New D500: All Shots Blurry

bluegrassman

New member
[FONT=&quot]I've been shooting for about 4 years now, mostly birds and wildlife. I have a Tamron 200-600 mm and formerly had a Nikon D3400. Loved it. I would put it on Aperature Priority and go shoot all day with confidence. I'd shoot maybe 700 photos per sessions and almost all of them would be ones where the camera and lens did what I wanted, even if they were poorly composed, subject matter not cooperating, etc.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am a cheapskate but last week I splurged and bought a Nikon D500. This was a BIG purchase for me. I was/am very excited about it, but 99% of my photos are VERY blurry. It almost looks like the composed image is the a faint picture of one shot superimposed over another picture taken. In most cases, things are blurry, but in some cases, the best ones, and just a little blurry, but still blurry.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It seems to do the best in situations where I'm shooting the subject and there is very little else to complicate things, but in nature, this rarely happens. If I have that scenario, SOMETIMES I can get a crisp shot, but it is very rare.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It seems like even a little bit of low light exacerbates the problem.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I basically started with factory settings and then switched over to aperature priority, but I can't hardly get a clean shot that way, even though that's exactly how I shot 90% of my photos with my D3400.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I thought maybe it had something to do with all the autofocus settings. I've tried tinkering with those and maybe it seems a little better, but not seeing major progress.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I'm getting a little worried that the camera isn't quite right. Don't get me wrong, I know I have a LOT to learn and this is forcing me to get to know my camera better, but something just doesn't seem right.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I've tried restoring back to factory settings a few times, and then flipping over to aperature priority. No dice. I know the problems aren't with my lenses, because I've been using them for years and they work beautifully with the D3400.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Can anyone offer me any advice? I am super disappointed. I suspect the problem is with my lack of knowledge and I know I need to get better, but I am hoping there is some sort of setting where I can reliably set it and have confidence the camera will be forgiving. I can't find it on the D500, but aperature priority on the D3400 was like it could read my mind what I wanted.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I shoot mostly birds in moderate to heavy brush. I love deer too and shoot them when I can. I love any sort of raptors and any predators I can get, but they are more rare for me, although I get some. The D3400 was just so wonderful, and now I have this expensive camera that I know can do so much more, but I'm very depressed that I can't even seem to take a non-blurry photo.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I'd be so grateful for any advice.[/FONT]
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Post a couple of pictures of what you're talking about with intact EXIF data... otherwise, helping you understand what you're doing is pretty difficult to do here...
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
As Fred said we need to see your results including Exif, i didnt think Tamron made a 200-600, is it a 150-600.

It sounds a bit like slow shutter speed problems, this is why we need the shooting settings.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

Agree with Fred. We really need more information to help you out. It is the old saw of a picture is worth a thousand words.
 

nickt

Senior Member
You don't mention shutter speed or focus mode at all in your post. This is very important to know. With aperture priority, you could certainly get a slow shutter speed and blurry pics as the camera tries to set an exposure to accommodate the aperture that you chose. With my Sigma 150-600, I shoot in manual. I pick a shutter speed that I know I can handhold and usually not blur, 1/800. I stop down one stop from wide open for better sharpness. And I use auto iso to take care of the exposure for me. If light is low, I'll go wide open. Can't go lower than 1/800 or I will get blur. I mostly use single point focus.
Check you manual on how to set up image review so you can see the focus point that was used. You can also check that after the fact if you use Nikon's free software. It sounds more like your shutter speed is low. A picture with data will help figure it out.
 

egosbar

Senior Member
what are your images like with a wider lens , what focus mode are you in , try shooting group or d25 in continuous mode , dont be dissapointed the d500 is a spectacular camera you might have a lemon which will be replaced or repaired under warranty , id also recommend fine tuning the lens the d500 has that ability in the menu
150-600 for sitting birds you should be around the focal length for shutter speed so 600mm use 1/600 double if you can
 

Danno

Senior Member
I agree with everyone else that it would help to see photos with EXIF data. I do not have a D500 but when I shoot birds I use manual and I set the Shutter at 1200 and the Ap at 5.6-7.1 on my Nikon 200-500 and use Auto Iso to address changing light conditions. I do this with on my D7200.

When I first started doing this I had a terrible time. I found I was using too many focus points. I ended up going to a single point to get comfortable and also using a tripod or monopod. It made a big difference as I was getting comfortable with the lens and camera. I found that the multiple points were more than I could handle initially and everything was in focus but the bird.

I know that the D500 has a much better system than the 7200, but sometimes I have found that better really means better with some practice. Also, there is a good Ebook out there called Secrets to the Nikon Autofocus System, that I have found very helpful. I put a link below. I really like Steve Perry. His focus is wildlife and I think you would like the book, but even a couple of his short videos might be helpful.

https://backcountrygallery.com/secrets-nikon-autofocus-system/
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
If you are having such issues with the camera, and if you purchased it locally, take it and your lens back to where you purchased it, and let someone from there look at it with your lens mounted on it. If they check it and it's ok, let them give you some insight as to what you might be doing wrong. If you purchased it online or through the mail, look for a local cmaera club and soemone there who can look at it. Whatever you do, do not hang onto it long enough that you cannot return it if there is something indeed wrong with the camera.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
One thing you could do for testing is set auto iso up to 6400, shutter priority at 1/2000th and take some tests, you would have to ignore any noise as the high iso would only be set to ensure a high shutter speed.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Now it would be really nice if we could be sure that @bluegrassman was still monitoring our answers and trials to help him. So I hope he will chime in at some point.

I think that this might be a case of lens-camera mis-communication. Since Nikon's D500 is probably new firmware, it's really possible that the camera won't communicate properly with the Tamron. I've read that many users had problems with their Tamrons after camera firmware updates. I suspect just this. I would contact Tamron and send them the lens to be updated. They are usually pretty quick to do this kind of adjustments to their lenses.

I hope all eventually works fine for you.
 

Chris@sabor

Senior Member
Here is my two cents...

!. Shutter Priority or Manual with a sufficient shutter speed to freeze motion.
2. Make sure lens has latest firmware.
3. Understand the D500 focus modes.
4. Check to see if the lens is front or back focusing. Some use the in camera AF Fine Tune, I did it manually and it made a HUGE difference as my lens was front focusing.
5. If the first 4 don't work, contact Nikon!

So sorry you're having to go through this...D500 is an epic camera, you'll get it dialed in!
 

bluegrassman

New member
[FONT=&quot]Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! I will try them.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I wasn't sure the best way to share pics with EXIF, so I took a snapshot of the screen with the EXIF data showing. Yes, I am a newbie skill-wise, but this means a lot to me.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]First off, I did a lot of research on the camera before buying. I know it's a very well respected camera and capable of extraordinary shots, much moreso than my previous camera. I am not in any way trying to disparage the camera. I know the issue is with my expertise, although the aperture priority issue is confusing to me (see below).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I have 4 examples with their EXIF data showing. I think the first three all show similar things. Actually, I think they represent about the best I can get with just straight aperature priority. Maybe 1% actually come out crisp. Anyway, they are representative of all the shots I get with factory settings reset and switched to aperature priority (arguably a little better than average of what I'm consistently getting). The light doesn't seem to matter too much (although performs poorer in lower light situations), the lenses (one of which is tried and true) don't seem to matter much, nor does the subject, not the background (although a less busy background does some better).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Lenses tried, both with very similar results and same settings:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tamron 150-600mm, good antivibration[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Nikon DX 16-80,DX, VR ($1000 lens that came with the camera)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I know a lot of suggestions will come in to lower shutter speed or whatnot, and I respect those comments and will explore them. But I feel like I should be able to put it in aperture priority mode and not get a 99% blurry issue under a lot of different conditions. This is what I've always done, and for the type of nature photography I like, where I hike 6 miles and might get 10 - 50 good opportunities for shots and I have an instant to make the capture.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The last one is all black and that's the first time I've seen that. I think I was toggling back and forth between continuous low and continuous high. I've used Ch in the past without issue, but I believe the black photo resulted from switching to Ch in the indoors.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I'm at all loss. I can diagnose the underlying issue, I believe, and also how to manually set the camera to adjust, but I would like a setup that lets me take the pictures on the fly, in an instant. I know that is probably distateful to some professionals, and I understand, but it's what I like to do, given my current skill-level.

I kept getting errors on upload, so hopefully everyone can access this.[/FONT]
 

bluegrassman

New member
Just one more comment. I am grateful for all suggestions and I will try them, but my main concern is that I can't get anything but 1% or less usable pictures in aperature priority mode. That is really my main concern. I feel like I NEED to have a mode where I can swing my camera around and take the best shot I can get without trying to make adjustments on the fly or try to predict settings in advance. Fore me, that has been aperature priority mode in the past. I've taken maybe 2500 shots now, in a wide variety of conditions, many of them extremely favorable, using multiple lenses, one of which is tried and true. It is extraordinarily rare for any of those shots to turn out. I would love to find out that I'm a total dufus and I just need to _____. But I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that Aperature Priority mode should have better performance than what I'm seeing. It was miraculous with my D3400, with no tweaking.
 

Chris@sabor

Senior Member
Aperture will work fine, after you figure out what your issue is. Everyone has given good advice on how to nail down the issue. Start there.
 

nickt

Senior Member
I'm in a car bouncing around so can't type much. What I and the others said above with manual mode and auto iso is a reasonably automatic mode. Good hand held settings are locked in and auto iso does the rest. Just shoot and leave the manual settings alone. Shutter priority is good too,
 

bluegrassman

New member
One thing I have nailed down today. All pictures taken in shutter priority whether Continuous high or continuous low come out all black. That's the 4th example I posted. It turns out I had switched out to Shutter priority. So far, I can't get any pictures to come out in Sp in any way other than just solid black.
 

bluegrassman

New member
Yes, it is. But I do get results VERY similar with the 150-600. Haven't yet checked using shutter priority with the 150-600, but heading out to breakfast with my daughter and I will try it.
 

Skwaz

Senior Member
I'm no expert , they will be along soon, looked at your shots 1/6 , 1/4 , 1/2 way too slow and that is giving you motion blur , the last one is 1/8000 it's just not letting any light i, simple as that, also your vr is set for panning not sure what that may do, someone will join soon and explain all this better
 
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