Nikon D500 vs ??????

[dive time 0]

I am looking to upgrade from a D7000 in a Subal housing.  After reading posts comparing the D500 to the D850,  I am leaning towards the 500.  I use the Tokina 10-17 and the small Zen port a lot, and my understanding is that I will be a lot better pairing that with the D500.  The cost savings of not needing to buy a new wide angle lens and port, along with the smaller size of the DX lenses and ports have a lot to do with my decision.  As for my questions, I see a lot more Nauticam housings around.  I see that they have an adapter that allows the use of Subal ports.  Is there a reason to not go that route, as I already have Subal ports?  Is there a another camera that I should also look at beyond the D500?  I do shoot more wide angle than macro, but that has a lot to do with the fact that I did not buy a decent macro lens, and have not been happy with the results.  I will be looking to get a good macro lens when I upgrade my camera and housing.  Any thoughts and input is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

 

Ed

[TimG 62]

Hi Ed

As you may have read in older posts, I went through a similar dilemma a couple of years ago. D500 or D850? I was moving from the D800 which I really liked  

One of the big problems I found with FX was traveling with a domeport that would allow for sharp corners with a rectilinear  lens, essentially the 16-35  It needs a 230 dome which is huge and just really awkward for travel. Like you too, I had really liked the 10-17 on my old D300. That combination was horrible on the D800  

After much agonising I went with the D500 and have never regretted it. It’s brilliant for macro (I just use the Nikkor 105) , easy for traveling with wide-angle and the camera body is half the cost of the D850. If I shot the same image with both cameras, could I tell the difference? I’ve not been able to try it - but I have my doubts. 

i use the 10-17 again and have added the Nikkor 8-15 using the DP-FE4 (which I bought second hand here on WP) and that works really well too. And CFWA works with both lenses  I’ve carried on with Subal housings and ports. 

So one vote for the D500 and, essentially I guess, for DX underwater.   

 

 

[phxazcraig 117]

I hear you.  I went from RX100 in Nauticam housing to D810 in Nauticam housing, and when the 230mm dome port showed up at my door I was shocked.  I had never seen a big dome before, much less tried to carry and pack it.

That said, I went from D810 to D850, and I'm happy with the result, but the argument for a D500 over a D850 underwater is a very strong one.  Not only can you use smaller domes,  you have more lens flexibility as well.  For FX, there amazingly is no normal zoom lens support.   My choices in the water are 16-35 or 105 macro.  If I liked fisheye, I could get the 8-16 zoom I suppose, but I don't care for a fisheye.  I tried the 60mm macro thinking I would have something a bit longer than the 16-35, but still have macro capability.  Within the first dive I realized the reach was far too short for macro and never dove with it again.

A comment on the big dome port.  I was disappointed to see how bad the corners were with the big dome and 16-35, at all apertures.  I invariably ended up cropping corners and edges to limit blurred edges.   And then I got the Sea and Sea Internal Correction lens.  Suddenly I could shoot wide open and get decent results.  At F8 the IQ is nothing I've ever had before.  I'm finally happy with the results and feel justified in packing this enormous (and expensive) piece of equipment.

[dive time 0]

Thank you both for your reply and input.  It helps a lot in making my decision.  Ed

[horvendile 12]

This is likely not relevant if you're in a hurry or if you've decided to go with Subal, but I was recently in communication with Nauticam and they indicated that in preliminary testing the Nikon Z50 + kit lens 16-50 has worked very well with the new WWL-C. 

This surprised me since I wasn't aware of any announcement from Nauticam regarding Z50, but it makes sense that they would make a housing. I was also surprised because I thought the WWL-C was designed for smaller sensors, and indeed I didn't get any word on the zoom-through capability. Still, interesting for some of us. ...or at least for me.

[ComeFromAway 7]

I, too, upgraded from a D7000 to a D500... I was blown away by the much improved keeper rate and the blazing fast autofocus. I shoot blind 95% of the time and can fully trust the D500 to obtain accurate focus even on Auto Area mode. I shoot exclusively wide-angle (hope to do more macro this coming year though).

That said, I've been considering switching to FF Sony mirrorless cameras for a number of reasons. IMO, if you're considering the D850 you should also consider the Sony line of FF mirrorless cameras. I don't have any personal experience with Sony cameras, but found this thread helpful: 

Despite the advice of the posters, I'm still seriously considering the switch for a variety of reasons. Not sure how soon I'd do that, but in the meantime I'm pretty darn happy with my D500!

[clairegoodwin 0]

I moved from. D300 in a subal housing to a D500 in an aquatica housing a year or so ago. Main reason for choosing the D500 was to keep using my Tokina 10-17 which I love for WA. I moved from subal as impossible to get serviced here (Canada). I still use my subal WA port with an adapter Aquatica made and it works well - only issue is I can't fully zoom out as i get the port corners as the adapter adds length. I might eventually get an aquatica WA port. Apart from that I've been very happy with this set up. I did look at changing to a mirrorless slr but it actually worked out more expensive as I would have needed new lenses.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[vlada 0]

I went from D7000 to D500, both in Aquatica. Love the D500 capabilities. Not sure how big the housing for Subal D7000 was but the Aquatica housing for D500 is larger than D7000 and i believe the one for D850 is larger yet. In the past i was able to put my D7000 in the housing in my carry on with both handles still attached - now i have to remove one of the handles. 

Luckily the rest of my system got significantly smaller (ports, strobes, etc) so the whole set up still fits into carry on, but i was seriously considering switching to mirrorless  just to get a much smaller housing...