BJW,

I found myself in the same predicament as you after I had a heart attack in 2014. After being a loyal Nikon shooter for thirty-seven years, I was forced to switch to a lighter-weight system. A friend of nearly forty years suggested that I try the #GetOlympus OM-D system. Seeing as my friend is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and has shot for National Geographic for the last twenty-five years, his recommendation carried a great deal of credibility.

I too shoot a lot of sports: baseball, basketball, football and motorsports. The latest body, the OM-D E-M1 Mark II, can hold its own against anything that Nikon or Canon has to offer. And the M.Zuiko PRO glass is nothing short of spectacular, even (especially) wide-open. While opinions can vary, I found that coming from Nikon, the Olympus menu is very intuitive.

I thought that one of the most challenging obstacles to overcome would be the EVF; I couldn’t have been more wrong. The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is one of the best features of a mirrorless camera. No more “chimping”. Exposure compensation (if needed) can be done on the fly without having to shoot a test shot and then verify through playback. The same goes for white balance.

The biggest weight savings is in the lenses, especially for indoor or nighttime sports photography. Imagine an 80-300mm f/2.8 (equivalent focal length) that weighs only 27 ounces, compared to your Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 (105-300mm on a D500) that weighs 54 ounces. That is a 50% weight savings!


Mike

Remember, fuji and sony are NOT micro 4/3. they are APS-C or full frame. They will in some instances NOT give you the size/weight advantage you seek. Also the lens selection for what you want to do is far more limited than with micro 4/3.

The Oly om-d e-m1 mk2 is about as close as you'll get to what you have now with your D500. I had a D500 and have the Oly. The 40-150 Pro f/2.8 is equivalent lens. The Panasonic G9 looks very good too.

You won't get quite as good low light performance or autofocus tracking, but it is considered to be quite good in it's own right. You will find the menu system to be quite a challenge at first. Trust me, I know!

The suggestions for going with a smaller lighter lens for your Nikon may work for you too.

Good luck with your quest.

The manager of the local camera store I go to has switched to Panasonic and is a true convert. He does sports, auto racing and birds with a little studio portrait thrown in. micro 4/3 rds sensor - he never prints bigger than 13x19 so this is fine for him. He also prefers to get in as close as he can and fill the frame so he almost never crops. And he says he often uses the 4K video as basically a very high speed burst. I have seen some very impressive prints he keeps for demos. He went to Panasonic after 25 years with Canon.
You would have to switch lenses also if you want to go smaller/lighter there. His camera with a 100-400 lens (Leica designed) is very small and light compared to Canon or Nikon eqv set ups. They also have a 14-140, 45-175, 45-200 and 100-300 lens, all Leica designs and weather sealed. Crop factor is 2x. Compared to my Canon 100-400 lens those things are tiny and very light.

We had a 4 way "discussion" about cameras: between the 4 of us we were 1 Canon user, 1 Nikon user, 1 Panasonic user and one guy who had come in to look at Sony cameras-I think he left thinking Panasonic.