Another announcement: Nikon D500!

[Larsskv]

Speaking of the impressive buffer on the D500, has anyone here filled the 7DII buffer when in real use (not for testing purposes). I now I haven't.

Can anyone give me an example of a situation where one would need a 79 pic buffer? It's very cool and earns the bragging rights, but apart from that?

Futher, does the Nikons have a joystick for choosing AF points, and lever for changing focusing groups? To me, those controls are brilliant, and more of a selling point than 4K.

 

[crisotunity]

We're all Canon users here and I've all sunk quite a bit of cash in their gear over time (5D mkIII, 200f2.8, 100mm IS macro, 200 f2.8), but right now I hope they have a cunning plan or it's curtains as a consumer company.
The mirrorless pack are taking their family/street/casual lunch money. Pocket cameras are dead and buried (which makes it even more depressing when you see Canon just keeping on churning them out). Wedding/event pros are moving towards Sony. If Canon cannot maintain their position with wildlife and sports shooters, they really have no consumer business left and they might as well just do broadcasting/movie cameras and top of the line cinema lenses.

In terms of price: the 7D mkII is around £1,200; even if Nikon charge £1,600 for the D500 for the first 6-12 months, I cannot see why anyone would pick the 7DmkII.
As for lenses: if you cannot find a suitable Nikon lens for your job or hobby, you're not trying hard enough.

I'm not jumping ship yet but, as I'm getting older, I'll be looking forward to 8K cameras, universal shutter and light-weight lenses from the m43 side of things.

 

[lycan]

-4EV central point AF sensitivity! Can it focus a bird flying at night?

 

[xps]

My grandson wrote, that they were able to talk to an professional wl-photographer, who was testing the D500 in the wild. And he was quite impressed. He shot with the 7D MKII too, but the D500 is an class of its own. (Bias: My grandson works for Sony. And Sony likes Nikon more than Canon, as they sell a lot of electronics to them).

The very low light capable AF seems to be able to track fast moving animals accuratly, despite not all AF points are crosstype. The AF, when using liveview is fast and accurate, able to type on the stellar display to switch focus without turning the wheels.
The high bufferrate is fine for fast moving animals, the plus of about 10 seconds if you shoot Raws lossless compressed at full speed shots is a great thing. Raws Lossless compressed with 14-bit 200 shots, Raws Uncompressed with 14-bit 79 shot.
The cam seems to be able to calibrate the AF by himself (I think this meens micro adjustment). The IQ is much better than the D300, especially, when shooting in dawn (much better DR than 7DII). Automatic download to your laptop included.

:'( I would like too see an update from Canon too (I know that this will happen in some years, but if you read this, a biiiiig part of my remaining brain is getting in GAS fever )

 

[9VIII]

Well it only took seven years, but finally Nikon has a 7D competitor.
Bravo.

That spec list is impressive, it sounds like they actually took almost every common complaint about the D7100/D7200 and fixed it. It's probably safe to say that this is going to be the best crop body on the market for a while.
And now that we have a flippy screen on a sports and wildlife body, hopefully Canon will give us the same.

 

[geonix]

Nice Camera probably. But it doesn't make the 7D2 worse. Actually quite normal and to be expected that a camera announced Jan 2016 has better specs than a camera annouced Sep. 2014.
(Only Canon makes cameras that have the same or less-advanced specs than competitor cameras from 2 years ago e.g. G5X- rx100 III)

The fact that the annoucements of the top-crop bodies from Canon and Nikon are not aligned as they are with top ff bodies is somehow unusual/inconvenient. Nikon did not respond to the 7D2 until now and Canon most probably will also wait another 1-2 years from now to present the 7D2 successor.

 

[geonix]

There was an awful big gap between 7D and 7D2 - what if building a successor to the 7D2 were to take 4-6 years and it wouldn't be seen until 2018 at the earliest?

That there was a long gap between the 7D and the 7D2 has nothing to say how long it will take Canon to come up with the 7D2 successor. If they really want to, they can be much faster than 4-6 years. Question is if Canon actually feels the need to do so. Maybe the 7D2 successor will be mirrorless, who knows.
Actually in terms af speed and resolution the 7D2 is still as good as the D500. Just the 4k video, the connectivety and the swivel touch screen makes the D500 stand apart. If the af is really significantly better will have to be tested.

 

[jeffa4444]

We're all Canon users here and I've all sunk quite a bit of cash in their gear over time (5D mkIII, 200f2.8, 100mm IS macro, 200 f2.8), but right now I hope they have a cunning plan or it's curtains as a consumer company.
The mirrorless pack are taking their family/street/casual lunch money. Pocket cameras are dead and buried (which makes it even more depressing when you see Canon just keeping on churning them out). Wedding/event pros are moving towards Sony. If Canon cannot maintain their position with wildlife and sports shooters, they really have no consumer business left and they might as well just do broadcasting/movie cameras and top of the line cinema lenses.

In terms of price: the 7D mkII is around £1,200; even if Nikon charge £1,600 for the D500 for the first 6-12 months, I cannot see why anyone would pick the 7DmkII.
As for lenses: if you cannot find a suitable Nikon lens for your job or hobby, you're not trying hard enough.

I'm not jumping ship yet but, as I'm getting older, I'll be looking forward to 8K cameras, universal shutter and light-weight lenses from the m43 side of things.

Canon dont hold any significant ground in Cinema that still rests camera wise with Arri, Red & Sony in that order. As for lenses the Cinema has multiple choices with Zeiss, Cooke, Panavision, Leica, Schneider, Angenieux etc. well ahead of Canon or Fuji.

 

[lw]

There was an awful big gap between 7D and 7D2 - what if building a successor to the 7D2 were to take 4-6 years and it wouldn't be seen until 2018 at the earliest?

It is quite possible that some of the features that Canon adds to its cameras to 'catch up' with the D500 might be first seen in the 80D rather than waiting for the 7D3.

In the same way that the 70D introduced some new features - notably the dual-pixel sensor - before they were applied to the 7D2.

The 80D may for example inherit the 7D2's AF, timelapse, anti-flicker, improve the buffer and fps compared to the 70D, support wi-fi and nfc, up the sensor to 28mp, and add 4K...

That may more than satisfy some users, even if it isn't as 'professional' as the 7Dx bodies

 

[jeffa4444]

Maybe it was me but I was always unimpressed with the images I got most of the time from my Canon 7D they were virtually identical to those from the 550D.
Ive been very happy with the 6D and more recently the 5DS but as we know there full-frame.

If Nikon can produce images from the D500 that look broadly similar to full-frame cameras as the test shots elude too and the spec sheet details hold-up then the 7D MKII has a real battle on its hands and Canon will be forced to respond quicker than the 5 year life-span the original 7D had.

Im fully committed to Canon given the investment Ive made in their equipment, but for those moving up from iPhones, point & shoot or basic DSLRs I can see Canon losing ground to both Sony & Nikon in the longer term unless they play in the sand-box with some pretty cool new tech of their own in 2016.

 

[geonix]

There was an awful big gap between 7D and 7D2 - what if building a successor to the 7D2 were to take 4-6 years and it wouldn't be seen until 2018 at the earliest?

It is quite possible that some of the features that Canon adds to its cameras to 'catch up' with the D500 might be first seen in the 80D rather than waiting for the 7D3.

In the same way that the 70D introduced some new features - notably the dual-pixel sensor - before they were applied to the 7D2.

The 80D may for example inherit the 7D2's AF, timelapse, anti-flicker, improve the buffer and fps compared to the 70D, support wi-fi and nfc, up the sensor to 28mp, and add 4K...

That may more than satisfy some users, even if it isn't as 'professional' as the 7Dx bodies

I wish you will be right on the 80D. But I doubt it, especially 4k. I still hope though that eventaully canon ralizes that 4k is not a super-exclusive pro video funciton but rather a new standard of resolution.

 

[lw]

Maybe it was me but I was always unimpressed with the images I got most of the time from my Canon 7D they were virtually identical to those from the 550D.

Because basically they shared the same sensor.
For the same reason the 7D2 images are virtually identical to the 70D.

It is the other functions like FPS and pro-quality build that differentiate the cameras, not the PQ.

It will be fascinating to compare the D500 and 7D2 images in detail and see if for example the D500 can come closer to the 6D's IQ than the 7D2 (all 20mp cameras). That would be a real achievement.

 

[Proscribo]

There was an awful big gap between 7D and 7D2 - what if building a successor to the 7D2 were to take 4-6 years and it wouldn't be seen until 2018 at the earliest?

It is quite possible that some of the features that Canon adds to its cameras to 'catch up' with the D500 might be first seen in the 80D rather than waiting for the 7D3.

In the same way that the 70D introduced some new features - notably the dual-pixel sensor - before they were applied to the 7D2.

The 80D may for example inherit the 7D2's AF, timelapse, anti-flicker, improve the buffer and fps compared to the 70D, support wi-fi and nfc, up the sensor to 28mp, and add 4K...

That may more than satisfy some users, even if it isn't as 'professional' as the 7Dx bodies

I wish you will be right on the 80D. But I doubt it, especially 4k. I still hope though that eventaully canon ralizes that 4k is not a super-exclusive pro video funciton but rather a new standard of resolution.

It would be ridiculous if 80D got all that. 4K, more resolution, somewhat improved AF system propably yes. It's still the D7XXX-line that XXD competes with, not D500.

 

[lw]

It would be ridiculous if 80D got all that. 4K, more resolution, somewhat improved AF system propably yes. It's still the D7XXX-line that XXD competes with, not D500.

But the point is that the 70D did leapfrog the 7D in some features - noticeably a much better sensor with higher resolution and dual-pixel.

Why shouldn't the 80D now leapfrog the 7D2 again and introduce yet another advance in sensors? e.g. A 24 or 28mp, 4K capable, BSI sensor?

That Canon were willing to introduce a totally new sensor category - dual pixel - first on the 70D and not on a 7Dx, suggests to me they may be more than willing to do it again with the 80D.

 

[Proscribo]

It would be ridiculous if 80D got all that. 4K, more resolution, somewhat improved AF system propably yes. It's still the D7XXX-line that XXD competes with, not D500.

But the point is that the 70D did leapfrog the 7D in some features - noticeably a much better sensor with higher resolution and dual-pixel.

Why shouldn't the 80D now leapfrog the 7D2 again and introduce yet another advance in sensors? e.g. A 24 or 28mp, 4K capable, BSI sensor?

That Canon were willing to introduce a totally new sensor category - dual pixel - first on the 70D and not on a 7Dx, suggests to me they may be more than willing to do it again with the 80D.

I think you forgot that before 7D there was 50D and after 7D they released 60D that did not leapfrog 7D in any single way. Now there was 70D before 7DII and after 7DII there'll probably be 80D that will not be better than 7DII, you'll have to wait until 90D (or whatever it'll be called).

But since things change 80D could get better DR and more mp, along with 4K as video-af is something that Canon seems to like talk about with DPAF. But not much else as suggested.

Edit: anti-flicker seems to be one feature that all future Canons will have.

 

[geonix]

Why shouldn't the 80D now leapfrog the 7D2 again and introduce yet another advance in sensors? e.g. A 24 or 28mp, 4K capable, BSI sensor?

That Canon were willing to introduce a totally new sensor category - dual pixel - first on the 70D and not on a 7Dx, suggests to me they may be more than willing to do it again with the 80D.

4k capable !? Well capable of 4k are the sensors from canon for quite a long time now. I bet the 80D will have no 4k. Canon just released this vixi camcorder, again without 4k.
As I said before, it really seems that Canon thinks 4k is only needed and wanted by pro videographers and not that 4k is just a resolution standard.

 

[Don Haines]

...
Why shouldn't the 80D now leapfrog the 7D2 again and introduce yet another advance in sensors? e.g. A 24 or 28mp, 4K capable, BSI sensor?
...

Because it would offend all of the little boys and girls that think that because they've got a single-digit Canon DSLR that it must be better than any double or triple digit Canon DSLR.

Because every new model has improvements over those that came before.......

If it was true that you could not update a new model to have a feature that was better than a higher end model, then all new features would be introduced on the 1DX series and it would be updated far more often than all the other models......

 

[crisotunity]

4k capable !? Well capable of 4k are the sensors from canon for quite a long time now. I bet the 80D will have no 4k. Canon just released this vixi camcorder, again without 4k.
As I said before, it really seems that Canon thinks 4k is only needed and wanted by pro videographers and not that 4k is just a resolution standard.

That's the scary thing: Canon is treating commodified features as "pro" luxury/fantasy items. It's not a healthy state of affairs. And just to be clear: this is not about how many bells and whistles you can fit into a box. It's about thinking how you can help photographers of all skills, levels and ages take better photos so that you can stay ahead of the competition!
The 4k burst photo and post-focus features will actually make a difference in how casual photographers shoot and can be found in a £400 camera like the G7: very important for new parents who want to capture their toddlers; and for younger kids just getting into wildlife photography and macro. It's the one I'll be buying for my nephews this spring.
I can get a 2nd hand OM10 for £250 with a very, very decent in body stabilisation which will bring all sorts of cheaper non-stabilised lenses into play for people like me who are getting on the other side of the hill and whose hands are not rock-steady any longer.

 

[lw]

That's the scary thing: Canon is treating commodified features as "pro" luxury/fantasy items. It's not a healthy state of affairs. And just to be clear: this is not about how many bells and whistles you can fit into a box. It's about thinking how you can help photographers of all skills, levels and ages take better photos so that you can stay ahead of the competition!
The 4k burst photo and post-focus features will actually make a difference in how casual photographers shoot and can be found in a £400 camera like the G7: very important for new parents who want to capture their toddlers; and for younger kids just getting into wildlife photography and macro. It's the one I'll be buying for my nephews this spring.

I guess there are two camps.
For one camp, bigger sensors = better IQ, and as such cameras such as a M43 are shunned, no matter what other features they have.
For the other camp, the ability to capture the moment is more important, and so cameras without 4k burst, post-focus, etc are shunned, no matter what size sensor they have...

Hopefully Canon in its next generation of cameras can combine both worlds... but how long are users willing to wait.

 

[lw]

An interesting - though no doubt slightly biased - insight
http://www.ishootshows.com/2016/01/05/shooting-impressions-on-assignment-with-the-nikon-d500-and-sb-5000/

Note
As a music photographer, I live and die at high ISO. My job starts when the lights go down, and I rarely shoot below ISO 3200 for my live music photography. So this statement is not something I make lightly: The high ISO performance of the D500 blew me away.

Not only does this camera have an astounding native range – ISO 100 to 51200 — but the quality in this range is just tremendous. What Nikon has done is basically made a DX sensor that shoots in the dark like a full-frame sensor. That’s how good the high ISO image quality is.