AcuteShadows
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ilkka_nissila wrote:
I can't really agree with those sports photographers' assessment. The D6 can make a big difference in sports photography when properly configured as it's much easier to handle situations where the subject is almost filling the frame and is moving rapidly (to me the most impactful shots are often ones where the subject is very close to the camera). The key feature is that you can specify which area of the frame (width, height, and position) the camera searches for faces and then focuses on the closest face within that area. This means shots like these
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilkka_nissila/50615337547/in/dateposted/
where the skater turns from one side to the other can be done without moving the focus point around (I typically use 3 rows of 7 points in this case, or a bit wider 3 rows of 11 points in horizontal compositions). The custom group-area can be configured to cover the most probable area for the face to be in the composition and with face-priority it ignores the arms which would ordinarily cause a closest-subject focusing system to focus on. This works brilliantly well in the D6 and is not available in other cameras as far I know. Using single point, dynamic area and older group area and I've many times ended up with limbs falling out of the frame in skating photos because I've not been able to move the focus point quickly enough off-center from one side to the other and ended up with this
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilkka_nissila/8071720235/in/album-72157714884705663/
The D6 makes juggling the focus point around in such situations unnecessary and helps the photographer out a lot. Now, another solution is to use a zoom like the 70-200/2.8 instead of 200/2 or 300/2.8 and then you can of course liberate the frame with more room around the subject but then you don't get as nice background blur as you would with a larger apeture and tight framing. I like to go for the best subject isolation and shoot the subject as close to the camera as possible as I find the results more clear and dynamic that way.
However, since the D6 recognizes human faces but not animal faces, these features don't offer as much assistance to a bird-in-flight photographer. In non-face-priority modes the custom group area just focuses on the closest subject within the specified subsection of the focus point array. This in itself can be useful but it's not quite as magical as when photographing sports with face priority.
Now what "90% of the D6" means is of course subjective as such things cannot be quantified, but for my type of sports photography it makes a significant difference in that I'm able to produce frame-filling or nearly frame-filling images without the risk of truncation of the subject in fast-changing action situations. I simply ensure that the subject's face is always within the selected part of the focus point array. This also works for pairs and dancers although as the pairs spin around, sometimes the camera doesn't have enough time to switch focus from one skater to the other (based on the face becoming visible and the other face turning away); in this case it just focuses on the closest subject. But in practice it never on the background as dynamic area is notorious for. It does focus correctly on the face in a lot of situations with high rate of success. Another solution of course is stopping down to reduce the impact of slightly inaccurate focus (e.g. using auto area AF at f/4 or f/5.6 instead of f/2) but I think that makes the results slightly dull as the critical focus is missing and as the ISO goes up the pictures lose their crisp brilliance.
For other subjects and sports it may be different. And bird in flight of course it is very different from sports. I think the D6 is much better than its online reputation (which is mostly based on people's perception of the specs and dismay that it's not mirrorless). People appear to dismiss significant improvements that Nikon have made as "putting out the fire using the wrong method." Those who learn how to make the most of this camera will have a lot of fun with it without a doubt. And if it's just a 10% improvement to some users, I have no quarrel with that; it has been a bit more than that in my experience.
However, this is a bit off topic as the OP is photographing birds, not sports. For birds I tend to think high resolution cameras are preferable....Show more →
Quite to the point! The D780, which I own, also has face recognition and is a lot better than the D750 (in many respects), despite being very close in the spec data. How much better the D6 is relative to the D5 for BIF is a different matter, of course. I would always advise people to test a camera in a store, rather than to rely on spec sheets, before making a decision.
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