Thinking of selling my Nikkor AF-S 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens

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Joody

Joody

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Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
 
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Difficult choices. I have a Z9 on order plus the new 800 PF so my opinion might not meet your needs but here we go. On a recent trip to Kearney Nebraska to photograph Sandhill cranes I found I needed both the 100-400 and the 500PF. When in the fields I needed the zoom and the shorter focal lengths and the same held when shooting the evening crowds of birds. I had to shoot both without a TC because of the low light and would have missed significant shots with only one of the two. Have you considered a Z7II rather than a Z9? That way you could get the camera and use both the 100-400 or 500PF on that camera depending on the situation.

If you truly need the Z9, how about the 100-400 and the TC1.4Z to get out to 560mm at f/8? I truly love my 500, but when up close to the elk in Estes Park or the ducks and gees on the Lake Michigan waterfront here at home, the 500 is just too long and a zoom is needed. Difficult decisions for you. Best wishes.
 
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I'm looking at the Z9 because of the comments I've seen on how wonderful all the tracking options are. I could be wrong, but I the the Z7ll doesn't have as many? I do own the TC1.4Z & was thinking of that as an option paired with the 100-400 if I sell the 500. Really appreciate your opinion. I'll take a more in depth look at the Z7ll. Thanks for your feedback.
 
Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
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Hi Joody, I sent you a PM on this.
 
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The Z7ii tracking is the same as Z6ii so the only advantage you would gain is extra resolution. The tracking on the Z9 is better. It’s also bigger and heavier. The 100-400mm is a great lens and I’ve been using it more than my 500mm PF in the last few weeks. This is mostly because 500mm can be too much at times for bear. If you’re primarily shooting birds, you might appreciate the extra reach of the 500mm. I have TCs for both, but F/8 takes more light to shoot in. There are more lenses to be announced this year and rumors suggest another camera or two, so if unsure, maybe wait a while.
 
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Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
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In addition to commercial sites, I am also a UHH subscriber and have bought and sold on that site to members. All good transactions.
 
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Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
Click to expand...
If you sell your Z6, I am possibly interested in buying it from you.
 
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Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
Click to expand...
Hi Joody,
If your choice is the 500PF + Z6ii/Z7ii or... Z9 w/ 100-400S w/ & w/out converter, go with the Z9 kit. While the camera is larger than your current Z-body, the performance difference is profound. I have been shooting with a mix of D850/D500 and Z6ii/Z7ii (and Z6/Z7) since early 2019. I recently purchased a Z9 and have been using it for a month now. I shoot a lot, and I don't want to use any other camera. The Z9, its AF tracking, and its responsiveness is that good.
I currently have Z9 on my 500mm lens and the 100-400 on the Z6ii... I now realize that to get the most out of the 100-400 I need to use it on my Z9. The Z9 is so good that I am now trying to determine if I should get a second one!

cheers,
bruce
 
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I have both, mostly use the 500 PF w/ a 1.4 TC. When I need to go shorter, I use the 100-400 w/ or w/o the 1.4TC. I have not tried the 100-400 with the 2.0 TC.
 
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BLev65 said:
Hi Joody,
If your choice is the 500PF + Z6ii/Z7ii or... Z9 w/ 100-400S w/ & w/out converter, go with the Z9 kit. While the camera is larger than your current Z-body, the performance difference is profound. I have been shooting with a mix of D850/D500 and Z6ii/Z7ii (and Z6/Z7) since early 2019. I recently purchased a Z9 and have been using it for a month now. I shoot a lot, and I don't want to use any other camera. The Z9, its AF tracking, and its responsiveness is that good.
I currently have Z9 on my 500mm lens and the 100-400 on the Z6ii... I now realize that to get the most out of the 100-400 I need to use it on my Z9. The Z9 is so good that I am now trying to determine if I should get a second one!

cheers,
bruce
Click to expand...
Agree. My experience as well.
 
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abc123brian said:
The Z7ii tracking is the same as Z6ii so the only advantage you would gain is extra resolution. The tracking on the Z9 is better. It’s also bigger and heavier. The 100-400mm is a great lens and I’ve been using it more than my 500mm PF in the last few weeks. This is mostly because 500mm can be too much at times for bear. If you’re primarily shooting birds, you might appreciate the extra reach of the 500mm. I have TCs for both, but F/8 takes more light to shoot in. There are more lenses to be announced this year and rumors suggest another camera or two, so if unsure, maybe wait a while.
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Good thoughts! The weight concerns me a bit.....that was my motivation from moving from a DSLR to mirrorless, but that tracking ability is pulling hard at my heartstrings....& my wallet strings! :eek:)
 
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Hut2 said:
If you are after AF and tracking you should consider a Sony A1. I like the 200-600mm best for birds but the 100-400 GM is sharp and very fast to focus. I haven't spent much time with it yet. It works well with a 1.4X TC
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I'll take a look at that.....something else to consider.
 
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BLev65 said:
Hi Joody,
If your choice is the 500PF + Z6ii/Z7ii or... Z9 w/ 100-400S w/ & w/out converter, go with the Z9 kit. While the camera is larger than your current Z-body, the performance difference is profound. I have been shooting with a mix of D850/D500 and Z6ii/Z7ii (and Z6/Z7) since early 2019. I recently purchased a Z9 and have been using it for a month now. I shoot a lot, and I don't want to use any other camera. The Z9, its AF tracking, and its responsiveness is that good.
I currently have Z9 on my 500mm lens and the 100-400 on the Z6ii... I now realize that to get the most out of the 100-400 I need to use it on my Z9. The Z9 is so good that I am now trying to determine if I should get a second one!

cheers,
bruce
Click to expand...
Thanks Bruce! I'm leaning heavily in that direction.
 
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Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
Click to expand...
The Z9 is amazing with the 500 PF.
The 100-400mm Z lens remind me of its ancestor the 80-400mm too much...🦘
 
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Joody said:
Good thoughts! The weight concerns me a bit.....that was my motivation from moving from a DSLR to mirrorless, but that tracking ability is pulling hard at my heartstrings....& my wallet strings! :eek:)
Click to expand...
The smaller size of mirrorless is a nice advantage that is missing with the Z9. I hope we seen a smaller body soon that can get somewhat close to it in performance. I haven’t noticed the weight being much of an issue, but the size makes it more awkward to carry and pack. If I need to travel lighter I take my Z7ii, but welcome that more compact, higher performance body to replace it. For me personally, there isn’t currently a perfect mirrorless system. Either they don’t have the lenses I want or the bodies. I liked Nikon’s lens roadmap better than what I’ve seen from the competition, always have at least two bodies anyway so decided I’d be ok with the Z9 as one of them. So far I’m really happy with my setup and just waiting on 2 more lenses to be announced.
 
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I was quite comfortable using the 500 PF on my D850 for a number of years shooting mostly BIF. It is a VERY RARE occurrence when that lens has too much reach for my shooting situation (like when I came across some elk in Canada), in fact I often find myself cropping in on number of my images. The selection of a 500mm length over the 100-400 comes down to what you are going to be photographing most of the time, and how close you can typically get to your subject (how much of the frame are you able to fill?). Obviously the zoom is more flexible, but that flexibility only comes in at 400mm and below (sans TC).

When I decided to start converting my gear over to mirrorless last year, I bought a Z7ii and tried to get used to using the 500 on that camera, but I struggled a little with the AF modes and even the smaller form factor of the Z7ii body. I'm pretty sure that my keeper rate went down, so I found myself reverting back to using my D850 (as my security blanket) whenever I was shooting with the 500 PF.

I really longed for a Z9 for the improved AF modes and sheer horsepower, and I was able to get my copy about a week ago. All I have to say is; WOW, it's a HUGE improvement shooting BIF on the Z9 compared to the Z7ii. I don't think that I will be keeping the D850 around much longer, as I pretty much have no desire to use it in place of the Z9 (for anything). The Z7ii is my smaller, more lightweight backup body for travel and for landscape photography needs.

Regarding the 100-400 vs 500 PF decision, I was really shocked at the fairly negative review of the 500 that Mark Smith put out in his video. That's the first bad press that I have seen on this lens in quite a while. Some people commented that he might have had a problem with his unit. Mark is a lot more experienced than me for sure, but I've always been very happy with the results that I've gotten with that lens, and I think I'm going to be even happier using it on the Z9. As far as the larger size of the Z9 body goes, when I am using the 500 PF it seems very comparable to shooting with the D850. I don't even give it a second thought anymore.

In the short time that I have used in on the Z9 with the FTZ I can already tell that the AF performance of the 500 PF has been bumped up a notch or two. It definitely focuses faster, and my keeper rate has gone way up (getting sharp focus on the eyes is so much easier). I still need to see how it does with my 1.4 TC, but I'm fairly optimistic that it will perform quite well. I attribute all of this to the AF brilliance of the Z9 and it's powerful processing power.

You might look for a (Z9 Discussion...) YouTube video that Brad Hill did with Nikon Canada a couple of months ago. He spoke briefly about comparing the 500 PF to the 100-400 with a 1.4 TC. His opinion was that the 500 PF image quality is better than the 100-400 w/1.4 TC if you zoomed it out to 500mm (not the full 560 reach) so you could do an apples to apples comparison.

So, with all that said, I think you have a pretty good lens already with the 500 PF. Do you find it has too much on a regular basis? If so, maybe the switch to the 100-400 is better for your needs. But whichever lens you end up with, the Z9 will surely take you to another level.

Just my $0.02.
-SCR
 
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Joody said:
Tough decisions to make. I bought the 500 pf several months ago & it is fabulous. I use it on my Z6, which I am slowing becoming disenchanted with for tracking, so I've put my name in for the Z9. I also had my name on the waiting list for the Z 100-400 & just got notice that it is available for me to purchase today. Soooo, huge dilemma since I can't afford both if I keep the 500. I'm looking for suggestions from this knowledgeable group. IF I decide to sell the 5oo, which is in excellent like new condition, what price should I ask. I am in Canada so any suggestions as to safe sites to list it on would be appreciated. Also looking for thoughts on.....do I pass on the 100-400 & get the Z9 & use it with my 500, or sell the 500, get the 100-400 & the Z 9 when it becomes available for me, using it on the Z6 in the mean time. So many decisions! Help please
Click to expand...

I nice position to be in, i think future proofing a little is handy, also looking back at what you have been doing and consider what you may be doing going forward is very important.
Look through your history of images to see the focal length average.
Look at the % in total of different subjects you shoot.
Think about if you ever get the taste for doing short videos it may be a key consideration and the future, i mean look at the story in the following link and then look at the stills.
Look at the the video link from Steve Smith
Consider if you like stills or video, this has a great influence on camera and lens choices.
The newer Z lenses are far more stable than FX lenses for video.


The Z9 is a excellent Video camera its very good on stills but just good on tracking in ideal conditions.

Rent before you buy is a very good and safe investment.
 
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Roy said:
It was a decent lensThe Z9 is amazing with the 500 PF.
The 100-400mm Z lens remind me of its ancestor the 80-400mm too much...🦘
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I have both the 500 PF and 100-400 Z. Both work very well with the Z9. I sold my 80-400. The 80-400 was a decent lens, but the 100-400 is noticeably better. Have you evaluated both of these lenses? The 500 PF is great when you need reach, but the 100-400Z is more versatile. When photographing at the ape house of the Brookfield zoo, the 500 is too much and the 200-400 is much more versatile.

Bill
 
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