D850 or Sony a9( bought a9)

[Soumen]

I sold my D7500 (baby brother of D500) as well as the terrific 200-500 and all my F lenses to get the Z6 and z glass. I am super happy.

Currently , imho, the D850 IS the best DSLR in the full frame market to date. I wish I had one as it’s the camera that in ten years I’d say was the best in the world for at least three years. There is simply no other camera that I can think of that in a few years I might say that of.
if you have the means, go with the D850 , and get the z6ii or wait for the z8/9

Nikon z system currently don't have native wildlife lens and the autofocus performance reviews were not overly positive compared to either d500/d850, I needed something with the reach and within a certain budget. All things considered Sony fit my bill better and Steve's positive comments about the same helped.

D850 is definitely one of the best cameras but I wanted to switch to mirrorless.

 

[Anjin San]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for a new camera after I sold my d500 and 200-500. The combination in my view had only one major issue and be it my skills or equipment limitations I couldn’t get very clean images beyond iso 2000.
So I would like to ask if a combination of d850 + 300mm vr ii (used) + 1.4tc or Sony a9 + 200-600g lens will be a better buy.
I am a hobbyist photographer with a keen interest in wildlife photography and occasional portrait and travel photography.

P.S Whatever system I invest in now I intend to buy the 600mm lens by next year and I think Nikon would definitely have an advantage in the used market.

Thanks in advance

Ir's been my experience that focal length is like hard drive space in your computer…God has enough and the rest of us are just making do. Seriously…if you're looking at distant wildlife then in my experience the best thing you can spend money on is the longest lens you can afford…because how much of the frame you can fill with your subject is typically the highest contributor to final image quality. I also think that you can't really go wrong either way although I've never used either the 850 or the a9…however, unless you got rid of all your other Nikon mount lenses then you can still use them with the 850 whereas the a9 would need an adapter assuming it existed…and you'll need to relearn all the menu/setting locations stuff that might already be part of muscle memory for you. OTOH, I think the a9 is lower MP than the 850 is so that partially at least counteracts the shorter lens with the 850…but then the zoom lens provides a lot more focal length flexibility.

 

[Roaring 40s]

I shot birds, mainly BIF, with an A9 and D500 side by side for a year. IME the Nikon has the edge on AF and friendliness as a tool while the A9 is easier to track the bird with, has images with more pop but a body with very ordinary ergonomics.
If you're a bird record shooter the Sony FFs are unreliable on small static birds.
BTW Any Sony FF burst shooter will find it illuminating to set Focus/Release priority from the default Balanced to AF and see what happens to the nominal 10 or 20 fps rate.