPEG. (RAW format is not supported.) There are three exposure differentials available: 1, 2 and 3 EV, as well as an Auto option, and there are three Smoothing options: Low, Normal and High. You can also elect to do a series of HDR shots without having to re-enable the mode each time, or select a Single Photo option.

Far-field HDR mode
Off	Auto	1 EV	2 EV	3 EV

Mouse over the links to see how the Auto, 1 EV, 2 EV and 3 EV levels of HDR with default Smoothing affects our Far-field shot at default exposure. Click on a link to get to the full-res image.

Overall, we think Nikon D500's in-camera HDR is one of the better implementations we've seen, though it would be nice if more than two images were captured. Obviously moving subjects should be avoided, as you can see from the ghosting around the leaves in some of HDR shots above.

Dynamic Range Analysis (RAW mode)
While we once performed our own dynamic range measurements based on in-camera JPEGs as well as converted RAW images (when the camera was supported by Adobe Camera Raw), we've switched to using DxO Labs' results from their DxOMark website. As technology advanced, the dynamic range of modern high-end cameras in some cases exceeded the range of the Stouffer T4110 density scale that we used for our own measurements. DxO's approach based on RAW data before demosaicing is also more revealing, because it measures the fundamental dynamic range of the sensor, irrespective of whatever processing is applied to JPEGs, or to RAW data by off-the-shelf conversion software.

In the following, we use DxO's "Print" dynamic range results, which are scaled based on camera resolution. As the name suggests, this scaling corresponds to the situation in which you print at a given size, regardless of how many megapixels the camera might have. (In other words, if you've decided to make a 13x19 inch print, that's the size you're printing, whether the camera's resolution is 16 or 300 megapixels.) For the technically-minded, you can find a discussion of the reasoning behind this here on the DxOMark website. Also note that DxO Labs uses a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold of 1 when defining the lower boundary of acceptable luminance noise in their dynamic range measurements, which corresponds to the "Low Quality" threshold of the Imatest software we used to use for this measurement.

Here, we compare the Nikon D500's dynamic range (in orange) to that of its aging predecessor, the D300S (yellow), and also to its closest current competitor, the Canon 7D Mark II (red).

As you can see from the above graph (click for a larger image), the D500's dynamic range is significantly higher than the D300S' across the board, with a peak of 14 EV as base ISO, versus 12.2 EV for the D300S (a 1.8 EV advantage), and with an even larger advantages at higher ISOs. We've come a long way since the D300S!

Incidently, the Nikon D500 also performs well against class-leading modern APS-C sensors like the D7200's. At base ISO, the D7200 has about a 0.6 EV advantage, but at ISOs above 400, the D500 actually does better.

The Nikon D500's dynamic range is also decidedly better than Canon's 7D Mark II across the ISO spectrum, with a 2.2 EV advantage at base ISO, however the advantage isn't as stark as compared to the D300S at higher ISOs, but still quite significant.

Overall, excellent dynamic range from the Nikon D500. Click here to visit the DxOMark page for the Nikon D500 for more of their test results and additional comparisons.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16 fc No NR
ISO 100	2 s f2.8	30 s f2.8	30 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 51200	1/250 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8

Low Light. The Nikon D500 performed well here, able to capture usable images down to the 1/16 foot-candle light level (about 1/16 as bright as average city street lighting at night) even at base ISO. Noise is of course very low at ISO 100, and still quite low at ISO 3200, but as expected, noise is a little high at maximum native ISO of 51,200, but still quite usable.

Color balance with Auto white balance is pretty neutral here at one foot-candle, just a touch cool, but with a noticeable cyan tint at 1/16 foot-candle.

We didn't notice any issues with hot or overly bright pixels, banding (fixed pattern noise), or heat blooming during our low-light tests.

LL AF: The D500's phase-detection autofocus system was able to focus on our low-contrast AF target down to below the 1/16 foot-candle light level (0.4 Lux or -2.6 EV) unassisted with an f/2.8 lens, which is very good. (Our low-contrast AF target is more difficult to focus on than how manufacturers rate their cameras; when using our high-contrast AF target, the D500 was able to focus down to 0.02 Lux or about -7.0 EV, significantly better than its -4 EV rating.) The Nikon D500 doesn't have a built-in AF illuminator, but can utilize the illuminator found on most compatible flash units.

In Live View mode, the D500's contrast-detect autofocus was able to focus on our low-contrast AF target at even lower light levels than phase-detect AF, down to about 0.28 Lux or -3.2 EV, but not quite as low as phase-detect with our high-contrast target, at 0.06 Lux or -5.4 EV. Still, excellent low-light AF performance overall.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Nikon D500 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Superb 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 50-200; a nice 13 x 19 at ISO 3200; a good 5 x 7 at ISO 25,600.

ISO 50 through 200 prints look superb at 30 x 40 inches and larger, until you run out of resolution. Fine detail is excellent, colors are rich and well-balanced and the images have a three-dimensional "pop" to them. Excellent printed images at these lowest ISO's.

ISO 400 also looks terrific at 30 x 40 inches. You have to really get close to the print to notice a slight drop in fine detail and crispness in some areas of our target like our mosaic tile region, but the difference is negligible and the print is still excellent in overall quality.

ISO 800 yields a 30 x 40 inch print that, amazingly, can still be used effectively for wall display purposes and less critical applications; anything but close-up critical viewing. The 24 x 36 inch print here is quite good and very much passes our good grade, with only the mildest drop in contrast detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch, and some minor apparent noise in a few flatter areas of our test target. Fine detail is still good throughout the majority of the image, and this is a nice achievement for this sensitivity.

ISO 1600 prints warrant a reduction in size to 16 x 20 inches, the first time the Nikon D500 begins to look like a mere mortal in the APS-C world. This is still a nice printed size for ISO 1600, but anything larger begins to reveal too much in the way of noise reduction artifacts to pass our good grade.

ISO 3200 yields a print with good color reproduction and overall fine detail at 16 x 20 inches, but displays just a trace too much noise in some flatter areas of our target to merit our good rating here. A reduction to 13 x 19 inches does the trick and delivers a solid print with good fine detail, full colors and very little in the way of noise reduction artifacts.

ISO 6400 produces an 11 x 14 inch print that just passes our good grade. There is a trace of visible noise in some flatter areas of our target, but not enough to prevent us from assigning our good seal here. You won't see many cameras on our site as of this writing with APS-C sized sensors that can deliver a good 11 x 14 inch print at ISO 6400. Most contrast detail is lost in our troublesome red-leaf swatch, but this is typical of most cameras we test by this ISO setting.

ISO 12,800 delivers an 8 x 10 that comes oh-so-close to passing our good rating! To my knowledge that would be a first in the APS-C world. Indeed, the 5 x 7 inch print here is the best we've yet seen at this ISO from an APS-C camera -- a really superb image for this ISO!

ISO 25,600 shots just pass our good grade at 5 x 7 inches, and yet again this is a stellar feat for this ISO from an APS-C camera. Full color reproduction and nice fine detail are still apparent with very little visible noise at this print size. Well done!

ISO 51,200 prints a 4 x 6 that almost passes through, and is certainly usable for less critical applications. It's just a bit on the noisy side, with slightly muted colors, to warrant our good seal. But again this is a lofty ISO for an APS-C camera as of this writing.

We've certainly come a long way since 2009 and the days of the Nikon D300S! That was a camera to be reckoned with for its time, but in the past seven years the stakes have definitely changed. For the APS-C world, the Nikon D500 is now one of the heavy hitters in the print quality department as ISO rises, besting other cameras like the Canon 7D Mk II, Nikon D7200 and the Sony A6300 at ISO 6400 and higher. Only the Samsung NX1 and NX500 have fared as well or better at print quality in the APS-C category.

It's too bad that the five extended high ISOs are basically useless for printing purposes. We've been scratching our heads wondering why Nikon is offering sensitivities so high that they don't really have any practical use in the enthusiast camera world, including going as high as ISO 1,638,400 but with abysmal image quality. This is perhaps useful for surveillance of some kind, but definitely not for enthusiast photography.

But extended ISOs aside, if you need large prints as ISO rises in an APS-C camera body that can deliver quality prints through ISO 25,600, the Nikon D500 is one of your best bets as of this writing.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D500 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon D500 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Image Quality

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing Nikon D500 image quality to its true predecessor, the D300S, as well as against a couple of its more recent siblings, the D7200 and the D750. We've also included the Canon 7D Mark II, its closest competitor, and the Sony A6300 which offers similar performance and is considered to produce state-of-the-art image quality for a shipping camera with a Bayer-filtered APS-C sensor. We realize the Nikon D750 is full-frame while the D500 and the rest are APS-C, but the D750 is the same price so we wanted to see how a full-frame camera compares for those that don't need the performance of the D500.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). All cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses. Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Nikon D500, Nikon D7200, Nikon D750, Canon 7D II, and Sony A6300 -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Nikon D500 to any camera we've ever tested!

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D300S at Base ISO

Nikon D500 at ISO 100	Nikon D300S at ISO 200
It's been almost seven years since the D300S was introduced, and this comparison really demonstrates just how much image quality has advanced in that time. The 21-megapixel D500 easily out-resolves the 12-megapixel D300S, but it also produces a cleaner image at base ISO, however keep in mind the D300S' higher base ISO of 200. Nikon's processing has also changed a lot since the D300S, with higher default contrast, saturation, and sharpening, which combine to produce a much crisper, more vibrant image, but one that also contains obvious sharpening halos. Some of the added sharpness is however due to the D500's lack of an optical low-pass filter which does lead to more aliasing, while the D300S has a fairly strong OLPF contributing to its softer image as well as fewer aliasing artifacts.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D7200 at Base ISO

Nikon D500 at ISO 100	Nikon D7200 at ISO 100
Here we compare the D500 to a modern APS-C Nikon, the D7200. As you can see, image quality and processing are quite similar, though the 24-megapixel D7200 does resolve a bit more detail. On the other hand, the 21-megapixel D500 does a bit better with our tricky red-leaf swatch, likely because of its lower noise levels as a result of slightly larger pixels.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D750 at Base ISO

Nikon D500 at ISO 100	Nikon D750 at ISO 100
Here we decided to compare the APS-C Nikon D500 to the full-frame Nikon D750, because they are both currently the same price. The 24-megapixel D750 again resolves a bit more detail than the D500, but noise levels are very similar. While the D750 has an optical low-pass filter, it shows stronger moiré patterns in our red-leaf fabric indicating it's a fairly weak one. However the appearance of stronger moiré from the D750 is likely just because its resolution is closer to the frequency in the thread pattern, and we'd expect to see similar aliasing if not more from the D500 from a lower frequency pattern. Interestingly, color reproduction is slightly different and more vibrant from the D500, and it appears to be applying stronger default sharpening as well, producing more obvious sharpening halos.

Nikon D500 vs Canon 7D Mark II at Base ISO

Nikon D500 at ISO 100	Canon 7D Mark II at ISO 100
Here, we compare the 21-megpixel D500 its closest competitor, the 20-megapixel Canon 7D Mark II. Resolution is fairly closely matched, but thanks to the lack of an optical low-pass filter, the Nikon does resolve a bit more detail than the minor difference between pixel count would suggest. The Nikon's image is also more vibrant with more "pop", due to differences in processing by the two companies. The Canon's image is a little smoother with slightly lower visible noise, but that's mostly due differences in processing.

Nikon D500 vs Sony A6300 at Base ISO

Nikon D500 at ISO 100	Sony A6300 at ISO 100
At base ISO, the 24-megapixel Sony A6300 resolves noticeably more detail than the 21-megapixel D500, thanks to its higher resolution and very weak (or absent) optical low-pass filter. The Nikon image is a touch more vibrant with better color, but sharpening halos are quite evident while they are much less obtrusive from the Sony. The Sony shows more obvious moiré patterns in the red-leaf fabric here, but again keep in mind the OLPF-less D500 could easily show more with different subject matter or the same subject at a different distance.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D300S at ISO 1600

Nikon D500 at ISO 1600	Nikon D300S at ISO 1600
At ISO 1600, the D500 continues to easily out-resolve the D300S while producing similar noise levels despite significantly smaller pixels. The D500 image is also crisper, clearer and more vibrant thanks to a shift away from the very conservative default processing Nikon used to perform in years gone by.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D7200 at ISO 1600

Nikon D500 at ISO 1600	Nikon D7200 at ISO 1600
The D7200 continues to capture more detail than the D500 in most subject matter, but noise is a little higher from the D7200, allowing the D500 to produce slightly cleaner results while doing better with our difficult red-leaf swatch.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D750 at ISO 1600

Nikon D500 at ISO 1600	Nikon D750 at ISO 1600
The 24-megapixel D750 still manages to produce better detail than the 21-megapixel D500, but it's interesting to see that the noise advantage of the full-frame D750 isn't as great as we expected. Yes, it still produces lower noise, but perhaps not by as much as you would think. Other differences noted at base ISO remain, such as color reproduction and aliasing.

Nikon D500 vs Canon 7D Mark II at ISO 1600

Nikon D500 at ISO 1600	Canon 7D Mark II at ISO 1600
Here at ISO 1600, the Nikon D500 manages to hold onto more detail than 7D Mark II in most areas of our studio target, while at the same time producing lower noise and a more vibrant image. The Canon however does better with the fine, low-contrast detail in our red-leaf swatch, and shows fewer aliasing artifacts as well.

Nikon D500 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 1600

Nikon D500 at ISO 1600	Sony A6300 at ISO 1600
The Sony A6300 still manages to render more detail than the Nikon D500 with fewer sharpening halos, though noise levels are a little higher. Contrast is higher from the Sony in the red-leaf swatch, however moiré patterns continue to interfere with detail here. Colors are not as pleasant from the Sony, and noise "grain" does not appear quite as consistent as the D500's in flatter areas.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D300S at ISO 3200

Nikon D500 at ISO 3200	Nikon D300S at ISO 3200
The newer Nikon D500 continues to easily best its elderly predecessor in all areas at ISO 3200, producing a more detailed, clearer, sharper and more vibrant image with lower or at least comparable noise levels.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D7200 at ISO 3200

Nikon D500 at ISO 3200	Nikon D7200 at ISO 3200
The Nikon D7200 still manages to retain a bit more detail than the D500 at ISO 3200, but D500's image shows lower noise levels and manages to render our red-leaf swatch a little better than the D7200, though both smudge much of the fine detail away.

Nikon D500 vs Nikon D750 at ISO 3200

Nikon D500 at ISO 3200	Nikon D750 at ISO 3200
Likewise, the Nikon D750 continues to resolve more detail than the D500 at ISO 3200, however noise levels actually appear a little higher from the full-frame camera. This is almost certainly because of lighter touch in default noise reduction, though, which allows the D750 to hold onto its advantage in terms of detail.

Nikon D500 vs Canon 7D Mark II at ISO 3200

Nikon D500 at ISO 3200	Canon 7D Mark II at ISO 3200
Here at ISO 3200, the D500 continues to best the 7D Mark II in most respects, producing a sharper, more detailed image with brighter, more pleasing colors. Noise levels from the Nikon also appear lower.

Nikon D500 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 3200

Nikon D500 at ISO 3200	Sony A6300 at ISO 3200
The Sony A6300 still manages to produces a sharper, more detailed image overall than the Nikon D500 at ISO 3200, but noise reduction artifacts are more noticeable, and the Nikon continues to produce better color. Much of the detail in the Sony's rendering of the red-leaf pattern appears distorted instead of just being blurred.

Nikon D500 vs. Nikon D300S, Nikon D7200, Nikon D750, Canon 7D Mark II, Sony A6300

Nikon D500 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D300S ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D7200 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D750 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon 7D Mark II ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A6300 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. High-contrast detail is also important, pushing the camera in different ways, so we like to look at it, too. Here, the Nikon D500 once again easily bests the Nikon D300S with much better detail and contrast, especially as ISO increases. The 24-megapixel cameras do a little better in terms of detail as expected, and all of them produce very good contrast with only a minor drop in image quality up to ISO 6400. The D500 does a little better than the 7D Mark II particularly at higher ISOs, but it's the Sony A6300 which is the overall winner here, even besting the full-frame D750 in terms of detail and clarity.

Superb 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 50-200; a nice 13 x 19 at ISO 3200; a good 5 x 7 at ISO 25,600.

ISO 50 through 200 prints look superb at 30 x 40 inches and larger, until you run out of resolution. Fine detail is excellent, colors are rich and well-balanced and the images have a three-dimensional "pop" to them. Excellent printed images at these lowest ISO's.

ISO 400 also looks terrific at 30 x 40 inches. You have to really get close to the print to notice a slight drop in fine detail and crispness in some areas of our target like our mosaic tile region, but the difference is negligible and the print is still excellent in overall quality.

ISO 800 yields a 30 x 40 inch print that, amazingly, can still be used effectively for wall display purposes and less critical applications; anything but close-up critical viewing. The 24 x 36 inch print here is quite good and very much passes our good grade, with only the mildest drop in contrast detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch, and some minor apparent noise in a few flatter areas of our test target. Fine detail is still good throughout the majority of the image, and this is a nice achievement for this sensitivity.

ISO 1600 prints warrant a reduction in size to 16 x 20 inches, the first time the Nikon D500 begins to look like a mere mortal in the APS-C world. This is still a nice printed size for ISO 1600, but anything larger begins to reveal too much in the way of noise reduction artifacts to pass our good grade.

ISO 3200 yields a print with good color reproduction and overall fine detail at 16 x 20 inches, but displays just a trace too much noise in some flatter areas of our target to merit our good rating here. A reduction to 13 x 19 inches does the trick and delivers a solid print with good fine detail, full colors and very little in the way of noise reduction artifacts.

ISO 6400 produces an 11 x 14 inch print that just passes our good grade. There is a trace of visible noise in some flatter areas of our target, but not enough to prevent us from assigning our good seal here. You won't see many cameras on our site as of this writing with APS-C sized sensors that can deliver a good 11 x 14 inch print at ISO 6400. Most contrast detail is lost in our troublesome red-leaf swatch, but this is typical of most cameras we test by this ISO setting.

ISO 12,800 delivers an 8 x 10 that comes oh-so-close to passing our good rating! To my knowledge that would be a first in the APS-C world. Indeed, the 5 x 7 inch print here is the best we've yet seen at this ISO from an APS-C camera -- a really superb image for this ISO!

ISO 25,600 shots just pass our good grade at 5 x 7 inches, and yet again this is a stellar feat for this ISO from an APS-C camera. Full color reproduction and nice fine detail are still apparent with very little visible noise at this print size. Well done!

ISO 51,200 prints a 4 x 6 that almost passes through, and is certainly usable for less critical applications. It's just a bit on the noisy side, with slightly muted colors, to warrant our good seal. But again this is a lofty ISO for an APS-C camera as of this writing.

We've certainly come a long way since 2009 and the days of the Nikon D300S! That was a camera to be reckoned with for its time, but in the past seven years the stakes have definitely changed. For the APS-C world, the Nikon D500 is now one of the heavy hitters in the print quality department as ISO rises, besting other cameras like the Canon 7D Mk II, Nikon D7200 and the Sony A6300 at ISO 6400 and higher. Only the Samsung NX1 and NX500 have fared as well or better at print quality in the APS-C category.

It's too bad that the five extended high ISO's are basically useless for printing purposes. We've been scratching our heads wondering why Nikon is offering sensitivities so high that they don't really have any practical use in the enthusiast camera world, including going as high as ISO 1,638,400 but with abysmal image quality. This is perhaps useful for surveillance of some kind, but definitely not for enthusiast photography.

But extended ISO's aside, if you need large prints as ISO rises in an APS-C camera body that can deliver quality prints through ISO 25,600, the Nikon D500 is one of your best bets as of this writing.

Field Test

The D300 successor you have been waiting for

by Jeremy Gray | Posted 06/09/16

Introduction

In the years since the Nikon D300S debuted in August of 2009, Nikon users have been waiting for its successor. There have been a handful of enthusiast-oriented Nikon DX DSLRs, but there were always a few features missing that left many photographers longing for another professional-level DX DSLR. The waiting is finally over with the release of the Nikon D500.

The D500 combines the same new autofocus system found in Nikon's latest flagship camera, the D5, with a variety of oft-requested features and agile performance. How does this new DX-format DSLR compare to its predecessor and is this the camera that users have been anxiously waiting for? Read on to find out.

Key Features

• 20.9-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• Durable build quality and professionally-oriented controls
• 3.2 inch articulating touchscreen display
• 153 AF points, 99 of which are cross-point
• 10 frames per second continuous shooting for up to 200 frames
• Native ISO range of 100-51,200 (expandable to 50-1,638,400)
• 4K video at up to 30fps
• Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth along with new Nikon SnapBridge connectivity

Robust and comfortable camera body

The Nikon D500 is quite large for an APS-C DSLR, but it isn't unwieldy. The front grip is fairly narrow and really deep, allowing for me to get a strong and comfortable hold on the camera. As a pro-oriented DSLR, it has a lot of conveniently placed physical controls and a large LCD display on the top deck of the camera. An aspect of the camera's controls that I particularly like is the repositioned ISO button on the top right part of the camera, which puts all exposure-related controls within reach of the right hand.

The rear display is large at 3.2 inches (diagonally) and has 2,359,000 dots that offers excellent detail. Not only is it a big, high-resolution display, but it also articulates and offers touchscreen functionality. The display is unfortunately not a tilt-swivel display, but its articulation is good nonetheless. It can be a little stiff to pull out and tilt, but you get used to it quickly. With that said, it is a rugged mechanism that appears to be built to last.

In addition to the touchscreen and the standard navigation button configuration, the D500 also includes a sub-selector joystick like you'll find on the D5. The joystick is quite small and probably not ideal for precisely navigating through the menus, but it works well overall.

The viewfinder design is similar to that of the D810 and can be opened and closed with a switch to block stray light during long exposures. The cover can be unscrewed for cleaning or swapping out, too. In addition, the mirror mechanism has been designed to reduce viewfinder blackout time which helps when following moving subjects.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of the D500's best new features, its illuminated buttons. When you rotate the power switch all the way over -- how you would normally illuminate the top LCD on a previous Nikon DSLR -- you now also illuminate the buttons along left side of the display and the mode dial on the top of the camera. This is one of those features that you might not have been anxious for, but once you have it, you can't go back; it becomes a must-have feature, especially if you often shoot at night like I do.

Overall, the Nikon D500 delivers really good handling. The camera is designed very well and offers a variety of excellent handling features, such as the sturdy articulating touchscreen LCD and illuminated buttons.

Nikon D500's 20.9-megapixel DX sensor delivers top-notch results

Despite having 3.3 fewer megapixels than Nikon's previous top-dog APS-C DSLR, the D7200, the new Nikon D500 offers plenty of resolving power with its 20.9-megapixel CMOS sensor. To help capture fine details, the D500 also forgoes an optical low-pass filter (OLPF), which does mean it is more prone to moiré. Having shot with a D800E for a few years, a camera which cancels out the effect of an OLPF, this is very rarely an issue for me.

Nikon is known for producing APS-C cameras with impressive dynamic range, particularly of late, and the D500 is no different. The dynamic range of the Nikon D500 is very impressive, and it's clear that this is a DSLR well-equipped to deal with difficult exposure situations.

390mm eq. (Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR AF-S lens), f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 800, +0.67 EV This was a particularly challenging situation with an essentially white background and a dark subject. I was able to tone down the highlights and bring out shadow detail in the moose's fur and eye. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image.

When viewing JPEGs straight from the camera, default settings lead to sharp images. It's common for cameras to over sharpen files at their default settings, but that isn't much of an issue with the Nikon D500, in my opinion. Fortunately, you can customize photos by adjusting Picture Control settings to find the right look for your images.

If the DX image area (23.5 x 15.7mm) isn't providing you enough reach, you can utilize an in-camera 1.3x crop image area (18 x 12mm) as well. In addition to image area options, you also have some interesting RAW image recording options on the D500. Beyond the basic 12- versus 14-bit options and compressed, lossless compressed, and uncompressed file quality options for RAW images, you can also record small and medium RAW files. If you still want the flexibility of a RAW file but won't need the full 5568 x 3712-pixel image size, you can use one of these smaller RAW image options to save memory. This isn't something I would personally opt for, but it is always good to give photographers more options.

Overall, as I will discuss more in the section on high ISO performance, the Nikon D500 has a very impressive sensor. While you will need to dig into the lab results to get the full scoop on the sensor, my impressions of it are that it's the best APS-C sensor I've ever used.

Don't overlook the D500's versatile, capable kit lens

The Nikon D500 can be purchased with a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED VR DX AF-S Nikkor lens for roughly an extra $1,000 USD, bringing the total for the kit to around $3,000. This is a pretty steep price for a kit lens, but it is a solid performer that offers a useful 24-120mm eq. focal length with an impressive maximum aperture throughout the range. Considering its focal length and maximum aperture, the lens is fairly light, weighing in at just over a pound.

Getting a feel for the Nikon D500's user experience

For a camera such as the D500, which is aimed primarily at sports and wildlife photographers (photographers most often yearning for more reach), it is important that the camera handles well in the field and does its best to stay out of its own way, and the D500 accomplishes these tasks.

Touchscreen and Live View

While I enjoyed using the touchscreen for moving the AF point(s) around and quickly interacting with images during playback, there are a few aspects of the camera that, oddly enough, don't support touchscreen functionality. First, the camera's menu system is not compatible with touch. Besides text entry, you will have to use the multi-selector buttons or joystick for navigating the menus. Second, when you press the 'Info' button on the rear of the camera, the display shows a wide variety of shooting settings and options. This appears to be a UI that would work nicely with touch capabilities, however it's not, sadly.

The Live View experience with the D500 is very good. The contrast detect autofocus is excellent and very quick. Focus changes are almost instantaneous as soon as you tap your subject on the display. In addition to good autofocus, Live View offers exposure preview, which allows you to preview various settings changes. This works well in good light, but not so well when your ISO is set high, like for night shooting, as the simulated image becomes too noisy.

Metering

The Nikon D500 includes a new 180k-pixel 3D Color Matrix II metering sensor which delivers solid results. Spot metering is tied to the autofocus point, which I like a lot, and there is matrix metering and center-weighted average metering modes available as well.

Matrix metering works well overall. Center-weighted metering is set to an area equivalent to an 8mm diameter circle by default, but it can be customized when using a CPU lens. Spot metering uses a circle roughly 2.5 percent the size of the frame and will center around the selected AF point, however, when using auto-area AF, spot metering is locked to the center of the frame. There is also a highlight-weighted metering mode in which the camera assigns greater importance to preventing blown out areas in your image than it does by default.

White balance metering is pretty good, and the D500 even comes with a couple of new auto white balance modes, Auto 0 and Auto 2. Auto 0 keeps white in your images and Auto 2 keeps warmer tones.

Modes

With a standard assortment of shooting modes (P, A, S and M), the D500's offerings ought to be familiar to seasoned photographers. There are also two quiet modes, Quiet Continuous and Quiet, which attempt to dampen the sound of the shutter. The D500 also includes some neat built-in features such as 10-shot multiple exposures, in-camera HDR and time-lapse features.

All of the exposure modes are made better by the good Auto ISO implementation found in the D500. When you are pressing down the ISO button, you can rotate the secondary command dial to switch between a constant ISO and Auto ISO. You can still set a minimum for Auto ISO using the main command dial and can get a maximum allowable Auto ISO setting in the camera's menu. And of course you can still set a minimum shutter speed before ISO is boosted, or have the camera select it automatically based on the lens' current focal length. One nice addition is being able to set maximum ISO for flash shots separately.

Nikon D500 has a phenomenal autofocus system

Autofocus is incredibly impressive with the Nikon D500. The camera has access to a whopping 153 autofocus points, which is a really large number for a DSLR and the most Nikon has ever put into a camera (along with the Nikon D5). The new Multi-CAM 20K autofocus sensor module is the same one found in the flagship D5 DSLR and includes 99 cross-type sensors. In addition to the 99 cross-type sensors, the D500's autofocus sensor has 15 autofocus points which support maximum f/8 aperture lenses (which is particularly important for lenses being used with teleconverters). Of the 153 autofocus points, you can select from 55 of them.

Part of what makes the Nikon D500's autofocus performance so good is just how much of the frame is covered by autofocus points. Its coverage is immense and as far as I know the broadest of any DSLR available. So while the AF system is the same as the one used in the D5, the D500 has an advantage in frame coverage due to the smaller-sized sensor. There are technical limitations to how much of the frame can be covered by the AF sensor with DSLR cameras, so what Nikon has achieved with the D500 is impressive. As is the case with the D5, the D500 also includes Nikon's new automatic AF fine-tune feature. You can read more about that here.

Autofocus modes

Autofocus performance is very good overall. The camera is quick and accurate across the entire range of AF points and does a great job in its variety of autofocus modes. Autofocus modes include single-servo and continuous-servo and area modes, include dynamic-area AF (25-, 72-, and 153-point options are available), 3D-tracking, group-area and auto-area AF. Switching between AF-S and AF-C requires holding down the AF button on the front of the camera and rotating the rear command dial. To change the autofocus area mode, simply rotate the front command dial instead.

By default, selecting an AF point or area can be done at any time by using the multi-selector. You can also use the joystick for selecting autofocus points, although I personally prefer the feel of the multi-selector. It is worth noting that when using the joystick, pressing it down locks both focus and exposure with default settings.

Continuous autofocus and subject tracking

Simply put, the Nikon D500 offers phenomenal continuous autofocus performance. It offers a wide variety of autofocus modes, providing a good choice for many different situations.

When shooting a small subject, or a small part of a larger subject like a bird's eyes or a car's headlight, the improved dynamic AF modes work very well. You select a single autofocus point and then the camera will try to track your, moving the AF point if your subject moves throughout the frame.

A larger subject is a good candidate for group autofocus. After introducing group autofocus a few years ago, a lot of photographers have come to swear by its utility. I don't like it for a small subject, but when your subject is filling a good portion of the frame and you don't need the AF point to be precise, group autofocus works really well at keeping your subject in focus.

3D autofocus is mostly impressive, although it is occasionally thrown off by bright elements in the background. Unless you have a clean background, 3D autofocus can be a bit frustrating because it'll lock on your subject, but then shift focus. When it loses focus, it can usually recover fairly quickly. With that said, 3D autofocus is a good option for when you can't consistently keep your subject in the same area of the frame.

Summing up the fantastic autofocus performance

Considering its outstanding coverage of the frame, I think that the Nikon D500's autofocus system is the most impressive I've seen in a DSLR. Having shot extensively with both the D5 and D500, their speeds and accuracy are indistinguishable in real-world shooting scenarios. In fact, I might even give the edge to the D500 in the AF department because its smaller image sensor allows for better frame coverage.

EXPEED 5 makes the Nikon D500 a fast camera

According to Nikon, when capturing lossless compressed 14-bit RAW files, you can capture up to 200 frames at 10 fps. The buffer depth gets a lot smaller when you record 14-bit uncompressed RAW images, but it's still rated for an impressive 79 shots. In my own experience using a 64GB Lexar 2933x XQD card, which is rated for 400 MB/s write speeds, the capture rate of 14-bit uncompressed RAW images slowed down after around 60 frames and 14-bit lossless compressed RAW images were captured for around 200 frames before the camera slowed down. In both cases, the D500 clears the buffer very quickly.

Further, I was curious if there's a performance difference between writing to the XQD slot or the SD slot (the D500 has one of each) and there is no speed difference that I found for continuous shooting speeds, but the buffer clearly fills up faster when recording to the class 10 SD card I tested. Just over 30 uncompressed 14-bit RAW files later and the camera was slowing down. It was also noticeably slower during playback when viewing the images after capture.

As confirmed by our performance lab tests, the general takeaway is that the D500 is a very fast camera, particularly when recording to XQD cards. With 10fps continuous shooting and a very deep buffer, the D500 is very well-suited for sports and wildlife photograph (especially if you choose lossless compressed RAW quality).

In low light, the Nikon D500 lights the way

Low light is no problem for the D500 despite its APS-C sensor size. The camera's native ISO range is 100-51,200, and it is expandable to 50-1,638,400.

As you can see in the images above, even at ISO 3600, the D500 does a pretty good job of capturing fine details. The 100% crop of the RAW file shows quite a bit of visible noise, but it is good for a crop sensor at that ISO. As you can see in the 100% crop of the JPEG file (captured with the default "Normal" high ISO noise reduction), the D500's in-camera processing is pretty good at maintaining sharpness while reducing visible noise. You can still see the pattern of noise, particularly in the background, but contrast and color reproduction are handled well.

In the above image, captured at ISO 9000, I was really impressed with the overall quality of the file. I wouldn't want to print it at its full resolution because there's quite a bit of noise, but the takeaway is that I was able to capture a usable wildlife image in the dense forest with an f/5.6 lens. That is not something that was possible with the Nikon D300. Straight from the camera, the file lacks a bit of vibrancy and the contrast leaves a bit to be desired, but it wouldn't take much processing to end up with a shot I really like. You can see a 100% crop of the RAW file for this image below.

When shooting wildlife, especially when I'm using a Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E lens, my ISO often hovers between 800-3200 to maintain a fast enough shutter speed. It is really important that a camera be able to handle that ISO range well, and the Nikon D500 handles does just that.

Nikon D500 in the field: Wildlife photography

I have touched on wildlife photography in this field test, but I want to cover it in a bit more detail because I consider wildlife photography to be one of the best applications of the D500's particular feature set.

While I would typically opt for a full-frame sensor for landscape photography, that is not always the case when I am photographing wildlife. The 1.5x crop factor that the APS-C DX sensor provides is great for bird photography in particular. The trade-off used to be, at least with the D300, that you were getting the extra reach but with a notable sacrifice in image quality, particularly at higher ISOs. This is not a trade-off that you have to make any longer with the D500. Image quality holds up very well across a wide range of ISOs.

Beyond image quality, the Nikon D500 has a few other features that make it especially well-suited for wildlife photography. The 153-point autofocus system is fantastic for locking in focus on small subjects, such as an animal's eyes. With the ability to very quickly move the autofocus point around the frame with the multi-selector, I was often able to get AF point exactly where I wanted it and achieve focus before the animal moved on. Couple the fast autofocus speeds and wide AF coverage with a 10fps continuous shooting, and the D500 is a camera that is great for capturing action. Overall, I'm hard-pressed to think of a better Nikon DSLR on the market for photographing wildlife.

Nikon D500 in the field: Night photography

Night photography with a crop sensor? Yeah, the D500 actually handles night photography very well. You aren't going to get quite the same high ISO performance as you would on the similarly-priced full-frame D750, but the gap is not nearly as wide between the two as one might expect.

Not only does the D500 produce good high ISO images, but its Live View is usable for zooming in on a bright star and locking in your focus, which is traditionally a nuisance to do at night. Beyond that, the camera is the first DX camera body to include illuminated buttons. All of the buttons on the left side of the camera's rear (save for the Fn2 button) light up, as do the buttons on the top of the mode dial and the white indicator showing you the release mode setting.

The D500 offers very good 4K video, but there are a few issues

4K video has finally made its way to a Nikon DX DSLR. In addition to 1080p video at up to 60fps, the D500 can record 3840 x 2160 resolution video at up to 30fps. 4K UHD video can be recorded from ISO 100 all the way to a whopping ISO 1,640,000. In my opinion, noise gets slightly distracting around ISO 3200 and sharpness really starts to fall off at ISO 6400. By the time you get to ISO 12800, I think you'd have to be pretty desperate to record footage because the quality isn't there. But, at lower ISOs in particular, the D500 records crisp, high-quality 4K UHD footage.

Autofocus speeds are quite impressive as well, although the built-in mic is highly sensitive and will often pick up focusing noises. Tap to focus works very well, especially with the tilting display.

Subject tracking works pretty good if your subject fills up a lot of the frame, but it struggles when light is low or your subject is relatively small. You can see in the video sample below, using the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR lens, that the camera was regularly coming in and out of focus and making small adjustments. Part of this is due to the nature of contrast detect autofocus, which is a bit jumpy, but part of it is due to the camera struggling to find the designated subject.

You can see this same issue with a stable scene in the video below. Focus jumps about halfway through the video for no obvious reason.

The Nikon D500 can record 4K UHD video continuously for up to 29 minutes and 59 seconds (compared to the D5's maximum clip length of 3 minutes), making it much more useful for 4K video than its pricier sibling.  Also, the D500 includes electronic vibration reduction, although this feature is limited to 1080p video recordings. (Editor's note: A D5 firmware update has since increased the 4K video recording limit to 29m:59s and has added Electronic VR.)

Electronic VR works okay, but it is not going to perform any miracles or be a suitable substitute for a tripod, particularly when recording at long focal lengths. The video sample below was recorded with electronic VR enabled.

Overall, the D500 offers more video features than many other Nikon DSLRs and the ability to record 4K UHD video is a welcome upgrade. Performance is quite good considering the limitations of contrast detect autofocus. I like the sensitivity of the built-in mic for recording ambient sounds (not so much for autofocus sound) and the 4K UHD video is able to capture a ton of detail.

Bluetooth Low Energy and Nikon SnapBridge seem promising

The Nikon D500 comes equipped with both Wi-Fi and NFC as well as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Via the BLE connection, your photos can be automatically transferred to your mobile device, provided that it has Nikon's new SnapBridge application installed. This requirement proved problematic for me because the app is not yet available for iOS. It is available for Android, but since I don't have an Android device I was unable to test the wireless features for myself. However, I was able to play around with the app during the Nikon Palm Springs press event, and I can say that the new SnapBridge features look really cool. The transfer speeds were pretty good.

As far as remote control is concerned, the functionality in SnapBridge is identical to that found in the old Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility application, which is to say that it's fairly bare bones. I hope to be able to write more about SnapBridge in the future, but as of now I cannot comment much on it since I've been unable to get my hands on the iOS app. For more information on SnapBridge, see here.

Nikon D500 Field Test Summary

The Nikon D500 may be the best DX camera ever

What I like:

• Ergonomic and full-featured camera body
• Tilting touchscreen
• Excellent 20.9-megapixel DX sensor
• Fast autofocus system that covers much of the image frame with 153 AF points
• 4K UHD video

What I dislike:

• Can't use the touchscreen for menus (except for text entry)
• 1.5x crop factor when recording 4K UHD video
• Electronic VR with video struggles with longer focal lengths
• Live View focusing still uses contrast-detect AF

The Nikon D500 is not only the camera that DX-users have been anxiously waiting for years to arrive, but it's also an excellent camera overall that should grab the attention of all Nikon photographers who love to shoot sports and wildlife, or just want high-speed performance without shelling out the big bucks for a flagship FX camera. With the same great autofocus performance found in the highly impressive D5 (among other shared features), the D500 offers some advantages over the D5, including better AF point coverage across the frame and a much lower price point.

You'll notice that I have mentioned several times that the Nikon D500 shares a lot of the same technology with the flagship D5. In some ways it reminds me of the D3 and D300 when they were released. It is surprising how many important features from the D5 are also found on the D500 despite it costing $4500 less.

At right around $2000 USD, the Nikon D500 is an excellent value and a very good camera. While its DX sensor will come up short against some of its FX peers, it may be one of the best APS-C sensors I've ever used. Overall, the Nikon D500 is, without a doubt, a true flagship DX camera.

Video

By Jaron Schneider · 06/23/2017

The Nikon D500 is an outstanding stills camera, but perhaps often overlooked is its video capability. Though it lacks many features video shooters look for, anyone who already owns a D500 may find that it has enough features to keep one suitably satisfied through many video applications. Specifically for video shooters, you'll find both headphone and mic jacks, two ports that are an absolute must for streamlined audio capture.

The Nikon D500 can shoot 4K video (one of the first Nikon cameras to do so) in both 24p (23.98) and 30p (29.97), and does so at a healthy 144 Mbps bitrate. The result is clean, beautiful 4K video that looks akin to what you might see out of a Sony or Panasonic (in terms of color, sharpness and clarity). Footage is very sharp, and colors are vivid. In today's highly competitive video market, this is what we are looking for. Just bear in mind that you'll need an XQD or a UHS Speed Class 3 SDHC/SDXC memory card to capture 4K video.

It's a shame that the crop factor to create the 4K footage is so dramatic: it takes the 1.5x crop of the APS-C sensor and adds an additional 1.5x to that for a total of about 2.25x compared to full frame. That's makes the resulting piece of the sensor used to create 4K not only smaller than APS-C, but smaller even than Micro Four Thirds. It's a heinous crop factor, and can be totally debilitating for many video shots, especially those in tight quarters. For example, the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 becomes approximately 54-158mm when shooting 4K on the D500. Full HD and HD resolutions can be shot with no additional crop, or with a 1.3x crop added to APS-C, for a total of about 1.95x compared to full frame.

As excellent as the 4K video appears, unfortunately, this quality does not extend to any of the D500's 1080p shooting modes. Though it does offer 1080p60 (59.94), it can only record it and 50p at a maximum bitrate of 48 Mbps. In 24p, 25p and 30p, the best the D500 can offer is 24 Mbps.

If you compare footage side by side, the difference is extremely noticeable: native 1080p footage taken with the D500 is well below expectations, especially given how clean the 4K video quality is. Given the D500's near-$2000 price point, the 1080p quality is well below both expectations and market norms.

ISO performance is good, with footage looking quite pleasant past ISO 6400, with even ISO 12,800 being usable in some situations. Though noise is introduced, it's not necessarily deal-breaking. Stay well away from anything beyond this ISO level, however, as the noise seen past 12,800 is considerable. The color accuracy of footage falls significantly and is completely unusable for anything resembling pro-level video.

The D500 offers touch-focusing capability thanks to its touchscreen, and it does work for the most part. It's not particularly clean, however, and if you were to focus while recording, the "hunting" that occurs will make it exceedingly obvious to your viewer that you were using autofocus. In short, it doesn't look natural. This is ok, however, in some situations as it can be used to quickly nab focus and then switch to manual focus, rather than worrying with manual focus and digital magnification. Additionally, though relatively quick to lock onto focus, the touchscreen doesn't seem to be particularly sensitive, and often got the points I tapped incorrect (it would highlight a section next to my fingertip, or would hunt briefly before stopping with nothing in focus). For video autofocus, it's nowhere near market leading, but would likely qualify as "at par."

Nikon D500 Video Speeds & Feeds

• All videos recorded in .MOV format.
• 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160)
  • 30p (29.97) | 144Mbps
  • 25p (25.00) | 144Mbps
  • 24p (23.98) | 144Mbps
• Full HD (1920 x 1080) - High Quality
  • 60p (59.94) | 48Mbps
  • 50p (50.00) | 48Mbps
  • 30p (29.97) | 24Mbps
  • 25p (25.00) | 24Mbps
  • 24p (23.98) | 24Mbps
• Full HD (1920 x 1080) - Normal Quality
  • 60p (59.94) | 24Mbps
  • 50p (50.00) | 24Mbps
  • 30p (29.97) | 12Mbps
  • 25p (25.00) | 12Mbps
  • 24p (23.98) | 12Mbps
• HD (1280 x 720) - High Quality
  • 60p (59.94) | 24Mbps
  • 50p (50.00) | 24Mbps
• HD (1280 x 720) - Normal Quality
  • 60p (59.94) | 12Mbps
  • 50p (50.00) | 12Mbps

Nikon D500 Notable Video Features

• Records in 16:9 aspect ratio
• Offers NTSC and PAL video framerates
• Maximum Video Recording time: 29 minutes, 59 seconds
• Max file size 4GB (if file size exceeds 4GB a new file will be created automatically)
• Offers clean uncompressed HDMI out UHD 4:2:2
• In-camera 4K video must be recorded to XQD or UHS Speed Class or faster SDHC/SDXC cards; Full HD and HD requires SD Speed Class 6 or faster
• Video compression uses H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding
• TTL exposure metering using main image sensor is matrix, center-weighted, or highlight-weighted
• Menu option to enable zebra highlight display
• Microphone sensitivity can be set to Auto, or manually adjusted among twenty levels
• Audio records at 48 kHz, 16-bit linear PCM stereo
• In-camera wind noise reduction
• Five screen display options (HUD): Blank/clear, digital level, camera record settings, grid, curves. All displays keep camera exposure settings visible
• Multi-selector power aperture
• Flicker reduction options: Auto, 50Hz, or 60Hz
• Manual, shutter priority, aperture priority and program modes available for video capture
• Auto ISO available in video capture. In Exposure mode M: Auto ISO sensitivity control (ISO 100 to Hi 5) available with selectable upper limit; manual selection (ISO 100 to 51,200 in steps of 1/3, 1/2, or 1 EV) with additional options available equivalent to approximately 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 EV (ISO 1,638,400 equivalent) above ISO 51,200. In Exposure modes P, S, and A: Auto ISO sensitivity control (ISO 100 to Hi 5) with selectable upper limit
• All white balance modes are usable during video capture
• Offers custom tone curves
• Active D-Lighting can be selected, extra high, high, normal, low, or off
• Includes seven picture modes including a flat profile (similar to but not quite log)
• Offers 10 video recording formats, including 25p and 50p (all recorded in MOV)
• Capable of slow-motion when recorded in 1080p60
• Offers continuous autofocus
• Offers electronic vibration reduction
• Has a built-in 4K time-lapse mode
• When recording, the D500 does not show individual clip length on a timer, but rather displays how much total time remains on the card in a countdown-style

Summary

For one of Nikon's first 4K DSLRs, the D500 is a solid showing. The ISO performance is good, the slow motion full HD option is nice, and of course the high-quality 4K video is the main focus. Sadly, the 4K uses a heavily cropped portion of the sensor resulting in a painful 2.25x zoom to anything, shot which heavily limits its usability. Add to that the vast quality difference between the 4K and the full HD video (which is sub-par) and the iffy touch autofocus, and you get a camera with limited usability for video. If you are a Nikon user and desperately want to shoot 4K, this is really your best option, and it's not the worst situation in which you could find yourself. The Nikon D500 is overall an excellent camera, and adding 4K was kind of icing on the cake. It should not be seen as a go-to video camera, but it is a very good fall-back for anyone who wants quality 4K and who may already own the D500.

Pros:

• Offers 4K Ultra HD video, with clean HDMI out UHD 4:2:2 8 bit
• Offers 1080p60
• Offers continuous autofocus (though see Con)
• Good ISO performance
• Camera body includes a headphone jack and mic jack

Cons:

• Very heavy crop in 4K video recording
• Low bitrate 1080p video means poor textures, muddy colors and lackluster sharpness
• Continuous autofocus, and tap autofocus has tendency to "hunt"

High ISO Noise Reduction

Nikon D500 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Nikon D500 offers four High ISO Noise Reduction settings: Off, Low, Normal (default), and High, allowing you quite a bit of flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels in JPEGs. The Nikon D500 manual doesn't say at what ISO High ISO Noise Reduction begins to be applied, so we've included crops from ISO 50 on up here.

See for yourself how the Normal and Off settings work compared to RAW files with no noise reduction (or sharpening) applied. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Simulated Daylight
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 5 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 4 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 8 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 2 8 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 5 6 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 5 1 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 0 2 4 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 0 4 8 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 4 0 9 6 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 8 1 9 2 0 0
	Normal	Off	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 6 3 8 4 0 0

High ISO noise reduction seems to kick in already at ISO 200 where it starts to impact fine detail in our difficult red-leaf swatch. And as is usually the case, the Off setting is not truly off, at least at sensitivities above base ISO. At intermediate to high ISOs, we would probably elect to shoot with the Low or even the Off setting, to better preserve fine detail. As you can see, sensitivities above the maximum native ISO of 51,200 or perhaps above extended ISO 102,400 are so swamped with noise we wonder why Nikon even included them, other than for pure specmanship.

Impressions

A fast, agile and fun to use APS-C DSLR

By Jeremy Gray · 05/18/2016

Introduction

Nikon invited me along with numerous colleagues in the industry to Palm Springs, California to work with the new Nikon D500 for a few days. In the scorching desert heat, the hottest thing wasn't the air, but the camera. While not without a few shortcomings, like every camera, the Nikon D500 is a very promising model that looks poised to be a very worthy successor to the D300S of 2009.

Day 1: Lots of travel and a few sunset portraits with the D500

After a long day of travel, which is an inevitable consequence of living in Bangor, Maine, I arrived in a very warm Palm Springs. A few snowflakes fell in Bangor the day before, so stepping out of the plane into high-90's temperatures was a shock to the system.

After a short rest in my hotel room, I headed to a gathering, caught up with a few old friends and made some new ones. As we all chatted about the new gear, a few models played croquet in the afternoon light. I'm not an expert on the lawn sport, but I got the sense it was more of an exhibition match, at best, than any sort of genuine competition. Nonetheless, I was able to test out the D500 in a very interesting backlighting situation.

Unfortunately, my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens was not fine-tuned before I started shooting on the first day, so the focus on the shots was a bit off. If you haven't seen my Caffeine Priority on the new AF Fine-Tune feature (the article is written about the Nikon D5, but it works the same way on the D500) -- check it out here. Nonetheless, my main takeaway of the afternoon was that the camera handled backlight really well and the matrix metering mode did great work at controlling the highlights without losing out on the shadows.

Day 2: A zoo, harsh light, and a trip to the canyons for the D500

The following morning presented the D500 with a wide variety of very challenging situations. This was a theme of the trip and certainly by design; the team at Nikon really wanted us to put the camera through its paces and see what it's capable of.

First up was breakfast at the nearby Living Desert Zoo, a very neat and surprisingly expansive facility housing animals from deserts around the world. These are not animals that will want for heat in Palm Springs, I assure you of that.

I photographed some warthogs (think Pumba from the Lion King except not quite so jovial) that were sort of milling about their habitat. It was definitely a difficult lighting situation, but the Nikon D500 metered it well. I thought that the automatic white balance could've been metered a bit better as the images came out a little flat straight from the camera, but otherwise I was impressed. It wasn't an easy situation, and I was still able to capture a decent shot.

This time I used the D500's Auto AF Fine-Tune feature to get my 70-200mm f2.8G VR II lens to play nicely with the Nikon D500 and captured images of a wide variety of animals, including a gorgeous cheetah. As is often the case with animals, the cheetah wasn't particularly interested in being a cooperative subject, but it was nonetheless a beautiful animal.

Giraffes and addax were out on the plains, but they were happy to mostly be in the shade or just eating next to the fence, neither one being an ideal location. This is a situation which really put the D500's sensor to the test as I was forced to recover a lot of shadow detail and deaden the highlights a bit. For using an APS-C sensor, the Nikon D500 shows an impressive amount of dynamic range. Obviously, the sensor will need to be tested out in the lab, but it struck me as a particularly good APS-C sensor.

We loaded up the bus to head back to the hotel for a brief break, after which we piled into a fleet of Jeeps and got a very cool canyon tour in the mountains.

The bright late afternoon light was harsh and throwing long shadows across much of the canyons, making capturing great shots very tricky. This situation called for a lot of exposure compensation and just trying to balance a scene as best you could. Despite being a desert (one of the criterion for being a desert is getting less than 10 inches of precipitation each year) there were a lot of wildflowers in the canyons.

These wildflowers presented an opportunity to try some close-up shots with my Nikon 20mm f/1.8G lens which can actually focus quite closely. Later on, I got to try a Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-5.6 lens for landscapes.

Following dinner, interested photographers split off and headed to Joshua Tree National Park to do some night shooting, and I was excited for the opportunity. I used my 20mm f/1.8G lens for this and put the D500 through its paces in the desert night. As far as I'm concerned, night shooting is one of the great tests of a camera's abilities, both in handling and in image quality.

With the f/1.8 maximum aperture lens attached to the D500, I was easily able to dial in my focus using Live View. This is fantastic for me as a big fan of nightscape photography because having to get your focus just right using the focus scale and a trial-and-error process is not only annoying but wastes a massive amount of time, especially when I am also adjusting my focus regularly to capture foreground images.

You know what else wastes time? Having to shine a light on the buttons on your camera while you're still familiarizing with it. Sure, this isn't a problem once you're a veteran of the particularly body, but the Nikon D500's illuminated buttons make this learning curve a thing of the past. It may not sound like a big deal, but if you're someone who does a lot of work at night like I do, you'll greatly appreciate it!

Day 3: Action sport and fast cars put Nikon D500's AF to the test

After getting to sleep well after 2am because of the Joshua Tree excursion (which was very much worth it, by the way), waking up early felt impossible. I powered through in the hopes of capturing some cool shots of skateboarders at a local skate park.

With the temperatures eclipsing triple digits, I was able to test out whether the D500's grip can handle sweaty hands -- it can. More importantly, I was able to test out the Nikon D500's continuous autofocus performance. With a talented BMX biker going in and out of the bowl at the park, getting staggering amounts of hang time, the D500 did a great job of maintaining focus as the biker went up and came back down.

After capturing a lot of bursts of the biker and the skateboarders at the park, I was able to borrow and try out a Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX fisheye lens. I've never shot with a fisheye before; it's an addictive lens! I had to get really close to the edge to use it, which felt a bit risky, but it made for some very cool photos.

After lunch at the Empire Polo Grounds, I was able to photograph a polo match, a sport I've never seen let alone shot. It's quite difficult to keep track of horses as they move in all different directions, but the Nikon D500 did a really good job. Even with a Nikon TC-20E III teleconverter on the 70-200mm f/2.8, autofocus performance felt very quick and accurate across the entire AF coverage area.

Next up was the event that I was most looking forward to, an afternoon at the BMW Performance Center in Thermal, California. Not only were we going to be able to photograph the cars (BMW M3's for those car fanatics out there), but we were actually going to be able to drive them!

I'll spare you all of the details of my driving and eventual second place finish in the hot lap challenge (congratulations to Michael Frank on his big win) and get on to the stuff we all care about, the D500's performance, which was in a word, great. I attempted a lot of panning shots. Panning is a difficult technique and one that is mostly outside of my wheelhouse, but the D500 did everything it could to help me capture great shots.

Focus was responsive, metering was consistently good, and the 10 frames per second continuous shooting was very good. Not only was the speed itself impressive, but the buffer depth is great. Sure, the D5 is faster at 12fps (14fps with mirror-up), but the EXPEED 5-powered D500 delivers the same autofocus and buffer depths as the D5, for $4,500 less. Let that sink in.

What else does the D500 have to offer?

A few things became apparent throughout the duration of the event. First is that the D500's 3.2-inch tilting touchscreen display is really good. The tilting mechanism is very strong, and I think it's built to last. Obviously I can't be sure, but the weather-sealed D500 sure feels like a tough camera body.

Speaking of how the Nikon D500 feels, it fits very nicely in the hands. The grip is deep and feels similar to the D750. Buttons are placed in convenient locations, particularly the ISO button that's been moved to the top right part of the camera near the shutter release, so now all exposure controls are reachable with your right hand. This small change makes a big difference out in the field. There is also a second function button that has been added to the left of the display.

What about the D500 is there to dislike?

There is a lot more testing for me to do with the Nikon D500, but Nikon did an excellent job of providing me with opportunities to test some of the camera's major features and see how it held up in difficult conditions. As you can tell, I found the camera to perform very well but there were a few shortcomings that I found during the event.

While the tilting touchscreen is very good, you can't use it for navigating menus or changing settings on the quick menu, which really feels like a missed opportunity. Matrix metering is pretty good, but it can be thrown off by bright areas in the frame. This isn't an issue unique to the D500 by any means, but I expected better from the new 180k-pixel RGB metering sensor.

Wrapping up: With the D500, things are looking up for DX shooters

The autofocus performance is great. In my opinion, this could be a game-changer for DSLRs as the D500 manages to take the same AF performance found in the flagship D5 camera and makes it even better by having it cover more of the frame due to the smaller DX sensor.

Look forward to our full review of this exciting new camera. While the Nikon D500 has made an excellent first impression, there is still much more testing to do to see if this camera can live up to the hype, and if it really is the camera that many Nikon photographers have been waiting for, but so far so good!

Conclusion

In 2009, Nikon released the D300S, and since then, they had not released a new professional-quality APS-C DSLR until the D500 was released this spring. The Nikon D500 shares many features with the simultaneously-announced D5 flagship DSLR, and in fact, save for the smaller body and sensor, there are not as many differences between the D500 and D5 as you might expect. They both use the same new 153-point AF system, 180k-pixel metering sensor, fast EXPEED 5 image processor and offer 4K UHD video recording.

The Nikon D500's rugged body is pro-oriented and comfortable to use

The Nikon D500 is quite large for an APS-C sensor DSLR. Compared to the D7200, the D500 is both heavier (by about three ounces) and larger in every dimension. Even compared to the full-frame D750, the D500 is heavier and larger, although the margins are much smaller. Despite being quite large, it's comfortable to hold due to its narrow, deep front grip.

Like the D5, the D500 is one of Nikon's first cameras to include the ISO button on the right side of the camera, putting all of the exposure controls within the reach of your shutter finger. Controls are good overall, and we particularly liked the D500's inclusion of a sub-selector joystick. All of these well-placed buttons light up too, allowing photographers working in the dark to easily find the right button. On the back of the camera is a 3.2-inch articulating touchscreen LCD with 2,359,000 dots. The touchscreen functionality works well, particularly during Live View and video recording, and the display's articulation is very good and feels rather durable.

If Live View shooting isn't up your alley, don't worry, the viewfinder is excellent, with its nearly 100% frame coverage and 0.67x magnification (35mm equivalent). The D500's mirror mechanism has been improved to reduce viewfinder blackout time, which is great for tracking fast-moving subjects. Not everything is an addition or improvement, however, as the D500 is the company's first APS-C camera to eschew a built-in flash.

Overall, the camera handles very well. We were impressed with the robust build quality, professional-oriented controls and the small details (such as the new location of the ISO button and illuminated controls) that separate a camera like the D500 from lesser cameras.

New 20.9-megapixel DX sensor helps D500 reach new heights

Excellent image quality

While many of Nikon's current DX cameras come with 24-megapixel sensors, the D500 bucks the trend and comes equipped with a 20.9-megapixel CMOS sensor. When comparing the D500 to its predecessor, the D300S, the image quality difference is substantial. Of course, the D300S came out in 2009 and offered up 12 megapixels, so it's not exactly a fair comparison. When compared to the D7200, the D7200 offers a bit more detail due to its higher-resolution sensor, but the D500 captures images with less noise. Thanks to its lack of an optical low pass filter (OLPF), the D500 resolves slightly more detail than its Canon competitor, the 20-megapixel 7D Mark II.

Nikon D500's high ISO performance is very good for an APS-C sensor

At high ISOs, Nikon's choice to go with 20.9 megapixels rather than 24 like their other DX offerings shows its value. At ISO 1600, the D500 provides cleaner images than the D7200, which itself is a very impressive APS-C camera. Even compared to the full frame D750, the D500 doesn't produce much more noise at ISO 1600.

For critical printing applications, the D500 can produce 30 x 40 prints at up to ISO 400. Less critical uses could get away with a print that size at ISO 800. At ISO 1600, a great print tops out at 16 x 20. You could almost get away with a print this size at ISO 3200, but you're better off opting instead for a 13 x 19 print. At ISO 6400, an 11 x 14 is about the best you can do, but this is still impressive for an APS-C camera. Feel like pushing the D500 to its native ISO limit of 51,200? Go for it if you must, but stick with a 4 x 6 print and even then, it isn't going to pass our test. Don't be influenced by the maximum ISO 1,638,400 setting you see mentioned in marketing materials, however, as all of the extended ISO settings are basically useless.

As of right now, the D500 is one of your best bets for an APS-C camera that offers excellent high ISO performance.

Dynamic range: The D500 is not as good at low ISOs as D7200, but it's still very good

It isn't just the noise levels though that make this DX camera impressive in low light, it's the high ISO dynamic range. As was the case with the D5, Nikon has opted for high ISO dynamic range at the cost of low ISO dynamic range. Granted, the trade off is much smaller in the case of the D500 with DxOMark giving the D500's sensor a landscape dynamic range score of 14 EVs compared to the 14.6 EVs that the D7200 received. Color depth and low-light ISO scores are actually slightly lower than the D7200's as well. Past ISO 400, however, dynamic range results from the D500 surpass those of the D7200, and the gap gets particularly large (over 1 EV) past ISO 12,800. The D500 also offers a rather large dynamic range performance advantage over the Canon 7D Mark II across the entire ISO range.

Nikon D500's user experience is strong across the board

Thanks to its impressive touchscreen display, the D500 provides one of the better user experiences of any Nikon DSLR we've tested. While a dedicated touch-friendly quick menu would be nice, the camera is still designed very well and proved to be user-friendly in real-world shooting situations. It has no major shortcomings in use, and its small touches like the relocated ISO button and illuminated buttons make it a very satisfying camera to use.

New metering sensor is dependable

Both the D500 and D5 include the same all-new 180k-pixel RGB metering sensor. The results it delivers are mostly good, although automatic white balance can sometimes be a bit warm. Exposure metering performance was very good overall, but the camera's high default contrast may be a bit excessive in some cases. The 3D Color Matrix II metering sensor is definitely one of Nikon's best. It's also worth noting that spot metering is tied to the AF point, and both AF and AE can be locked by pressing the sub-selector joystick.

D500's 153-point AF system is Nikon's best so far

Sporting the same AF system as in the D5, the Nikon D500 has excellent autofocus performance. Capable of focusing down to -4 EV with the central AF point, the D500's low-light autofocus performance was quite impressive. While the single shot AF is great, where the D500 really shines is with its continuous autofocus performance. We found that the improved dynamic autofocus modes worked well, particularly when tracking a small part of the frame, such as a subject's eyes. Group autofocus works well for larger subjects and 3D autofocus is mostly good, although bright areas in the frame can throw it off.

With its own dedicated AF engine, autofocus speeds are very impressive overall. In addition to being fast and accurate, the 153 AF points cover a lot of the frame, extending almost to the sides. Of the 153 points, 55 are user selectable with the rest located between selectable points.

For photographers who regularly use teleconverters -- which is sure to be a large portion of wildlife photographers who may be interested in the D500 -- the D500's AF system is prepared for that. All of the points are compatible with maximum f/5.6 aperture lenses (such as a 300mm f/2.8 with a 2x teleconverter, for example). 37 of them are compatible with lenses slower than f/5.6 but faster than f/8. Finally, 15 of them are compatible with effective f/8 lenses, such as a Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.

In the instance where one of your lenses isn't quite precise with its autofocus, you can utilize the D500's new Automatic AF Fine-Tune feature to quickly dial in your lenses' AF. You can read more about that feature here.

Overall, between the high number of AF points, expansive frame coverage and very dependable continuous autofocus performance, this is the best DX camera Nikon has made for shooting in low light or shooting action.

Nikon D500's new EXPEED 5 processor is very fast

A good sensor and excellent autofocus performance means that the D500 is poised to be a great action camera. However, in order to live up to its potential, it needs to have a sensor up to the task of handling fast continuous shooting speeds and a large buffer. Fortunately, the D500 performs very well with its new EXPEED 5 image processor.

With continuous shooting speeds of up to 10 frames per second and a buffer of up to 200 frames, the D500 is an excellent performer for its class and isn't too far off the speedy performance of its big brother, the D5. The D500 can take many shots very quickly, capturing all of the action -- all while having reduced blackout time due to its improved shutter mechanism. When shooting lossless compressed 14-bit RAW files, the camera is rated to shoot up to 200 frames. When shooting uncompressed 14-bit RAW files, the buffer depths drop down to 52 frames, but the buffer still clears in an impressive four seconds. When shooting uncompressed RAW files and JPEG files, we were able to capture 23 frames with a buffer clearance time of five seconds.

Shutter response is an impressive 0.170 second when using full AF with the center-most single AF point and 0.049 second when manually focused. This is a dramatic improvement on both counts when compared to the D300S. In addition, battery life performance is very good, rated for 1,240 shots when using the optical viewfinder.

The Nikon D500 is a much better multimedia camera

The D500 is the first Nikon DX DSLR to include 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution video. It mostly works well, although there are a few issues. We were unimpressed by the D500's inability to shoot 4K UHD video with the entire DX frame, and instead capturing 4K footage with an additional 1.5x crop factor. Full HD and HD video, on the other hand, utilize the entire width of the sensor. Likewise, the camera's interesting -- and decent -- electronic vibration reduction is only for 1080p or lower resolution video.

With that said, 4K UHD video (available with frames rates up to 30fps) is quite impressive. Even at ISO 3200, we found the video quality to hold up. You can record all the way to ISO 1,640,000, but beyond ISO 12,800 there really isn't much point as the quality falls off dramatically. Continuous autofocus performance when recording video is good, although it does display some jitter as it works to keep a subject in focus. The wobbling focus of the contrast-detect Live View AF system can be very distracting. We found that utilizing the touchscreen display to set and move the AF point worked well.

Overall, the D500 offers more video performance and features than most Nikon DSLRs and helps position the D500 as a multimedia camera. Further, the D500 has nice auto ISO functionality, a dedicated movie shooting menu and the ability to plug in a mic and headphones, so it should satisfy those who like to shoot video more than just occasionally. With that said, we still think that there are better options for those who are primarily videographers, but this is one of the best DSLRs for video work that Nikon has offered thus far.

Is the Nikon D500 their best APS-C DSLR ever?

If you're looking for a compact DSLR, the D500, despite having a DX sensor, is not the smallest option. However, if you're looking for a capable, professional-quality DSLR with rugged build quality, a touchscreen, a great sensor and excellent autofocus -- with 4K UHD video recording thrown in for good measure -- then the D500 is a terrific option.

We found that its autofocus performance excels and that its performance is very good, making the Nikon D500 not only a true successor to the D300S, but also an excellent alternative to the D5. As was the case with the D300(S), you can think of the D500 as something of a junior D5. Don't let that fool you, however. This camera shares as many flagship features with Nikon's actual flagship camera as any Nikon DSLR ever has. In fact, this is itself a flagship camera, just one with a DX sensor and a much lower price point.

With that said, $2,000 for an APS-C DSLR is substantial. What you're getting for that money is professional performance, and in some ways, a camera better suited for action and wildlife photography than its $6,500 sibling. This is undeniably the D300S successor that Nikon photographers have been anxiously waiting for. In fact, it's better than many could've anticipated.

The Nikon D500 is one of the most capable, well-rounded DSLRs on the market, and undoubtedly takes the prize as a Dave's Pick.

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