moosus wrote:
I often read your responses. I'm 71, retired so I don't have the bucks at his stage to go the mirrorless route. I've got my 7200 and several Nikon lenses, which I've invested a few thousand in and I'm not a prof., as T 905 has pointed out. So I have been watching for a reasonably priced, used D500. That's all. I watch B&H and other sites Hoggers suggest but I don't trust UPS or Fed Ex. And my brick and mortar has, like everyone else, virtually no used 500s. But, thanks to others hoggers I did get an answer to my troll, er, question.
I often read your responses. I'm 71, retired so I ... (
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I don't know if you were responding to me here (Use "Quote Reply" so that we can know), but I was not intentionally trying to be mean or nasty. There are a few topics that I'm probably too sensitive to, though, and most of what is said here about D500s seems to fall into that category. So my apologies for that.
Over the past 15 years (almost), I have progressed through a Fuji S3Pro (beautiful images, but as slow as Christmas to use), a D200 (for over 10 years...I loved the CCD sensor), a D300, D810, D850, and (finally) a D500. There were several reasons that my progress went in that sequence, with the full frame cameras arising from an interest in night sky photography. I would have actually gotten a D500 quite a bit earlier, but it was badly misrepresented here as just a "sports and wildlife camera." I don't shoot either of those, so didn't think I needed a D500 until I gradually learned from other sources (and my own experience) how flagrantly bogus the "common knowledge" was. Even NikonUSA's materials were misleading on this topic, by the way.
The truth is that like the D200, D300, and D300s, the D500 is a fine all-around camera. Yes...it does a great job at sports and wildlife, but it also does a great job at anything else you ask it to do. The user interface provides quick and easy access to all of the important shooting controls, meaning that you rarely have to access the menus at all while shooting. If you shoot manually, you will be able to adjust everything you need to adjust directly, and the controls are where they need to be to allow you to do so with minimal delay and interruption. The rear monitor tilts, but is not fully articulated. That means you can adjust it for high and low level shots, but it doesn't have an arm with a flimsy multi-directional joint to break. The body is magnesium alloy and carbon fiber, not plastic. And if you don't like the control layout, it is possible to significantly reconfigure it however you would like it.
So that is why there are not a lot of them for sale. Most of us that have them love them. I cannot envision a circumstance under which I would sell mine. I do know of a few folks who have sold theirs, though. Several were almost unused. One was probably approaching getting worn out, with 350,000 shutter activations. So you do need to be a little bit careful when buying. But they remain sought after, so the price probably won't be changing much. Remember that it hasn't been too long since Nikon dropped the price for new ones to about $1500.
So I wish you well in your search. Wish I had better understood why you were asking your question. As mentioned, several folks have been poking and prodding on us recently, and it's pretty much ceased to be fun.