Many of us were drooling when Nikon dropped its new聽at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The聽camera has an聽astoundingly聽high ISO rating鈥攗p to 3,280,000鈥攂ut it also costs聽$6,500. If you want many of the same features聽for $4,500聽less,聽.
This camera isn鈥檛聽a聽powerhouse like the D5, but it works great for amateurs聽who like聽to get outside and shoot pretty action photos. Most important, the camera gets the same 153-point focus tracking system聽as the D5, as well as that camera鈥檚 180,000-point metering system. Both features聽make locking onto聽and correctly exposing聽action shots a breeze.聽
A joystick on the back lets聽you choose from 55 different points in the viewfinder where you want聽to focus. Say you鈥檙e shooting a mountain biker riding a trail at the bottom of a cliff in Sedona. You鈥檇 move the focus point to the bottom of the viewfinder so the camera locks onto her as she rides by.
The camera also shoots ten聽frames per second, which is plenty fast to capture most high-speed action, and close to the D5鈥檚 12聽fps. We also loved that the D500 will shoot 200 continuous uncompressed RAW files before it slows down and has to buffer鈥攚ay more than you鈥檒l ever need for聽shooting an action sequence of your favorite sport.聽For video, the camera captures 4K at 30聽fps.
The weather-sealed body is聽made from a magnesium alloy chassis and carbon composite body. Weather sealing means you won鈥檛 ruin the camera if you鈥檙e shooting with it in a blizzard聽or even brief rain showers. That build will also help the camera hold up to years of abuse.
Unfortunately, the D500 doesn鈥檛 have the D5鈥檚 giant 36-by-24mm FX-format sensor (it uses a smaller 24-by-16mm DX-format sensor instead),聽so the low-light capabilities aren鈥檛 as good as those of its big brother. The ISO goes to 51,200聽and is expandable up to a 1,640,000 equivalent, but we weren鈥檛 especially pleased with the high-ISO聽nighttime shots we took. The smaller sensor does give you a 1.5x magnification, making all your regular lenses longer than they would be on a full-frame camera. Nikon also makes a full line of lighter-weight DX lenses designed to work with the crop.
At 26.7 ounces,聽the聽camera is on the聽heavy side, but we鈥檇聽gladly haul it on a weekend backpack trip or into the backcountry for spring skiing. Nikon鈥檚 new SnapBridge app, which uses either Bluetooth or WiFi to transfer lower-resolution versions of your shots to your phone for social media sharing, is buggy and works only with Android devices, but we suspect that鈥檒l be fixed soon.
Bottom line: If you鈥檙e looking to pitch an action photo to the 鈥淓xposure鈥 section聽of our magazine聽and don鈥檛 want to break the bank, this is the best option聽out there. If you want a full-frame, pro-level聽camera, look elsewhere. Like at that lovely D5.