Nikon D500 vs D5 in lowlight from iso 100 --> iso 102400

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Nikon D500 vs D5 in lowlight from iso 100 --> iso 102400

Post by Stany Buyle »

Nikon D500 vs D5 in lowlight from iso 100 --> iso 102400

I did a test to see how the Nikon D500 compares to D5 in a real life low light situation.

The colours of the subjects are chosen to illustrate changing of the colour saturation while going into higher isos.
It is clear that D5 keeps colours better than D500. Taking the price difference into consideration, nobody will be amazed there is a difference... ;)
D500 is a spectacular DX camera with high iso results comparable to what my D3s did, but in such lowlight situations, D5 beats D500 with a big margin. 11/2 stop ?...

Later this week I will publish the same test pictures taken with D800 and resampled to the D5/D500 picture size (5568x3712px).
I have already checked the results and my D500 is MUCH better at high iso than my D800. D500 also keeps much better the original colours than D800 at high iso.

The subject is chosen because we produce and sell billiard products, so I have a little publicity for my professional activity.

Lightning setup:

3x 3W LED spots with a colour temperature of 3000°K (warm white). No other light source whatsoever.

Image

Camera setup:
  • Camera on tripod
  • Live View contrast-detect Auto Focus
  • Focus on the Nikon logo on the pencil.
    Image
  • The lens I used is the Nikon 70-200 AF-S VRII F2.8
  • Because of the D500 crop factor and related angle of view I kept the shooting distance the same for both cams with focal length 100mm on the D5 and 150mm for D500.
Camera settings:
  • NEF + JPEG L fine* (5568x3712px).
  • Self timer 5 seconds.
  • Matrix metering
  • WB on auto. This might be a weak point in the test results based on OOC jpegs...
    While relying on AWB with both cameras, this has produced some colour differences which I don't see when I start from the NEFs and dedicated WB.
    Later on this week I'll publish some more comparisons based on jpegs generated after manual WB correction.
    Specially for easy manual WB correction I put the Vicks tablets box in the scene.
    Image
  • Aperture F9
  • Picture control standard, colorspace sRGB, ADL set to Low, long exposure sett to OFF, High iso NR set to NORM.
Results based on OOCJpegs:
Underneath some picture screenshots from both D5 and D500 as seen in Nikon Capture NX2.7 image comparison.

For the pictures shown in the first partof the test I relied on the jpegs (JPEG L, Fine*) .
Jpegs generated from the NEFs based on a fixed WB will give more accurate WB and colours but while using AWB in this first part it gives an idea of both D5 and D500 AWB accuracy

:!: If you click on the image, the full size screenshot will open in another window.

iso 100, F9, 4 sec
Image

iso 200, F9, 2 sec
Image

iso 400, F9, 1 sec
Image

iso 800, F9, 1/2 sec
Image

iso 1600, F9, 1/4 sec
Image

iso 3200, F9, 1/8 sec
Image

iso 6400, F9, 1/15 sec
Image

iso 12800, F9, 1/30 sec
Image

iso 25600, F9, 1/60 sec
Image

iso 51200, F9, 1/125 sec
Image

iso 102400, F9, 1/250 sec
Image

D5 at iso 6400 vs D500 at iso 3200
Image

Full size jpegs for download links (for privat use):
Related topics on this website:
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
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Stany Buyle
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D500 vs D5: 100% crops compared

Post by Stany Buyle »

D500 vs D5 in lowlight from iso 100 --> iso 102400 - 100% crops compared

working on this...
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