Why I sold my D500
March 2025
It was 17º outside on the morning that I bought my Nikon D500. I remember because I hiked a loop around Smithville Park that morning, bundled up in four layers. I wasn’t even planning to go to Allen’s Camera that day - but being in Easthampton I was already halfway there. It wouldn’t hurt to go look at the camera, would it? (translation: as soon as that thing was off the shelf and in my hands to look over, it was as good as sold.)
I did some heavy research back in 2016 when the D5 and the D500 were introduced side-by-side by Nikon USA. At that time, I had been happily shooting with a trio of D700 cameras for eight years. I knew these amazing cameras wouldn’t last forever, but what could be a worthy replacement upgrade? I had a friend who was shooting with a Nikon D4, a stunning camera that I just couldn’t afford. (we’ll catch up with the D4 some other time) I had another friend who had a full-frame D750, and to be honest, I disliked the images coming out of that camera. And at the time the 36 megapixel D800 was overkill.
The newly announced D500 had some really amazing specs - it checked all of my boxes: pro build, higher megapixel count, improved auto focus, quick shooting speed, excellent viewfinder with a pro diopter, higher ISO abilities and a vertical grip option. My only hesitation was that it was a DX cropped-sensor camera. Could I revert back to DX, the format I had moved away from when I finally upgraded from the D200 way back in 2008?
Turns out that I shelved that debate in favor of keeping my Nikon D700 cameras in action for another six years.
So flash forward to that frigid morning in 2022. My favorite local camera shop had a used Nikon D500 with a shutter count barely over 20,000. With a busy calendar of weddings scheduled, I had an itch to finally upgrade.
The Nikon D500 is a 21 megapixel DSLR; a major upgrade from my 12 megapixel D700. The D500 was developed alongside the big, professional Nikon D5 and shares a lot of its features. The autofocus options and abilities are upgraded from my D700, as is the dynamic range, the ISO range, its feature set, its controls - almost everything is improved. Its back buttons are illuminated, the rear LCD tilts and is touch-controlled, and the autofocus sensors span across the entire width of the viewfinder, plus almost the entire height. This little monster is built for speed, shooting up to 10 frames per second with a buffer that can easily handle it. Plus, it was so much lighter than my D700! I fell in love with this camera immediately.
The D500 was the best wedding reception camera I ever owned. It had no problem accurately focusing in some of the darkest rooms. I absolutely loved the new Group AF setting, plus the face detection. But, where this camera really shined was its speed - my god, the speed!
I took this camera to the rodeo in Montana. I fired off more than 1800 photos that evening of bucking broncs, crazed bull riders, and sprinting calves and horses. I put the D500 on continuous high shutter and continuous Auto AF and the camera nailed everything! I needed to trash only 78 images because of missed focus. Just incredible!
Now, with these glowing reviews you are probably wondering why I sold my D500. One word - Adobe. Adobe had moved to a subscription-based cloud software service. When they did, they ended the updates for the older disc-based purchased copies of Lightroom. I could not open my D500 images in my copy of Lightroom 5.7. At first I was too excited with my new purchase to think about the $10.00/month Adobe was charging me. Later in 2022, however, two things started to sway my shooting habits.
A few months following the D500 purchase, I had an opportunity to pickup a used Nikon D810 with a scant 5500 shutter count. And in October I came upon an amazing deal for a Nikon 14mm AF f/2.8 lens. I loved shooting with the 14mm, but it effectively became a 21mm lens if mounted on the D500, which ruined some of the fun. Through 2023, I found that I was shooting more and more with my new D810 so I could utilize that wiiiiiiddde 14mm view. Then one day my credit card alerted me that the Adobe subscription charge had gone up by 50%.
I carefully studied my images and realized that the D500 was being utilized the least. All of my other cameras’ images could open in LR 5.7. In addition to the fact that I had to pay a monthly fee to view my own images, I was paying for a single camera that I only used 25% of the time. It was time to say goodbye to the Nikon D500.
Here’s a little sample of where my D500 went with me…
