Nikon D7500 Review
Nikon made a lot of photographers very happy with the release of the D500 last year. Its flagship DX (APS-C) SLR was long overdue, but arrived with an incredible autofocus system, 10fps capture, and 4K video support. But at $2,000 as a body only, buyers without deep photography budgets were left out in the cold. Now Nikon is updating its D7200 midrange body with a new model, the D7500 ($1,249.95, body only), which includes several of the innovations offered by the D500 for significantly less money. If you’ve lusted after the flagship DX model, but found that you just can’t justify the cost or don’t need all of its top-tier features, the D7500 is worth a look. It’s not good enough to oust the D500 as our Editors’ Choice, but it’s a solid alternative for Nikon shooters for whom the D500 is out of reach.
Mục lục
Design
The D7500 follows Nikon’s design paradigm to a tee. The black SLR has a red stripe on the grip, an accent that dates back to the company’s film days. The body measures 4.1 by 5.4 by 2.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.4 pounds, standard for SLRs in this class. Its viewfinder is a solid glass pentaprism, larger and brighter than the pentamirror designs you get in most models priced under $1,000. The body features robust internal seals to protect it from dust and moisture, which you also don’t find on many inexpensive SLRs.
In addition to the body-only option, Nikon is offering a bundle with its 18-140mm zoom for $1,749.95. Past models have offered a vertical battery grip add-on option; that’s absent from the D7500. If you prefer to shoot with a beefier body with a vertical grip, you’ll either have to keep living with a D7200 or spend quite a bit more to upgrade to the D500.
Nikon D7500 Review
Nikon D7500 Review
As you’d expect from an SLR aimed at shutterbugs, there’s no shortage of physical controls strewn about the D7500’s body. Its handgrip features an integrated front control dial, and there are two programmable Fn buttons (Fn1 and Fn2) next to the lens mount, both accessible using your right hand. Unfortunately, neither button works as a Depth of Field Preview control. The feature, which stops down a lens to give you an idea of how much of your scene will be in focus at the set aperture, has been removed from the D7500, after being a staple function of the D7000 series. If it’s a must-have for your photography, look to the D500 instead.
To the left of the mount is the release button, used to change lenses, an AF/MF toggle with integrated button to change focus settings, a button to control multiple bracketed exposure capture, and a button that raises the built-in flash and adjusts its output settings. The integrated flash sets the D7500 apart from the D500 ($2,069.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which omits the feature.
A standard Mode dial sits on the top, to the left of the hot shoe and flash. It has the expected P/A/S/M settings, as well as a suppressed flash mode, special effects filters, scene modes, two customizable user modes, and full automatic. The dial boasts a locking design, so you’ll need to depress the button at its center as you turn it. I prefer locks that can toggle on or off, but I’d rather have the dial locked in place than risk turning it inadvertantly. Nested below it is a second dial that changes the Drive mode, just as you get with a pro Nikon body. It too is locking, with a button between the dial and rear plate used to free it.
A monochrome information LCD sits at the top, to the right of the hot shoe. Ahead of it you’ll find the Record, ISO, and EV compensation buttons and the shutter release. The power switch surrounds the shutter and has settings for off, on, and a third position beyond on that activates the LCD backlight.
Rear controls aren’t that far off from the D500, but there are some differences. Play and Delete are positioned to the left of the eyecup, with Menu, ?/Lock/White Balance, Plus/Quality, Minus/Metering/Green, and Info running in a column below them. To the right of the viewfinder sits the AE-L/AF-L button and rear control dial. They aren’t backlit as they are with the D500, so make sure to bring a small flashlight with you when setting up the camera for a long exposure night scene.
Below them, just to the right of the LCD, is an eight-way direction pad with center OK button and a physical lock switch—enabling it prevents the control pad from changing the active focus point. There’s also a toggle to switch between stills and video, placed around the Live View button that you’ll need to press to switch from the optical viewfinder and rear LCD. Finally there’s the i button; it launches an on-screen menu with additional settings.
The big omissions are a dedicated thumbstick to control the focus point and an AF-ON button. I prefer using the D500’s small joystick to select the focus point as it’s more comfortable to use than the larger pad. You’re able to set the D7500’s AF-L/AE-L button to serve as a rear button focus control, or either the front Fn1 or Fn2 buttons to do the same, which makes the lack of a dedicated AF-ON control less of an issue.
The rear LCD is 3.2 inches in size, sensitive to touch, sports a 922k-dot resolution, and tilts up and down. It’s similar in design to the D500’s display, but lacks its incredible 2,359k-dot resolution. Still, a 922k-dot LCD is nothing to sneeze at. The big complaint will likely come from videographers—while having tilt is great for tripod work, especially when capturing stills with the camera close to the ground, it’s not quite as flexible as a vari-angle design like you get with the EOS 80D, the closest competing model from Canon.
Connectivity
Nikon’s wireless system, SnapBridge, is built in. It uses Bluetooth to keep a connection with your phone active and to transfer files. The advantage is that file transfer is transparent—you can set the camera up to transfer every image you take, and you don’t have to do anything but ensure the app is running on your phone. The downside is that transfers are fairly slow, even when sending downsized 2MP images to your phone. Wi-Fi would be faster, but it’s only used to facilitate remote control via your Android or iOS device. If you’re taking advantage of the D7500’s burst shooting, it’s probably a good idea to disable automatic transfers, as they’ll fill up your phone’s camera roll pretty quickly.
Physical connections include 3.5mm jacks for microphones and headphones, micro USB and mini HDMI ports, and a wired remote control port. There’s also a standard hot shoe for an external flash or wireless trigger, and a single SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot. That’s a departure from the D7200, which has dual SD slots, and the D500, which sports dual slots, one for XQD and another for SDXC. The battery is rated for 950 shots by CIPA.
Performance and Autofocus
The D7500 promises speed, and it delivers. It starts, focuses, and fires in just 0.25-second, quick enough so you can nail that fleeting, candid shot. When the camera is on and ready to shoot it locks focus (using the optical viewfinder) in about 0.05-second. That figure does slow in very dim light, to about 0.35-second, and there’s also a slowdown when using the Live View system to focus.
The camera takes about 0.5-second to lock onto targets when using the rear LCD, as it relies on slower contrast detection. That’s in stark contrast to the competing Canon 80D ($1,199.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , which boasts on-sensor phase dection (Canon calls it Dual Pixel AF) when using the LCD. The 80D locks focus in about 0.3-second using Live View, and also has an advantage when adjusting focus during video capture. Its phase system delivers smooth, steady changes in focus, with no hunting back and forth. The D7500’s contrast system isn’t as smooth, and requires a short move beyond the perfect focus point, and quick travel back to it, in order to adjust focus during video recording—it’s a bit jarring.
The D7500 doesn’t have the same 153-point wide coverage focus system as the D500, but the two cameras share the same 180k RGB meter. The autofocus sensor itself is the same 51-point module used by its predecessor, the D7200 ($1,144.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . But don’t discount the importance of the RGB meter. The D7200 used a 2,016-pixel design, which is fine for checking light levels, but not as robust for recognizing scenes and faces. The improved meter gives the D7500 the same uncanny ability to lock focus on the subject you want it to in most instances, even if you’re letting the camera select focus points automatically. It also does a superb job tracking moving subjects when using Nikon’s excellent 3D tracking system. So even though there aren’t as many focus points and they don’t cover the entire width of the sensor, like you get with the D500, the D7500 still focuses with aplomb.
Following a subject with 3D tracking is easy. Put your active focus point over the subject, initialize autofocus, and the point will move along with your subject. It works really well. There are other options for times when you don’t want to track a single moving target. You can set the camera to a wide focus mode, which picks the focus point or points based on scene recognition. You also have the option to select a single point, or, new to the D7500, a group of five points clustered together. Group AF is a feature that’s inherited from more premium models and is a welcome addition.
If you are shooting action and are concerned about your subject moving out of the focus zone, Nikon has a solution. You can set the camera to a 1.3x crop mode, which basically trims the frame to maintain a 3:2 aspect ratio, but doesn’t capture action to the left or right of the active focus area. The active area is defined by an outline in the viewfinder. It normally appears black, but lights up in red just like the autofocus points when the camera is acquiring a lock. I’d have loved for Nikon to be able to darken the area outside the box to aid in framing when working in the crop mode.
You still won’t get full top-to-bottom focus coverage—the D500 doesn’t offer that either—and image resolution is cut to 12.1MP. It’s an effective tool for sports shooters who don’t need all of the camera’s pixels and want to ensure a sharply focused subject. I do wish you had the option of only cropping off the sides, which would net a nearly square image.
The autofocus system is just one aspect of capturing fast-moving action. Continuous shooting speed is the other. The D7500 shoots at a robust 8.1fps, an improvement from the D7200 (6fps), but not quite as quick as the D500 (10fps). The camera keeps that pace for 28 Raw+JPG, 54 Raw, or 100 JPG shots before slowing down. I tested it with a 300Mbps Lexar memory card and noted that it took 15.1 seconds to clear a full Raw+JPG burst to the card, and about 12.2 seconds for both Raw and JPG bursts to do the same.
Even when shooting at its top rate, the D7500 does a superb job keeping targets in crisp focus. In the field I used it to photograph swallows, which move erratically and quickly, and as long as I was able to keep the small bird in the focus area, netted crisp results. Our standard continous lab test, in which we photograph a moving digital clock target, showed that the camera not only maintains its 8.1fps shooting rate when tracking a moving subject, but it also delivers crisply focused shots as a target moves toward and away from the lens.
If you’ve ever dealt with a lens that’s not focusing properly, be happy to know that the D7500 supports autofocus adjustments. The Auto AF Fine Tune feature uses the camera’s contrast detect (Live View) system to acquire precise focus, and then focuses again with the dedicated phase detect module that’s used when shooting with the optical finder. If there’s a difference between the two focus points, it calibrates the phase sensor to match the properly focused shot.
Image and Video Quality
The D7500 uses the same 20.9MP APS-C image sensor and processor as the D500. As you’d expect, the cameras deliver very similar image quality. I used Imatest(Opens in a new window) to evaluate the amount of noise the sensor manages as you move from its base ISO 100 sensitivity up to the highest extended setting, an absurdly high ISO 1638400.
When shooting JPGs at default settings noise is curbed to 1.5 percent or less through a more reasonable ISO 12800. You do see some smudged details when you push the camera that far, which is also the case at ISO 6400. Realistically, ISO 1600 is your top JPG setting if you don’t want to compromise on image fidelity, and you’ll only have to deal with a slight loss of detail at ISO 3200.
Details suffer noticeably at ISO 25600, but I’d not go as far as to call the results blurry. At ISO 51200, however, blur is a good descriptor. Results at ISO 102400 are muddier, but you can still make out subjects at a pixel level. Beyond that, noise and blur overtake detail when viewed up close, but shapes are still generally visible beyond the noise when viewed at smaller magnification. Unless you have a specific use case in mind—surveillance in a dimly-lit area, for instance—avoid ISO 204800 and above. When you go to the two top settings, ISO 819200 and 1638400, we see a serious magenta cast to images. But keep in mind that, even with our studio lights turned to their very lowest setting, simulating a dimly lit room, the D7500 was using a very short 1/4,000-second shutter speed at f/11 in order to net a properly exposed image.
You can adjust the amount of noise reduction applied to JPG images, setting it Low or Off, if you prefer a bit more grain in shots, but also more detail. And, if you want full control, you have the option of shooting in Raw and processing to taste. The Raw crops included in the slideshow that accompanies this review were processed in Adobe Lightroom CC with default settings enabled.
Raw detail is excellent through ISO 1600, with even the smallest lines in our test scene distinctly visible. Those finest details are a little rough at ISO 3200, 6400, and 12800, but shine through. There’s a lot of roughness in that area at ISO 25600, blurring the smallest lines together, and more grain at ISO 51200. Detail is still relatively strong, but if you don’t like the grainy look, you’ll be turned off by images shot at these settings. I shot the image of the hummingbird above, in very little light, at ISO 51200. Grain is heavy, but the D7500 was able to lock focus at an f/6.3 aperture and capture the image even after the sun had dipped below the horizon.
Noise is heavy at ISO 102400, overtaking most detail, and image quality at ISO 204800 takes another step back. Avoid pushing the camera this far if you can help it. As with JPG, extreme settings are available—ISO 409600, 819200, and 1638400—but not practical to use for most situations. Remember that most APS-C cameras, including the Canon EOS 80D, top out around ISO 25600 or 51200.
When shooting in Raw you’ll not only enjoy the ability to capture images at higher ISO settings with more detail, but also gain the freedom to reign in highlights, pull out detail from shadows, adjust color balance, and more, all with a great deal more leeway than a compressed 8-bit JPG can deliver.
The D500 supports 4K video capture, a feature that competing SLRs omit, with 24, 25, and 30fps options avialable. It can record compressed footage to a memory card, or output uncompressed video to a field recorded via its mini HDMI port. As with the D500, the 4K footage doesn’t take advantage of the entire field of view—it’s cropped by a 1.5x factor. This limits the camera’s ability to shoot 4K at ultra-wide angles. The exception is time-lapse capture; it can be set to 4K using the entire width of the image sensor.
If you do need to shoot wide video, you can take advantage of the full sensor width at 1080p, where you’ll have access to standard frame rates up to 60fps. Regardless of what resolution you opt for, autofocus is disappointing. If you’re a pro cinematographer with a focus puller on set this is less of an issue, but casual videographers who simply want to let the camera adjust focus as the scene changes will be disappointed by the slower, choppy results a contrast system delivers. Nikon has tried to lessen this issue with the introduction fo AF-P lenses, which use a pulse motor for smoother operation, but that limits your lens options.
The EOS 80D delivers a much better autofocus experience in video because it uses phase detection. Racks between subjects are pleasantly smooth and not too fast, but it’s limited to 1080p capture. If you want the best of both worlds—4K and smooth focus—opt for a mirorrless camera instead. The Sony Alpha 6500 is a solid choice as it records high-quality 4K with in-body stabilization, a touch screen, and smooth transitions in focus.
Conclusions
The Nikon D7500 takes two steps forward from the D7200, and then turns around to take a step back. It offers some serious improvements—a faster capture rate with a large shooting buffer, a more robust implementation of a trusted autofocus system, better protection against dust and moisture, 4K video capture, and a tilting touch LCD. But it drops support for dual memory cards, a must for many pros, doesn’t work with a vertical shooting grip add-on, and while the 20.9MP image sensor is an excellent one, its resolution is a bit less than the 24MP sensor used by the D7200. Photographers used to getting some pro-grade features in the D7000 series are going to be disappointed.
The D500 is our Editors’ Choice in the high-end APS-C SLR space, in part because it delivers those pro features—dual card slots, an add-on grip option, and an uncompromising autofocus system. But not everyone needs, wants, or can afford a $2,000 camera. The D7500 is available for about 60 percent of the cost and delivers much of its capability. It’s a shame that Nikon didn’t carry over all of the upper-tier fit and finish from the D7200 and previous entries in the series, but that doesn’t take away from how just how capable the D7500 is.
Nikon D7500
4.0
(Opens in a new window)
See It
$1,296.95
at Amazon
(Opens in a new window)
MSRP $1,249.95
Pros
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Cons
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The Bottom Line
The Nikon D7500 SLR inherits many of the features of the flagship D500 and is available for a lot less money, but omits some features found in previous D7000 models.
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