Is It Time To Ditch Your DSLR For Wildlife Photography?

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Steve

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Hey wildlife photographers! Is it time to ditch your DSLR and move to mirrorless? This is a question I've been getting on a daily basis and in this video we'll examine all the pros and cons - plus I'll give you my advice as well. If you're struggling with this decision, this video is a must see!

 
Great Vid Steve, I shoot both DSLR and Mirrorless and find that they both have their pros and cons I love the EVF on the mirrorless however I prefer the AF system on the DSLR's at least for action, sports and wildlife.
 
Good balanced advice as usual Steve.

The only thing you left out is mixed video / photography shooting. I'd say mirrorless is mandatory for anybody interested in even a small amount of video shooting. The thing I noticed with video when I rented a Z6ii for experimentation, is that the areas where Nikon lags a bit are far less critical - AF acquisition time can be edited out or, at times can make for a nice OOF to focus transition that's more elegant than a sharp snap into focus. Catching focus on the eye is important in video too but there is enough movement blur that being off an inch is virtually invisible unless shooting a tight video portrait - auto area select actually does a good enough job in almost all wildlife video situations I tried (again with the exception of a tight crop but it's easy to switch to a tighter focus area for those situations) - whereas I found it quite unreliable for stills (it rarely picked the eye to focus on, not far but rarely spot on).

I'm in no rush to give up my D850 for stills but adding a Z6ii for video is slowly making its way into my thoughts. I will also say, that switching to an M1 Mac has made that itch even stronger because video editing in an M1 optimized software is just so much faster than any other computer I've owned and 4K video editing and rendering is not a drag anymore. I can't wait to see what those M1x minis can do with more memory and more GPU cores.
 
Good balanced advice as usual Steve.

The only thing you left out is mixed video / photography shooting. I'd say mirrorless is mandatory for anybody interested in even a small amount of video shooting. The thing I noticed with video when I rented a Z6ii for experimentation, is that the areas where Nikon lags a bit are far less critical - AF acquisition time can be edited out or, at times can make for a nice OOF to focus transition that's more elegant than a sharp snap into focus. Catching focus on the eye is important in video too but there is enough movement blur that being off an inch is virtually invisible unless shooting a tight video portrait - auto area select actually does a good enough job in almost all wildlife video situations I tried (again with the exception of a tight crop but it's easy to switch to a tighter focus area for those situations) - whereas I found it quite unreliable for stills (it rarely picked the eye to focus on, not far but rarely spot on).

I'm in no rush to give up my D850 for stills but adding a Z6ii for video is slowly making its way into my thoughts. I will also say, that switching to an M1 Mac has made that itch even stronger because video editing in an M1 optimized software is just so much faster than any other computer I've owned and 4K video editing and rendering is not a drag anymore. I can't wait to see what those M1x minis can do with more memory and more GPU cores.

LOL, I sometimes forget video is a thing (even though they're a big part of my business).
 
Very informative. Makes you think that there might be opportunities for those on a budget. The D850 and and 5d mark 4 have got to have downward price pressure as the mirrorless cameras improve.

Also, I wouldn't sell that RF400 short. The EF400 it mimics was developed at the same time as the Canon R camera, so they were well aware that the design would be doing double duty. They are not going to risk selling a lens for $12k if it didn't perform. I'd take it if gifted to me!
 
Hey wildlife photographers! Is it time to ditch your DSLR and move to mirrorless? This is a question I've been getting on a daily basis and in this video we'll examine all the pros and cons - plus I'll give you my advice as well. If you're struggling with this decision, this video is a must see!

Steve the “Voice of reason”, again. Excellent advice as always Steve.
 
@Steve, that's great, I love the way you bring a bit of extra ratio into the discussion. And by that I mean not primarily the discussion between the people here in the community as the discussion here seems to be pretty rational anyway. What I mean are the little devils and angels jumping around in someone's head while struggling with this kind of decision :) ... and it can be applied right away to all other "problems" of this kind. It all comes back to your question "What are the problems that the new stuff is solving for you ?" and I would add "Is solving this problem worth the financial effort involved or is there an altenative with a better price/performance ratio ?".

Being a technocratic person - to a certain extent - I always start thinking about all these nice things and of course it would be fun to jump to a Z7 II with the holy glass trinity because of staying at the front line and because of the insane IQ you can get and the corner to corner sharpaness and to have the headroom for shooting the 70-200 2.8S with the TC20 and ... and ... and ... not even thinking about video (yet).

On the other hand I had to shoot some photos of my car the other day when I suddenly realized that I couldn't even remember when I had my 70-200 mounted to one of my bodies the last time. It didn't feel good to discover that obviously the "equipment and technology devil" made me buy something in the past that I actually use so rarely in the end that I could ask myself why I bought it in the first place.

If I calculate realistically the entire cost of switching to another system and the hours I have to work for getting the money, IMHO I think I am better off spending this time - well, part of it to be honest - with going out with the gear I have, have fun, enjoy being in company of mother nature and wait what the future might bring.

Also there are other doors opening up, especially at the lower end of the sophistication scala, because the drop in price level for used DSLRs and lenses is becoming more and more significant. As a consequence hobbyists and enthusiasts being on a budget can now get hands on equipment, that they wouldn't have been able to afford a couple of years ago, and thus have a chance to take a decent step forward with theier photography without turing everything upside down on the gear front.

Sometime even a step backwards in public opinion can mean the right step forward for you personally and this also applies to photography gear.

For sure there are a lot of people out there that wouldn't be able to bring home a shot like you did with a D7200, even if you give them a Z9 and a 600 f4 S plus TC-20 and a 2000$ tripod with titanium flex shooter, shooting 500 frames an afternoon with top notch 14 fps :D.
 
@Steve,

If I calculate realistically the entire cost of switching to another system and the hours I have to work for getting the money, IMHO I think I am better off spending this time - well, part of it to be honest - with going out with the gear I have, have fun, enjoy being in company of mother nature and wait what the future might bring.

and don’t under estimate the time to learn a new system, new ergonomics and the fact that all rotations are reversed between canon and Nikon. It took me years to acquire the same reflexes on Nikon that I had built shooting canon for 25 years. I’d rather not do the journey in reverse!
 
and don’t under estimate the time to learn a new system, new ergonomics and the fact that all rotations are reversed between canon and Nikon. It took me years to acquire the same reflexes on Nikon that I had built shooting canon for 25 years. I’d rather not do the journey in reverse!

Yup, so true !
And you don't have to change brand for that. For someone like me, who often has larger interruptions in practicing his hobby, it was already enough to use D7200, D750 and the D4s. I got so used to the user modes on the younger cameras that in the beginning I regualarly missed out on resetting modes, Auto ISO, EC etc. on my D4s because you have got to have the discipline to do it "manually" :(. Now that I have changed to the D850 everything is back to normal and fine again, because I forgot about the user modes and have learned now to do it the proper way (y). But for people like me, even a change in button layout sometimes becomes an obstacle, especially if I had one of theseslonger breaks and have to be really fast. People like Steve I guess you can wake up in the middle of the night after two days full throttle party and they still do everything intuitively right. That's one of the benefits to be a fulltime pro ...
 
Yup, so true !
And you don't have to change brand for that. For someone like me, who often has larger interruptions in practicing his hobby, it was already enough to use D7200, D750 and the D4s. I got so used to the user modes on the younger cameras that in the beginning I regualarly missed out on resetting modes, Auto ISO, EC etc. on my D4s because you have got to have the discipline to do it "manually" :(. Now that I have changed to the D850 everything is back to normal and fine again, because I forgot about the user modes and have learned now to do it the proper way (y). But for people like me, even a change in button layout sometimes becomes an obstacle, especially if I had one of theseslonger breaks and have to be really fast. People like Steve I guess you can wake up in the middle of the night after two days full throttle party and they still do everything intuitively right. That's one of the benefits to be a fulltime pro ...
So true. That’s why I gifted my D750 to my son - with the D850 and D500 following the pro layout and mode of operation, I really got messed up with the D750. That’s one of my hesitations with the Z6ii, it’s somewhere in between in terms of layout and operation but has also many new ways of doing things, and like you, I don’t shoot enough to seamlessly switch between body styles.
 
People like Steve I guess you can wake up in the middle of the night after two days full throttle party and they still do everything intuitively right. That's one of the benefits to be a fulltime pro ...

I think it's more because I'm very comfortable with tech and usually find it very intuitive - my kids come to me for computer help. :) In fact, I started programming computers when I was 12 years old and been good with tech ever since. That's one of the benefits to being a full time nerd :D
 
Still sitting on the fence!
D4s not going in the recycle bin anytime soon :)
Haven't quite made my mind up yet but seriously thinking of adding a Z6 II around Xmas, has good 4k video and with the addition of the Atomas V, should be a great addition
to current rig
......... Gary
 
Hey wildlife photographers! Is it time to ditch your DSLR and move to mirrorless? This is a question I've been getting on a daily basis and in this video we'll examine all the pros and cons - plus I'll give you my advice as well. If you're struggling with this decision, this video is a must see!

Thanks for posting this Steve. People on my Facebook nature and wildlife group have been asking. I shared your video on the group page A review from a fellow wildlife and nature photographer has a lot more meaning than some of the other reviews.
 
The thing thing keeps coming to my mind is that that at some point in the future there will be a D500-like mirrorless for a much lower price with great performance. In the mean time, I am quite happy with my D500. I will wait until the tech and manufacturing numbers get to a point where the performance is affordable on my budget.
 
The thing thing keeps coming to my mind is that that at some point in the future there will be a D500-like mirrorless for a much lower price with great performance. In the mean time, I am quite happy with my D500. I will wait until the tech and manufacturing numbers get to a point where the performance is affordable on my budget.

I am in the same boat as you. D500 works for me and I really don’t want to spend $3,000 on a new body that I feel may be lacking from what I really want. I am going to pick up a second D500 as a backup to make sure I can wait for the next 4 years.
 
If someone was wanting to move into bird shooting, I'd recommend the D500. Its AF is still better in my view than the Sony A9, there's lots of young second hand bodies and lenses available so it's a far cheaper option, and there's a heap of learning material on the web. Its harder to master though.
 
I too wish to jump in and thank you for your thoughtful video. I am coming off an austere time and even though my wife has given the go ahead on the 500mm PF, I have been holding off to make sure our recent return to normal income is indeed permanent. I have also struggled with, "Why should I buy this lens if I am even contemplating a mirrorless?"

Now I know what makes the best sense for me. I will hold off on both purchases. I will still plan on getting the 500mm PF when I am perfectly comfortable, unless someone comes up with better glass for one of the mirrorless cameras and I am comfortable moving to that camera.

I really like your comments that the cameras will continue to increase and that eventually the glass for those cameras must come into existence too.

Great video, as usual.

Thank you/
 
I purchased the 500pf and 300pf this year….worth it in my opinion. Figured it took some time for Nikon to release them for the F mount, so it will be some time before Nikon releases them for the mirrorless market. Originally wanted a 300 f/2.8 but with mirrorless, I will hold off until I go mirrorless to pick up the mirrorless version of that lens. Or maybe I will pick up one second hand.
 
I purchased the 500pf and 300pf this year….worth it in my opinion. Figured it took some time for Nikon to release them for the F mount, so it will be some time before Nikon releases them for the mirrorless market. Originally wanted a 300 f/2.8 but with mirrorless, I will hold off until I go mirrorless to pick up the mirrorless version of that lens. Or maybe I will pick up one second hand.

Yeah, got them both as well and I am really happy with both (y). Let's see whether the PF technology will find its way in the Z mount lenses. From what I know they are pretty darn complicated to manufacture and it is worth the effort only if you achieve a significant saving in terms of weight while compromising the IQ must be small enough, so that it doesn't overweigh the benefits resulting from wiehgt reduction.

The fact that the Z mount is so much bigger also helps to save weight, because it allows to use different lens design. If you just look at the front element of the 14-24 f2.8G (F mount) and compare it to the Z 14-24 f2.8 S , this becomes pretty obvious. On the other hand the IQ achieved with the Z mount lenses with conventional lenses so far is just insane. Thus, the risk of a drop in IQ by using PF lenses becoming too big to allow being compensated by other benefits due to the weight reduction will be bigger IMO. At least I would expect the minimal focal length from where PF lenses will be used are used to go up :unsure:.
 
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