camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Jules, are pears better than apples? You are comparing two different cameras and let me tell you right now that I have used the D750 but no experience with the D500. One is full frame and the other has a cropped sensor.
For your intended use I am quite certain that the D500 will be the better choice.

lwerthe1mer Loc: Birmingham, Alabama

Interested in this discussion

Jim Bob

Typo, smypo. Just typical of the misinformation that is rampant on this site.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Jules has been very clear that he has a low light high ISO noise problem in poorly illuminated basketball gyms.

The D500 has a dynamic range of 6.5 fstops at ISO 2557. The D750 gets the same 6.5 fstops at ISO 4075. The D750 is a very clear winner.

Those values come from Bill Claff's site on Photographic Dynamic Range and similar values are measured by others. The larger full frame sensor will always have a higher useful dynamic range and therefore lower noise at the ISO 5000 Jules is shooting at. 6.5 fstops is a somewhat arbitrary value for a dynamic range that can be displayed or printed with no visible noise.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

👍👍👍 I totally agree.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I'm a sports action shooter and I use a D5, D500 and a D850 for that work. I choose the D500 over the D750 as the D500 is the current generation of camera (the D750 is once removed) and because it inherits quite a bit from the D5. As a Crop Frame camera, it does lose some IQ at higher ISO (think night football), but overall, I personally prefer it over the D750 for that task. Since obtaining my D850, I am gravitating (quickly) towards using it for my sports work along with my D5. IMHO, there is no better (Nikon) camera for sports work than the D5, and that's exactly why I have it. My personal order of preference for sports work, of the three bodies I own, is D5, then D850 with the D500 in third. This comes from a guy who uses his cameras nearly every day of the week. Best of luck.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...definitely keep your 500 for less challenging lighting situations, but get the 750 to improve your gym work. You'll lose some stretch, but that's easy to fix (I shoot almost all of my gym work with my 70-200 vII and one of my full frames...D5 usually). As you discussed in another thread the noise produced in the 500 is not the greatest, and I concur. Now, the burst rate of the 750 should work for you, too, I shoot kids tossing equipment and moving fast in pageantry and rarely need anything more than 6fps, in fact I prefer the slower frame rate as I can get single shots with just a short tap on the shutter button. Why not search out a used D4?

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

A direct comparison is impossible. One's a full frame camera the other a crop, one is geared more towards sports and action, and the other is geared more towards portraits and landscapes. If your goal is sports then the D500 is probably a better choice.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Nice to hear from you cj2. If I may ask how do you have your 500 set up as far as Picture Control, etc. for sports?

rjandreoff Loc: Hawaii

I live Hawaii. We have an "extreme" surf pro photographer who shoots big wave surfing, mainly huge (8-12 ft) shore breaks with a window of only a few seconds to nail the shot. Well known in the genre. Other worldly photos. These guys are totally crazy. Utterly amazing but terrifying to watch. Super fast, split second lighting changes, with huge contrast, unpredictable. He has tried just about every Pro and Pro-sumer camera in the Canon and Nikon line-up using ballistic, underwater camera housings. Quoting him: "If I did not have the D 500, what I do would not be possible" (Or something very close to that). Combo of size, weight, speed, low light capabilities, overall IQ, durability means he gets lots of keepers. Realizing this is an very extreme example, it may prove useful. Good Luck.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

For everything except what Jules is actually doing.

He is using ISO 5000 to get acceptable shutter speeds shooting basketball in poorly illuminated gymnasiums. These are commercial shoots and the client is rejecting images due to noise.

The D500 just cannot produce low enough noise. The D750 can. Simple as that.

The D500 is good enough for almost anything else, but it simply is the wrong camera for this job. See the comparisons for useful ISO values of these two cameras given in a previous article above.

Note also that Nikon has made several models that can meet the requirements. The D5 is by far the best, but the D3s through the D4s are also quite good. A D610 and any of the D8xx as well as the Df are also capable.

The OP asked about the D750, but given it is a commercial shoot I personally recommend the D5. The keeper percentage will be much higher for all sports and event needs and it is an absolute pleasure to use.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

For sports shooting? ABSOLUTELY NO!

D500 is designed with sports/action in mind... D750 is not. It's a more "general purpose" type of DSLR.

D500 is APS-C, which has a lot of advantages for sports shooters.... you can use smaller, lighter lenses with a crop sensor camera.... especially telephotos can be a lot smaller, lighter and less expensive. Also D500 can shoot at 10 frames per second, has 153-point AF (99 higher performance "cross type", 15 "f/8 capable") that's able to work as low as -4EV light. And it has 1/8000 top shutter speed and 1/250 flash sync, with durability rating of 200,000 shutter cycles. The native ISO range of the 21MP D500 is 100 to 51200 (expandable to 50 and ridiculous 1640000).

D750 is full frame with slower frame rate of 6.5 per second, lower performance 51-point AF (15 "cross type", 11 "f/8 capable") good to -3EV, 1/4000 top shutter speed, 1/200 flash sync, durability rating 150,000 clicks. Native ISO range of 100 to 12800 (expandable to 50 and 51200). As might be expected, a "low resolution full frame" camera such as the 24MP D750 has somewhat better high ISO noise handling than the more crowded 21MP APS-C size sensor of the D500. Full frame dynamic range and color bit depth are slightly greater, too... though the approx. 15 month newer D500 is no slouch in these respects.

Often with basketball and other indoor sports, you'll find yourself shooting under fluorescent or similar types of lighting that cycle on and off very rapidly (120X per second). We don't see it with our eyes, but our cameras do and it makes for a very high percentage of badly under-exposed images. The D500 has Flicker Reduction mode, which senses the light cycle and times the shutter release to the peak output, for far more accurately exposed images. The D500 was the first Nikon to offer this feature for still photos (some video cameras had it previously). The D750 is an older model that doesn't.

Stick with what you've got... for sports there aren't many "better" cameras... it's one of the best.

If you have a specific job where very high ISO are needed, try other methods of noise reduction with what you've got. You might be surprised. I shoot sports with a pair of Canon 7D Mark II and have sold many images shot at ISO 6400, 8000 and even some done at ISO 12800 and 16000. The "trick" with my cameras is to shoot RAW, avoid underexposure at all costs (including using Anti-Flicker when shooting under those types of lighting), then post process with additional noise reduction applied. I use Imagenomic Noiseware, but there are a number of different NR programs which do better with D500 images (ask around... I don't know).

If even that doesn't make for images your customers find satisfactory.... you might need to ADD a full frame camera to your kit. But don't expect it to REPLACE your D500. Maybe if you only need a limited number of images... rent a FF such as the D750 for the job. If renting, a D5 (21MP) or D4s (16MP) would be even better. Those are more sports-oriented full frame models.

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Thanks as usual for your comments and suggestions. You always have been very helpful in my past postings. Before I bought the 500 I read all the reviews saying what a great camera it is for low light. So I guess I am a bit disappointed for gym shots. Everything else I shoot the camera is wonderful. Looking back the 750 would have been better and cheaper. Oh well I am thinking of selling the 500 and getting the 750. I can't keep both. My other back up is a 7100 which is fine using a 24-70 2.8 for other work.
Thanks again, Jules

D500 80-400 4.5-5.6 vr

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D7100 with fill flash

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Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Hi amphoto1:
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. It is much appreciated for sure.
So you are saying leave flicker reduction on for these horrible gyms?
Second photo at iso 8000 can't figure this out, why this is just okay, but others at iso 5000 are not acceptable.

1/500 iso 5000

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Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

If only you had read the entire thread and paid attention to details...

The D500 simply will not do what the OP needs and the full frame D750 will. The D500 images are rejected by the client due to noise at the required ISO. An APS-C sensor simply is not capable! The D750 is significantly more cabable (read that as just barely able to accomplish the requirements for this particular job).