D500

So I've discovered a disappointment with the D500 today, doesn't work great with the Tamron 150-600mm as at roughly 520mm and above it behaves as an f8 lens and so has very limited focus point availability, on the D750 it acts as an f5.6 even up to 600mm despite it being f6.3, therefore all AF points are available all of the time with the D750. As a result I've got to make sure I don't zoom past 520mm unless I'm composing centrally :(
 
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snerkler said:
So discovered a major disappointment with the D500 today, doesn't work great with the Tamron 150-600mm as at roughly 520mm and above it behaves as an f8 lens and so has very limited focus point availability, on the D750 it acts as an f5.6 even up to 600mm despite it being f6.3, therefore all AF points are available all of the time. As a result I've got to make sure I don't zoom past 520mm unless I'm composing centrally :(
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This seem strange. Maybe a firmware update for the lens???
 
snerkler said:
So discovered a major disappointment with the D500 today, doesn't work great with the Tamron 150-600mm as at roughly 520mm and above it behaves as an f8 lens and so has very limited focus point availability, on the D750 it acts as an f5.6 even up to 600mm despite it being f6.3, therefore all AF points are available all of the time. As a result I've got to make sure I don't zoom past 520mm unless I'm composing centrally :(
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@tom24 uses the same camera/lens combo, so maybe he'll confirm if his does the same.
 
snerkler said:
with the Tamron 150-600mm as at roughly 520mm and above it behaves as an f8 lens and so has very limited focus point availability, on the D750 it acts as an f5.6 even up to 600mm despite it being f6.3,
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Which both tend to indicate that it is the lens rather than the camera body that is at odds.
 
gramps said:
Which both tend to indicate that it is the lens rather than the camera body that is at odds.
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Not sure what you mean by this? It works with all AF points on one but not the other. I'm sure it's just a firmware compatibility issue rather than a fault, but does mean that I'm slightly limited with it in the D500. I'll contact Tamron and see if they've done a firmware update for the D500.
 
snerkler said:
Not sure what you mean by this?
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Well if the Tamron is reporting incorrectly on both the D500 & D750, (albeit to your advantage on the D750), it would seem the problem is with the lens ... so agree, check if there is a firmware update.
Also remember that there are more cross-hair points on the D500 so should be better AF anyway.
 
gramps said:
Well if the Tamron is reporting incorrectly on both the D500 & D750, (albeit to your advantage on the D750), it would seem the problem is with the lens ... so agree, check if there is a firmware update.
Also remember that there are more cross-hair points on the D500 so should be better AF anyway.
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It doesn't read as f5.6, but I know that Tamron added something to the firmware to make the camera think it was f5.6 for the purpose of the AF system, or something like that anyway.
What's doubly odd is that the Tamron stops down to f6.3 well before 500mm so why the majority of AF points stop working on the D500 past 520mm ish only is beyond me. Well actually, I shouldn't say they stop working they just hunt and refuse to find focus.
 
gramps said:
With the D500 that is very surprising!
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I think it's down to not being able to use those points and only using the f8 points, as soon as you move to one of those it snaps into focus. I've never had experience of going beyond the aperture rating for a focus point though so don't know if normally they just do nothing, or they hunt like they're doing for me. It somehow seems different to the normal hunting though. Normally when my camera/lens hunts it kind of struggles around a more specific focal range and eventually gives up. In this situation today the camera just went to the extreme focus ranges and then stopped. It did just feel as though the focus points weren't working rather than just struggling. I will update when Tamron respond.
 
Oh oh sounds like your not happy. Maybe worth seeing if other lens suffer like Nikon or sigma? Be interested to
Know
 
snerkler said:
I think it's down to not being able to use those points and only using the f8 points, as soon as you move to one of those it snaps into focus. I've never had experience of going beyond the aperture rating for a focus point though so don't know if normally they just do nothing, or they hunt like they're doing for me. It somehow seems different to the normal hunting though. Normally when my camera/lens hunts it kind of struggles around a more specific focal range and eventually gives up. In this situation today the camera just went to the extreme focus ranges and then stopped. It did just feel as though the focus points weren't working rather than just struggling. I will update when Tamron respond.
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I'm not sure of the like-for-like aspect but I often use my 500 f4 with the TC1.7, giving f6.7 and never experience an AF hunting issue ... will be interesting to see what Tamron have to say :)
 
minnnt said:
So... all this chat about the AF being better than that of the D750...

:D
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Well I've no complaint I've found CAF much better

He prob missing his white lab coat that suddenly changed pink the fault of his wife red knickers [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
 
D500 AF is simply superb, nothing I have used has come close ... I do have a couple of issues with the camera but AF certainly isn't one of them.
 
Yes AF is great. I've only ever used it on Nikon lenses though.
 
rookies said:
Oh oh sounds like your not happy. Maybe worth seeing if other lens suffer like Nikon or sigma? Be interested to
Know
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I'm not happy it's not working right with the Tamron but I'm pretty sure it's a compatibility/firmware issue. When I was trying out the 70-200mm and 24-120mm I'm sure I tried the outer AF points and it was OK (I will check again tomorrow), also below 520mm all AF points work fine so it's not just a case that the AF points aren't working at all. It's certainly a weird one.

As for the rest of the camera. Build is nice. I do actually like the mode button. The 'nipple' isn't great for left eye shooters as you feel like you're going to poke yourself in the eye :lol: Therefore I don't use it. Sharpness/IQ is good, but I've taken some shots today and they were at 2800 ISO and there's more noise than I'm used to. Except for the Tamron issue AF seems snappy and quick to react. I haven't detected a noticeably difference over the D750 though, but I was skeptical of this anyway as the D750 is pretty much instant so couldn't see how the D500 could be considerably quicker. I'm yet to test sports etc yet though so I'll see how the two compare there. I did get a couple of missed focus shots today, but I'm putting that down to user error. Overall it's a cracking camera, just hoping I can sort out the issue with the Tamron. I have noticed that matrix mode is overexposing by about 1/2 stop so I need to set up some compensation in the menus. No biggie ;)

One thing that I find odd though is that when going through menus and selecting things is that for most things you can press the centre button of the d-pad to select things, but sometimes you have to use the OK button which is on the other side of the camera. Bit odd this, is there any way to set the centre button to be the OK button as well?
 
minnnt said:
So... all this chat about the AF being better than that of the D750...

:D
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So far I'm not finding a significant difference. I'm shooting some boxing in a very poorly lit room (with no separate lighting on the ring) at the weekend though so this should show up any difference between them.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
What are the issues @gramps ?
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Actually it's really only one ... battery life isn't what I would like but this may be related to the use of it with the Meike grip and/or 500 f4 VR as others are reporting good battery life. I need to do some selective tests with and without but TBH I'd rather just be out shooting and so make sure I've got 1 in the camera and 1 in the grip.
 
Round 2 for me tomorrow.

Supposed to have traded the D810 last Friday for the D500. The other chap lives in Manchester, I'm in Leicester. We agreed to meet at Keele services....what a total disaster. If anyone is in that area, it felt like that bridge closure last week must have closed a 1/4 of the country down! Took me over nine hours to get from Leicester to just past Stoke, and back to Leicester again. 90 miles in 9.5 hours.

Hoping tomorrow brings better things.
 
gramps said:
Actually it's really only one ... battery life isn't what I would like but this may be related to the use of it with the Meike grip and/or 500 f4 VR as others are reporting good battery life. I need to do some selective tests with and without but TBH I'd rather just be out shooting and so make sure I've got 1 in the camera and 1 in the grip.
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Odd I get excellent battery life using a D500 (no grip) with a Nikon 500mm (1600 shots and ~ 5mins video over the weekend with 40% battery remaining), broadly it seems comparable with my D810.
 
Jesus Quintana said:
Round 2 for me tomorrow.

Supposed to have traded the D810 last Friday for the D500. The other chap lives in Manchester, I'm in Leicester. We agreed to meet at Keele services....what a total disaster. If anyone is in that area, it felt like that bridge closure last week must have closed a 1/4 of the country down! Took me over nine hours to get from Leicester to just past Stoke, and back to Leicester again. 90 miles in 9.5 hours.

Hoping tomorrow brings better things.
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I live in Leicester too
 
Ok boys blind date is over lets get back to camera stuff.

Well if Nikon aren't bringing out the d760 I'll wait a month for a in-depth report on the d500 from our resident lab tech.
Then I might pull the trigger on a d500 in a few months.
 
shapeshifter said:
Some of this is just plain wrong! An f2.8 lens gathers the same light whether it is on a FF or crop. He seams to be loosing the plot.
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Where does he say this? At roughly 6.38 he says the 24-70mm f2.8 on FF and Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 gather roughly the same amount of total light but not seen where he says f2.8 on both gathers the same?
 
Kaolin said:
Odd I get excellent battery life using a D500 (no grip) with a Nikon 500mm (1600 shots and ~ 5mins video over the weekend with 40% battery remaining), broadly it seems comparable with my D810.
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Yes it is odd, there are contrasting experiences on the net ... is your 500 the VR version? (not that I generally use the VR on mine).
 
snerkler said:
Where does he say this? At roughly 6.38 he says the 24-70mm f2.8 on FF and Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 gather roughly the same amount of total light but not seen where he says f2.8 on both gathers the same?
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But dont they gather the same light,just the photosites are larger,(ok labcoat off)
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
But dont they gather the same light,just the photosites are larger,(ok labcoat off)
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But just by virtue that the sensor is larger and therefore larger surface area there will be more light hitting the sensor than on a crop sensor. As for the intensity of light hitting each photosite I would assume it's equal otherwise you would get different exposure values. This is just an assumption though, the lab coat hasn't entered the world of photosites yet ;)
 
snerkler said:
But just by virtue that the sensor is larger and therefore larger surface area there will be more light hitting the sensor than on a crop sensor. As for the intensity of light hitting each photosite I would assume it's equal otherwise you would get different exposure values. This is just an assumption though, the lab coat hasn't entered the world of photosites yet ;)
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That cos the lab coat been destroyed somehow changes to pink
 
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