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Add to SafariWhen comparing Nikon D5 vs Nikon D500, the Slant community recommends Nikon D5 for most people. In the question“What are the best cameras for sports/action photography?” Nikon D5 is ranked 1st while Nikon D500 is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Nikon D5 is:
D5 has 153 AF points of which you can select 55. 99 AF points are cross-type (of which 35 are selectable). 15 AF points work with f/8 lenses (of which 9 are selectable). The autofocus works down to LV -4. Autofocus is amazingly fast at 14 frames per second with top of the class accuracy (in tests performed by Tony Northrup it was only second to 1DX Mark II in terms of how many shots were in focus having just 6% fewer of shots be in focus).
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Advanced autofocus
D5 has 153 AF points of which you can select 55. 99 AF points are cross-type (of which 35 are selectable). 15 AF points work with f/8 lenses (of which 9 are selectable). The autofocus works down to LV -4.
Autofocus is amazingly fast at 14 frames per second with top of the class accuracy (in tests performed by Tony Northrup it was only second to 1DX Mark II in terms of how many shots were in focus having just 6% fewer of shots be in focus).
Pro Huge ISO range
D5 has a native ISO range of 100 to 102,400 which can be expanded from 50 to 3,280,000.
Pro Can automatically detect faces and focus on them
Pro Can shoot stills during video
Pro Durable
Pro Great high ISO imaging capabilities
Pro Easy to use
The camera has a tilting screen allowing easy above the head or near the ground shots, a touchscreen for easily adjusting AF point and a joystick for adjusting it even faster.
Pro Good buffer
Buffer can hold 200 compressed or 71 uncompressed RAW files. To achieve the 200-shot compressed RAW speed, you'll need a XQD card.
Pro Excellent autofocus
D500 has 153 AF points of which you can select 55. 99 AF points are cross-type (of which 35 are selectable). 15 AF points work with f/8 lenses (of which 9 are selectable). The autofocus works down to LV -4.
Autofocus is fast at 10 frames per second with great accuracy - in autofocus tests performed by Tony Northrup the D500 trailed D5 just slightly by getting 16% fewer of shots in focus and 1DX Mark II by about 18%.
Pro Great AF point coverage
Pro Can automatically microadjust lens focal point for autofocusing
Pro Illuminated buttons
Makes shooting in the dark easier.
Pro Can record to an external recorder over HDMI
Cons
Con Image quality is surpassed by much cheaper cameras
Nikon puts D5's AF capabilities above everything else to the point where cameras that cost less than half the price (like Nikon's own D810) have clearer, sharper images with higher dynamic range and higher resolution.
Con Single-purpose
It's an extremely specialized camera. Unless you're doing photography that involves fast moving targets, the camera's capabilities will not justify the price.
Con Internal 4K video capture is limited to 3 minutes
Fortunately video can be sent over HDMI to an external recorder.
Con Dynamic range of base ISO could be better
According to tests performed by DxOMark, dynamic range of the D5 is at ~9.35 stops for base ISO (50 to 100). Lowest of any FF Nikon DSLR.
Con 4K video has a 1.3x crop
Con AF in video mode is lousy
Con Lacks built-in Wi-Fi
Con AF point coverage could be better
Con Low resolution for a flagship
The camera is 20MP, D810, for example is 36.3 MP.
Con Not all AF points can be manually selected
Out of the 153 AF points only 55 can be selected.
Con Lacks mode dial for custom presets
Unlike some other Nikon cameras, D500 doesn't have a mode dial that allows quickly switching between custom presets.
Con Video has a 2.2x 35mm-equivalent crop factor
The camera has a 1.5x 35mm-equivalent crop factor and shooting video adds another 1.5x crop factor on top of that resulting in a 2.2x 35mm-equivalent crop factor. The effective sensor size is near the size of a MFT sensor. That means you would need wider lenses to achieve the same result in each situation.
