Nikon Z50 Vs D500 high ISO test. ISO 400 up to ISO 51,000

In this video we take a look at the Z50 against the D500 comparing High ISO noise and grain.
We will go from 400 ISO all the way up to 51,000 ISO.
I Think the results are pretty surprising.
If you are interested in my Photography follow me on Instagram / nikonricci
Thank you for Watching
#Nikon #NikonZ50 #HighISO

[@RicciTalks]

I hope you Found this video useful ! I was really surprised by the results. Thank you for watching !

[@stanspb763]

The color noise might be easier to repair but both are amazing compared to just a few years ago. In 2010, Nikon was so far ahead in DR on everything from the entry-level to top end, 2-3 stops better than Canon which degraded quickly when boosted in post for example but now, all the sensors from all thee brands are very close in DR. More and more, the difference is handling and feel rather than any technical characteristic. These crop sensors are doing what few pro-full-frame could do 5-6 years ago. The sensors have become so good that unless a new tech entirely is introduced every camera made is capable of the same shots, The Z50 appears to be a very competent everyday camera. I am using a Z6 for that everyday use and for commercial shoots, and leave the D850 and D800 on the shelf.

[@antonoat]

That was really interesting Ricci. We have to remember in the real world that viewing the samples at 2:1 on our monitors is doing both cameras an equal injustice and is very much the worst case scenario especially if we are to print at realistic sizes from our cameras. The Z50 definitely has more colour noise, thankfully I rarely shoot at the stratospheric iso levels, that was before I got my Z6, lol. Thanks for sharing your findings as always! Cheers.

[@RicciTalks]

Completely agree looking at the whole image you arnt going to see these things why I think people should shoot at higher iso cuz really the noise they look at at 1:1 or 2:1 isn’t even going to be noticeable.

[@bobmorse5896]

Very interesting. I have a D500, which I use for bird photography in particular, and a Z6, which I'm now using as my walk around camera. My wife is very comfortable with her D7100, which she uses for jewelry photography in particular. For me, the color noise of the Z50 was a bigger issue than the grain of the D500. If I were to suggest my wife upgrade her D7100, it would still be to another Z6; she wouldn't likely miss the crop, and the image stabilization would be the big selling point. This was an excellent comparison.

[@MDMiller60]

Thanks Ricci. What I noticed is that the colors were brighter on the Z50 than the D500. I also thought the Z50 had finer grain as you went up. I do understand that the Z50 was color noise.

[@gitrubsmembrei.s.m.e5042]

vraiment super vidéo ! très utile !!! grand merci, on voit vraiment bien les différences entre les deux boitiers (qui ont pourtant le même capteur). merci !

[@2012Rustan]

Buen trabajo Ricci !!! Se nota la dedicación e imparcialidad a la hora de mostrar los resultados. Saludos desde Chile.

[@bemyzeke]

Thank you for this comparison. Did you leave the noise settings in Lightroom at default, or did you modify them to be the same? I ask this because LR applies far less color noise reduction on all Z cameras by default.

[@Artm-jr3di]

Thank you! i would love to see a comparison between z7 vs z6 high iso in photography

[@jaimeduncan6167]

Hi thanks for this videos. When a firmware 3 video coming ? I will love to see the performance of the new firmware with the 70-200mm

[@josharpman]

Thanks for this comparison! I did notice that my Z50 provides a lot more colour noise than I am used to with my D7200. I also noticed that if I crank up the default colour noise settings in Lightroom somewhat I can get rid of that completely, without affecting the quality of the image. At least, to this examiner's eye. I agree that having a certain kind of noise will be a personal preference, but being able to seemingly remove all the colour noise tips the scale for me.

[@eyespolaroid2089]

Thank you so much, brother. You saved my day. This video helped me make good choices.

[@cactustweeter2890]

Looking forward to the Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S lens review.

[@gbye007]

I'm wondering whether you just used the default Lightroom settings. The Z50 images look more contrasty (which accentuates noise) as well as having more colour noise. These rendering differences may well just be a difference in default settings for Lightroom for D500 vs Z50, particularly the contrast and colour noise reduction values. Thanks for the video.

[@AnthonyMarkSchellenberg]

Hi Ricci, great video. Would you be willing to share your z50 and d500 iso 51,000 raw files? I'd love to compare both on my computer and play with the colour noise etc. to see how much detail remains in the z50 shot with the colour noise removed.

[@telkirton]

Very interesting thanks Ricci.

[@hansmeier5071]

Very interesting stuff. I wouldn't have thought there'd be that much of a difference between the two cameras, and I must admit I prefer the look of the shots taken with the D500. BTW, what happened to the D7500? I thought you mentioned you'd do a three way comparison with the D7500 as well. Or is the D7500 so close to the D500 it didn't make sense to add the D7500?

[@NicolasToninelli]

Good informative video. I have a questions: in Lightroom the basic Noise reduction was applied or not (25 color - 50 detali - 50 smoothness)?? It's seems that Z50 have it tuned off while D500 have it on Thanks

[@abducteezero2810]

there's no personal preference involved, the d500 is better by far

[@MikeJamesMedia]

Thank you, Ricci! I own a D500, so this was interesting to see. (Personally, I'll take the overall "grain" problem, over the color noise problem.) Love your videos, and love your work on Instagram. Well done!

[@TherealDjTired]

I have a D500 and I would definitely go with the black and white noise rather than the color noise (I think it is more difficult to deal with color noise)...as far as above 12800 ISO I would never go that far, my max is usually 5000 ISO in which the d500 images are still rock solid....

[@madphotographer762]

Great video Chief.... was looking forward to this one!!

[@jaaycesholiday388]

I’m really lost, I’m so lost. I was looking at other reviews on the D500 and I see chroma noise at iso 12800 25600 and 51,200. What was high iso NR set to on the D500? Low? Normal? High? or off? I have a feeling that there is a setting in the camera that I don’t know about. Luminance noise is not a big problem to me but I don’t like seeing chroma noise in my images. I like your comparison on these cameras.

[@dugpecci9652]

My dad was a photographer the very basic that I learned from him as a kid was that a good photo is a the most appropriate combination of the right aperture and the right timing with a manual SLR.

[@harleyrider9166]

The Wright brothers flew the first plane but now we have Blackbird SR-72’s in today’s times.

[@ArtistryMomentography]

Nikon Z50 zoom lens Vs Nikon D5600 70-300mm kit lens??any video?

[@ipedros7]

if push comes to shove... its good to know it can get you out of dodge! Generally also prefer to stick under 3200 (my auto iso limit). But if conditions deteriorate, I'll let it increase to 6400 occasionally, less so to 12800, and I've nabbed a couple of decent at 25600 that wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the D500. My previous camera, d7200, couple of stops below the d500. Top, top limit was 6400. Even then it depended on the scene due to bad colour noise. Fortunately not often I need that sort of ISO reliability. I would've hopped that the z50, being released 4 years on from the d500, it would've had a clear one stop improvement, especially on the 1600-12800 range.

[@ArtistryMomentography]

Can you make a video about Nikon Z50,kit lens review?

[@dykemamechanical]

Thank you for the video... you helped me make up my mind..... I am going after a d500.... upgrading from d7200 and d7500....

[@jss27560]

Were people buying the D500 for it’s high Iso performance or for things like BIF and ohter wildlife uses? NOt sire if there are a lot of people selling their D500 and replaceing them with the Z50. I might be wrong.

[@RicciTalks]

I’m certainly not saying that people are replacing their d500 with Z50. It’s just because I had a lot of requests to see the difference between the two.

[@ronshaw9311]

Does anybody actually shoot at ISO 51000? I can remember one image I took (at an aquarium) where I used ISO 12800, but I generally never have to go that high in the stuff I shoot.

[@ipedros7]

if push comes to shove... its good to know it can get you out of dodge!

[@lensman5762]

Excellent. The D500 noise is mostly Luminance noise which is much easier to deal with in PP. Chroma noise of the Z50 is another matter but TBH who shoots @ iso 6400? Both cameras seem quite clean up to iso 800 and the Z50 is quite usable @ iso 3200. The D500 is in another league which is probably reflected in its price. Lets not forget that in the UK the Z50 seems to be quite over priced for the usual reasons.

[@Oberschlesi3r]

Is the ISO behavior of the d7500 comparable to that of the d500 ? (same sensor)

[@utkur765]

Ricci, to me D500 looked better, but again - personal preference. What I would suggest (for the sake of purity) is to use Nikon's original software since one can argue that Lightroom processes files differently for each of these cameras thus one looks better than the other.

[@RicciTalks]

Iv often thought about doing that or using something like capture one. But lightroom clearly has the largest user base. It’s something I’m looking at.

[@Albert_Zagirov]

Hi, is there a big difference between the nikon z 6 and nikon z50 viewfinders? What is the viewfinder lag z 50? Thanks in advance

[@lightlivingktt]

Z6 definitely looks better and has Better color and contrast but not a massive difference. The biggest difference is viewfinder size

[@momentsbyron]

What about af performance in low light, which camera is better?

[@canjo7301]

Take the D500 and the Z50 out in the wild and do some real world testing. I do not know one wildlife shooter worth his salt that shoots at ISO's 12800 and above. I do not tolerate noise that well in my images and the loss of detail in feathers and fur. The Z50 is the mirrorless version of the D5500 with no functional battery grip. The D500 is a pro level DX camera equal to or better than the Fujifilm XT-3 and with a whole lot of FX and a few great DX lenses to choose from...

[@maxdmachy]

Most interesting!

[@Te_Enzo_]

Look at the lenses in the back. Holy Heka that's some big gear

[@erikalpizar]

For me, is a lightroom problem. Use capture one.... Saludos!!

[@sinhafamily]

I am trying to decide between Z50 and D7500. Is the D7500 image and noise characteristic the exact same as D500?

[@fangli]

i hVe d7500

[@TheSquirrelWhisperers]

@@fangli how is that.. what is ur feedback?

[@fangli]

@@TheSquirrelWhisperers check my IG @chandrafangli and @keeganfoto

[@roybixby6135]

Good comparison. The D500 seems to be a little underexposed.

[@bassangler73]

I agree, and it looks soft on focus

[@uncoy]

I imagine it's the same lens, the same shutter speed as well as the same ISO. Hence if the D500 is darker, it's because it shoots darker than the Z50 at identical settings. It's less than a third of stop though. Fuji ISO ratings are off a full 2/3 of a stop.

[@ramonarias1234]

Verey useful video, thanks! I find the d500 is controlling much much better the noise!!

[@burritobrosvideos8060]

Try a sony lok

[@MrModerate_kane]

D500 is a lovely camera stil, def still has its place and online you can get for £1,000 which is a steal.

[@wilteduk007]

My Z6 produces quite a lot of colour noise too, more than any other Nikon I've owned. In this test the Z50 might be a little better for detail, it's not good for colour noise and overall the D500 is aa better camera.

[@skyrunr]

Thank you. This is VERY helpful as I might be replacing my D500 (and a handful of point and shoots) with a Z50. Color me impressed if we have to look that closely for any major differences, and I hardly shoot at those ISO's anyway. In some cases I prefer the colors on the Z50 side. My D500 was so much better out of the camera than my D750, that I went back to shooting JPG. I'd be VERY curious to see some out-of-the-camera JPG comparisons with a various noise reduction settings. Lightroom can sure do some funky things with newer NEF's. If only universal DNG or RAW had gone through.

[@KungPowEnterFist]

Another great comparison. Things look pretty good up until ISO 3200 for both with no clear edge to either. At ISO 6400 the Z50 looks better. Yes, there is slightly more color noise with the Z50, but the overall noise is worse on the D500. At ISO 12800 both are looking pretty bad, but the D500 is slightly less bad. The color blotching is what the does the Z50 in. D500 with more noise overall. Above that forget it. Both are pretty awful. This is an amazing showing for the Z50, which is by no stretch of the imagination is a pro level camera like the D500. Both get their asses handed to them by the Z6.

[@striderwhiston9897]

Might be YT compression oddities, but the Z50 appears to have drastically less noise, even at ISO 400 and 800

[@AsaprimaPro]

how much D500?

[@pjazzz353]

I wish you record volume louder. It's very low.

[@FuckYouTubeForHandles]

Black and white noise on D500 looks better than colour one on Z50, but looks like due to this type of noise Z50 pictures look sharper on high ISO.

[@aditya_gupta]

New owner of z50.. Definitely prefer d500 performance regarding noise.

[@CclassicsX]

The same thing happens with the Z7 in comparison with the D850.

[@jacobl6572]

I want to see ISO tests done like real world shooting where the lighting gets lower not just setting the camera's settings differently always using the same bright lights. There is a difference especially comparing full frame vs cropped. My Df was 3 stops better than my D7200 on a dark cloudy day. At 6400 ISO / Df, there was even more detail seen than my D7200 at 800 ISO. On the books however it is shown much less than a 2 stop gap testing like I think the way you are testing.

[@randydean23]

I get what you are saying in terms of personal preference, but even with the loss of detail I feel like the finer grain pattern of the D500 has more general appeal from the way in which so many of us have experienced film grain our whole lives. And while it is true that noise reduction could be applied to the Z 50 image it is also true that the larger splotches of color noise tend to quickly cause softness in an image as they're removed. I don't know if it has anything to do the way finer grain in not having a color cast is easier for the software to deal with, but that's been my experience. Having said all of that I still think that the pros on behalf of the Z50 far outweigh the color noise and as a D500 owner I have been looking at picking one up. Sadly I have not had my finances in order yet to be able to do so, but hopefully I can get it together here pretty soon before the "yellow" program ends. Thanks for the content and best regards Cheers

[@uncoy]

Splotchy colour noise reminds me of my former Canon cameras. I was so happy to get away from chroma noise when I moved to Nikon. I can't imagine what the engineers were thinking when they didn't apply Nikon's own film grain algorithm/special sauce on the Z50 images.

[@ppicans]

Another thing to measure D500 is twice the price of Z50, even D7500 is more expensive. The Z50 is the replacement of D5000 series.

[@reddevil211287]

Wish this video came out a week earlier..haha. I was shocked by the amount of colour noise in my Z50 images, much closer to the base iso in bright day light images too. The local Nikon reps wont even reply to emails and I was not able to test the camera in store due to rules set by Nikon themselves. Only hold it without a battery inside. Where as in the US they are doing a 30 day try is out program with no questions asked returns. No fair! Really regretting my purchase and the store won't take it back or exchange it for a z6 as I threw out the box :( The kit lenses are quite rubbish too. I just wanted a small kit to accompany my D810, and take the smaller camera on hikes and stuff, but with a once in a lifetime trip to the Himalayas coming up, I will not trust the z50 and have to lug the canon ball that is the D810 and it's lenses...my knees and back will hate me. With the Z50's build quality, ergonomics and features, I expected so much more from the image quality. This really is an Instagram level point and shoot for cute selfies.

[@uncoy]

The Z6 is awesome camera, not much bigger than a Z50 and with the best image quality in the 24MP full frame category, head to head with the Panasonic S1. Sell off your Z50 and buy a Z6. If you are going to the Himalayas, you can afford the small loss. The Z6 shoots fully manual lenses perfectly well so you can take very durable and reliable lenses up the mountain with you and only worry about the body. PS. Throwing out the boxes early was not the right move. I imagine you won't do that again.

[@hellasride2717]

@rasheed211287 I was also surprised by the noise in the Z50 until I stopped using lightroom/camera raw and switched to Nikon Capture NX-D to convert images to TIFF before post-processing. Try it....

[@NalinKhurb]

@@uncoy Yes! It's pretty silly to throw the box when you're getting devices from retail stores. Wait a few weeks at the least

[@Lon1an]

D500 looks so much better.

[@usmanmalik-of6nt]

Z50 look better and brighter image.

[@striderwhiston9897]

Eh, loses so much detail

[@johngamer7]

I have used both. NO WAY D500 has less color noise!!! You just didn't remove the color noise reduction on the D500 shots. D500 has more "blue" color noise in blacks than the Z50. D500 pics will be sharper because Z50 applies noise reduction internally and can't be turned off as far as i know. Maybe they are lossy as well.

[@weezyg.5724]

Not big fan of the D500 but the D500 looks better.

[@harleyrider9166]

Why?

[@Sebas-sg1kj]

Seems that d500 have better details and more pleasing noise and better color reproduction, i prefer it over the z50 that looks ugly noise colors and washed image.

[@jklbd4815]

The d500's grain is more useable than the z50

[@ppicans]

This is a late comment, but have to say that is easier to recover color noise than luminance noise

[@bassangler73]

The D500 looks underexposed and a little soft on focus

[@madphotographer762]

Time for an upgrade?? ....are you ready to step into the year 2020 now?? ... lmao... (sorry I couldn't resist! don't get your britches in a knot, was joking amigo)

[@bassangler73]

@@madphotographer762 lol..its all good, I like to joke around myself...no on the upgrade, I just bought a new D500 around Christmas..I think I got maybe 2200 shots on it so it will be a while..I did look at the Z50 pretty hard though but the deal breaker for me was the max shutter speed of 1/4000..I shoot birds of prey in flight 99% of the time and on a bright sunny day you need more shutter speed than that..But it is Nikon's best bang for the buck in the Z series from what I hear..I have heard that AF acquisition and tracking are not D500 good but close like D7200 close and that's a big jump forward!

[@madphotographer762]

@@bassangler73 yeah, the D500 is still king in this regard!! No doubt about it.

[@bassangler73]

@@madphotographer762 I figure by the time I wear the D500 out mirrorless will be global shutters and perfected

[@RicciTalks]

Yeh there’s about 1/3 of a stop difference with the D500 being darker. I wanted to make sure I used the same settings so I decided not to correct for the 1/3 stop. Both cameras showed me 0 on their exposure meter at point of capture.

[@michaeljkeeney]

Why is the D500 so superior? Fuck. It's old. Come on, Nikon!

[@pawel-951]

It's looks like the image from z50 is about 1/3 EV brighter then that from d500. It's also more "punchy" and more contrasty

[@RicciTalks]

I also thought that but didn’t want to correct the exposure as the settings where the same. I felt having a different shutter speed by 1/3 of a stop would be wrong. As you would just shoot the shutter speed you normally shoot.

[@pawel-951]

​@@RicciTalks I got it. I have a z50 and I really like it,more than I anticipated. Fantastic little camera.Thanks for a detail comparison,you do a great job on your channel.

[@Helloworldwrjfjrjrj]

Are you honest? You never really look at us. its very fleeting and sideways ... May I suggest you are more direct and look truly into the camera for more than 3 seconds

[@eric00214]

Last time I checked, "Z" is a letter, pronounced ZEE... Not a word, not Zed. See the difference, Z is now the same as Zed. FFS

[@RicciTalks]

Last time I checked the English language the letter Z is pronounced Zed. Zee is a word. Zee is American English only.

[@eric00214]

@@RicciTalks but Zed is made up. The origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. There is no such thing as Zed. It like the British accent, made up. Before the 1800s, they all spoke like the US. The royals wanted to distinguish themselves from the peasants so the made up there accent. All bullshit.

[@harleyrider9166]

@@RicciTalks you don’t know what you’re talking about. Zed came first. Zee was only made up by American’s so the ABC’s song would rhyme better.

[@maeu59]

@@harleyrider9166I never heard the alphabet ending in X Y ZED😂

[@harleyrider9166]

@@maeu59 that’s because you haven’t done the research smart guy.

[@dykemamechanical]

Thank you for the video... you helped me make up my mind..... I am going after a d500.... upgrading from d7200 and d7500....

[@Youmemba]

Don't trust me

[@burritobrosvideos8060]

Bad idea

[@dykemamechanical]

@@burritobrosvideos8060 bought a Sony...

[@burritobrosvideos8060]

@@dykemamechanical sony full frames are great. The apscs are decent too

[@dykemamechanical]

@@burritobrosvideos8060 Bought a A7iii and a A7C... love them both!