My Z9 is setup and ready to go :)

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My Z9 arrived and I have it all set and ready to go. Feels good in the hand and the build quality seems excellent. Love the flip-both-ways LCD screen , the feel of the buttons, and just the overall handling of the camera. Most of it is pretty familiar, but there are a few new things that I'll be adding to my Mirrorless AF book in the next update. I think this one is going to be really fun to shoot. I was playing with the AF with my cats and eye detection latches on really well - can't wait to try it on a more challenging subject.
Congrats on Z9. Z9 maybe in my future pending all of you sorting out the bugs first and the setup. You say smaller than gripped D850, is handling weight similar feel as I think the Z9 was slightly heavier? My son is done having me shoot with him and my shutter scaring away birds.
 
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Thanks for the feedback @Steve ... Waiting for the update to Secrets of Nikon AF Mirrorless edition ... I got it for my wife and her Z50 now better finish reading it. And looking forward to the Z9 wildlife set up guide. The D6 was a bit big for my small hands the D500 with a grip was the best fit in the DSLR's for me. I find my wifes Z50 way to small and not enough external buttons. Not an NPS member ordered Z9 late in the day on 10-28-21.
 
My Z9 arrived and I have it all set and ready to go. Feels good in the hand and the build quality seems excellent. Love the flip-both-ways LCD screen , the feel of the buttons, and just the overall handling of the camera. Most of it is pretty familiar, but there are a few new things that I'll be adding to my Mirrorless AF book in the next update. I think this one is going to be really fun to shoot. I was playing with the AF with my cats and eye detection latches on really well - can't wait to try it on a more challenging subject.
Picture of the cat or it didn't happen...
 
I'm not only going to update my AF book, but I'm planning a separate wildlife setup guide for the Z9 as well. Thankfully, most of what the Z9 does has either already been done by other Z (or other mirrorless) cameras or, like the focus point persistence setting, been borrowed from pro DSLRs. The good news is I have the menu figured out already, the bad news is it takes awhile to do a guide like that and I'm still not done with the a1 guide. Still, it's all coming :)
I'm looking forward to it. It'll be here in time for Christmas... right? ;)
 
My first out with it today, with the 500 PF shooting some Flying Foxes in Melbourne. Is an odd spot, between trees, not much time to lock the subject, busy and often dark background. Light was bad, ISO high , never less than 7200 with picks 12.800 sometimes. Shooting at 1/2000 - 1/2500 sec. Using the Auto AF area, considering the busy background and poor light, the rate of shots on focus was great. Still trying to understand when the camera lose the eye detection, I wasnt having it consistently (distance to me I mean) on the bats. With the very few birds I saw and shot look like was more efficient than the bats eye. For the quality of the files need more time to spend on the field with lower Iso, for me to talk. Different sensor? Maybe. I tried yesterday 10 minuts my Sigma 500 f4 . Is reborn and fast like was on the d5
 
My Z9 arrived and I have it all set and ready to go. Feels good in the hand and the build quality seems excellent. Love the flip-both-ways LCD screen , the feel of the buttons, and just the overall handling of the camera. Most of it is pretty familiar, but there are a few new things that I'll be adding to my Mirrorless AF book in the next update. I think this one is going to be really fun to shoot. I was playing with the AF with my cats and eye detection latches on really well - can't wait to try it on a more challenging subject.

Looking forward to it Steve. I would love to see a comparison with the A1 in terms of image quality (ISO, chroma noise, colour accuracy, dynamic range & of course the AF).
 
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My first out with it today, with the 500 PF shooting some Flying Foxes in Melbourne. Is an odd spot, between trees, not much time to lock the subject, busy and often dark background. Light was bad, ISO high , never less than 7200 with picks 12.800 sometimes. Shooting at 1/2000 - 1/2500 sec. Using the Auto AF area, considering the busy background and poor light, the rate of shots on focus was great. Still trying to understand when the camera lose the eye detection, I wasnt having it consistently (distance to me I mean) on the bats. With the very few birds I saw and shot look like was more efficient than the bats eye. For the quality of the files need more time to spend on the field with lower Iso, for me to talk. Different sensor? Maybe. I tried yesterday 10 minuts my Sigma 500 f4 . Is reborn and fast like was on the d5
Pictures or it didn't happen
 
Pictures or it didn't happen
you're right, didn't happen lol.... after editing
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My first out with it today, with the 500 PF shooting some Flying Foxes in Melbourne. Is an odd spot, between trees, not much time to lock the subject, busy and often dark background. Light was bad, ISO high , never less than 7200 with picks 12.800 sometimes. Shooting at 1/2000 - 1/2500 sec. Using the Auto AF area, considering the busy background and poor light, the rate of shots on focus was great. Still trying to understand when the camera lose the eye detection, I wasnt having it consistently (distance to me I mean) on the bats. With the very few birds I saw and shot look like was more efficient than the bats eye. For the quality of the files need more time to spend on the field with lower Iso, for me to talk. Different sensor? Maybe. I tried yesterday 10 minuts my Sigma 500 f4 . Is reborn and fast like was on the d5

That is good to hear. I have the Sigma 500/4, but it has AF issues on the D500, it stutters in AF-C on nearing subjects, but otherwise AF is fine, fast and precise. I am not really sure where to go with it from here, but if it works good on the Z9, then that may be worth a try, although I will have to do some weightlifting to be able to handhold that combo.
Any thought on IQ with this combo yet?
 
My Z9 arrived and I have it all set and ready to go. Feels good in the hand and the build quality seems excellent. Love the flip-both-ways LCD screen , the feel of the buttons, and just the overall handling of the camera. Most of it is pretty familiar, but there are a few new things that I'll be adding to my Mirrorless AF book in the next update. I think this one is going to be really fun to shoot. I was playing with the AF with my cats and eye detection latches on really well - can't wait to try it on a more challenging subject.
Great news! Now Steve, are you suggesting that cats are not a challenging subject?!

 
My Z9 arrived and I have it all set and ready to go. Feels good in the hand and the build quality seems excellent. Love the flip-both-ways LCD screen , the feel of the buttons, and just the overall handling of the camera. Most of it is pretty familiar, but there are a few new things that I'll be adding to my Mirrorless AF book in the next update. I think this one is going to be really fun to shoot. I was playing with the AF with my cats and eye detection latches on really well - can't wait to try it on a more challenging subject.
 
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My Z-9 came yesterday late in the day- Charged the battery did the menu set-up and attempted some studio work. Dug out my 10 pin flash adapter, got the Z-9 to work with my
SB-5000 flashes remotely and found one of my old Arca-Swiss Universal plates- Today will be a big testing day. Very excited
 
Steve,

Looking fwd to your feedback. I was wondering how would one set up the Fn1 button e.g. to do complete different exposure settings and ISO like one could on the D6?
Yup, as grossidm says, F2, then Recall Shooting Functions - then there's a sub-menu. Set your shutter speed, F/stop, etc first, then at the very bottom of that sub-menu, hit Save Current Settings. It seems you have to do that first or the shutter speed and aperture options remain greyed out. Once saved, you can then adjust them as you like through the menu.
 
I'm not only going to update my AF book, but I'm planning a separate wildlife setup guide for the Z9 as well. Thankfully, most of what the Z9 does has either already been done by other Z (or other mirrorless) cameras or, like the focus point persistence setting, been borrowed from pro DSLRs. The good news is I have the menu figured out already, the bad news is it takes awhile to do a guide like that and I'm still not done with the a1 guide. Still, it's all coming :)
… a busy person is a happy person, Steve 😂😂
 
Hey Steve, how does the Z9 compare size wise next to a gripped A1? I’ve seen a few pictures of one next to an ungripped A1 which wasn’t very helpful :)
 
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