Nikon D500 Hands-On Review

On this video Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake from from the Camera Store in Canada take a look at the new and highly anticipated Nikon D500.

This one is a review that a lot of users have been waiting for. The D500 – the long awaited replacement to the D300S which is the new top model in the Nikon crop sensor (DX) line.

Niccolls seems to be very impressed with the camera – especially the super fast and accurate AF which is basically identical to that of the Nikon D5 flagship. He is also extremely impressed by the new automatic AF fine tune feature (which we just looked at recently).

In terms of low light sensitivity – Niccolls was surprised to see that the D500 is not lagging too far behind the D750 which is a very capable full frame camera. In terms of video Drake was very happy with the battery life (much better than any mirrorless. The Electronic VR didn’t seem to work very good but having flat profile is nice. In terms of high ISO in video – up to ISO 1600 Drake was pleased but above that problems start to show.

Two issues that you need to consider with thr D500 for video:

in 4K you have serious cropping (over 2X) which means that a 50mm lens will give you an angle which in narrower than that of 10mm lens on non cropped camera in video mode. This means that you will need very wide lenses if you want even a bit of a wider shot than usual.
Pulling focus works the other way around (we are personally used to that but Drake and a lot of pro video shooters coming from non Nikon workflow might find this annoying).

We are waiting to put our hands on the D500 later this month and we have some plans to test it extensively.

A quick reminder of the Nikon D500 main specs:

Sensor: DX (APS-C), 20.9MP CMOS sensor.
Sensitivity: 50 –51,200 ISO.
Processor – EXPEED 5.
AF: 153 AF points including 99 cross type points (up to -4EV).
Video: 4K @30p.
Continuous shooting – 10 fps.
Memory – SD and XQD.
Connectivity – SnapBridge (Wi-Fi + Bluetooth) capabilities.
Shutter – 30-1/8000s.
3.2 inch touch LCD with tilt – 2.359k dots.
Price: $2000.

You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid. You can find many of TheCameraStore videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.