Oddly enough, because of dwindling battery life with age (and an unfortunately bad new battery from what I thought a reputable dealer that looked good but has poor life) I almost always turn my camera off between shots, even for a short time, and that switch is one of the few that seens destined not to wear out. I suspect the mode switch and the rear multi-switch will go sooner, if the occasionally glitchy memory slot, the sticking flash and the random replay lockups don't get it first! The print on the buttons is long gone, but after all these years I hardly have to look anyway.
@kwongphotographyhotmail-com Well, we may have a different point of view on this. Most of the time I'm fine with switching it back and forth, and when I'm leaving it on, it may go to sleep only on some very rare occasion because I'm shooting all the time. The way I use it, D500 is fast enough at startup to prevent any chance of missing a scene as long as I'm watchful. To each is own way. What I know is that mine has a correct battery life (not great, but correct) and it seems it's not like that for every owner, may it be due to use cases or be copy/settings/setup dependant or simply be varying because of personal degree of requirement.
@kwongphotographyhotmail-com No misunderstanding at all, don't worry, but I see better now which level of requierement you have. And that's exactly the point.
Another point is CIPA numbers can be misleading. For instance, on paper, D500 is better than D7200 (1240 vs 1100 shots) but as their tests are including usage of the onboard flash for half of the shots, when there is one on the camera, the numbers can't simply be used to compare accurately battery life in the field between those two cameras.
Anyway, as you're showing, only your own usage can tell.
Very interesting process BTW. Thanks a lot for this precise explanation.
@kwongphotographyhotmail-com Indeed, that odd thing :D : https://nikonrumors.com/2018/02/24/nikon-d500-batterygate.aspx/#:~:text=This%20camera%20measures%20remaining%20capacity,in%20another%20(compatible)%20body.
@kwongphotographyhotmail-com Indeed, D7200 and D500 are quite different cameras. In fact I find them near and different at the same time, enough to be bit disturbing when you switch from one to another, so I can get where you are.
I only use my D500 with 500 PF and rarely change anything on it by now because I'm nearly always in the same use case (handheld in the wild, kind of "fishing", no stress or urge). It's a great camera, easy and fast all the way.