You might want to consider this recent take by Thom Hogan, who's about as knowledgable and balanced an analyst of these things as you'll find. As he notes, the answers are neither clear nor straightforward. I'm inserting his text so people can read without chasing links (I'd encourage reading the whole thing though, to get context):
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Reader: "It seems these days that the feature du jour for mirrorless cameras is the autofocus system; how good will it track the eyes of a person, a wild animal, or the pet dog. Of course Sony and Canon mirrorless AF systems are out performing Nikon right now, and it seems long-time Nikon action-shooters have been abandoning ship. This is worrisome.
Why is it so hard for Nikon to come up with mirrorless AF performance similar to Sony or Canon? Why can't Nikon take the "guts" out of their successful D4/D5/D6 AF modules and repackage it to fit into a mirrorless camera? Easy-peasy, right?!"
Thom: Let's start with the latter, first. DSLRs have an advantage over mirrorless cameras in that they have dedicated AF hardware (sensors) that are large, multi-directional, and fast. But that part sits behind two mirrors. There's no way to use it in a mirrorless camera.
So let's get to your first paragraph. I don't particularly agree with your contention. As I'll continue to write, Nikon's Z System autofocus is quite good, and many will find it better than their DSLRs. In the firmware updates and the II models Nikon brought the system pretty close to state-of-the-art, and arguably as good as the current Sony A7 Mark III, for example. So what's wrong is not the autofocus system, it's the messaging. All the YouTube and influencer exclamations exalting Sony's focus is out-weighing the reality.
Moreover, there's apples versus oranges confusion going on all the time in the Interweb's various proclamations. The Sony A1, for example, is indeed really good, about as good as my Nikon D6. But the Sony A7 Mark III is an older camera and not nearly as good. While that model
seems to autofocus fast it often doesn't do so precisely when tracking moving objects. Does Sony get dinged for that? No. But Nikon, who matches or exceeds it, does.
Are there things I want to see Nikon improve? Absolutely. Are they being out-performed in any truly meaningful way for most of the camera users? No. I suspect that we'll see another wave of some sort of shouting about autofocus when the Z9 launches. Hard to predict whether all the incentivized influencers will try to say that Nikon failed or whether they'll suddenly be shouting hallelujahs. We'll see. But as always, I prefer learning and testing before saying anything. I'll once again point out that even in late 2018 and early 2019 without the firmware updates to the original cameras I was able to get great sports and wildlife results from the original Z6 and Z7 and firmware when everyone else was telling me that my camera would fail miserably at that.
That other photographers couldn't seem to get their Nikon Z cameras to focus for them says more about those photographers and how much energy they put into learning a new system more than failure on Nikon's part. Again, though, are there things Nikon can improve that would make me happier? Absolutely, and I've been repeatedly vocal about what they are.
Sep 3, 2021
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