Test driving the Nikon D5 with College Baseball

 
Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1400, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000

Today I took the D5 for a test drive with college baseball. First, I started shooting the game as I did with my Nikon D4, which used 1/2000 for shutter speed.

Also, when I set up the camera for one of the Shooting Banks. When I did this, I forgot that the Quality of the file set would be default for JPEGs and not RAW. So I shot the first batch of images in JPEG mode.

Frankly, those images were pretty awesome. Here is one of the first bases that were JPEG.

Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 640, ƒ/5.6, 1/2000

The Nikon D5 is so good with ISO I decided to crank the shutter speed to 1/4000. You can see in the first frame at the top how excellent the results were, even at an ISO 1400.

 
Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1400, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000
I can tell you one thing for sure if you want your images to look sharp, one of the best things you can do with sports is crank the shutter speed up. So next time I have a day game, I think I will go for 1/8000.
 
Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 1000, ƒ/5.6, 1/4000
Here you can see that at 1/4000, you can see how hitting the ball was bending the bat. 
 
Nikon D5, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, ISO 2800, ƒ/8, 1/4000
I wanted the ball and the pitcher tact sharp, so I increased the depth-of-field to ƒ/8. I think the Quality of the ISO 2800 was excellent for these photos.
 
Once I get all the calibrating done on my settings for sports, I will post those and more images in the future. The game at The Citadel was the test drive, and I can tell you I am impressed with the larger picture, dynamic range, high ISO, and focus on the camera. All of these are upgrades over a stellar Nikon D4 camera.
 
I think my clients will get a better image due to the camera. I believe Nikon hit this one out of the park with the Nikon D5.