Perhaps now is a good time for me to share my sad little Nikon story.
I have been an active photographer and exclusively a Nikon shooter since 1978 when I bought my first Nikon SLR camera, it was the Pentax Spotmatic for 8 years before that. My first Nikon digital camera was a Coolpix 990 in the year 2,000. I got into wildlife photography 12 years ago with a Nikon D7100, then a D7200 and then the camera many of us wildlifers were waiting for, the Nikon D500, successor to the awesome D300.
A couple of years ago I began to develop a real interest in doing short wildlife videos and did several of them with my D500; they weren't bad but without AF tracking it was hard at best. Last year I turned 72 and decided that while I still had my health and could still stomp in the bush I was going to splash out on a mirrorless camera, but it needed have a proven track record with AF tracking in video mode. I had a few friends who bought the Z9 in the early days, but none of them did videos and there were still AF issues. I felt the Z9 was just too heavy for me (I'm not that big a guy) and too expensive as well. All the other Nikon mirrorless bodies had fairly unreliable AF tracking systems for wildlife, especially birds, from what I read and what my friends told me who owned them.
IMO the only serious contender that was left on the playing field at the time for what I wanted to do was the Canon R5, especially after they removed the overheating time limit in June 2022. It had a great and proven AF system that everyone raved about and had very high-quality video formats. When I shopped around I got an unexpected $2300 CAN off the regular price on the R5 body and high-end lens package, so I jumped on it. I've used it every day for 7.5 months and I really like the camera and lens and for what I want it does a great job... no complaints at all.
Then 7 months later Nikon announced the amazing, jaw-dropping Z8, floating down from camera Heaven and at a show-stopping price. My heart sank to the floor and I've been dealing with buyer's remorse ever since. I don't know whether to be mad, sad, blink or wind my watch, but needless to say I can honestly say that had I had even the slightest idea that Nikon was going to bring out something like the Z8 and at such an unbelievable price, I surely would have waited. Man, I sure wish camera makers would be a little more forthcoming with their plans so we could make better purchasing decisions. I've never been a brand fanboy so I joined the Canon world based on the available info and choices at the time. I should have been a fanboy. Oh well, that's life, eh? The end.
Patrick, sorry if I've highjacked your thread. Please feel free to delete this post. It was therapeutic.
Have a great day,
Rudy
