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I expect it’s coming at some point. We’ll all have to wait until then.
Reading between the lines based on what I head from Ricci Chera, I think it was done to provide a more complete AF & subject detection capability for DX photographers.
Probably. The question is why ship the Z6III without it? I mean it's not like Nikon couldn't. It elected no to.
Of course, I can’t answer that. It was product marketing decision, I’m sure.
I think this is going to create holiday buying confusion myself. We are talking about a significant price difference. Others have disagreed.
My understanding is that Nikon’s Bird subject detection has had additional tuning such that it should recognize many birds more quickly than Animal subject detection does. I don’t think there’s any reason it’s not on the Z6III other than to keep it differentiated from the Z8/Z9 at this time. I don’t know anything that isn’t public but I think Nikon will add it to the Z6III eventually.
Yes and for someone like me who switches frequently between birds and mammals (and the occasional reptile), it is much easier to have just one animal setting and leave it there.
I watched his video and my takeaways were that the animal detection was somewhat more reliable on the Z9 than bird detection in his examples, and that the Z9 and Z6iii performed quite similarly in animal detection. Not sure how reliable his examples were for comparing them, but I'll take them at face value. If correct, then it sounds like bird detection may need a bit of fine tuning. But his examples are just one data point, so it would be good to see how all of this works out over time.
I have never heard of Ray Hennessy. Do you mean that he said animal detection was more reliable on the Z9 when used to photograph birds than bird detection?
I looked up Ray Hennessy and on his page he calls it eye tracking which is not a feature on Z9 or Z6III it is subject detection ... it bugs me when you tubers start out that way. His test were using wooden carved birds and the puffin was a flat one dimensional and neither was really close to what a real bird eye is like or even a real bird and that is not what Nikon would use to develop the subject detection feature. So pretty much a worthless test.
I did see my reply
No I did not I looked at this video on his webpage. The video you suggested should be looked at and his statement of impressions from using the cameras before he did the tests with the wooden birds were more accurate than anything the "tests" he did would portray.
I suspect the reason was a matter of timing. The firmware for the Z6iii was probably in the field in pre-production cameras 6-9 months before release. At that time, Bird AF was not deployed on the other Z cameras and likely still in testing. With a new camera there are a lot of things going on and Nikon does not want to introduce any change in scope to the early firmware package. Initial firmware often has adjustments to parameters - not functions. It's just too easy to fix one problem and create another problem. Thus, the firmware items fixed in pre-production are bug fixes and tuning, not new capability that would require extensive additional testing. This is why you rarely see anything other than bug fixes for the first 6-9 months after release of a new camera.
I watch this channel weekly because the reviews are based photographing wildlife. And Alaskan weather can make it challenging. Thanks for posting.
