Z9 Bird/Animal Eye AF Database!

[sid_19911991]

I thought we can make a database of how well the Z9 can track different animals/birds in different situations by collectively pooling in our first-hand experiences!
Not sure if anybody is interested, but I am doing it anyway! It could help other photographers & perhaps even Nikon if they ever happen to pay attention here!

Here is mine for now. (Do follow the following format!)

The following table took me 10-15 mins to complete...

Sample 1
No.	Birds/Animals	Eye AF Proficiency (wide area large & full auto AF)	Distance	Scenario/Note (Stationary unless mentioned)	Light
1	Purple sunbird	9/10	Within 25 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
2	Red whiskered & vented bulbuls	9/10	Within 25 feet & 75 feet	------	Excellent & Dull
3	Spotted Owl	6/10	Within 75 feet	Gets confused with the surrounding grey trees	Average & Dull
4	Pied Kingfisher	3/10	Within 75 feet	Gets badly confused with the dull sky	Average & Dull
5	Blackbucks	4/10	Within 100 feet	Can't recognize its eyes well. Mistakes its butt for eyes!	Excellent
6	Pigeons	8/10	Within 200 feet	------	Excellent & Dull
7	Albino pigeons	9/10	Within 200 feet	------	Excellent & Dull
8	Doves	8/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent & Dull
9	Parrots/Parakeets	7/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent & Dull
10	Flowerpecker	9/10	Within 25 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
11	Oriental-white eye	9/10	Within 25 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
12	Tailor bird	9/10	Within 25 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
13	Ashy prinia	9/10	Within 25 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
14	Black drongo	8/10	Within 100 feet	Dense foliage	Excellent
15	Shikra	10/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent
16	Black Kites	7/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent
17	Black Kites	6/10	Within 100 feet	Latches onto the body when in flight, even when the eye is clearly seen	Excellent
18	Egret	9/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent
19	Pond heron	9/10	Within 100 feet	------	Excellent
20	White-eyed buzzard	7/10	Within 150 feet	------	Excellent

 

[fcotterill]

Great idea
Please explain how the Rating works (2nd Column). An approximate list of guidelines will help as what determines 6/10 or 10/10 etc
It is also important to distinguish stationary versus flying, and face on/side view of the eyes is an important variable i.e. Recognition of the eyes versus tracking the eyes of a moving subject

 

[sid_19911991]

Great idea
Please explain how the Rating works (2nd Column). An approximate list of guidelines will help as what determines 6/10 or 10/10 etc
It is also important to distinguish stationary versus flying, and face on/side view of the eyes is an important variable i.e. Recognition of the eyes versus tracking the eyes of a moving subject

Well, it is quite subjective & it is difficult/tedious to standardize it...so for the sake of simplicity & practicality, we can rate it as per our judgement.
The ratings can be given relative to the experience one has had have in focussing the subjects with a D500/D850/D5/D6/D4 (Nikon's 5 best auto-focussing DSLRs) & cameras like R6/R5/A1/A1/A9 ii/ & R3. I have rated them based on my experience of using D500 with 500 PF, R6 with 100-400, & Sony A1 with 200-600.

It doesn't matter if I rate something a 9 while another rates the same thing/situation an 8. The rating system however will help us to identify the extremities irrespective of our subjective/unscientific judgement. For instance, one can clearly make out from the table that I wasn't happy with Z9 detecting the eyes of the pied kingfishers & blackbucks.
We can rate the eye AF for stationary subjects or them moving about slowly. If one wants to rate them for BIF, they can always list that down separately & add a note in the 5th column detailing the scenario or anything they would like to point out...this way we keep it simple... (I have done that...refer no 16 & 17 in the above table)