Nikon Z cameras BIF: tests on Red Kites in Flight

[fcotterill]

For your interest, testing Z50 and Z6 with 300mm PF and also with TC14 and TC2

Nikon Z50 / Z6, 300mm f4 PF and TC - A compact set-up for birds in flight - Mirrorless Comparison

A few months ago, our reader David asked if I could test an unusual combination: the Nikon Z50 with the Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF ED VR and the teleconverter 1.4x. He wanted to move away from his Panasonic gear without losing the lightweight advantage of micro four thirds. I liked ... Read more

mirrorlesscomparison.com

 

[Pistnbroke]

I found this quite useful ..it does show that the Z can do BIF with the new software at a good keeper rate so the new Zii should do very well at this job

 

[Rassie]

Having tested my Z6 on BIF with the Nikkor 200-500mm F5.6 I experienced one drawback.
The lens focuses much slower than on my D7500. Feels like it takes at least twice as long to lock onto the target, whether it's a bird in flight or a atationary bird. Once locked it maintains focus pretty well, even against busy backgrounds. Once one overcomes the initial lag to lock focus all is well. That delay to lock on has caused many missed shots for me, though.

Various opinions I've read indicate that the slow focus is not limited to that one lens only. It seems to be true for most F-mount lenses on the current Z bodies.

 

[Woodyg3]

Well, nothing new here.
Personally I think these kind of comparisons pretty useless, but that’s another story.
AF performance is a result of lens and camera combined.
So why compare one camera with a relatively slow F/6.3 zoom and another (same brand) camera with a F/4.0 prime? not to mention the use of a TC2.0?

He used the same lens and TCs on both cameras. 300mm f/4.

 

[BillW]

A couple of thoughts. I find I get better results with my D500/D850 for birds in flight than with my Z7/Z6. But the Z7/Z6 results are decent (well for me, anyway) and my results have gotten better with firmware upgrades and as I have practiced more. Changing the custom focus lock setting helps too. I find I do better with lenses like the 500 mm PF which is a bit faster focusing than the 200-500 mm, whether on a DSLR or a Z body. (That said, the 200-500 mm is a nice lens and I have used my copy for BIF too.)

I have wondered whether the issue on the speed of focus lock is more the Z auto-focus system than the use of an F mount lens. But until very recently there have been no Z mount telephotos to test the difference. Perhaps a test between the 70-200 f2.8E Fl in F mount and the 70-200 f2.8 in Z mount would be interesting. At this point, I only have the F mount version, so I can't do a test.

I am hoping things are improved with the upcoming Z7II and Z6II.

 

[Rassie]

Sony A9II with 200-600 bare
Sony A9 with 100-400 plus TC1.4
Nikon Z6 with 300PF plus TC2.0
Sony A6400 with 100-400 bare
Canon Eos R with Sigma 150-600 Contempary
.......
Nikon D50 with 300PF plus TC1.4
........
Nikon Z7 with Sigma 150-600 Contempory
Aso aso

I said before a useless comparison, should have said ridiculous.

/edit
Following the link brings up the comments section
First thing scrolling up is ‘the best mirrorless cameras for Bif’

Should have scrolled up further, my bad, sorry!
(Nonetheless it doesn’t change my assessment of the other article. LOL

In these forums we have many different people with different opinions.
It's OK to respectfully disagree with someone's viewpoint. When you start using words like useless and ridiculous you sail very close to being insulting to people.

 

[Woodyg3]

Sony A9II with 200-600 bare
Sony A9 with 100-400 plus TC1.4
Nikon Z6 with 300PF plus TC2.0
Sony A6400 with 100-400 bare
Canon Eos R with Sigma 150-600 Contempary
.......
Nikon D50 with 300PF plus TC1.4
........
Nikon Z7 with Sigma 150-600 Contempory
Aso aso

I said before a useless comparison, should have said ridiculous.

/edit
Following the link brings up the comments section
First thing scrolling up is ‘the best mirrorless cameras for Bif’

Should have scrolled up further, my bad, sorry!
(Nonetheless it doesn’t change my assessment of the other article. LOL

He linked to this article: Nikon Z50 / Z6, 300mm f4 PF and TC – A compact set-up for birds in flight

Exploring his web site further I see he has made a number of comparison tests. All of these are popularly used camera and lens combinations. To me, this seems to me to be practical information. Ultimately each reader is free to decide the value of the information for their own photographic needs. I totally understand that the information may not be valuable to every reader. However, I find dismissive and rude terms like "useless" and "ridiculous" to be quite unnecessary.

 

[Steve]

I'd be careful with comparisons like that. The images on the site appear to be fairly heavy crops. When you click them and open the full image, there's a noticeable lack of detail with most of them. In addition, based on the focal length and F/stop, many of the backgrounds seem to have too much detail - like they were taken at a distance and cropped in. The reason this is important is because the farther away you are from your subject, the less effective you AF needs to be due to the massive DoF. You could miss by quite a bit and still end up with a sharp-looking image.