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CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

Nikon is starting off the year strong with the announcement of the D5 and D500, the KeyMission 360, and the DL compacts announced for CP+ 2016. We got our hands on the D5 and D500 and have been very impressed by our initial, informal testing. AF is much improved, as are ergonomics. We’re working on a video to demonstrate what we consider to be ground-breaking AF performance, but in the meantime we thought we’d also put together a slideshow highlighting some new things we found while digging through the D5 and D500 menus, and give you an idea of the extensive customization options available.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

First off is the autofocus menu, where you’ll note a couple of new features. You can now turn face detection on and off during viewfinder AF-C shooting, with the ‘3D-tracking face-detection’ option. Helpfully, Nikon’s new 180k-pixel RGB metering sensor is more than capable of discerning a face – even the eye of a face.

3D-tracking gains a ‘3D-tracking watch area’ customization, with options for a ‘Normal’ or ‘Wide’ watch area. We believe this affects how wide of a search region the camera should look over when tracking a subject around the frame. Frankly, the default setting has always worked so remarkably well that we’re not sure what switching it from its default (‘Normal’) will do, but we’re curious to put it to the test soon.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

‘Focus tracking with lock-on’ gains some new customization. Previously, this option just had a setting of 1 to 5, with higher numbers biasing toward ‘sticking’ to a subject rather than being distracted by a different object that passes in front of it. Nikon has now broken this setting down to allow you to separately customize how long the camera should wait before refocusing to a subject that passes in front of your initially acquired subject, and how erratic the movement of your subject is. 

It’s unclear if ‘Subject motion’ refers to how erratic an object switches between approaching and receding motion, vs. how erratic the subject is in terms of X-Y movement around the frame. We’ll investigate this once we have one in for testing, but the tailoring should help the user adapt the camera to a wider range of shooting scenarios.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

While this isn’t new, we though it worth pointing out that Nikon tends to offer four different settings for release vs. focus priority in AF-C (continuous).

Release prioritizes ‘taking the shot’ over focus, while ‘focus’ prioritizes acquiring focus before releasing the shutter. Focus+release prioritizes focus for the 1st shot, prioritizing release for later frames, while release+focus prioritizes firing the shutter for the 1st shot, but requiring focus before release for subsequent shots.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

The D500 can illuminate the focus screen red, but you can turn this off if you so desire. Unfortunately, the camera can only flash the point(s) red when either selecting them, activating an AF point, or when focus is acquired. It cannot keep focus points lit red as you track a subject or fire a burst. That’s reserved for Nikon’s flagship…

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

… the D5 (and its recent predecessors). Unlike the D500, the D5 can continuously keep AF points lit red, which helps you see the active point as the camera follows a subject around the frame in, say, 3D-tracking mode.

You can even adjust the level of bright red they glow, in 4 steps. Seeing one red AF point stick to your subject like glue even as it moves around in your composition is, frankly, somewhat magical. Stay tuned for a video of it in action.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

With all the complex AF modes and customizable buttons on the D5, it’s helpful that Nikon has finally adopted a visual way to assign button function. And the number of customizable functions per button is impressive. The D5 allows you to customize the Pv, Fn1, and Fn2 buttons on the front of the camera where your right hand fingers rest, an additional vertical Fn button right behind the shutter button on the vertical grip, and finally a Fn3 button to the left of the LCD screen.

The Pv, Fn1, Fn2, and Fn3 buttons are highly customizable in that they can be assigned to any one of 24 or so different functions, or any of a number of functions (6, if we counted correctly) that have different levels of granularity that you can adjust by holding the custom button while turning a dial. The Fn3 button is a bit more limited, and the AF-ON button is reserved for AF and AE functions. We’ll spell out all the assignable options for these buttons in the D500 slides to follow, as they’re largely the same (save for features unique to the D5, like LAN, or 14 fps lockup). One significant difference, though, is that the joystick on the D5 is not customizable, while on the D500 you can assign exactly what pressing this joystick (called the ‘sub-selector’) down does.

Helpfully, you can change the behavior of these buttons during movie recording by customizing their functions specifically for movie shooting.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

The D500’s custom control assignment is a bit less complex than the D5’s, because it has fewer customizable buttons. On the other hand, unlike the D5, its ‘sub-selector’ AF joystick is customizable (we’ve set it to change image area in conjunction with a dial, as you see highlighted in yellow above), so it’s no slouch when it comes to customizability.

The Pv and Fn1 buttons are on the front of the camera, for easy access with your right hand as it grips the camera. The Pv button is up top and can generally be activated easily by your middle finger, with the Fn1 button accessible by your ring or pinky finger. Given their ease of access, and ability to be used in conjunction with the rear thumb dial, these two buttons are highly customizable. The new sub-selector retains all customization options of the Pv and Fn1 buttons as well, while adding two more. The Fn2 button, to the left of the LCD screen, is less customizable, likely because it’s less used during shooting. The AF-ON button is reserved for AF/AE functions.

Before we dive deep into all the customization options available for these buttons, for those prone to accidentally or inadvertently changing settings, you always have the option to assign a button to ‘None’, essentially deactivating it.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

With all this button customization, you’re probably wondering what you can or cannot assign to various buttons. Let’s start off with the AF-ON button, because it has a particular feature that might just be game-changing if you love Nikon’s ‘3D tracking’ as much as we do.

AF-ON can be assigned to any of the options shown above, as well as ‘AE lock (Hold)’ and ‘AF lock only’ (on the 2nd page of this menu, not shown). But here’s what we’re most excited about: the ability to assign the AF-ON button to ‘AF-area mode’ or ‘AF-area mode + AF-ON’. It’s a quick way to instantaneously switch between your selected AF-area mode (Single, d25, d72, d153, Group-area, Auto-area, 3D) by momentarily holding down the AF-ON button. 

The option to couple the AF-area switch with AF-ON means the following: a half-depress of the shutter engages AF with your typical AF-area mode, say 3D-tracking. But let’s say you’re now faced with a situation where things are happening so fast that you don’t even have the time to place your selected AF point over your intended subject to start tracking it. Instead, you just want the camera to find, say, the nearest bird or human face by itself and track it. What do you do? Click next…

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

Assign the AF-ON button to ‘AF-area mode + AF-ON’ and select ‘Auto-area AF’ within this sub-menu. That way, when you hold down the AF-ON button, the camera will switch to ‘Auto-area’ as long as you have it held down, focusing on the nearest object or detected face and tracking it. This makes for versatile switching between your two most-used AF-area modes.

I actually found it most useful to assign AF-ON to ‘AF-area mode + AF-ON’ with Single-point AF, highlighted above. That way, I keep 3D-tracking engaged as the default AF mode (in AF-C), always defining my subject by initiating AF on it. The camera then tracks it as it moves or as I recompose, but if I ever want the camera to stop moving AF points automatically to track, and instead just freeze the AF point while still continuously focusing on the subject if it approaches or recedes, I just hold down the AF-ON button (while keeping the shutter button half-depressed). Want the camera to continue tracking the subject exactly where it left off? Just let go of the AF-ON button while keeping the shutter half-depressed, and the camera starts tracking the subject around the frame again. 

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

The camera remembers your subject, such as this gentleman’s eye at the Nikon booth at CP+ (please excuse the low, through-the-viewfinder, iPhone video screenshot). The camera tracked his eye until I wanted it to stop moving the AF point – but only momentarily – re-engaging the tracking of his eye when I laid off the AF-ON button.

Previously, 3D-tracking – though class-leading in terms of subject tracking – was somewhat limited by the following: when I got the composition I wanted, and there was no more subject movement, I’d often want the camera to stop tracking in the X-Y plane, but continue tracking in depth (refocusing if the subject or photographer approaches or recedes). I couldn’t do that – if I wanted the AF point to momentarily stop moving while in 3D tracking, I’d have to engage AF-Lock, which’d mean the camera would stop focusing entirely. Now, though, I can use the AF-ON button to momentarily stop only the X-Y tracking. There isn’t a camera in the world, save for the D5 and D500, that can provide this robust functionality.

There is still no way to assign a button to instantly switch between AF-S and AF-C, but with the reliability of Nikon’s 3D tracking, I would leave this cameras in AF-C pretty much permanently, assigning one of the customizable buttons to ‘AF lock’ in the rare instances I don’t want the camera to focus (for example, recomposing such that the subject is outside of the AF area).

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

You’re probably tired of hearing about AF by now. Let’s look at the other customizations possible with the Fn1, Pv, and sub-selector buttons. This and the next 3 slides show all the available customizations on the D500 for these three buttons, with the sub-selector also assignable to ‘select center focus point’ (a quick way to reset to center) and ‘highlight active focus point’ (red). For reasons that are obvious, Nikon is expecting you to assign the sub-selector to AF point-related functionality.

Oops, I thought I was going to stop talking about AF… As Barney often says, I’m absolutely irrepressible.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

This is the 2nd page of assignable options to the Fn1, Pv, and sub-selector buttons.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

This is the 3rd page of assignable options to the Fn1, Pv, and sub-selector buttons.

We think it’s very cool that you can momentarily trip the camera into a different metering mode – though this is nothing new for Nikon. It’s helpful that Nikon’s spot-metering is linked to the selected AF point on nearly every one of their cameras, and highlight-weighted metering allows one to expose for the highlights and recover shadows in post-processing (given the extensive latitude most Nikon cameras have). And on a related note – remember that you can permanently bias any of the metering modes +/- 1 EV, in 1/6 EV increments on most Nikon DSLRs (it’s an option under the metering menu).

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

… and the final and fourth page of assignable options to the Fn1, Pv, and sub-selector buttons. Well, not exactly, since the 5th page has a ‘None’ option, and all of these options are a bit shifted for the sub-selector button because it has two additional functions listed on the 1st page. But now I’m just being pedantic.

A very useful assignment is ‘Access top item in MY MENU’. It’s a quick way to access one of your most used menu items after you assign to the top of MY MENU. Again, available on previous Nikons, but worth reiterating. This is how I, for example, quickly bias the minimum shutter speed the camera will use in Auto ISO mode.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

Here is a list of 6 out of 7 functions you can assign to the Fn1 button if you desire to operate it in conjunction with a dial (the 7th, on the next menu page, being ‘Photo shooting menu bank’. The same list of options is available if you with to operate the Pv button with a dial. Note that if you do this, you can’t assign any of the previous actions in the past 4 slides. You either use the Fn1 and Pv (and sub-selector) buttons as single button press actions, or as actions triggered in combination with a dial. The latter is more limited, for obvious reasons.

The sub-selector button has three fewer options when used in conjunction with the dial…

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

… when using the sub-selector (pressing it downward centrally) in combination with a dial, you don’t get ‘1 step spd/aperture’ (which adjust shutter speed and aperture in 1 EV increments, instead of 1/3 EV) or ‘Active D-Lighting’ or ‘Exposure delay mode’.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

As we’d mentioned earlier, the Fn2 button to the left of the LCD screen is less customizable, probably because it’s less ergonomically useful during shooting. The Fn3 button in a similar position on the D5 has a few more features because of things like LAN connectivity on the D5.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

Now that you have a good idea of the extensive customization available on the D5 and D500, as well as some of the new features that enhance AF ergonomics and functionality, we turn to one last feature that shooters may find useful: an electronic front-curtain shutter (EFCS). This was first introduced on the Nikon D810, and we’re happy to see it continue in Nikon’s lineup.

EFCS initiates exposure electronically, foregoing the mechanical shutter, which ensures no camera-induced shake during an exposure. The exposure is ended mechanically, ensuring that rolling shutter is not an issue.

EFCS is limited though: above certain shutter speeds (we’d guess around 1/1000 or 1/2000 or so), EFCS becomes unreliable, if not outright unavailable. Furthermore, Nikon continues to offer this as a mirror-up only mode, which is a shame. It means you have to switch the camera’s drive mode to mirror-up, press the shutter button once to lock up the mirror and shutter, and press the button again to initiate the exposure electronically. That means you can’t really use it in typical shooting scenarios. Especially when you consider that the 2nd button press can induce motion, which means you may wish to introduce an exposure delay…

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

… and unfortunately, the same exposure delay options are available as before. We would’ve loved to see the introduction of 1/2s, 1/4s, and 1/8s which, when coupled with EFCS, would automatically trigger the electronic shutter after the pre-specified delay.

In other words, EFCS should’ve been implemented like this: press the shutter button to lift up the mirror and shutter, then after the pre-specified delay time – say 1/2s – the camera would automatically start the exposure electronically. As it is, just like on the D810, you’ll have to press the shutter button once, then press it again to initiate the delay, after which the exposure is started. With a long lens, your entire composition will have shifted by now. And this method is often required in conjunction with certain VR lenses to ensure no mirror/shutter-induced shake is present in a certain range of shutter speeds (typically 1/60s – 1/125s).

That said, these roughly ~21MP cameras are unlikely to be as sensitive to mirror induced shake as the higher resolution D810, so users probably don’t have to worry much about these issues at all. Still, best practices are best practices, and we hope Nikon is listening.

CP+ 2016: Features you need to know about on the D5/D500

Introduced on the D810, but now with its own menu option, is ‘Monitor color balance’. This allows you to tune the color of the LCD on your camera’s screen. Some pros might find this useful in their workflow, to ensure the screen is a better judge of output color. But as long we’re seeing this sort of tailoring for color – might we expect true ICC color management in future camera displays? We certainly hope so.

We hope you’ve learned a few things about the new features available on the D5 and D500. The extensive feature-set and customization will prove invaluable for working pros and enthusiasts alike. We weren’t able to get a look at automated AF Fine Tune, unfortunately, but it’ll be the first thing we look at when we get our hands back on these cameras. Suffice it to say we’ve walked away incredibly impressed by these cameras, particularly by what they offer both in terms of AF capability and ergonomics. These cameras are likely to be second to none in their ability to track moving subjects and focus on them, even during 10-12 fps bursts. But don’t take our word for it – we’ve tried it, and will be releasing a video soon showing it in action.

Stay tuned.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)