Nikon

We don’t hate the Nikon D7500 as much as everyone else (although the lack of compatibility with some older Nikon lenses, lack of battery grip, and single card slot aren’t preferable). It’s a nice, small camera with amazing autofocus. Video though is the same old Nikon story: No one buys Nikon for 4K video. The D7500 of course shares the same horrendous video crop factor of it’s big brother the Nikon D500.

Both the Nikon D500 and D7500 do 4K video and are probably identical in their video performance (same sensor), but the following omissions make it better to pay the few hundred dollars extra for the D500:

• No second card slot that is UHS-I.
• No aperture-ring feeler (No metering with manual focus lenses!)
• Lower resolution rear screen.
• Less buffer, focus points and FPS than D500.

Because of the extensive crop in video, most people don’t buy the D500 et. al. for video purposes.  But if you’re a Nikon shooter who doesn’t want to invest in another system and you have wide enough lenses to compensate for the video crop then the D500 will let you produce decent 4K videos up to 30 minutes in length.

We have seen reports of, and we have one source confirming, that the D7300 which feature 4K video. We have been told to expect a D500 like model with lesser autofocus abilities and build quality. We have no confirmation if the same atrocious crop that is the D500 will be present in the D7300.

Unlike Canon’s recent range of 1″ sensor premium compact camera’s, Nikon’s DL range all shoot 4K video.

All three cameras share the same 20.8MP 1″-type BSI CMOS sensor but the lenses differ:

• 18-50mm F1.8-2.8 ($850)
• 24-85mm F1.8-2.8 ($650)
• 24-500mm F2.8-5.6 ($1000)

In regards to video these cameras shoot in 4K and 1080P at 120FPS.

Cameras are expected to be released in early July of 2016.

There have been several rumors of a firmware allowing for more time than the measly 3 minutes the Nikon D5 can currently do at 4K.  We have not confirmed this yet but as soon as we do we will update you.

Keep in mind that there is a 3 minute recording limit in 4K and about a 1.5X crop (just slightly bigger than DX) being applied to the video even though the sensor is full-frame.

The footage looks good even the codec is the standard weak codec. That 3 minute limit is just crippling though.

We incorrectly reported that both the D5 and the D500 have 3 minute limits at 4K.  While this is true for the D5 it is not for the D500 which does 29 minutes and 59 seconds at 4K (recorded into separate files).