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It’s been six years since Nikon released the Nikon D500. The camera that will likely be their last “pro” model APS-C DSLR. It was just over six years between the releases of the D500 and its predecessor, too. We’re still waiting on a mirrorless equivalent to the Nikon D500, but it appears that Nikon might have killed it off before announcing a replacement in its new mirrorless lineup.
Retailers around the world are listing the Nikon D500 as discontinued or out of stock with no hints of getting more. Even Nikon Asia’s shifted the D500 over to the discontinued list. Could that mean a mirrorless equivalent is on the way? Well, maybe. But knowing Nikon, it’s entirely possible that we might never see a true “pro” level APS-C mirrorless camera. But right now, it seems that the D500 is done.
Retailers such as Amazon are showing very limited availability, Adorama has the D500 on backorder, B&H is out of body+lens kits but seems to have a few body-only kits still available. The largest photography retailer here in the UK, WEX is also out of stock – both online and in all of their stores – and has been for quite some time. Other retailers, like Bic Camera, are actually listing the D500 as discontinued.
DC Life reports that Nikon Japan’s own official store is no longer taking orders on the Nikon D500 (and Nikon Rumors has a screenshot to this effect), it is giving me the option to order when I load it up right now. Maybe they found a box in the warehouse they’d forgotten about? Pretty much every online retailer around the world is listing it as either discontinued, out of stock, back-ordered or words to that effect, except for those who might still have a couple lying around on the shelves that simply haven’t sold yet.
The Nikon D500 was announced in January 2016 alongside the Nikon D5 to much fanfare and it was very warmly received by Nikon shooters. It offered many significant advantages over the D300s predecessor, including somewhat automated lens calibration, 4K video, a tilting touchscreen LCD, uncompressed HDMI output and more. It was as big a leap over the D300s (and D300) as the D300 was over the D200. That is to say, pretty significant.
The rumours of the D500’s demise have been around for a while now, so it’s not that unexpected. We posted about it back in 2016, along with the suggestion that it would not be replaced by a future DSLR model. Of course, this was a few months before the whole global pandemic thing, so perhaps their D500 retirement plans were delayed somewhat. It was also suggested back then that we’d see replacement DSLR models for the D7500, D750, D850 and D5. Well, we’ve seen replacements for two of those in the form of the D780 and D6, but even those have been usurped by the Z6/Z6II & Z9. The D850 is basically the Z7/Z7II and the D7500 is pretty much the Z50/Z fc, so DSLR replacements for either of those now are also unlikely.
It would be a shame to see the D500 disappear without being replaced by a mirrorless equivalent because it’s an excellent camera, offering amazing value for what it costs. A camera at this level checks all the boxes that no others in Nikon’s APS-C or full-frame lineups, too. There’s no APS-C equivalent and the full-frame equivalent costs 4x as much. But if it did get replaced by a new “pro” level mirrorless camera, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Canon shooters are still waiting for mirrorless replacement to 2014’s Canon EOS 7D Mark II, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Nikon decided to follow suit and ditch the “pro” APS-C DSLR line altogether, despite how valuable these sorts of cameras can be to sports and wildlife shooters.
Are you holding out for a D500 replacement? Or have you already gone in a different direction?
[via Nikon Rumors]
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