Nikon Z 400/4.5 vs. Z 100-400mm real (wild)life comparison

[Len Shepherd]

The 400/4.5 is 2/3 stops faster, so while not ground breaking difference, it is still quite much. Especially when TC1.4 is used, because f8 would be too slow most of the time unless shooting in very bright day light.

While I agree the 2/3 steps faster is useful, I significantly disagree that f8 is too slow with Nikon ML cameras.
There is negligible loss of quality at 1600 ISO – and thanks to Expeed 7 better control of noise than we say a D850 at a similar enhanced ISO.
Taking the leopard photos as an example, assuming using a beanbag from an open top vehicle there is slight loss of sharpness on the left ear e due to loss of depth of field in the crop images. f8 could have helped.

 

[tabishshaikh]

here are screenshots from RAW files. What is applied is only WB, Exposure (lights, shadows). The prime is sharper and let more light. It is also very difficult to get the same colours if working only with WB. So, the Prime delivers more saturated colours.

View attachment 102357

View attachment 102358

Thanks for sharing. In this one, the 400 prime is clearly a much better lens than the 100-400, but the 100-400 is quite good for a zoom.

 

[Anjin San]

It’s an interesting post. TBH. By the time I’ve uploaded any images to my cloud station, and show them off to friends and family on a big smart tv or () Facebook, the detail, the minutiae, gets lost. Most of my friends and family are not into phototography that much.

So for me, the ease of composition generally outweighs the sharpness that a prime generally offers. These days, zooms are so good, it’s difficult to tell the images apart.

I agree..And while there is a difference in saturation between the two images…it’s not possible to really tell whether one is undersaturated or the other over saturated…and in any event it’s a easy fix in processing…and which one is more accurate to t(e actual colors who knows except OP. I wonder what the two would look like with a single click of the Auto button in LR.