D500

wezza13 said:
What's everyone's experience of shooting BiF's with the D500?

On average I tend to be on Centre-weighted metering, 1/2000, F8 with Auto-ISO. Normally use +1 Exp Comp for light coloured birds and +2 for dark coloured birds. My ISO is always high though, between 1000 and 1800 (roughly).

Any tips?

Thanks
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It locks on and tracks like no other camera I ave ever used.

Group or one of the dynamic modes for AF
iso auto max 3200
min shutter 1600
10 fps
f5.6 - f8
metering Center weighted average
Tripod/gimball for heavier lenses
compensation depends on subject under for lighter and up to +2 for a juvenile marsh harrier(ish) a bit vague but depends on available light and subject IMHO.
 
wezza13 said:
Normally have my 300 F4 on with 1.4 tc, so can use the aperture at F5.6. But I tend to get a lot higher keep rate when using f8, which is why I tried to stick at it as a base setting.

Mainly hand-held too.

I find that it's not even worth attempting BiF with an overcast/grey sky.

Never get frame-fillers though and normally have to crop a fair bit. I probably try to crop a bit too much, being used to the D810, and coupled with the high ISO, can't be good for the image.
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Have you tried using the camera in 1.3 crop mode?
 
Well my Pixel battery grip didn't last very long!
Used it fine up until removing the battery when I got back today ... fitted a new battery and no green indicator light on the D500 ... checked 'Battery info' in the menu and freshly charged battery showing '0' ... tried another and exactly the same result.
So that'll have to go back then :(
 
Quick question from me -

Playing around at Silverstone with a few differnet options on AF.

Ive set it to relase at focus only, yet still get blurred images, even with the cross hairs directly on the subject ?

Whats have I done/doing wrong ?
 
gramps said:
Well my Pixel battery grip didn't last very long!
Used it fine up until removing the battery when I got back today ... fitted a new battery and no green indicator light on the D500 ... checked 'Battery info' in the menu and freshly charged battery showing '0' ... tried another and exactly the same result.
So that'll have to go back then :(
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That's a shame, that's what happens with cheapies I suppose.

Haven't had a problem with mine.......yet
 
Hertsman said:
Quick question from me -

Playing around at Silverstone with a few differnet options on AF.

Ive set it to relase at focus only, yet still get blurred images, even with the cross hairs directly on the subject ?

Whats have I done/doing wrong ?
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Are you using fast shutter speeds or slow shutter speeds and panning? :thinking:
 
Gramps, any idea how you can tell what firmware my existing Lexar card are please ?
 
Sootchucker said:
Gramps, any idea how you can tell what firmware my existing Lexar card are please ?
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I don't Andrew, the bar strip to the rear of the box for the new cards says "Rev B" but I have no idea whether that is relevant. :)
 
gramps said:
I don't Andrew, the bar strip to the rear of the box for the new cards says "Rev B" but I have no idea whether that is relevant. :)
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Just found one of the old boxes and it says "Rev B" so that's not going to help.
 
Hertsman said:
Panning,160th f8
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OK, so is the blur a cause of movement or not focusing?:thinking:

Ramp the shutter speed to 1000th+ sec and see if the shots are focused whilst panning. It may obviously not give you the look you are ultimately after, but it is a way to check that the camera is focusing. If it is at in focus at high shutter speed when panning, then it may be your panning technique that needs work.You may have already tried all that, but best to test things out methodically to try and find the problem. :)

I'm hoping that it is your panning technique that is the problem, as that is the easier thing to fix. I have had a problem that led to the camera going back to Nikon and it wasn't a good experience. And to clarify, by that I mean being without the camera, rather than the service from Nikon, which was excellent.
 
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redhed17 said:
I'm hoping that it is your panning technique that is the problem, as that is the easier thing to fix. I have had a problem that led to the camera going back to Nikon and it wasn't a good experience. And to clarify, by that I mean being without the camera, rather than the service from Nikon, which was excellent.
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I think he's got it on hire so very disappointing if its faulty.
 
It is indeed a rental, howver, I firmly suspect its me thats at fault....

Currently importing todays efforts and will report back....
 
Had a work freebie to take the family to Chester Racecourse for a Polo match. I've never seen one before so threw the D500 in a bag. The weather was horrible so I only managed to grab a few shots while the kids ate their fish and chips under cover. The camera took it all in it's stride, the AF in particular in group mode locked on and never let go and the 10 FPS meant I had the entire sequence of a fall from start to finish. And before anyone gets the wrong impression, that's rain not noise :)

Polo-3 by Matt, on Flickr

Polo-5 by Matt, on Flickr

Polo-6 by Matt, on Flickr
 
Not sure if this is a valid concern or not but here goes anyway.

I hired the D500, for a weekend, first from LFH before I bought one. Long story short, autofocus system was amazing and I maybe only had a couple OOF shots all weekend.

I've now bought one that is a grey import and, I do love it, but I have to say that there are quite a lot of shots that are OOF. Okay, the majority are in focus but there really are a lot more OOF ones than the genuine one produced. Pretty sure my technique hasn't changed between the two cameras.

Obviously, they are the same camera but just wondered if these sort of things happen because there is no QC on greys? Anyone else experience anything similar?

I'm aware it might be my mind playing tricks though! :D
 
wezza13 said:
the majority are in focus but there really are a lot more OOF ones than the genuine one produced.
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Can of worms there Wez! :D

I'm not sure that Grey v UK per-se will mean that there is more likelihood of error one way or another, however one camera body may well have a variance in AF adjustment to another camera body, as with lenses. Have you carried out an AF adjustment check with your new camera and lens?
 
wezza13 said:
I've now bought one that is a grey import and, I do love it, but I have to say that there are quite a lot of shots that are OOF. Okay, the majority are in focus but there really are a lot more OOF ones than the genuine one produced. Pretty sure my technique hasn't changed between the two cameras.

Obviously, they are the same camera but just wondered if these sort of things happen because there is no QC on greys? Anyone else experience anything similar?
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Well, I think I'm already on record as saying that people who buy grey imports are tax evading, job destroying, criminal spawns of Satan. But having got that out of my hair, there's no actual difference between a camera bought from a regular UK dealer and a grey import. The grey one might be configured with a different default language and might have a different power lead, but it's the same camera with the same level of quality control.
 
gramps said:
Can of worms there Wez! :D

I'm not sure that Grey v UK per-se will mean that there is more likelihood of error one way or another, however one camera body may well have a variance in AF adjustment to another camera body, as with lenses. Have you carried out an AF adjustment check with your new camera and lens?
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Haha :D

I have, yes, it's just that the hired one was perfect out of the box. I need to have the AF fine-tune turned on when I have the 150-600 attached (with a +9 adjustment) but when I have the 300mm with 1.4tc attached, I have to turn off the AF fine-tune (even though it was calibrated with a +5 adjustment with FocalPro) as it seems to focus sharper in the real world scenarios.
 
StewartR said:
Well, I think I'm already on record as saying that people who buy grey imports are tax evading, job destroying, criminal spawns of Satan. But having got that out of my hair, there's no actual difference between a camera bought from a regular UK dealer and a grey import. The grey one might be configured with a different default language and might have a different power lead, but it's the same camera with the same level of quality control.
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Yeah I did hope so, was just really a thought (probably to hide my errors!) :D
 
StewartR said:
The grey one might be configured with a different default language and might have a different power lead, but it's the same camera with the same level of quality control.
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I bought mine grey, and the only difference is that there are only two language options, English and Japanese. Perfect out of the box, and apart from me dropping it and breaking the rear LCD (now repaired) it works perfectly.

Because of how new it was, and the short supplies at the time, I saved just over £100, but it was the difference between getting it when I did, or waiting over a month till I had enough to buy it here. I'm happy with my choice. :rolleyes: There will be bigger savings to be had as time goes on I imagine. You pays your money...... ;)
 
Im starting to think that i was incredibly lucky a few months ago to call one local shop to discover they had one in stock. 15 minutes later it was back in the office on charge! [emoji4]
 
shapeshifter said:
I don't understand this using the crop 1.3. All you do is run the risk of the bird flying out of view where as if you had left the camera in DX you would have the bird in shot and then crop it afterwards!
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But you may not always want that, e.g. I have a button/command wheel set to move in/out of the 1.3 crop to suit what I want and it works really well. :)
 
Anyone tried the Snapbridge app for IOS since the update yesterday - does it work any better ? (I'm away on business and my D500 is at home unfortunately)
 
Sootchucker said:
Anyone tried the Snapbridge app for IOS since the update yesterday - does it work any better ? (I'm away on business and my D500 is at home unfortunately)
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Haven't updated yet as I haven't fully checked out the update but as Snapbridge can only handle jpegs it isn't for me :(
 
I was thinking of more the GPS location data Gramps, as that's the only part of it that's really of interest to me.
 
shapeshifter said:
I don't understand this using the crop 1.3. All you do is run the risk of the bird flying out of view where as if you had left the camera in DX you would have the bird in shot and then crop it afterwards!
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It's cropped in PP even after shooting in 1.3 dx mode. Was put up to show that the IQ isn't bad, even after cropping away at 12mp images! ;)


gramps said:
But you may not always want that, e.g. I have a button/command wheel set to move in/out of the 1.3 crop to suit what I want and it works really well. :)
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Yup, same. It's so easy to allocate to the FN button at the bottom of the front of the camera (y)
 
I have a black spot on my photos which is still there after I select the sensor cleaning option so is obviousley somthing on the sensor too big or sticky to dislodge.
When I use the "Lock mirror up for cleaning" option in the menu the mirror goes up as expected but the curtain is still down so I cannot see/clean the sensor. I did this many times on previous Nikons so, what am I doing wrong?
 
Bruin said:
I have a black spot on my photos which is still there after I select the sensor cleaning option so is obviousley somthing on the sensor too big or sticky to dislodge.
When I use the "Lock mirror up for cleaning" option in the menu the mirror goes up as expected but the curtain is still down so I cannot see/clean the sensor. I did this many times on previous Nikons so, what am I doing wrong?
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Did you press the shutter button?
 
Well I thought I did but just went through the process again slowly and it worked so no, I probibly didn't. Thank you for your help.
 
is anyone using a Nikon 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 DX with their d500?
Just wondering how it performs on the d500 and whether, seeing as I already have one, replacing it with the newer Nikon 16-80 as a walkabout lens when I order the d500 would be a good move or not for the price.

Also anyone got links to d500 image libraries that aren't just mainly full of birds please? [emoji6]
 
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