D500

Because I've just been asked to do some work on holiday, I found a distraction. :LOL:

This is one from a not long after I got the D500 and some Pigeons in the Park. Not sure which AF mode I used, either group or 21 point I think, but it certainly locked on to that bird. ;)

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I know some have programmed the joystick for alternative focusing. I've programmed the PV button for mine. AF-ON for single point BBF and PV for group and focusing. So far so good.
 
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trevorbray said:
I know some have programmed the joystick for alternative focusing. I've programmed the PV button for mine. AF-ON for single point BBF and PV for group and focusing. So far so good.
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I have mine the other way round - group on AF button and single point with focus on Pv.

I have lost all interest in stationary subjects since getting the D500 - so group is used much more often :)
 
Dave Semmens said:
I have mine the other way round - group on AF button and single point with focus on Pv.

I have lost all interest in stationary subjects since getting the D500 - so group is used much more often :)
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Dave. After my recent visit to Radipole I'm thinking I might do just that. So much more fun trying to get action shots.
 
Dave Semmens said:
I have mine the other way round - group on AF button and single point with focus on Pv.

I have lost all interest in stationary subjects since getting the D500 - so group is used much more often :)
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Same as, Dave.

It's much easier tracking a bird in the VF with AF-On held down, as opposed to trying to track a bird with the PV button held in ;)
 
Just been outside and taken this with my Tamron 150-600mm. Some people know that I had issues with this lens at 600mm on my D810, where it just wouldn't produce acceptable results. Just tried it at 600mm on the D500 and am impressed.

This is SOOC with a little bit of a crop :-

600mm 1/100 f9 iso 800

DSC_1361.jpg
 
wezza13 said:
Just been outside and taken this with my Tamron 150-600mm. Some people know that I had issues with this lens at 600mm on my D810, where it just wouldn't produce acceptable results. Just tried it at 600mm on the D500 and am impressed.

This is SOOC with a little bit of a crop :-

600mm 1/100 f9 iso 800

View attachment 71262
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Nice. What was the issue on the D810, just lack of sharpness at 600mm?
 
snerkler said:
Nice. What was the issue on the D810, just lack of sharpness at 600mm?
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It was really fuzzy at 600mm past distances of about 20 feet, so much so that it was unusable, it effectively became a 150-500, and I sent it back for repair. They updated the firmware and cleaned it up but it still came back the same.

So tried it on the D500 and seems to be fine.

Going to try it on the D500 this weekend with some birds and see how it performs :)
 
wezza13 said:
It was really fuzzy at 600mm past distances of about 20 feet, so much so that it was unusable, it effectively became a 150-500, and I sent it back for repair. They updated the firmware and cleaned it up but it still came back the same.

So tried it on the D500 and seems to be fine.

Going to try it on the D500 this weekend with some birds and see how it performs :)
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Which 150-600 have you got if you don't mind me asking, the Contemporary or the Sport?
 
Also, I'm really impressed with the 10 fps.

Was out in the garden a couple of nights ago, taking shots of the Bumblebees on the lavender. First time I've tried bees but, with the burst sequences, there was quite a few that were keepers. I won't kid you, there were also lots OOF, but another impressive feature of this excellent camera (y)

Bumblebee on the lavender by Wez Filtness, on Flickr
 
wezza13 said:
300mm AF-S (non-VR) with 1.4x tc :)
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wez - now that you have a DX body and you look as though you have a 1,4TC have you tried the 300mm f4 PF ..... it is only as big as the 24 70mm f2.8 and I reckon it weights less

it works well will the 1,7TC and it's not bad for the 2,0TC ............... that's all I'll take when I go back to S Africa as far as a long lens is concerned ....... as it is good and very easy to carry on the aeroplane
 
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I have just got a D500 from York Camera Mart (shop in town center). I was informed (and shown list from Nikon) the camera is going up to £1799 in the next few days for UK purchase. They have it it at £1699 today.
 
BillN_33 said:
wez - now that you have a DX body and you look as though you have a 1,4TC have you tried the 300mm f4 PF ..... it is only as big as the 24 70mm f2.8 and I reckon it weights less

it works well will the 1,7TC and it's not bad for the 2,0TC ............... that's all I'll take when I go back to S Africa as far as a long lens is concerned ....... as it is good and very easy to carry on the aeroplane
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I did take a look at that lens a while back but my main goal now is to squirrel some money away over the next year and get a 500mm f4, as I hired one at the beginning of the year and was really impressed with it :)

I do have a 2x TC but don't use it as, even though I've tried AF fine tuning with it on, it just doesn't work well with this lens, which is a shame.

I bought it second hand from mpb and I did email them saying something was up with it, but I didn't do anything more about it as just lost track of time!
 
BillN_33 said:
wez - now that you have a DX body and you look as though you have a 1,4TC have you tried the 300mm f4 PF ..... it is only as big as the 24 70mm f2.8 and I reckon it weights less

it works well will the 1,7TC and it's not bad for the 2,0TC ............... that's all I'll take when I go back to S Africa as far as a long lens is concerned ....... as it is good and very easy to carry on the aeroplane
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Damn, you've got me thinking now whether to see if anyone would swap my 150-600 and the 300mm for a 300mm PF! :D
 
gramps said:
So what's all this fuss about the AF and tracking on the D500 then???

During a quiet moment in the hide and looking way across the water I spotted some Dragonflies strutting their stuff! :D


View attachment 70822



I'm sure I would never have got this on any of my other cameras, at least I've never caught one in flight before!

D500
Nikon 500 f4 VR + TC 1.4E-II
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Flew straight in front of me today as I was at Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex.

The D500 had no problem locking straight on.

I believe it's a male emperor.

Hardly cropped :

Male Emperor Dragonfly by Wez Filtness, on Flickr
 
Amazingly sharp shot Wez - and fabulous detail
 
Just a heads up from Nikon Rumors for IOS users (like me), in that the Snapbridge app for IOS will be launched by the end of this month.

Let's hope it works and with the rumored D500 firmware update (to fix apparently a number of glitches), I hope it sorts out the poor battery life I've experienced when tried to use it with Android.
 
Ah ok, thanks. Could you use the same settings if you wanted to shoot static objects or people portraits as well as moving objects? Or would you need to keep switching bewteen AF-S and AF-C?

wezza13 said:
Thanks for your nice comment :)

I used the AF-On button which was programmed to AF-C Group Focus (y)
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southernjessie said:
Ah ok, thanks. Could you use the same settings if you wanted to shoot static objects or people portraits as well as moving objects? Or would you need to keep switching bewteen AF-S and AF-C?
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Nope, AF-C for everything. For portraits, focus point where you want it, press to focus, let go and fire away as focus is locked where you last locked it (y)

Personally though, I keep it held down in case me or the subject moves
 
wezza13 said:
Personally though, I keep it held down in case me or the subject moves
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With static objects you need to exercise care as sometimes AF-C held can work against you, a minor movement causing the camera to lock onto something else. :)
 
Only managed a quick play in garden today and wow the continuous high is something special didn't mean to fire more than one but every time it took at least 2 images so quickly it caught me by surprise, really looking forward to learning this new body and have a sigma 105 OS macro coming tomorrow so the flip out screen will come in handy ;)
 
AdamSi said:
Only managed a quick play in garden today and wow the continuous high is something special didn't mean to fire more than one but every time it took at least 2 images so quickly it caught me by surprise, really looking forward to learning this new body and have a sigma 105 OS macro coming tomorrow so the flip out screen will come in handy ;)
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Probably the only camera I often use of AF-S to avoid multiple shots even on AF-C low!
 
gramps said:
Probably the only camera I often use of AF-S to avoid multiple shots even on AF-C low!
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I can certainly see why, I knew I'd like it as it ticked many boxes especially the rear folding screen for macro work down low but just picking it up the grip felt perfect, very positive shutter, quick af etc
 
Having had it for a couple of weeks now I am generally very pleased BUT I have concerns with two specific issues:

  1. Battery charge: Today for example I took 215 shots with a battery that showed 100% after being re-charged last night, I have Aircraft Mode switched on and just review images on the rear screen now and again ... after the 215 shots the battery now shows 51%, it is a Li-ion 20. I am very concerned about this low number of shots from virtually 50% of the battery capacity.
  2. I find this camera is more sensitive to blown highlights than any other I have had ... I haven't managed a single Little Egret in sun shot without having blown feathers and I am noticing that areas like dry grass, sunlit leaves etc are very often blown. Now this could be down to me, I know that in several cases today I was using Spot Metering due to the difficult light but not in all cases and many shots had elements that were blown.
Would welcome anyone else's experience/thoughts or advice on these two matters. :)
 
gramps said:
Having had it for a couple of weeks now I am generally very pleased BUT I have concerns with two specific issues:

  1. Battery charge: Today for example I took 215 shots with a battery that showed 100% after being re-charged last night, I have Aircraft Mode switched on and just review images on the rear screen now and again ... after the 215 shots the battery now shows 51%, it is a Li-ion 20. I am very concerned about this low number of shots from virtually 50% of the battery capacity.
  2. I find this camera is more sensitive to blown highlights than any other I have had ... I haven't managed a single Little Egret in sun shot without having blown feathers and I am noticing that areas like dry grass, sunlit leaves etc are very often blown. Now this could be down to me, I know that in several cases today I was using Spot Metering due to the difficult light but not in all cases and many shots had elements that were blown.
Would welcome anyone else's experience/thoughts or advice on these two matters. :)
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For some reason the batteries with the D500 took a few charge cycles to give the full performance, but it did get better pretty quickly. I took about 500 pics on Saturday with checking images every 3-10 burst and I think I had about 50% left, and that was with the Airline mode off and synced with my tablet to get location info recorded. Sounds like you may have something wrong with yours, either the camera, battery, or both imho. :thinking:

The exposure of the D500 seems less predictable than my D300S, but I'm slowly getting used to it. I'm now more away of when it will overexposed a bit, and small areas of brightness it doesn't take into account as much as my previous cameras. In those situations I'm using the Exp Comp a more. Occasionally it gets something totally wrong, usually underexposing, but not that often. I think it will take some getting used to how the camera reacts to certain situations.
 
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Agree with the highlights, different to my previous cameras and taking some learning.

As for battery's mine seem fine, I don't have any figures but I've never felt like they are draining fast and so perhaps you have an issue Gramps somewhere along the line.
 
Same as Gramps, I'm only getting around 300-400 shots on a complete battery, but as they are new, I'll reserve judgement until they have had at least half a dozen charges, but I've never had this low figure with any of my other cameras that used the same battery (D7100, D7200, D750, D800 and D810 ?)
 
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