RexGig0
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 p.3 #16 · D500 vs D850 for bird photography | |
johnvanr wrote:
Good to see a bunch of you are widening the discussion. There's a reason I never brought up the D5, which is undoubtedly Nikon's best BIF camera. That is that from reading about it, I don't think it's that much better - if at all - than the Canon 1DX II. So, for me, if I were looking only at the top cameras, it would make sense to replace my 1DX with the 1DX II and be done with it.
...(Snipped)...
Judging by the comments here, sticking with Canon is my best bet for now. I do really like the D500, though, and I'm impressed by the 200-500mm for the price. So, I might just hold on to it for fun's sake. ...Show more →
Sticking with Canon is a good bet, as is keeping a D500 around. There is nothing wrong with using both the Canon and Nikon systems, except that the zoom rings operate in opposing directions, so look out for that, if shooting in a hurry. I find Nikon zoom and focusing rings to operate in the “right” direction, for me, perhaps because my earliest DSLR lessons were taught with a Tamron lens on a Nikon body. (Tamron zoom rings operate the way as Nikon.) I then used fortuitously-available Canon gear, to start building my system, but used some Nikon lenses on Canon cameras, with a Novoflex adapter, as those were leaner times, so sharing Nikon lenses with my Nikon-shooting wife made economic sense.
Nikon was nice enough to put the ISO button the the “right” place, on the D5/D500/D850, for those of us accustomed to Canon 1D/5D/7D cameras. 
I added a D500 in late 2017, soon followed by a pre-owned 80-400G lens. The D500’s AF solidly beat everything I had at the time, including 7D II, 5Ds R, and Nikon D3s cameras. In early 2018, when I retired, the cheque for my unused “comp” time was enough to pay for a new 1D X II, or a new D5. When I considered the factor of the cost of future grail-quest-level super-telephoto lenses, and that my wife shoots only Nikon cameras, it made sense, for me, to shift to Nikon for birds, so I bought the D5.
A funny little thing happened, however, the Great XQD Famine of Early 2018. I bought my D5, and my wife’s D850, as the shortage of XQD cards became acute. I gave her my only large-capacity XQD card, leaving me with only two 32GB cards to use with my D5. With Spring Migration imminent, and in some cases already in effect, I looked at my ample supply of fast CF and SD cards, and my best bird lens, at that point in time, my EF 100-400L II IS*, and quickly bought a new 5D IV, for its somewhat better AF than my 5Ds R. Buying the 5D IV meant postponing the addition of a better Nikkor tele, for budgetary reasons. (Alas; all of that drama, and I missed the white pelicans before they flew north, anyway.)
I found that the D5 does, indeed, have noticeably better AF than the 5D IV, but I do not need to apologize to myself for using the 5D IV for birds. Canon’s current-generation AF is not bad, at all.
*Yes, the focus ring direction, being different from my several Nikkor zoom lenses, can be mildly vexing, but this lens has a tensioning ring, to mitigate zoom creep, and when adjusted for minimum tension, allows this lens to be operated by holding the barrel near the hood, or, the hood, itself, and pushing/pulling to zoom.
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. Downside of A9 is the slower card that takes longer to clear the buffer.
