Lets start off this review by taking a look at the build quality of the Nikon D500.
The first thing you feel when you pick up the D500 is just how big it is. But to me that’s not a bad thing at all.
It feels incredibly solid and moulds to your hand really quite well. It’s not actually as heavy as you’d think and is on par to something like the 7d mark ii.
To me the D500 has some of the best button placement that I’ve seen on on a Nikon body. Everything is where you’d expect to find it, with your record, iso and exposed compensation buttons up the top here near the shutter button.
On the side we’ve got a number of different ports, but we’ll talk more about them later on.
There isn’t an inbuilt flash on the d500 and a few poepl might miss it, but for me on a pro body like this, it’s not a big deal.
As you’d expect for a camera of this calibre, the d500 is weather sealed so you’re going to have no problems taking this out in the rain.
So overall in terms of build quality, the d500 is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.
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Let’s turn the camera around now and take a look at the lcd screen on the back.
And something new and probably unexpected is that nikon have included an articulating screen on the d500.
Now to be fair, it’s not a full articulating screen like you find on cameras such as the canon 80d, but it is pretty useful still.
You can flip it up and down which has been really useful for composing my shots.
It does feel pretty solid, but i do worry a little bit about the hinge its on. It doesn’t seem pretty thin so it’ll be interesting to see just how well it holds up.
Photos from the the 20 megapixel sensor look really great on the back of the screen even in bright daylight.
Other than that though the screen is very bright and sharp. I’ve been seeing this trend lately with Nikon producing some really good screens and the d500 continues with it as well.
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One feature I love on the Nikon D500 and one that’s a bit of a life saver is not eh side here, that’s it dual card slots.
This might not seem like a big feature, but having the ability to back up your photos is huge, especially if you’re shooting important one time events like weddings.
To me this should be a given in any pro level body, but it is still nice to see.
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The viewfinder on the D500 has 100% coverage as you’d expect as was nice to use.
If you’re coming from a lower end nikon body, the shipe of it is a little different, but with it’s 1x magnification, it works very quite well.
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Let’s talk quickly about the menus on the D500.
If you’ve ever used a Nikon DSLR, you’ll feel right at home using the D500. The menus are pretty feature packed with a lot of different options, especially once you move into full manual mode.
Performance was quick though and there was no lag which is good.
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So i just wanted to touch on the battery life of the d500.
I’ve been incredibly impressed with the battery life of this camera, although I would recommend using a battery grip if you are going to shooting photos all day or shooting 4k video.
I got through about 1200 shots before the battery ran out on me.
But overall, the battery life was very good on the nikon d500.
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So let’s talk about the burst rate of the nikon d500.
Now Nikon are touting this camera as being a real winner for sports and i’ve got to say it lives up to the hype.
The d500 can shoot at an impressive 10 frames per second, which should be fast enough for most sports and wildlife.
Just for reference sake, this is what 10 frames per second sounds like.
This puts it on par with it’s biggest rival the Canon 7d mark ii which can also shoot at around 10 frames per second.
I also found that the D500’s autofocus was incredible. Nikon have really upped their game and to me, the autofocus on the d500 is some of the best i’ve ever tested.
You’ve also got a 200 raw shot buffer which is very nice.
I’m going to be making a more in depth video on the autofocus of the d500 so check back soon for that, but overall it’s blisteringly fast.
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Now I briefly touch on the ports on the camera earlier on, but i just wanted to show you what you get. Of course you’re getting a usb and an cdmi cable, but also in the middle hear you getting a mic and headphone jack.
This to me, shows that nikon are really trying to convince more video shooters over to their side and it’s good to see.
Havin gate ability to record good sound and monitor as well is really important, and makes this a pretty impressive little video camera, which we’ll talk about a little bit more now.
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So let’s talk more about the Nikon D500 for video.
As you probably know if you’re watching this video, the D500 can shoot 4k video. And i’ve got to say it’s incredibly impressive.
The colours it reproduces are very nice and the detail is definitely there.
Compred to something like the Canon 7d mark ii, the sharpness of the 4k to the 1080p really is night and day.
Now one few drawback of the nikon d500 though is that it does crop the video quite a lot when shooting 4k. So if you do know you’re going to be wanting to shoot in 4k, you’ll want to make sure you have a wide enough lens.
One other nice thing is that the d500 can shoot a full 30 minutes of video, cpmapred to just 3 minutes on the more expensive nikon d5. To me that’s a pretty big deal and something to consider if you are choosing between the two.
One other nice feature is that you can create timelapses in the camera which is a lot of fun, and something that again emphasizes that Nikon is really trying to gain a bit more marketshare in the video market.
SO overall, the Nikon d500 is actually a pretty capable video shooting machine, so good job nikon.
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So i just quickly wanted to talk about wifi.
The d500 comes with wifi and nfc included, which is great if you want to be able to quickly transfer your photos to your phone.
This is something that the 7d mark ii misses out on, so again is something to consider.
Nikon D500 DX-Format Digital SLR (Body Only), Base
4.7 | 479 ratings
Price:
Last update: 09-04-2024
About this item
20.9MP DX format CMOS sensor. Viewfinder: Eye level pentaprism single lens reflex viewfinder
Expeed 5 image processor; Monitor size: 3.2 inches diagonal
3.2 inches 2,539k dot tilting touchscreen LCD
4k UHD video recording at 30 fps
Multi cam 20k 153 point AF system
Native ISO 51200, extend to ISO 1640000
10 fps shooting for up to 200 frames
Built in wi-Fi, Bluetooth and nfc
180k pixel rgb sensor and group area af
In camera time lapse, up to 9999 frames. Supplied with: En el15 rechargeable li ion battery, mh 25a battery charger, usb cable clip, hdmi cable clip, dk 17 eyepiece, uc e22 USB cable, an dc17 strap, bf 1b body cap, user's manual
Expeed 5 image processor; Monitor size: 3.2 inches diagonal
3.2 inches 2,539k dot tilting touchscreen LCD
4k UHD video recording at 30 fps
Multi cam 20k 153 point AF system
Native ISO 51200, extend to ISO 1640000
10 fps shooting for up to 200 frames
Built in wi-Fi, Bluetooth and nfc
180k pixel rgb sensor and group area af
In camera time lapse, up to 9999 frames. Supplied with: En el15 rechargeable li ion battery, mh 25a battery charger, usb cable clip, hdmi cable clip, dk 17 eyepiece, uc e22 USB cable, an dc17 strap, bf 1b body cap, user's manual
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Nikon D500 DX-Format Digital SLR (Body Only), Base
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