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 p.1 #10 · Is Nikon AF (Z9/8) really that much worse? | |
It's interesting that you raise the AF topic because I am at the point of seriously considering liquidating my Nikon gear and moving back to Canon. While I really like the Z8 for airshows, vehicles, landscapes, and video, it simply doesn't AF that consistently for birds and people. The latter two constitute the majority of my work.
When shooting portraits, I find that I have to shoot 1/3rd insurance frames simply because the camera doesn't focus particularly well on the eye and often grabs the lash, cheek, eyebrow, etc. instead. Quite candidly, I don't know if this is an algorithm or hardware issue as the Z8 has no difficulty capturing cat eyes. Maybe if I lived in the bush and shot lions/leopards all day it would be fine so perhaps the solution is to move to Africa? 
For birds, I notice a lot of vexing issues. For perched subjects, it has difficulty recognizing long necked birds and the AF point is not particularly sticky. It tends to jump around a lot more than my R5/R3 ever did and there is no way to adjust it. Utilizing Wide S or other AF areas can minimize this, though it doesn't eliminate it. Last night, I was looking through my portfolio of images shot with my R5/R3 and these cameras had no problem capturing Herons, Swans, etc. Additionally, I've noticed that the Z8 struggles with subject detect for certain perched birds such as Goldfinches, Hawks, etc. where the AF point jumps around preferring the chest rather than the eye. Again, one can mitigate this by employing a spot or C1 focus, though it's not ideal. With other birds, it's just fine and again, as I review my portfolio of images, I am struck by how good the Z8 performed when I was shooting owls. With the thousands of images, nary a one was OOF. Then again, owls have "cat like" eyes so maybe there's a connection? Maybe, I should move into an arboreal Forrest and only shoot owls?
For BIF, the Z8 does ok, though it is rare that eye detect is active. Rather, it tends to focus on the body, wing, etc. That's ok if the bird is traveling laterally though I found that the R5/R3 were more likely to effectively employ eye detect. For diving birds, like pelicans it's fine though I've been absolutely flummoxed by osprey and eagle strikes. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse on this one - BTW, I don't know how the Z8 focuses on dead horses - though it seems as though with every strike, the camera loses AF capture the instant before the strike, through the strike, and it only regains AF a couple of frames later. This doesn't occur at distance though if the subject is that small in the frame, the sequences are more academic than useable. Rather it seems to occur when the subject is reasonably large (>1/4 of the frame), panning is consistent, and the bird is situated well in the frame. I've tried every AF mode with the exception of a custom with SD off with similar results. Again, I don't know if this is an algorithm or technical issue as it certainly isn't a problem with technique. I have plenty of comparable sequences shot with the R3/R5 which don't display this behavior. Interestingly, my R7 demonstrated AF challenges in those situations and would frequently lose AF capture at some point in the process, typically if there were background distractions.
My apologies, if these descriptions seem a bit pedantic, but they are what they are, and I've done everything imaginable with my Z8's and lenses to mitigate these challenges. I don't think the lenses or bodies are defective as they all behave similarly and what are the odds of buying isolated equipment which seems to function the same way when interchanged?
I'm headed to Florida and then Conowingo in the next few weeks and after assessing the results of those shoots, I'll have to do a gut check and determine whether it is time to switch and what that would look like. Money is an issue and liquidating all of my Nikon gear would probably finance one R5II, a 100-500, and maybe an EF 600 f/4. Not ideal.
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