RandomNumbers
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Over 3 separate weekends, I rented a Nikon, Canon and Sony mirrorless wildlife combo, looking for the best hybrid setup under ~$3500. Below are my findings. Hope they could be helpful for the "budget" shoppers here.
My previous setup was a Nikon D750 with a Sigma 150-600 C.
Let me know if there are any factual inaccuracies here - I'll correct those.
My previous setup was a Nikon D750 with a Sigma 150-600 C.
Let me know if there are any factual inaccuracies here - I'll correct those.
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
AF Acquisition | Slower than D750 + Sigma/Tamron | Can be slower than D750 + Sigma/Tamron. Depends on mode and situation. Likely on the lens + adapter | Quick |
Auto-Tracking | None-existent | Good with hiccups | Good |
Tracking with Fixed AF Point | About the same as D750 + Sigma/Tamron | As good or better | As good or better |
AF Sticking to Background | Worst | Happens sometimes, can be snapped out of | Rarely happened, easiset to get out |
AF Object Recognition | -- | Best Eye-AF/ Animal body AF Looks cool in EVF, but not a guarantee of sharp focus (likely on the lens) | I preferred regular lock-on or wide area |
AF Consistency | Throws a curveball every once in a while | Sometimes tracking gets interrupted by hutning | Very dependable |
AF Through Branches | Haven't noticed a big difference. Manual overrides are still needed. | ||
AF on Object Small in Frame | Can start hunting even in single point Only happened in one case for me, but was reproducible there. | | |
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
EVF Resoltuion | Good enough to not notice it | Often irritating, especially in low-light and when moving quickly | |
EVF Refresh Rate | | Couldn't notice much difference between 60 and 120 | |
Burst Blackout/Lag | Got used to slideshow effect quickly, even for BIF | Less lag is great, but the others were fine | Got used to slideshow effect quickly, even for BIF |
Electronic Shutter | Most usable of three (not perfect, but 'll take the risk of using it) | Jello effects every once in a while, made worse by IBIS. Wouldn't rely on it, given that 12FPS on mechanical are quiet | Worst rolling shutter. Wouldn't use it for BIF |
Mechanical Shutter | Very quiet | Very Quiet | Loud as my DSLR. Choosing between electronic and mechanical can be tough. |
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
Button Layout | No complaints | On-Off switch on the left side makes it impossible to quickly turn on/off while lifting the camera to the eye. Seems ridiculous, knowing how much easier it is on Nikon and Sony. | Movie button is too close to EVF (and my face) and needs to be pressed in a lot. |
Button Functionality | Would've been nice to have the record button record movies even in photo mode (with settings selected in movie mode). | Movie mode is 4 modes removed from Manual on the mode dial. Very annoying when trying to quickly switch between stills and video. No D-Pad is mostly okay, but does annoy on some menu screens | |
Custom Buttons | Least buttons and functions available. No way to assign AF/shooting settigns to a button for immediate recall. | More buttons and fns than Nikon, but most of them weren't all that useful to me. | Best. Most buttons, most settings, granular control. |
Custom Modes | Mapping to U1-3 modes works great for photo and video. Not mappable to buttons though. | C1-3 don't save vide settings (to push people to R5). "Frustrating" would be an understatement... | Two custom modes (on the dial) + 3 custom setting combinations assignable to buttons. Most extensive and customizable of the three. You can granularly select which settings (AF-mode, shutter speed, etc.) are recalled, when using a custom mode. Especially useful: pressing a button to instantly set you shutter speed to 1/2000, focus area to wide (and a couple other things) when you need to quickly focus on un expected BIF. |
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
Camera IQ | All three are very good and good enough for me. | ||
Lens IQ | Tamron was softer than Sigma at 600, otherwise fine. Niikon 200-500 may be even better, but I haven't tried it. | This copy of Sigma was as good as the one I had on the D750. Better than Tamron | Significant problems: softness, low contrast, chromatic aberrations, diffraction. Tested at different temperatures and distances. Most likely a faulty copy. Was disappointing anyway. |
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
Switching video/photo | Quickly done via switch. | Rotating the mode dial is slower, and it's positioned awkwardly. Can technically start recording in one of the photo modes – with full auto settings... | Can rotate the dial to video or one of the custom modes. Can start recording directly in photo mode, recalling the last settings for video. |
Changing frame rate Note: with modern TVs and monitors, you can stick to NTSC, but i still wanted to point out how regional settings work. | Best. A list of all resolution + frame rate combinations (PAL and NTSC) is always avaiable. Frame rate + shutter speed + picture profile can be save to custom modes. I set up 4K30 on U1, 4K60 on U2 and 1080p120 on U3. | Worst. Frame rates above 60 only available in special mode that needs to be selected in the menu. PAL and NTSC are separate modes. Video settings cannot be assigned to custom modes Going from 24 to 120 fps would require changing two/three settings in the menus and then manually changing the shutter speed. Going from 25 to 120 would add another setting. | Switching frame rates within selected regional setting (PAL/NTSC) is as easy as Nikon. Switching PAL/NTSC is even slower than Canon and REQUIRES FORMATTING YOUR CARD. |
Video AF | Interface exactly same as in photo mode. Accuracy and usability about same as for stills – good. | Tracking works differently than for stills - focus points not shown on screen. Cannot instantly override focus area. When auto-tracking works, it's great, when not – overriding isn't that easy. | Lock-on areas not available. Workaround for locking on requires using the touchscreen. AF is aways-on (AF-F on Nikon), but can be paused with a button. About as good as the Nikon. |
Log(-ish) | Log per se not available (internally). Flat profile is very good for grading. Custom log profiles can be made in free Nikon software. | Canon Log only with 10-bit recording. Default picture profiles are terrible. Custom log profiles can be made in free Canon software. | Many "normal" and log profiles, different color settings. Available (only) in 8-bit |
10-bit Video | | Only in h265 – proprietary format with terrible licensing, very limited editing options. Not editable in free/libre software. Some limitations when transferring from camera via USB-C. | |
| Nikon Z6II (Frimware 1.10) Tamron 150-600 G2 | Canon R6 (firmware 1.3.1) Sigma 150-600 C | Sony A7III (firmware 4.0) Sony 200-600 G |
EVF Zoom-In | Easiest to use (partly because you're not going to use auto-tracking) | Cannot magnify when tracking | Cannot magnify when tracking (generally in continuous AF?) |
PC Connection | | If connected to PC in energy saving mode, shuts down shortly (even though the USB-C cable charges it). | |
Aperture & Exposure in M mode | Aperture is fully manual. I'm used to this and prefer it. | Can select the Nikon or the Sony approach. | Some weird behavior happened to me, but my interpretation was disputed by long-term Sony owners |
Auto-ISO Display in EVF | Displays calculated ISO | Displays calculated ISO | Displays "Auto". Need to press a button to see numbers. |
USB charging | Convenient USB-C Charging that isn't too picky | USB-C Charging didn't work in a Citroen | Charges over micro-USB |
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