Nikon D500 Setting Guide(Sports AF Edition)

Professional

Setting Guide

— Sports AF Edition —

Revision 1.0

En

Table of Contents

Sports AF: Autofocus Basics ..................... 3

• AF Mode: AF‑C ..................................................................................3

• AF‑Area Mode: 25‑Point Dynamic‑Area AF ............................... 3

• Focus Tracking with Lock‑On ........................................................4

• The Standby Timer...........................................................................5

AF-Area Mode ...................................................................... 6

• Custom Settings ..................................................8

Focus Points ......................................................................... 9

• Cross Sensors ..................................................................................10

• Teleconverters and Available Focus Points .............................11

Sports AF: Custom Settings.............................................15

• a1: AF‑C Priority Selection ...........................................................16

• a3: Focus Tracking with Lock‑On................................................18

• a6: Number of Focus Points ........................................................20

• a7: Store by Orientation ...............................................................20

• a8: AF Activation ............................................................................22

• a9: Limit AF‑Area Mode Selection .............................................23

• a10: Autofocus Mode Restrictions .............................................23

• a11: Focus Point Wrap‑Around ...................................................23

Sports AF: Custom Control Assignments

• Focus‑Related Control Assignments .........................................24

• Lens Focus Function Buttons ......................................................26

Auto AF Fine-Tuning ................................ 27

Recommended AF Settings by Event ............................ 30

• Overview: Settings by Event .......................................................30

• Soccer ...............................................................................................34

• Winter Sports ..................................................................................35

• Gymnastics ......................................................................................46

• Athletics ...........................................................................................52

• Aquatics ...........................................................................................57

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... 24

Sports AF: Autofocus Basics

The following settings are suitable for most sports:

• Autofocus mode: AF-C

• AF-area mode: 25-point dynamic-area AF

• Custom Settings

 a1 AF-C priority selection: Release
 a3 Focus tracking with lock-on

> Blocked shot AF response: 2 Subject motion: Normal

 a10 Autofocus mode restrictions: AF-C
 c2 Standby timer: 1 min

AF Mode: AF‑C

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Focus is adjusted continuously while the shutter-release
button is pressed halfway or the AF-ON button is pressed.

AF‑Area Mode: 25‑Point Dynamic‑Area AF

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If your subject briey leaves the selected focus point, the
camera will focus based on information from surrounding
focus points. The following indicators are displayed while
the AF-mode button is pressed.

Control panel Focus-point

display

Viewnder

3

Focus Tracking with Lock‑On

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Custom Setting a3 (Focus tracking with lock-on) controls how autofo-

cus responds to changes in the dis­tance to the subject.

Blocked Shot AF Response: 2

Increasing the speed with which the autofocus system re­acts to blocked shots ensures that focus responds quickly
to frequent subject changes.

Subject Motion

Position the slider according to how your subject moves.
The default (“normal”) position, midway between Erratic
and Steady, is suited to a wide variety of subjects.

4

The Standby Timer

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Choose long standby times to keep
the timer active and avoid the delay
that occurs when it is reactivated
(note that this increases the drain
on the battery). If you’re at a soccer
match and the default six-second
timer expires while you’re waiting for a player to line up a
corner kick, the delay may make you miss the golden mo­ment following the kick. In situations like these, we sug­gest setting the timer to a minute or more.

See pages 30–61 for the recommended AF settings for dierent
sporting events.

5

AF-Area Mode

Choose an AF-area mode according to your subject.

AF-area mode Control panel Viewnder

Single-point

AF

25-point

dynamic-area

AF

72-point

dynamic-area

AF

153-point

dynamic-area

AF

3D-tracking

Group-area

AF

Auto-area AF

Focus-point display

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The focus point is selected manually. The camera focuses on the sub-

DescriptionSelection Shooting

ject in the selected focus point only. Choose for subjects you can keep
framed in the selected focus point.
The focus point is selected manually. The camera focuses on the subject in
the selected focus point when autofocus is initiated, but if the subject later
leaves the selected point for brief periods, the camera will focus based on
information from surrounding points (the edges of the area surrounding
the selected focus point are shown by small dots, but all 25, 72, or 153 fo­cus points in the area are used for focus). Choose for low-contrast sub­jects if the camera has difficulty focusing or for active subjects that are
hard to keep framed in a single point, and in­crease the number of points if the subject is
moving unpredictably or occupies a large area
of the frame. Choose a setting one level higher
for subjects at the edge of the frame.
The initial focus point is selected manually. While the shutter-release but­ton is pressed halfway, the camera uses color information to track subjects
that leave the selected focus point and selects new focus points as required.
The camera focuses using all the focus points in a group around the
point selected by the user, reducing the risk of the camera focusing on
the background. Choose for subjects that are difficult to photograph
using a single focus point.
The camera automatically detects the subject and selects the focus
point. Priority is given to the faces of any portrait subjects detected.

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AF-Area Mode

Custom Settings

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For faster AF-area mode selection, you can:

• Assign specic AF-area modes to buttons

using Custom S etting f1 (Custom control
assignment, page 24): If you assign

72-point dynamic-area AF to the
Pv button and group-area AF to
the lens focus function buttons,
for example, and then select 25-point dynamic-area AF
with the AF-mode button and sub-command dial, you
can keep the Pv button pressed to take pictures with
72-point dynamic-area AF, keep a lens focus function
button pressed to take pictures with group-area AF, or
release both buttons to take pictures with 25-point dy­namic-area AF.

• Match AF-area mode to camera orientation using Custom Setting a7

(Store by orientation, page 20): Select Focus point and AF-area
mode to link AF-area mode selection to camera orienta-

tion.

• Restrict AF-area mode selection using Cus-

tom Setting a9 (Limit AF-area mode selec­tion, page 23).

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Focus Points

The camera focuses using 153 focus
points, of which the 55 shown in red
at right can be selected by the user.
The available cross sensors and fo­cus points vary with the lens or tele­converter used (pages 10–14).

Focus-Point Selection

The center focus point can be selected by pressing the center
of the multi selector. See page 20 for information on choosing
the number of focus points available, page 23 for information
on conguring focus-area selection to “wrap around”.

1.3× (18×12)

The focus points at the left and right
edges of the display are not avail­able when 1.3× (18× 12) is selected
for Choose image area. Instead,
the camera focuses using 117 focus
points, of which 45 can be selected by
the user. If another focus point is active when 1.3× (18× 12)
is selected, focus will move to the closest available point. The
previous selection will be restored if the user chooses another
image area option without changing the focus point.

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Cross Sensors

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The focus points with cross sensors are highlighted in
green. All other focus points use line sensors.

Lens Cross sensors

AF-S lenses other than those listed below
with maximum apertures of f/4 or faster

• AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12–24 mm f/4G IF-ED

• AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60 mm f/2.8G ED

• AF-S NIKKOR 600 mm f/4G ED VR

• AF-S NIKKOR 600 mm f/4E FL ED VR

• AF-S Nikkor 600 mm f/4D IF-ED II

• AF-S Nikkor 600 mm f/4D IF-ED

• AF-S NIKKOR 200–400 mm f/4G ED VR II

• AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200–400 mm f/4G IF-ED

• AF-S NIKKOR 500 mm f/4G ED VR

• AF-S Nikkor 500 mm f/4D IF-ED II

• AF-S Nikkor 500 mm f/4D IF-ED

• AF-S lenses with maximum apertures
slower than f/4

*

• Non–AF-S lenses

* At maximum zoom, in the case of zoom lenses.

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*

99 cross sensors

63 cross sensors

45 cross sensors

Focus Points

Teleconverters and Available Focus Points

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The focus points shown below are available for autofocus
and electronic rangending when a teleconverter is used.
Cross-sensor focus points are highlighted in green.

Max. lens

Teleconverter

aperture Focus points

• TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII

• TC-17EII

• TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII

TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII f/2.8

• TC-17EII

• TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII

TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII f/4

f/2

153 (55 selectable);

99 cross sensors

f/2.8

153 (55 selectable);

45 cross sensors

TC-17EII f/4

2

37 (17 selectable);

25 cross sensors

15 (9 selectable);

5 cross sensors

1

1

TC-800-1.25EED f/5.6

TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII f/4

TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII f/5.6

2

1. Points shown in gray support autofocus under some conditions.

2. With support for a combined aperture of f/8.

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The focus points available for autofocus and electronic
rangending when teleconverters are used in combina­tion with dierent lenses are shown below (data are cur­rent as of April 2016).

AF-S NIKKOR 400 mm f/2.8E FL ED VR and 70–200 mm f/2.8G ED VR II

• Alone or with TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII:
153 (55 selectable); 99 cross sensors

• With TC-17EII or TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII:
153 (55 selectable); 45 cross sensors

AF-S NIKKOR 500 mm f/4E FL ED VR

• Alone: 153 (55 selectable); 99 cross sensors

• With TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII:
153 (55 selectable); 45 cross sensors

• With TC-17EII:
37 (17 selectable); 25 cross sensors

• With TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII:
15 (9 selectable); 5 cross sensors with sup­port for a combined aperture of f/8

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AF-S NIKKOR 600 mm f/4E FL ED VR

• Alone: 153 (55 selectable); 63 cross sensors

• With TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII:
153 (55 selectable); 45 cross sensors

• With TC-17EII:
37 (17 selectable); 25 cross sensors

• With TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII:
15 (9 selectable); 5 cross sensors with sup­port for a combined aperture of f/8

AF-S NIKKOR 200–400 mm f/4G ED VR II

• Alone or with TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII:
153 (55 selectable); 45 cross sensors

• With TC-17EII:
37 (17 selectable); 25 cross sensors

• With TC-20E/TC-20EII/TC-20EIII:
15 (9 selectable); 5 cross sensors with sup­port for a combined aperture of f/8

Focus Points

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Focus Points

AF-S NIKKOR 80–400 mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR and 200–500 mm f/5.6E ED VR

• Alone: 153 (55 selectable); 45 cross sensors

• With TC-14E/TC-14EII/TC-14EIII:
15 (9 selectable); 5 cross sensors with sup­port for a combined aperture of f/8

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Sports AF: Custom Settings

The following options are available in Custom Settings
Group “a” (Autofocus).

a1 AF-C priority selection
a2 AF-S priority selection
a3 Focus tracking with lock-on
a4 3D-tracking face-detection
a5 3D-tracking watch area
a6 Number of focus points
a7 Store by orientation
a8 AF activation
a9 Limit AF-area mode selection
a10 Autofocus mode restrictions
a11 Focus point wrap-around
a12 Focus point options
a13 Manual focus ring in AF mode

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a1: AF‑C Priority Selection

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Custom Setting a1 (AF-C priority selection) controls wheth-
er the camera gives priority to focus or shutter release.

Shutter-release button pressed all the way down

G Release: Pictures can be taken whether or
not the camera is in focus. Frame rates do not
slow during burst photography.

B Focus + release: In burst mode, priority is
given to focus for the first frame and to release
for later frames, ensuring that the first frame
is in focus and that no subsequent frames are
missed. Frame rates do not slow.

E Release + focus: In burst mode, priority is
given to release for the first frame and to focus
for later frames. Frame rates slow as needed to
allow camera to focus.

F Focus: Pictures can only be taken when the
camera is in focus.

Note: Release timing not exactly as shown.

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1 2

1

21

1

Sports AF: Custom Settings

: Subject not

in focus

3 54 6 7

2 4 53 6

3 4 5

2 3 4

: Subject

in focus

: Photo taken (frame number

shown in top left corner)

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a3: Focus Tracking with Lock‑On

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This menu contains two options:

Blocked shot AF response and Sub-
ject motion.

Blocked Shot AF Response

In continuous-servo AF, focus tracking with lock-on pre­vents the camera refocusing when your subject is briey
obscured by another object, ensuring that it will continue
to track the main subject once the obstacle has moved
away. Choose the length of time before the camera refo­cuses from 1 (Quick), 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Delayed). Lock-on ap­plies only while the camera is focusing; to focus at a new
distance without waiting for lock-on to end, re-initiate
autofocus.

The camera will track and focus on ob­jects at the same distance as the main
subject. High values (slow response)
make the camera slow to refocus on ob­stacles when the shot is blocked. Select
low values (quick response) to quickly
refocus on subjects passing in front of
the camera and for improved response
when switching rapidly from one sub­ject to another.

Main subject

Obstacle

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Sports AF: Custom Settings

Subject Motion

Choose how the camera tracks subjects in motion. Choose
Steady for subjects approaching the camera at a steady
pace, like speed skaters or race cars on a track, Erratic for
hockey players and other subjects prone to sudden stops
and starts.

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