Nikon D500 First Impressions: Has a worthy D300S successor finally arrived?

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posted Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 9:06 AM EST

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Palm Springs, California last week to test out the Nikon D500 with Nikon staff and colleagues in the industry. The Nikon team did a great job of giving us ample opportunity to test a wide array of the camera’s new features and see how it performed when faced with challenging situations.

Throughout these two-plus days of shooting, I had the opportunity to test the D500 with backlit portraits, late morning images of animals, night shoots at Joshua Tree, action shots of extreme athletes, and much more. During my time with the Nikon D500, it proved to be an impressive camera. Of course, there is much more testing to do and the expectations for the D500 are very high, so be sure to stay tuned for my upcoming Field Test.

Does the Nikon D500 seem capable of living up to the hype? Has this camera been worth the very long wait since the D300S' debut? Head on over to my hands-on first impressions to find out.