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The only thing it does, at least as reported by Nikon, is make it work better with the SnapBridge app in Android. As an aside, SnapBridge, to date, is the single biggest software failure in Nikon history. It is an almost unusable abomination.

What about the Distortion Control Data upgrade? Is that one worth doing? I just got my D500 and everything is working so perfectly, that I am reluctant to make any changes.

Tim Zurowski wrote:What about the Distortion Control Data upgrade? Is that one worth doing? I just got my D500 and everything is working so perfectly, that I am reluctant to make any changes.

I updated mine, no issue.  Distortion data only matters for JPEGs or if you are using Capture NX-D for you RAW conversions.

Moose Peterson says that the D5 upgrade is a big one but the D500 is a minor update

Yes, much more significant for D5 owners:

• Added two new AF-area modes: group-area AF (HL) and group-area AF (VL). The user selects a row (HL) or column (VL) of focus points; when AF-C is selected for focus mode, the camera will give priority to the point in the selected row or column containing the subject closest to the camera.
• Updated the photo info display to show the color temperature for photos taken with Auto selected for white balance.
• Added an Exif tag listing the difference between the local time zone and UTC, part of the Exif 2.31 specification.
• Added the support for the following features of AF-P lenses:
- If the standby timer expires after the camera has focused, the focus position will not change when the timer is reactivated.
- In manual focus mode, the focus indicator in the viewfinder (or in live view, the focus point selected in the monitor) will flash to show that infinity or the minimum focus distance has been reached by rotating the focus ring.
• Changed the checks performed when Clean image sensor > Clean now is selected in the SETUP MENU. We recommend that you perform image sensor cleaning after updating the firmware.
• Fixed the following issues:
- The higher the amount of Active D Lighting selected when optional flash units were used with auto aperture (AA), non-TTL auto (A), or distance-priority manual (GN) flash mode, the more the resulting images would be underexposed.
- Changes to exposure (including exposure compensation) would not be reflected in the photo live view exposure preview while the display was zoomed in.
- Photo live view display WB could not be selected in the i-button menu while the exposure preview was displayed in photo live view.
- Taking long bursts of photos with On selected for Network > Options > Auto send would sometimes drastically slow the recording of data to the memory card.
• Reduced the amount of time needed to connect to hidden SSIDs when WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK is selected for Authentication.
• Updated some help text.

Tim Zurowski wrote:What about the Distortion Control Data upgrade? Is that one worth doing? I just got my D500 and everything is working so perfectly, that I am reluctant to make any changes.

get that.. however, I've always felt that these upgrades are doing more than manufacturers like to declare officially.  

david fletcher wrote:

Tim Zurowski wrote:What about the Distortion Control Data upgrade? Is that one worth doing? I just got my D500 and everything is working so perfectly, that I am reluctant to make any changes.

get that.. however, I've always felt that these upgrades are doing more than manufacturers like to declare officially.  

I agree with that.  Japanese Companies, due to their culture, are notoriously bad at admitting anything that is less than perfect but it is also in their culture to quietly fix these things without disclosing that there ever was a problem.  Virtually every FW update that has ever been thoroughly analyzed by third party hackers have revealed undocumented changes and fixes.  It is why I do FW updates like this one even though SnapBridge on an Android device is not likely something I would ever use.