Published: May 4, 2016
The Nikon D500 is the flagship DX DSLR camera as of 2016. The APS-C sensor offers 20.9 megapixel resolution. The D500 is optimized for sports and wildlife photography with a 153-point auto focus system, high ISO capabilities and continuous shooting up to 10fps. It supports both XQD and SD cards. It is the first Nikon camera to support the UHS-II SD interface. UHS-II SD cards can offer speeds up to three times faster than UHS-I SD cards. The fastest performance however is using XQD cards, and the D500 supports the latest XQD 2.0 specification.
The Nikon D500 was tested with 91 memory cards, including XQD 1.0 and 2.0 cards as well as UHS-I and UHS-II SD cards. The write speed comparison shows the average speed during continuous RAW shooting. The continuous shooting results present the number of shots in 30 seconds using different image modes for each card.
Test date: April 26, 2016
Write speed of the D500 was tested using 14-bit uncompressed RAW (.NEF) image format. This setting provides large file sizes and provides the highest average write speed during continuous shooting compared with the other RAW and JPEG modes. To assure consistency the D500 is mounted on a tripod and all settings are set to manual. A manual lens is used to lock the aperture and focus. The target subject is a detailed test scene with controlled lighting. The D500 is set to continuous high and the shutter is actuated using a remote timer. The resulting RAW files are 43.3MB .NEF format. The write speed is calculated by dividing the total size (in bytes) of images written to the card by the write time in seconds. Results are shown in MB/s (1 MB = 1,048,576 bytes).
Continuous shooting of the D500 was tested in three different image modes: RAW+JPEG, RAW, and JPEG. This is a measurement of the number of images that can be taken in 30 seconds (the time does not include buffer clearing). In addition to memory card performance, camera settings and the subject of the photograph affect the number of shots possible. Less detailed subjects create smaller file sizes and provide more shots in 30 seconds. The detailed test scene creates relatively large files. Therefore the number of shots during this test provides a comparison between cards rather than a maximum that may be quoted by a camera manufacturer.
Settings:
RAW: 14-bit uncompressed (average 43.3MB .NEF file size)
JPEG: Large, fine quality (average 10.5MB .JPG file size)
The Nikon D500 supports both XQD and SD cards. XQD cards can provide the highest performance, up to nearly 300 MB/s. The camera also supports UHS-II SD cards, but only reached 163.4 MB/s average write speed. Both XQD and UHS-II SD cards surpass CompactFlash and UHS-I SD card performance. While the faster XQD 2.0 cards provide the highest write speed, not all XQD 2.0 cards are created equal. The Sony M-Series XQD 2.0 cards have rather low write speeds, and mid-range UHS-I SD cards can offer superior performance in the D500.
The D500 dual card slots can be set to record the same images to both cards, or write RAW to the XQD card and JPEG to the SD card. In backup mode where the same images are written to both cards, there were slightly fewer shots compared to writing to a single card (145 vs 166). When RAW and JPEG images are written to separate cards, the result was fewer images than when both were written to the XQD card alone.
Mode: Overflow | RAW + JPEG | RAW | JPEG |
---|---|---|---|
Lexar Professional 2933x XQD 64GB | 166 | 231 | 261 |
Lexar 2000x UHS-II 64GB | 108 | 140 | 261 |
Mode: Backup Card 1 & Card 2 | RAW + JPEG | RAW | JPEG |
Lexar Professional 2933x XQD 64GB (Card 1) Lexar 2000x UHS-II 64GB (Card 2) | 72 | 102 | 261 |
Mode: RAW Card 1 / JPEG Card 2 | RAW + JPEG | ||
Lexar Professional 2933x XQD 64GB (RAW) Lexar 2000x UHS-II 64GB (JPEG) | 145 |
The fastest card tested in the D500 was the Lexar Professional 2933x 64GB XQD 2.0. It averaged 297.1 MB/s write speed during continuous shooting. The second fastest card was the Sony G Series 64GB XQD Card which averaged 280.2 MB/s write speed in the D500. Both cards significantly exceed the performance of other XQD and SD cards tested.
UHS-II SD cards offer write speeds above UHS-I cards, but not quite up the faster XQD cards. The fastest SD card tested was the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II 64GB which measured 163.4 MB/s average write speed. UHS-II SD cards are capable of higher write speed, but the SD interface implementation in the D500 appears to be the limiting factor. The fastest UHS-I SD cards tested were various SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s cards, measuring around 84 MB/s average write speed for the various capacities tested.
The D500 has a USB 3.0 port that can be used to download images from the camera. The transfer speed was measured using the fastest XQD, UHS-II SD and UHS-I cards. RAW images were downloaded from the camera using a USB 3.0 cable connected to a computer with an SSD drive. The fastest card, the Lexar Professional 2933x 64GB XQD averaged 90.0 MB/s when transferring 200 RAW files (about 9 GB). The Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II 64GB averaged 83.0 MB/s transferring 200 RAW files, and the SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I 95MB/s 64GB card averaged 61.3 MB/s. The faster XQD and UHS-II cards can provide transfer speeds of about 250MB/s when used in a fast card reader. See the Card Reader Reviews for card reader tests and benchmarks.