Photography News Issue 46

Photography News | Issue 46 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 39

Performance: exposure latitude

The amount of exposure latitude in a camera’s Raw files is important because it enables you to tweak exposure, hopefully without too much loss of quality. To test the D7500, we found a scene with plenty of highlight andshadow,shootingitusingexposure settings of up to five stops over and under inmvanualmode. The Raw files were loaded into Nikon’s Capture NX-D (Adobe Camera Raw had not been updated to include the D7500 at the time of testing). Exposurewas thencorrected and the files exported as JPEGs. TIPA’s dynamic range testing measures the D7500’s sensor at an

impressive 11.8 stops, so it was no surprise to see it performwell. As in most cases, underexposed Raws recovered well, even at -5.0EV. In that file, noise was pronounced and detail suffered but there was no visible banding, and only a minor colour shift to cool. From there, things improved, and the -2EV underexposed Raw was almost indistinguishable from the correct exposure. Overexposure was good, too, holding highlight detail well up to +3.0EV. Beyond that there was clipping in those areas, and greying of other highlight tones.

+5EV

+4EV

+3EV

+2EV

+1EV

0EV

-2EV

-3EV

-1EV

-4EV

-5EV

Images The D7500 did very well in our exposure latitude tests. Underexposed shots were usable right down to -5EV if you ignore the grain. Highlight detail was lost at +4EV, but this was on the brightest sections of the scene.

Original image

Verdict

Off

Performance: High ISOnoise reduction

Features 24/25 Great; pretty much everything you’d expect on an enthusiast DSLR Performance 23/25 Not quite up there with the D500, but not much to complain about Handling 23/25 A solid, grippy feel andmostly good button layout; excellent viewfinder Value formoney 21/25 Welll priced, but £450more for the D500 is still appealling shooting and build quality isn’t quite as good, but overall it’s a great photographic tool. AF and image quality are good and the viewfinder is a pleasure to shoot with; the lack of a second SD card slot and no support for a vertical grip are the only disappointments. The D7500 is a classy addition to the DX lineup, with plenty of cutting-edge features to appeal to upgraders as well as reliable DSLR performance and handling. Pros Image quality, speed, AF, handling, viewfinder Cons Only one SD card slot, no accessory grip The D7500 is around £450 cheaper than the DX flagship D500, and does well to compete with it. It’s a little slower in Overall 91/100

The D7500 has four High ISO Noise Reduction modes: Off, Low, Normal, and High. Putting these to the test meant picking a high ISO setting (we used ISO 12,800 here), and shooting JPEGs of the same scene in each of them to see how images were affected. Across the board the D7500 performed very well, so the real question is findingwhichof themodes looks best to your own eye. Even in the high mode, detail isn’t overly suppressed in favour of low noise, but it’s obvious that NR has flattened things somewhat. Images The D7500’s High ISO Noise Reduction is very efficient, and even at its High setting, details are fairly well preserved against the flattening effects of reducing interference. There is a slight waxiness in this setting, but nothing too compromising. That said, Noise Reduction often comes down to personal preference; mine would be to leave it on Lowor Normal and accept a little graininess as part of the picture.

Normal

Low

High

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