Nikon D500 Vs Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Nikon's D500 has been released at CES 2016, and it's a much anticipated camera for those still using a Nikon D300s and hoping against hope that there would soon be an upgrade. In fact, there were rumours flying around that the camera would be called the D400. Rumours aside, we've been hands-on with the D500 in Las Vegas and decided it was high time to put the camera up against one of its key rivals - the Canon EOS 7D Mark II, to see how it fares. 

The Nikon D500 has a 20.9 megapixel DSLR sensor compared to the 7D's 20.2, giving the D500 a slight advantage in terms of pixels. As we all know though, it's not just about the amount of pixels, but what you do with them.  

These cameras are pretty evenly matched. The D500 boasts an ISO range of 100-51200, putting it on a par with the EOS 7D II. The difference comes in the expandable ISO department. The D500 can be expanded to a whopping ISO 50-1,640,000, while the EOS 7D Mark II can only manage up to ISO 25,600 expanded.

They also have the same maximum continuous shooting speed at full resolution - an impressive 10 frames per second. What sets the D500 apart however is the RAW image buffer depth. The D500 is capable of 200 RAW shots, whereas the EOS 7D Mark II can only manage 31 RAW images. 

The D500 also trumps the EOS 7D Mark II on the autofocus front too. The 7D Mark II has 65 cross type AF points, which is pretty impressive. But the Nikon D500 has 153 AF points of which 99 are cross type. The D500 uses the same autofocus system as the D5, also announced at CES 2015.

The Nikon D500 features a 3.2inch tilting touch-screen with an impressively high resolution of 2,359K dots, compared to the Canon EOS 7D Mark II's 3.2inch 1,036K dot screen. The Canon EOS 7D Mark II features built in GPS, whilst the Nikon D500 features low-power Bluetooth connectivity, to enable easy image transfer to a smartphone using Nikon's new SnapBridge software. 

The D500 has 4K video recording, and it's beaten Canon to be the first manufacturer to add this mode to a consumer DSLR. There is also a Full HD 1080p 60p video option. 

In terms of size and weight, the Canon EOS 7D Mark II weighs 910g compared to the 760g of the D500. The 7D II is slimmer than the D500 but the difference is only very slight. 

The number of shots the D500 is capable of before the battery dies is almost double that of the 7D Mark II, being 1240 shots compared to the  EOS 7D Mark II's 670.

The D500 is available to buy for £1729.99 body only from March 2016, whereas the Canon EOS 7D Mark II is available now for £1169, making it considerably cheaper. 

Find out more about the Nikon D500 in our Nikon D500 Hands-On from CES 2016.