I found some problems with the new D500 AF. I tried test several Nikon lenses using both this method, https://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/51633/~/how-to-use-the-af-fine-tune-function and the on-board method, http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d5_tips/af/auto_af_fine-tuning/. Consistently, only the 16-85mm AF-S needs no adjustment. Some older ones, 50mm/f1.8, 35mm/f2D, 80-200/f2.8D, all need to adjust to about "-10". These lenses all focus dead-on on the good old D300. However, shooting soccer using the same 80-200 on D500 produced a lot more keepers than on the D300. So, no questions about the power and speed of the D500 AF. But it's accuracy shooting static object is problematic. Did I get a bad sample???
The D300 has only 12MP. When I bought the 16MP D7000 in 2010, I found it to be far more demanding on lenses than my D300, even though I originally thought the difference between 12 and 16MP wasn't that big. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised at all that some older lenses that used to work great on the D300 are a bit less than stellar on a 20MP camera. How many AF-S lenses do you have? If the 16-85mm DX needs no AF fine tune and the other lenses only need a -10 AF fine tune, I think your D500 is within specs. If you need +-20 fine tune and sometimes it is even off the charts (i.e. beyond the +-20 range), that is a problem. While I have plenty of lenses, I have mainly tried the telephotos on my D500, all AF-S. So far none needs any AF fine tune yet.
Thanks Shun! That made me feel better if it is still within specs although I am still within the 30-day exchange period. Another topic. With the availability of 20MP, I compared the 16-85mm with three older primes, 20mm/2.8D, 35mm/2.0D and 50mm/1.8, at F8 at the same focus lengths. The 16-85 is almost the same as the 20mm and 50mm in terms of resolution and contrast. But it is NO comparison to the wonderful 35/2.0D!! I was a bit surprised that 20mm and 50mm are not better.
I compared the 16-85mm with three older primes, 20mm/2.8D, 35mm/2.0D and 50mm/1.8, at F8 at the same focus lengthsI am not surprised by this result, since the optimum performance is not for each lens at the same aperture.. I find the 50mm 1.8 (my copy of it) to be better at F\5.6 compared to F\8.0 i find both my 20mm (a bit older.. ) lenses ( F2.8 and F\3.5 ) be best at F\11 and F\16 So if you want to compare, maybe it is also interesting to find out at which aperture they perform best before comparning them ?