John Navitsky
Well-known member
Might be interesting to run the numbers on the watt hours of battery capacity in those two configurations. Of course, we don't know what the power draw is, so battery capacity is just a data point.
Nikon z9 vs Sony A1---Which one
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Does the Commlite adapter work adapting Nikon lenses to A1??? I have a 300PF I would dearly love to be able to use on my A1.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
It's not released yet, so you're not going to hear about it yet.
FB101
Well-known member
I do get that focus breathing is a major compromise for video, but not sure it’s that big of a deal for stills. All it means is that the 200-600 is more like a 180-550 at close focusing distances. And even in video, if you don’t do focus pulls, it’s really not that relevant.
eaj101
Well-known member
How would you like an 800mm PF?
eaj101
Well-known member
I tried several different F-mount/e-mount adapters. Save your money and don't bother.
I suspected as much.
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Personally I would take a 600 F6.3 that did not slow down with a TC attached and was very sharp with the TCHow would you like an 800mm PF?
fcotterill
Well-known member
This video has been posted elsewhere, here, of the Live session, earlier in the week. Some members may find the comparisons useful. Although addressing the gremlins of brandbashing, and superficial judgements etc, Thom Hogan is justifying caution in comparing camera specs too superficially. Again and again, distinctions between the compared features and functions of 'competing' cameras blur when the details are scrutinized, including and besides footnotes....
11 minutes approx from ~1,29:00
11 minutes approx from ~1,29:00
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The Z9 body is larger (it's lighter than the D6 and about the size of a gripped Z7ii), but for professional use a lot of photographers prefer the features of the large body. The camera has an integrated grip with controls that make portrait orientation a lot easier. The battery is significantly larger with almost double the life. The combination of more powerful battery and faster components allows faster focus and higher frame rate. The larger size is required for dual CFExpress Type B cards - which are much faster than Type A. Many of the advanced functions involve higher speed and frame rate for stills and video. These generate a lot of heat which is more effectively dealt with in a large body used as a heat sink. The Z9 design specifically emphasized that feature rather than slowing performance for extended high frame rate, repeated bursts, or 8k video. With a weather sealed body and high data generation and throughput, you need to find a way to address heat. Some of the alternative cameras change file size with compression, bit rate, and quality to compensate for heat issues.
You'll probably see a smaller alternative to the Z9 for a light kit. There will probably be some firmware updates to the Z6ii and Z7ii with some of these features, but others require specific hardware. That has been Nikon's approach for a number of years - the flagship cameras offer the highest performance and are released first, but lower level cameras follow and employ much of the technology. Look at the D500 - a follow on camera to the D5. The D300 and D700 were both follow on cameras to the D3. New technology usually gets released in flagship cameras first.
The Z9 has more pre-orders than any flagship camera Nikon has ever produced - and the D3 and D5 were exceptional. Many of the pros demonstrating the Z9 in the field were using PF lenses. PF lenses are expected for the Z system - and are probably on the current roadmap for release in 2022.
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Doug Herr
Well-known member
A lot of photographers also prefer a smaller body. Sony gives me a choice without sacrificing performance: smaller body without the grip, or add a grip if I want it.
The a1 seems to do OK with 8k video
Sony A1 and overheating in 8K video recording - what is the status?
www.slashcam.com
a1 sales have also been well beyond expectations, for ten months, with a smaller base of system users. PF lenses for the Z system would be great, as would a smaller body, but I buy shipping products, not expectations or roadmaps.
sid_19911991
Well-known member
Which one out of the two 500 PFs & 200-600 that you have used/using would you say is sharper?
sid_19911991
Well-known member
Man, that 200-600 is insanely sharp.
I am yet to get proficient with the new gear.I will try comparing after some time
FB101
Well-known member
No doubt it is sharp, but the equally surprising quality to me is how smooth OOF areas are. I find the transitions from in to out of focus quite a bit smoother than on the 500pf.
And btw, that's an ISO 4,000 shot - hard to complain about noise / sharpness balance here (the bit of moire in the feathers comes from the jpg conversion - there is none in the raw file).
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
sid_19911991
Well-known member
Incredible. The pic is very sharp.
My 500 pf gives far better back separation & rendition compared to the 200-600 a friend of mine owns, but the 200-600 is way sharper.
FB101
Well-known member
I'll see if I can shoot my A1+200-600 and D850+500pf side by side one of these days but that's not my experience, especially if the background has areas of high contrast (highlights on the edge of grasses for example) - then the 500pf tends to get "edgy" in those areas, more so than the 200-600 (but far less than the Tamron 150-600G2). It's just an impression as I have not shot the two side by side in controlled conditions but overall I find fewer objectionable backgrounds with the 200-600 than with the 500pf.
Since I own both I'll see if I can get some more rigorous evaluation done one of these days.
eaj101
Well-known member
I'm pretty sure that one of the major driving factors of the size of the Z9, other than an assumed professional bias towards dual gripped bodies, is the impossibility of cramming that many amp hours or battery power into a small space. The new EN-EL18d battery has something @3500 amp hours, or @ 50% more than the Sony a1 battery. The EN-EL18 fits in the vertical grips for the D850 and D500 (as well as being standard on the Dx) and on a DSLR you can literally shoot for weeks on one battery.
eaj101
Well-known member
From the new roadmap it looks like there are two PFs currently on the list. Judging from the profiles, the unannounced 400mm and 800mm lenses almost have to be PFs. The 600 looks like an f4.
Doug Herr
Well-known member
Sony gives me a choice: smaller camera without the grip or more battery life with the grip. Z9 doesn't give me that choice.
thelordofthelight
Well-known member
Nikon also mentioned that they needed such a form factor for better heat dissipation. From 46.00 mark in the below video they talk about heat management and some major future firmware updates particularly on the video front.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
Yup, and that's handy for the user. I suspect being able to *rely* that you have more battery may be beneficial for the engineering team though.
That said, I suspect Nikon the EL15c probably just didn't give them enough power for what they needed (and that form factor is probably maxed out), so they'd probably have to come out with a whole new battery form factor if they didn't use the large EL18 form factor. I pretty much expect a new battery form factor to appear with the "iii" cameras. So basically, it was probably driven by pragmatic engineering issues.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
Nothing, assuming the battery being used provides the minimum amount of power to do what you need, and the runtime is long enough to be useful. I'm guessing the EL15c probably doesn't do that.
thelordofthelight
Well-known member
Of course the Nikon 200-600 is not released yet so we won't know for sure if it breathes or not but I was making a point more from the way these companies are making their design choices. Most of the Nikon Z lenses are big and heavy relatively speaking and don't seem to have focus breathing issues compared to say a comparable sony lens...guess it's all about picking one's compromises..smaller /lighter vs near perfect optics...
In my case, I tend to get close to my subjects..I have spent about 2 to 3 hrs at times to crawl slowly towards a bird to get to the MFD the lens allows for gett8ng a frame filler so to me, focus breathing is a deal breaker but I completely understand it may not be the case for everyone.
Thanks for your kind remarks reg my IG page, means a lot.
In my case, I tend to get close to my subjects..I have spent about 2 to 3 hrs at times to crawl slowly towards a bird to get to the MFD the lens allows for gett8ng a frame filler so to me, focus breathing is a deal breaker but I completely understand it may not be the case for everyone.
Thanks for your kind remarks reg my IG page, means a lot.
Has anyone tested a 200-600 z mount?
So far I’m happy with Sony 200-600 G.
I have read about focus breathing but don’t have anything to directly compare it to other than Nikon 200-500.
I know I am enjoying this lens very much. More versatile than my 500 PF and overall outperforms the 200-500 and old Tamron 150-600mm
Ignorance is bliss
ps- your Instagram is awesome!
thelordofthelight
Well-known member
This is a very valid point, at least on the Nikon cameras as far as I can tell. Although cameras likenthe D500/850 have superb AF, I have always felt there's this extra punch/ torque in terms of driving the heavier lenses when it came to the single digit Nikon bodies. I also felt the same with my D850 when I used it with the grip and bigger battery vs using it without the grip.