Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

I wholeheartedly agree!!! The D500 is the bomb!! Mirrorless? pft!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Ah, yes! The missing predecessor to the D500.

neillaubenthal

Likely not coming for several reasons. One…besides the crop sensor lens reach factor, the primary reason for the D500 is size and weight which are already equaled by the full frame Z6/7 series. Second…the cost of a DX sensor body with all the goodies which is what the mythical Z90 would need will be out of bounds with the price point a crop sensor body needs to meet in 2024. What we might see is a Z7III with some of the AF and FPS of the Z8/9 but perhaps not all of it…and if when we do the Z7III in crop in DX mode would essentially be a Z90.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Mike, you know that the tendency now is to develop better mirrorless cameras, not dSLR bodies. I agree that manufacturers are concentrating their efforts more toward full frame than cropped sensors with those cameras. Although Panasonic already went the full frame route and I do not know how successful they have been with it, Olympus has remained manufacturing micro fourths thirds cameras for their mirrorless. I believe that Leica also has manufactured those types of bodies but not 100% sure.

It has been I believe a couple of years since the big companies manufactured a new dSLR and that should tell you a lot. I have old cameras, the Nikon D7000 and the D610 and I will keep shooting with them till they die. I also have plenty of lenses for both, old and relatively "new" lenses. My mirrorless bodies are Olympus. The Z50, Zfc and Z30, none of them familiar to me, are the only cropped sensor cameras Nikon has manufactured so far. Ask yourself if it is financially feasible to manufactured a professional cropped sensor in these full frame times. I bet your answer will be no.

HRBIEL Loc: Rapid City, SD

I’m with you except I also have a D850. The dilemma is that the D500/850 are the top of the DSLR camera tier so you know no new models will be forthcoming. If you migrate into the mirrorless world you will be tempted to upgrade every several years as camera technology advances. We’re already stuck in that situation with computer technology. The other half of the dilemma is that the old f-mount lenses we’ve lusted after for so many years are now discounted and readily available. So does moving to mirrorless mean you will take better pictures than if you had used a similar DSLR system? I doubt it, especially if you are skilled in using the system you currently have. Moving to mirrorless does mean that perhaps your keeper rate will increase and you may make fewer exposure errors based on the WYSIWYG factor of electronic view finders in mirrorless cameras. Despite everything I’ve said, what am I going to do? Well, I’m already eyeing Nikon’s release of the Z6iii and having a difficult time deciding which camera to sell…. And so it goes.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

[quote=PaulW128]

Yeah, my bad. But I do not consider the Z50 a professional body like the Z8 and Z9. I am lukewarm on the ZFC.

PaulW128 Loc: Long Island, NY

I agree with you. I own the Z50 and never cared for the ZFC. The Z50 id definitely not a professional body

neillaubenthal

Nothing wrong with keeping the D500s…but even dedicated users of that will have to admit that the DSLR tech is outdated for lack of a better word and won’t get any better. That isn’t to say they can’t still take excellent photos because they can…but the Z models come with a bunch of advantages they don’t and will never have. Those are not because of MILC but come along with it…better AF algorithms, newer tech sensor, EVF and what it brings, FPS and so on. Keeping a foot in both camps is not a bad decision…especially if one has good F glass, doesn’t want t9 dept it, and considering the resale value of essentially antique tech. And one must consider budget and physical limitations and muscle memory and a whole raft of other factors…so I’m not going to make fun of your attitude…I’m the guy that says if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and better is the enemy of good enough. For me, the advantages that came along with the lack of a mirror were worth it…for others they’re not and for still others keeping both is the right answer.

photoman43

My thoughts exactly! It is why I am keeping my D500.

neillaubenthal

From a cost to build standpoint…the better sensor and processor needed to get the AF and FPS performance makes that unlikely I believe.

Peteso Loc: Blacks Hills

If you like the crop sensor, have you considered M4/3? I shoot both Sony FF and Olympus M4/3. I also have a Nikon APS-C that I never use any more. IMHO, the APS-C crop sensor is the worst of both worlds. It lacks the image quality and other benefits of FF, and lacks the compactness and weight advantages of a M4/3 crop sensor camera.

tiphareth51 Loc: Somewhere near North Pole, Alaska

As for the D500, it is imho a fantastic camera. It will probably never leave my dslr collection. For birding it is my preferred camera paired with the Sigma 60-600. That's my 2 cents worth!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

This has developed into a very interesting discussion. But it also indicates fairly clearly why the probability of a D500 replacement is not likely...it's too misunderstood, with the result that there's just not a big enough market for it to make it a feasible product.

I've had and used a D850 for almost 6 years. I love it. And yes, like the Z8, one quick menu selection will turn it into a crop sensor camera with just under 20 MP. I've used it that way several times when it was the only camera I had, and I needed to create some high-resolution but emailable JPEGs. It worked great, but it was absolutely not the same as shooting with a D500.

On other occasions, I've been at school without my camera and had to use theiir D7200. Again, using the unfamiliar consumer interface made the whole process close to a nightmare. The pictures ended up okay, but the process was everything but.

I'm not faulting those who believe that the D500 is only a sports and wildlife camera. Nikon did that to themselves from the start in their advertising and brochures. But just about everyone who doesn't have one (and a pretty good portion of those who do) really doesn't understand how good it really is as a general purpose camera.

My D500s are my primary cameras. I use the D850s when appropriate and necessary, which is maybe a third of the time. I'd like to have a Z8, but am in no hurry to spend the $6000 or more necessary to get one and get it set up to go. A mirrorless D500 might be interesting. I just don't see that there is a market for it. This belief is strongly reinforced by reading the comments in this discussion. Read carefully if a Z90 is introduced. Test it thoroughly. My guess is that it will likely fall quite short of really replacing the D500.

jpeterka

Can you really see a MegaPixel fall off after putting your Z8 in DX mode? Doesn’t the Z8 give you the approximate MP of your D500?

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

IF Nikon had made the Z 400mm f4.5 an F mount lens I might be a Nikon user with the D500 ! BUT, they did NOT ! 8-( ......and, Canon has no plans of making a 400 R lens