Z7ii on order

[Kenny88]

Given that the Z7ii is not released yet, I do have the opportunity to change my mind and cancel the order if I change my mind.

My thought was to go the Z7ii route because I want a multi purpose body that I'd use for landscape/travel photography, and as well to photography birds/wildlife that's static - I now for fast motion or birds in flight it would be not ideal since the Z series still is not up to par with the AF such as the D500.

I will be complementing the Z7ii with the 200-500mm, which I already have, so I'll be using this lens for any wildlife photography, and I"m hoping that the AF will be okay.

Using such a high MP camera body, I'd be able to crop my images, so that it'll be like having a DX enabled body.


Anyhow, those are my thoughts....and I"m open to any feedback that spme here might like to share if this idea sounds okay or not.

Thanks

 

[CharlieR]

I purchased the Z 6II (I already have a Z6) and after shooting (trying to shoot) birds with it, I found the AF not significantly improved over the Z6. It had a faster frame rate, which was good, but with my 200-500 attached, it still struggled to find focus. I went out a couple of days to a local nature preserve that always provides good subject matter and I was frustrated a number of times. Meanwhile, another member of our bird club and a photographer shows up with his new Canon R6 with the RF800mm/f11 attached and even at f11 he's nailing shots that I'm desperately trying my Z 6II to get. I ended up sending the Z 6II back to B&H because I just could not justify the cost vs performance. I'm surrounded by three Canon shooters, two of whom use the R5 and the guy I mentioned using the R6--they're cranking out awesome shots of birds, especially BIF shots. What's amazing is the eye-detect in those cameras--they'll find the bird and the camera in a fraction of a second picks up the bird's eye--even for BIF if the subject is relatively close. I shoot most of my bird photography with a D500 and the 200-500mm but these guys with the Canon's are making me envious! I think, as Steve mentioned, Nikon is still a generation away from Sony and Canon with their AF. Now, if you're shooting weddings, family portraits, pet portraits, landscapes--the Z 7II is going to be an improvement and good to have. But for wildlife, especially fast-action wildlife, it's still lacking.

Charlie
Simpsonville, SC USA

Nikon D500
Nikon Z6

 

[Deleted member 115]

My Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 struggles to focus on birds with D850 and D500. I am not impressed with this lens at all. I realize it is an inexpensive lens but it gets bragged up considering it has such a slow auto focus. imho

 

[Rassie]

I've had the Nikkor 200-500mm lens since 2016. Used it on D7000, D7100, D7500, Z6 and now Z6ii.
Image quality from this lens is very good. For its price I can't expect better. It's real good value for money.
BUT: It's a relatively slow-focusing lens. I find it frustrating when shooting the little birds like warblers, nuthatches, etc. as they flit among the foliage. Often the bird moves on again while I'm still waiting for the lens to lock focus.

When I put this lens on my Z6 its focus speed reduced by half compared to the DSLR cameras. Suddenly the camera was the limiting factor, and not the lens. The Z6 with that lens was all but useless for fast-moving wildlife.

Three weeks ago I traded the Z6 for the Z6ii, and I find the limiting factor now again is the lens, not the camera. The Z6ii focuses that lens every bit as fast as the DSLR's did. The few limited opportunities I had to shoot BIF with the Z6ii I was very satisfied. So while the lens remains slow to focus on fast-moving birds it's no worse than it was with the DSLR cameras. Also, the autofocus performance of the Z6ii is much improved compared to the older Z6. One thing to note is that I'm comparing the Z6ii with the Nikkor 200-500mm lens against the D7000 series DSLR cameras I had before. I don't think one can realistically expect the Z6ii to have the focus performance of the D500 or D5/6 cameras. I do believe the Z6ii is a good all-round camera. If BIF is all I'm going to do then I'll get a D500 and a faster-focusing telephoto lens to go with it. I believe the Z6ii with a faster focusing lens will in many cases hold its own against other prosumer cameras.

I suspect when you check you'll find the Canon shooters are using lenses that focus faster than the Nikkor 200-500mm.

Lastly: Which focus modes did you use on BIF with the Z6ii?

 

[Woodpecker]

I've had the Nikkor 200-500mm lens since 2016. Used it on D7000, D7100, D7500, Z6 and now Z6ii.
Image quality from this lens is very good. For its price I can't expect better. It's real good value for money.
BUT: It's a relatively slow-focusing lens. I find it frustrating when shooting the little birds like warblers, nuthatches, etc. as they flit among the foliage. Often the bird moves on again while I'm still waiting for the lens to lock focus.

When I put this lens on my Z6 its focus speed reduced by half compared to the DSLR cameras. Suddenly the camera was the limiting factor, and not the lens. The Z6 with that lens was all but useless for fast-moving wildlife.

Three weeks ago I traded the Z6 for the Z6ii, and I find the limiting factor now again is the lens, not the camera. The Z6ii focuses that lens every bit as fast as the DSLR's did. The few limited opportunities I had to shoot BIF with the Z6ii I was very satisfied. So while the lens remains slow to focus on fast-moving birds it's no worse than it was with the DSLR cameras. Also, the autofocus performance of the Z6ii is much improved compared to the older Z6. One thing to note is that I'm comparing the Z6ii with the Nikkor 200-500mm lens against the D7000 series DSLR cameras I had before. I don't think one can realistically expect the Z6ii to have the focus performance of the D500 or D5/6 cameras. I do believe the Z6ii is a good all-round camera. If BIF is all I'm going to do then I'll get a D500 and a faster-focusing telephoto lens to go with it. I believe the Z6ii with a faster focusing lens will in many cases hold its own against other prosumer cameras.

I suspect when you check you'll find the Canon shooters are using lenses that focus faster than the Nikkor 200-500mm.

Lastly: Which focus modes did you use on BIF with the Z6ii?

That's interesting indeed and gives some nice input to one of the central discussios about mirrorless from wildlife photographers.
In this case we were lucky that you tried it with a relatively "slow" lens in terms of AF like the 200-500. So at least we get a feeling that the Z6II is an improvement if it comes to AF speed and accuracy when using F mount lenses with an FTZ adapter compared to DSLR's. The next interesting question will be: Where is the limit ? How fast has a lens AF to be to "overtake" the Z6II, i.e. pushing it in the position of the body being the limiting factor ?

I am looking forward to the next reactions ....

 

[CharlieR]

I've had the Nikkor 200-500mm lens since 2016. Used it on D7000, D7100, D7500, Z6 and now Z6ii.
Image quality from this lens is very good. For its price I can't expect better. It's real good value for money.
BUT: It's a relatively slow-focusing lens. I find it frustrating when shooting the little birds like warblers, nuthatches, etc. as they flit among the foliage. Often the bird moves on again while I'm still waiting for the lens to lock focus.

When I put this lens on my Z6 its focus speed reduced by half compared to the DSLR cameras. Suddenly the camera was the limiting factor, and not the lens. The Z6 with that lens was all but useless for fast-moving wildlife.

Three weeks ago I traded the Z6 for the Z6ii, and I find the limiting factor now again is the lens, not the camera. The Z6ii focuses that lens every bit as fast as the DSLR's did. The few limited opportunities I had to shoot BIF with the Z6ii I was very satisfied. So while the lens remains slow to focus on fast-moving birds it's no worse than it was with the DSLR cameras. Also, the autofocus performance of the Z6ii is much improved compared to the older Z6. One thing to note is that I'm comparing the Z6ii with the Nikkor 200-500mm lens against the D7000 series DSLR cameras I had before. I don't think one can realistically expect the Z6ii to have the focus performance of the D500 or D5/6 cameras. I do believe the Z6ii is a good all-round camera. If BIF is all I'm going to do then I'll get a D500 and a faster-focusing telephoto lens to go with it. I believe the Z6ii with a faster focusing lens will in many cases hold its own against other prosumer cameras.

I suspect when you check you'll find the Canon shooters are using lenses that focus faster than the Nikkor 200-500mm.

Lastly: Which focus modes did you use on BIF with the Z6ii?

I used several different modes—wide-area AF, Group AF, the area AF that’s a step down from Wide-Area AF. No one scheme worked better than the others. Small birds in the relative open (bluebirds sitting on cattails) were even tough—could not get a quick focus lock in spot or group AF. It was, for me, no better than my Z6. I wanted desperately to see a significant improvement and I just did not.

 

[Deleted member 115]

I've had the Nikkor 200-500mm lens since 2016. Used it on D7000, D7100, D7500, Z6 and now Z6ii.
Image quality from this lens is very good. For its price I can't expect better. It's real good value for money.
BUT: It's a relatively slow-focusing lens. I find it frustrating when shooting the little birds like warblers, nuthatches, etc. as they flit among the foliage. Often the bird moves on again while I'm still waiting for the lens to lock focus.

When I put this lens on my Z6 its focus speed reduced by half compared to the DSLR cameras. Suddenly the camera was the limiting factor, and not the lens. The Z6 with that lens was all but useless for fast-moving wildlife.

Three weeks ago I traded the Z6 for the Z6ii, and I find the limiting factor now again is the lens, not the camera. The Z6ii focuses that lens every bit as fast as the DSLR's did. The few limited opportunities I had to shoot BIF with the Z6ii I was very satisfied. So while the lens remains slow to focus on fast-moving birds it's no worse than it was with the DSLR cameras. Also, the autofocus performance of the Z6ii is much improved compared to the older Z6. One thing to note is that I'm comparing the Z6ii with the Nikkor 200-500mm lens against the D7000 series DSLR cameras I had before. I don't think one can realistically expect the Z6ii to have the focus performance of the D500 or D5/6 cameras. I do believe the Z6ii is a good all-round camera. If BIF is all I'm going to do then I'll get a D500 and a faster-focusing telephoto lens to go with it. I believe the Z6ii with a faster focusing lens will in many cases hold its own against other prosumer cameras.

I suspect when you check you'll find the Canon shooters are using lenses that focus faster than the Nikkor 200-500mm.

Lastly: Which focus modes did you use on BIF with the Z6ii?

Good post, I appreciate reading your experiences with the various lenses and cameras. I am very interested in how things go with Nikon's future development specifically thinking about ordering an Z7 II for my better half to replace/compliment her D7500

 

[anthonyrobinson]

In my experience with both a Z6 and Z7 - the F mount 70-200 f2.8 FL with the FTZ is slower to focus than the native Z mount 70-200, noticeably and frustratingly slower in fact.

I therefore believe all of the adapted F mount lenses focus slower, I wonder if the second gen cameras improve on this, CharlieR’s frustration makes me think it doesnt. Fingers crossed the big native glass comes out sooner rather than later, because im relatively happy with the AF performance of the Z mount 70-200.

 

[Rassie]

In my experience with both a Z6 and Z7 - the F mount 70-200 f2.8 FL with the FTZ is slower to focus than the native Z mount 70-200, noticeably and frustratingly slower in fact.

I therefore believe all of the adapted F mount lenses focus slower, I wonder if the second gen cameras improve on this, CharlieR’s frustration makes me think it doesnt. Fingers crossed the big native glass comes out sooner rather than later, because im relatively happy with the AF performance of the Z mount 70-200.

See my comments above on the Z6ii with Nikkor 200-500mm. Ultimately I guess native Z glass is going to be best.

 

[Anjin San]

See my comments above on the Z6ii with Nikkor 200-500mm. Ultimately I guess native Z glass is going to be best.

Yeah…that's pretty much a no brainer. However…so far almost all of the FF Z mount lenses are pretty high dollar versions and I'm afraid that it will be at least a couple of years before Nikon puts out the 200-500 or 500PF Z mount to provide some more affordable (albeit still not inexpensive) options and we've seen no plans that I know of from Tamron, et. al. on Z mounts. While I would really like something like a 600/f4 Z mount…the F mount one is $12K so the Z mount will likely be in the same cost range. Size and weight would be pretty much the same since that's driven by physics and not the lens mount. While I could afford a 12K lens and a 3K body…given the cost, size, weight, and the additional 1.5-2K I would need to spend for a heavyweight tripod and gimbal head…and that I'm an amateur making no money from my images…and that most of mine end up on the web and not printed…the bang for the buck just isn't there at that price. I could see buying a 500PF but that's about my high end for a justifiable lens expense. I'm still looking at and thinking about the Z7II…but given the large $$ and weight penalty for moving up I'm not really seeing how my images as I use them would be improved enough to make it worth while.

 

[Strodav]

My plan was to order a Z7 II if the independent reviews of production bodies, especially animal eye AF, were good, but now I'm rethinking it based on Nikonrumors.com saying that Nikon is going to announce the D860 in December to be released in 2021. I'm going to sit tight. I am concerned about the EVF lag with mirrorless technology for BIF. IF Nikon can be competitive with animal eye AF in a dslr and get the frame rate up, I'm going that way.

Why am I not seeing problems with focus lock on my D500 and D850 with a 200-500mm f/5.6? Honestly, I don't notice much of a difference between the 200-500mm f/5.6 and 600mm f/4G. It makes sense that there is a difference (f/4 vs f/5.6), but I don't believe it's affecting my keeper rate. I believe my technique has more impact on my keeper rate than AF lock.

 

[EricBowles]

Given that the Z7ii is not released yet, I do have the opportunity to change my mind and cancel the order if I change my mind.

My thought was to go the Z7ii route because I want a multi purpose body that I'd use for landscape/travel photography, and as well to photography birds/wildlife that's static - I now for fast motion or birds in flight it would be not ideal since the Z series still is not up to par with the AF such as the D500.

I will be complementing the Z7ii with the 200-500mm, which I already have, so I'll be using this lens for any wildlife photography, and I"m hoping that the AF will be okay.

Using such a high MP camera body, I'd be able to crop my images, so that it'll be like having a DX enabled body.


Anyhow, those are my thoughts....and I"m open to any feedback that some here might like to share if this idea sounds okay or not.

Thanks

I would not necessarily expect the Z7ii will be behind the D500 for fast motion. People using the Z6ii are reporting significant AF speed improvement from the second processor. The D500 is good, but the big advantage is the separate AF processor. The AF on the Z cameras is more accurate than the D500 and D850 already. The key is optimizing settings and technique for fast subjects. You still have to be able to maintain the AF sensor or group of sensors on the subject. If you are struggling to get the animal in the frame, it's less an AF issue than a technique issue. If you are tracking the subject in the frame and it's not focusing, it's either the subject is too small in the frame, or you need to adjust AF settings.

Even the viewfinder is usable and any blackout or lag a minor issue if you practice. It's amazing how much better the EVF performance is after 2000 shots. Where you get into trouble is swapping between DSLR and mirrorless because it keeps you from developing a rhythm for the camera.

 

[CharlieR]

I would not necessarily expect the Z7ii will be behind the D500 for fast motion. People using the Z6ii are reporting significant AF speed improvement from the second processor. The D500 is good, but the big advantage is the separate AF processor. The AF on the Z cameras is more accurate than the D500 and D850 already. The key is optimizing settings and technique for fast subjects. You still have to be able to maintain the AF sensor or group of sensors on the subject. If you are struggling to get the animal in the frame, it's less an AF issue than a technique issue. If you are tracking the subject in the frame and it's not focusing, it's either the subject is too small in the frame, or you need to adjust AF settings.

Even the viewfinder is usable and any blackout or lag a minor issue if you practice. It's amazing how much better the EVF performance is after 2000 shots. Where you get into trouble is swapping between DSLR and mirrorless because it keeps you from developing a rhythm for the camera.

I think the key, then, for the newest iteration of the Z line is to use native glass--I do know that my Z6 focuses extremely fast and accurately with the native 24-70/f4 and the 50mm/f1.8. I'm waiting for Nikon to release the 100-400 Z lens--with this lens, it just might be at least equal to the D500/D850.