Yes, you read that title right. It might’ve taken Nikon nearly two years to release CFexpress support on the D5, D850 and D500, but it appears they’ve done it.
Nikon first announced the camera would receive CFexpress support back in February 2019. Regardless of how long this firmware took to release, the release is shocking nevertheless. It’s not common for a company to update three to four-year-old cameras and update them with something like CFexpress compatibility.
Nikon D5, D850 and D500 firmware breakdown
CFexpress compatibility
The D5 firmware version 1.4, D850 firmware version 1.20, and D500 firmware version 1.3 allow the cameras to use CFexpress Type B memory cards in these Nikon DSLRs. The main benefit of these updates is compatibility. While the CFe are capable of faster read and write speeds than XQD cards, you won’t notice any kind of speed boost when using the cameras. Since these DSLRs aren’t built to harness the speed capabilities of these cards, they can’t utilize the extra lane of PCIe of CFe. However, as we said, the main benefit here is compatibility, not speed. So, now you can use D5, D850, and D500’s memory cards interchangeably with cameras like the Z6 II.
Nikon fixed a few D5, D850 and D500 bugs
Additionally, the firmware updates fix known issues on the D5, D850 and D500. The D5 busters can now choose the band, 2.4 or 5 GHz, for the host SSID when they’re connecting to a wireless network through WT-6 or Wt-5 wireless transmitter. Also, Nikon addressed an issue on the D5 that prevented normal shutter release, resulting in an error.
As for the D850, Nikon changed the default custom setting for the center-weighted area. The company also fixed a few errors that would either freeze the camera, cause it to display incorrect information, reverse indicators, or dim the display.
Lastly, Nikon fixed an issue on the D500 that caused both the Entire frame and Background-only options for Custom Setting e3 Exposure compensation for flash in the Custom Setting Menu to create the exact same results.
Availability
The Nikon D5 firmware version 1.4, D850 firmware version 1.20 and D500 firmware version 1.3 are all available now.
Image courtesy: Nikon
