D500 fast auto focus

I just put my D500 to a tough AF test. I was shooting spring cherry blossoms with a 70-300 at 300 and extreme close focus and wide open. There were wines of 25 knots gusting to 35. The branches were dancing and bouncing all around. Once I found the target and got a focus lock -- nearly instantaneous -- I pressed the shutter release as fast as I could with single shot release. Probably 2-3 times a second. I took about ten frames per subject. I was using a reasonably fast shutter speed -- around 1/500 or faster. Probably 8 out of 10 images were perfectly focused. I can't say the same for my framing of the image as things were bouncing faster than I could follow with the camera.

 

The AF in this situation just was incredible.

Not so tough a test really. I did this years ago with a D700 taking macro shots of flowers in a breeze using continuous AF. I was surprised how well it worked. Although the breeze was probably a lot less than 35 mph, but then a flower stem is much more flexible than a tree branch.

I could not follow it with either my hand, or my eye, but the camera managed it.

Yes, Nikon D500 is very fast. Under dim condition, it performs well. However, DX in unnatural for me. High ISO is not so good. Noise is apparent (compared to FX).