D500 Airshow! Sharpness? Pft.. (some other concerns though...)

Okay so just to set the record straight, I'm absolutely astounded by the AF system. There's literally nothing else I could hope for. In fact, I had to switch OUT of 3D AF because I was getting lazy and my spot metering was falling totally off subject because the 3D tracked it so well regardless of where it was in the viewfinder. Yikes.

Handling and everything else hardware-wise was also perfect.

I've got to say though - this camera DOES HAVE A HIGHLIGHTS PROBLEM. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Yes I can get the data back in RAW (if I shot it) and even in jpeg (basic PS highlights tool) but wow. This it exactly what I thought was happening previously - it's just extremely obvious now with the reflective surfaces and sky areas of an airshow. There's simply a TON of highlight data that the camera flattens out - when you pull it in PS or post processing, the images just come to life and you realize what was missing.

Mind you these are "CORRECTLY EXPOSED SUBJECTS" ie center weighted and my aircraft is perfectly exposed, but the background just lacks and DR or definition, and is blown out more than is required to correctly expose the main subject - data which is easily recovered with software of ANY kind... ie. this is just something the image processor isn't doing.

Feel free to call me paranoid, whistle-blower, whatever... but this IS going to be an issue moving forward. It has to be. Unless I receive some kind of cash from Nikon within the next 48hr I'm not backing down. okay jkjk, but seriously.. I don't care who is being bought by them - this issue WILL COME OUT in some of the reviews - it just has to. I've started over, waited a week going after TOTALLY DIFFERENT subjects ie. horses over jumps in the rain w/ forest background vs. aircraft in the clouds/sun, and I'm seeing the same issues. Some of these are just dramatic, and I'll have to post them later - but the BASIC limited highlights recovery in PS just totally transforms the images. I wasted nearly an hour going back through these to correct what I realized about 90% of the way through the first pass.

HAVING SAID THAT. The camera is just a spectacular platform - but Nikon needs to get their $hit together with a FAST firmware update for the issues we've mentioned, AND get iOS snapbridge out NOW.

As for the sharpness debate - well I won't chime in on that ever again. I think my 70-200 2.8 VR is struggling a bit after a decade of moderate use and with the 1.7 TC it's even more obvious. I had her dialed in pretty good today, but it needs adjusted and tuned. Considering that - I still achieved some remarkable images today and stuff I'll probably be adding to my all-time favorites portfolio.

Definitely time to seriously consider the 200-500 as my next purchase. I couldn't BELIEVE the number of people shooting with massive lenses today, even totally crappy bodies with 3rd party glass, but they still had a 50-500 or 150-600 etc etc.. one amateur guy had a 600 f4!!! I guess I need to get used to the air show scene a little more. For my close-in low-light sports stuff my 70-200 2.8 is basically the only lens I'd ever need or want, but this was out of my comfort zone even with the 1.7 TC and shooting a little wide to keep things sharp(er). However for a lens combo that is NOT ideal for this at all, I think it did pretty well. Most of my stuff was as long as I could go at 340mm and about f/7.